End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

one more log for the bonfire. I had actually been thinking about adding another component or two. no more. no effing way. several thousand invested, often recommended to friends. no more. not officially bricked? well that’s true until someone accidentally tries to update one bloody app and it all goes to hell. I think I’m going to go listen to my 40 year old McIntosh. It still works. Maybe some folks will figure out a way to build a non-supported eco-system like there were a few “non-supported” controller apps for phones back in the day. oh yeah, anybody want to buy my legacy controllers now that we’re at it?

Very disappointing. I own a Play 1, 2 x Play 5s, Connect and Bridge… all of which will become unsupported “legacy” products. This is madness in a world which is struggling to be sustainable. No 30% discount is going to entice me into replacing five Sonos components which work perfectly well and do what they are supposed to… i.e. stream music. What this means is that I will never buy additional Sonos products to add to my system (was considering a Move) because if I do everything else stops working. Crazy.

The owners claim they were purchased new around time of registration. Perhaps they bought NOS but it's still sucks for them

Bluesound but are a little $$$

Please add comments/reviews to bestbuy, target.com etc as well. Potential buyers need to know about this stuff too. Just added a review to bestbuy.com describing what Sonos end of life policy means for loyal (not anymore I guess) customers. 

I have 16 legacy items of these only 11 are eligible for an update. Only 11…. A mix of  Play 5’s, Control’s and Control Amps. I can say that the email blast has gutted me.

9 Sonos products and was planning on adding more but no way am I buying anything else from Sonos just to have to repurchase in 5 years. 

Ditto, I agree. I have Sonos equipment purchased 3 years ago…..I do not intend to spend any more money with this company.

You can trade the CR-200 if it is registered to your Sonos account, I traded mine.

https://www.sonos.com/myaccount/user/offers/tradeup/

As I understand this if you have an older legacy devicet on your system it should prevent updates even if unplugged but there may be an issue with it being missed if unplugged and updates allowed. I think Sonos is looking into that.

Maybe move the old Play 5 to a new system, possibly isolated with a travel router?

I will be abandoning my Sonos equipment and look for a system that has a longer shelf life. 3 years of use for the amount of money I invested is not good enough. Goodbye and Good luck, Sonos. Too bad, I liked the sound quality.  

This is sad on so many fronts. I was concerned that the trade up programme was an attempt to poison the 2nd hand market. After all it was only a matter of time before bricked products were being sold.

Now the fact that all my ‘Modern’ products will stop receiving updates unless I remove my legacy products, makes me feel like the sword of damocles hangs over my investment. The day the Play:1’s are retired will wipe out a lot of equipment.

The fact is Sonos have a working mesh system now that by and large is very good. All the old equipment supports it. Are they really trying to say that they are going to make changes to thier own system that renders it incompatible with the earlier versions?...there is absolutely no reason for this unless the modern equipment is so close to the edge that they cannot accodate the code to support both the legacy sonosnet and whatever fantastic unrequested features they are planning. Simply put there is no need to stop upgrades to ‘Modern’ devices simply because a legacy device exists.

If and it is a big if, there is a technical reason why the current generation will not be able to stay compatible with the classic sonosnet and the ‘new’ future then the solution is simple. Introduce a SonosHub. SonosHub can then register any legacy products, talk to them using the existing protocols and translate between the classic sonosnet and whatever it evolves into.

Make it cheap enough and I figure many of us would accept that the SonosHub will require periodic upgrades. So as long as you have a SonosHub that is no older than say 5 years it will keep all your existing Sonos gear alive without freezing the support of ‘modern’ equipment. An income stream, and customers that are not worried about the next wave of disconinued products.

Alternatively let the community do the heavy lifting. Give us the ability to develop our own software and upload it to our devices and we will fix this problem of legacy support in no time. 

I think Sonos is missing the major hit on reputation that this represents. Their products are not cheap, but have had a reputation of lasting a long while. Today that is evaporating. 

I don't understand the decision to obsolete such recent products, much less why Sonos needs to constantly upgrade the software, since I don't really see any new features appearing and the current  functionality is pretty solid.

If Sonos sticks to this decision, I might as well ditch all my Sonos equipment...replacing all components every 4 or 5 years doesn't justify sticking with this system.  

Fortunately Airplay 2 is opening up the game for other players with deeper pockets, so alternatives are starting to appear.  Losing customer loyalty in what will be a crowded market may be the kiss of death for Sonos in the long term.

I bought all my sonos equipment end of 2015 and am shocked to see the announcement that software upgrade support is ending so soon.  I suspect this is more about Sonos financial performance and need to push the new products vs. the 2015 technology not supporting today’s needs.  Definitely not hard to write software that works across hardware with different capability levels and feature sets.

I’m going to post a review on Amazon to warn folks not to purchase the Connect and Connect:Amp products that I currently have with a link to the announcement since these are still for sale with no warnings about impending loss of software upgrade support.

Thanks bonervz! The DAC in the Node2i is supposed to be WAY better than anything Sonos is providing, so yes, Bluesound may be the answer. The big Q is of course--will NAD/Bluesound be there for me in 5 years? What about 10 years? Insight wanted.

Another important Bluesound question is about any Sonos patent infringement, that can put them in a world of hurt.

Can someone point me to where Sonos made me aware when I purchased their equipment that they only guarantee software support for 5 years and that they would at some render the equipment useless by refusing to support that equipment?  

My lawyer has asked me to provide them with a copy of the sonos terms and conditions that sets this out.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

I will not support a company that will not stand behind their products. I too am out.

Sonos, I really had a WTF moment today. You told me that my March 2015 Play 5 was considered a legacy device that would no longer be supported from May onwards. Hmm…..How to put it?

I am not angry; it’s worse, I am disappointed. Of myself. For having defended Sonos against criticism and skepticism by friends and family.

Sonos is overpriced for the sound it delivers, they said.
Sonos’ proprietary architecture will lock you in, they said.
You will invest in more and more speakers over the years, but Sonos will always keep the kill-switch, they said.

Worry not, was my response.
It’s a great product; a great experience, I said.
They won’t let the customers down with product support, I said. Why so sure, they asked. To which I answered: They won’t because they cannot afford it. Because Sonos are aware of one critical fact: a vendor-lock-in business model (such as theirs) is doomed to fail if it does not come with premium service and long-lasting support.

I should have known better.

And then the way that decision (to abandon “legacy” devices) was communicated. It did not sound like there was a customers’ advocate in the room when that decision made. Sure, taking pressure off the dev department and increasing the chances of selling a lot of additional units sounds like a win-win. Sounds like it, until negative-network effect kicks in. Many of the customers who are affected the most are (read: “were in the past”) Sonos’ strongest promoters.

- “Let’s get a Sonos system, it looks really cool.”
- “Yeah, I know, but you know, my uncle Tommy had this system with 18 speakers. He spent thousands on it you know. And then Sonos dropped support for 11 out of 18!”
- “Shit!! Ok, no, I don’t want to end like that!”

So! Ok! I’ll admit that technology is changing and I personally know the challenge of supporting and maintaining legacy systems. But somehow… I don’t believe you that there was a technical problem at the heart of the decision. “Since launching our first products, technology has advanced at an exponential rate”. Come on, give me a break. I have wanted streaming audio across rooms five years ago and I want streaming audio across rooms today. So, I wonder what has changed at an exponential rate here? Old processor cannot handle Alexa? Great, that’s a plus. Processor cannot handle AirPlay. Ok, so I’ll accept that missing feature, as I have done in the past with Play5. That’s what I would expect. But why throw all modern devices in the same system under the bus as well? What has changed now compared to missing AirPlay support? Nothing. It is a deliberate decision by Sonos to make their lives easier by stopping development support for older hardware, like mine from 2015.
 

Or is there a real technical reason? Then please give us some details, so I can judge on my own whether Sonos deserves my money in the future. But don’t treat us like idiots… 
Or are you saying that 5 years ago you sold me some completely outdated technology as something state of the art?

nicely summarized and valid points.  let see if the company clues in and acts/responds appropriately !

Well, I was in still in the process of building out my system with a few rooms to go.  I will be selling my speakers and moving on to a new system.  I don’t do business with people who are so brazenly and unabashedly dishonest.  This is pretty high up on the Mount Rushmore of corporate greed for a company that previously had a strong brand.  It is no coincidence this is occurring as your sales are decelerating after recently going public last year.  Very disappointed.  It is a good lesson to be wary of connected devices going forward.  The ability to reach into my home and destroy property should not be your right.  If a burglar broke into my home and did so, he would go to jail.  

Of course, if Bluesound goes out of business (same with Sonos obviously), nothing will work anymore.  No software updates, no cloud, all the equipment you bought ultimately would be worthless.  That's  what worries me about them.  How solid of a company are they right now (serious question -- I haven’t heard much about them before today)?

I would hope at this point, ~12 hours after the email, with this degree of reaction, SONOS will rethink their POV. It's not all that different than when Logitech dropped support for XMPP overnight on their Harmony remotes, and within a day realized how outraged their most loyal customer base was and found a common ground. Hopeful something similar will happen...

I hope so too…

Friend of mine is using a Python library with his system, might have to look into that. Not really a programmer, however…

http://python-soco.com/

They obviously forgot to focus group this.  The only reason why we all shouldn’t short the stock is because there is NO WAY they are stupid enough to stick with this plan.  If they reverse course they might be able to salvage the brand.  Maybe.

Dear Sonos,

There is a way you can save yourselves...

Admit this is a mistake and find a technical solution that does not involve junking currently capable hardware that can run for many more years.

My suggestion is a new device that has upgraded wifi, plenty of storage and memory and 2 network ports.That’s it. Simply plug this into a network port of the play 5 or connect and it acts as the brains for the legacy device running all updates. The legacy device can continue to provide its existing services.

this new device itself may become legacy one day, but still better than junking a speaker that should be ok for another 15 years or more.

I will be happy to purchase one of these whenever a legacy device reaches proven technical limits.

This is also a more sustainable long term solution, reducing CO2 of a new speaker and waste and can still make you some $ if fairly priced.

BTW: You have no solution with an optical out port which I use every day on my connect so must go to another vendor if you brick it.

you guys must have rocks in your head or have you now got a looney investor pushing you for short term profit?