Please note that we’ve created a new thread with some clarifications to questions that have come up several times in this thread. Please see here to continue the discussion if you still have any questions. The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.
We have some important news regarding our oldest Sonos devices shared on the Sonos Blog today. The text of that blog post is being included here for your convenience:
Starting in May 2020, some of our oldest products will no longer receive software updates or new features. We want to explain why and your options.
When we first set out almost 20 years ago to invent the technology to easily listen to any song in any room, most of the ways we listen to music today did not exist. In fact, the first Sonos products were introduced before the first iPhone was announced and when Myspace still ruled social media.
In order to invent multi-room music and smart speakers, we combined the worlds of high-fidelity audio and computing. Every Sonos product has a microprocessor, flash memory, and other hardware components typically found in computers and smartphones.
Since launching our first products, technology has advanced at an exponential rate; from streaming services and voice assistants to wireless networking and Bluetooth capabilities. Through all of this transformation, we have continued delivering new features via software updates. We’re extremely proud of the fact that we build products that last a long time, and that listeners continue to enjoy them. In fact, 92% of the products we’ve ever shipped are still in use today. That is unheard of in the world of consumer electronics. However, we’ve now come to a point where some of the oldest products have been stretched to their technical limits in terms of memory and processing power.
This coming May, these legacy products—our original Zone Players, Connect, and Connect:Amp (launched in 2006; includes versions sold until 2015), first-generation Play:5 (launched 2009), CR200 (launched 2009), and Bridge (launched 2007)—will no longer receive software updates or new features.
Today the Sonos experience relies on an interconnected ecosystem, giving you access to more than 100 streaming services, voice assistants, and control options like Apple AirPlay 2. Without new software updates, access to services and overall functionality of your sound system will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their technology.
To help you through this transition, we’re providing two options:
Option 1: Continue using these legacy products, recognizing that your system will no longer receive software updates and new features.
Option 2: Trade up to a new Sonos product with a 30% credit for each legacy product you replace.
If you’re not sure if your products are affected, you can check in the System tab in your sonos.com-account
If you choose to participate in the trade up program, your legacy products will be put in Recycle Mode, a state that deletes personally identifiable information and prepares these products for e-recycling. Recycle Mode also protects unsuspecting people from buying legacy products that are approaching the end of their useful life and won’t provide the Sonos experience customers expect today. Recycle Mode will only apply to the legacy products listed above.
We ask that you take your legacy products to a nearby certified e-recycling facility. This is the most environmentally friendly way to recycle. That said, if there isn’t a facility in your area, we are happy to pay for you to ship your products back to Sonos for responsible recycling.
Ideally all our products would last forever, but for now we’re limited by the existing technology. Our responsibility here is threefold: build products that last a long time; continually look for ways to make our products more environmentally friendly through materials, packaging, and our supply chain and take responsibility for helping you through the transition once products near the end of their useful life.
We’ve always believed in freedom of choice, whether that means choosing a certain streaming service or way to control your listening experience. We hope the choices provided here—continuing to use these products without new software updates or trading up to our modern products—enable you to make the choice that’s right for you.
We are honored to have a place in your home and want to make sure that we help continue to bring the best experience we can, even when products reach the end of their useful life.
I’ll add the obvious that this is not a fridge that can’t update its screen. This isn’t a generation of iphones that reach their EOL and can’t do new things but that still work. This is an entire ecosystem that is effected.
Maybe Sonos should tell our Grandmas why their pandora station won’t play in the spring?
Sonos points out that these products were last produced years ago yet most of the items are still out in the wild. They are still being bought and sold.
Why is that? Because the system and technology hasn’t changed that much. Unlike the differences in ten years of something like the iPhone, the new Sonos devices aren’t really that different than the old. Sonos never gave us early adopters reason to upgrade. In fact, the app is slower than in years past for the importance functions like turning iff an alarm or turning off a explicit song in a kids room.
This has been driving me crazy all day....I was finally able to find a little hope to calm my initial reaction....please Sonos make good on this......read this article
Like everyone else--I am furious. I have spent a lot of money on Sonos over the years, and you’ve just told me that my 5 year old Play 5 either needs to be replaced or my entire system will gradually stop working. For a company that’s trying to fight off inexpensive imitator speakers from Big Tech, you are doing a GREAT job of pushing your customers to said inexpensive imitator speakers.
Like most here, I’m pissed, but then I haven’t been happy with Sonos for a while. I can’t upgrade to the new operating system on my Mac, because if I do Sonos won’t work. Any songs I have that are .m4a don’t play on my Sonos. I’ve called Tech support on both issues and they tell me “Sonos is working on it.” And now I’m being told that the equipment I have is going to be unsupported and will therefore become obsolete. So I’m done. I have a call in to my local stereo shop to find something to replace what I have and I will never buy Sonos again. Even if they somehow go back on this threat, this shows me what they are capable of. Really is too bad, as I liked their product when I first bought it. I was quite the ambassador for them. Recommended Sonos to anyone who would listen. Not anymore. Goodbye Sonos.
Summarizing 3 main points here about the recent Sonos EOL announcement.
End of life dates need to be announced in advance of folks investing in a product. If you buy a chromebook now you know the date it will stop receiving updates and potentially not be compatible with partner software. It’s obviously unethical to tell someone who may just have bought an AMP yesterday that their product may not function correctly and is worth less. We aren’t dealing with an OS here where people are aware that their products come in versions and can break at the software level. It’s egregious enough that legality and class actions are likely in play.
The narrative is that people have a choice and we’re hearing things like... “If I choose to trade in” or if “I go with keeping my old system”. This should be rejected. Yes, you have the choice to eat your turd sandwich and buy something new, whatever that may be. Or, you can not accept that a solvent company is making a business decision to bait n switch you.
Regardless of the worst case scenarios, I think posts like this are almost unnecessary. Failing to do the minimum to make the basic functions work would be brandsuicide. Even a tiny percentage of us who are unable to use our devices would be a turd in the olympic swimming pool. Yes, another reference to the turd this is. Even Microsoft has pushed back their PRE-announced EOL. I’m sure the new SONOS investor group looked at this on paper and it made sense. The software engineers made sense as well. In the real world it will be too expensive. They have to be about to walk this back in the form of clarifying that old devices can not be bricked.
I have 20 devices + multiple family homes that I set up + investment in specific speakers and construction for said devices. Am I supposed to suddenly call Sonos come spring with $20,000 for them?
Shame on Sonos !!
If Sonos dont leave this policy they will be in big trouble as company. This leaves many users pissed.
I have been using Sonos for many years and I will definitely not invest more but look for other concepts if they dont change.
What Sonos should do is to support most legacy products but have a matrix of which features valid for each product = new feature may not be supported but all existing that works well.
This is no different than Apple saying not apps will get updated on iphone 7’s or get system updates or whatever, but this is on such a larger scale because most don’t just have one speaker like a cell phone.
That’s the key difference - it’s about the scale and expense of say a whole-house system that cost so far perhaps $5-10K that we were ENCOURAGED to build over time, into the fundamental infrastructure of our homes, because of “how easy it is to add more units to the network.” That’s a far cry from a portable phone device which didn’t cost anywhere near as much or rely on any other phones to work, and is expected to need replacement over time. Did SONOS EVER suggest in their prior sales/marketing material to expect something like this to happen? “Build your network, but keep swapping out perfectly good amps and speakers to keep up with our software...” Hell no, or I never would have bought into this ecosystem in the first place.
SONOS,
I cannot believe your misguided attempt at extorting additional sales from your loyal customer base through the elimination of support for what you label as legacy products. In my case, the Play 5 is affected which was purchased at a considerable cost. I already fell for this tactic recently with the replacement of my Bridge (with Boost) which I thought or was led to believe would be the extent of the replacement need (at a reasonable cost). Had I known from the outset that I will basically need to throw away (you call it recycle, how very fake responsible of you) more system components after a relatively short lifespan, I would have NEVER bought your product in the first place, nor continued to build out a system now in the thousands of dollars. This was a total lack of transparency on your part, and dishonest/deceptive at best. I suppose I can now expect the remaining product in my home to successively expire. A 30% upgrade discount is insulting. It’s not an upgrade when you force it on someone. Using an analogy, just imagine you’ve been upgraded on an airline flight and then being told that you have to pay for it at a fictitious discount or you can’t board the flight at all. Plus, threatening to block further updates of non-expiring product if you don’t spend even more $ with you is just plain extortion.
Up until now I have been a loyal fan and have recommended your product at the highest level and this is how you treat me? You have foolishly squandered your fan and customer base and goodwill. Do you really think that your customer base will accept this and stay with you? This does not match what is expected of a premium system and obviously anticipated owner experience. Complete BS.
Surely you can and need to do better.
What will you do for me? I imagine nothing. Nice job guys!
Mike Kunz Laguna Beach, CA
App solution needed.
Sonos, a call for you to find a solution to the legacy generation 1 announcement that doesn't cause the mass carbon footprint waste of perfectly good products, and also cause a large proportion of your customer base to simply abandon your products forever.
I am no technical expert but a solution here seems perfectly logical and feasible. You want to develop new software and take new products forward, but at the same time say gen1 products wont cope with those updates.
You need a strategy of App deployment and retention aligned to generation of products.
If at 30th April 2020 the current version of your App was cast in stone but made available for constant download for gen1 products, meaning I could still use, connect and enjoy my sound system, this would be a reasonable compromise. I'd accept, as in any environment that if I didnt have the latest kit, I might not be able to enjoy the latest features, but I would not expect to lose everything I had enjoyed simply because there was no way to preserve it.
You need a clear differential on Gen1 and Gen2 onwards etc software from May 2020 onwards that customers can make an informed decision on.
Would it be so hard to keep both old and new software apps on the Play and iStore for example?
Also, can we not have a selection in the App to force its hand and prevent it trying to bring updates down for the speakers? We just need to preserve what we have within an App that functions with it.
Please all support this post plus others on the community board to help find a pragmatic solution.
Thank you
Daily Mail article on the subject. Paper has huge global readership. I suggest you share feelings in the comments
Sonos will end support for older speakers in May and says products will continue to work in the near-term
Loyal customer for 12 years - and with 11 products.
Now you say you will no long support me.
I fully understand that old hardware is dated and insufficient for new updates and features - that is fair and fine. But what is not fair and fine is that you render our complete systems outdated. You ask us to upgrade our full system (or parts thereof) so you can save some dollars on testing. Not good enough.
And then to add insult to injury - you offer a laughable 30% discount - at which rate you still make quite a decent gross margin (and by they way the landing page for the “offer” still does not work - very unprofessional). So you would like to save dollars on development, AND make additional revenue and margin on all you loyal customers when they have to upgrade their systems. Really?
What you seem to fail to realise (as others have posted as well) is that you offer (and we buy) a system. We expect it to work as a system - not only for a couple of years - but for a rather long time.
Was about to expand the system to a couple of other rooms - but will hold back on this for now. There are plenty of other solutions out there now. And whether I “upgrade” my exisitng Sonon - or switch it is the same thing for me. And it seems that Sonos do not care for their customers - so why would I care for Sonos?
AND then there is the small thing call ENVIRONMENT. You “ask” us to ditch perfectly well working hardware with all the electronics and plastics and throw it in the dump - just to replace it with new hardware where we use the same features. Is this your way of addressing the environmental issues we all phase? Which century are you living in?
I have 20 devices + multiple family homes that I set up + investment in specific speakers and construction for said devices. Am I supposed to suddenly call Sonos come spring with $20,000 for them?
No you should not - you should expect Sonos to care for their customers. And if not there are plenty of alternatives out there to migrate to. .
Just had a look on the Sonos website… I couldn't be bothered reading further after I saw the proclamation of TRUST, ACCOUNTABILITY and COLLABORATION. they all are sub headings under the page heading RESPONSIBILITY. If you want to find the page, click on the link called SUSTAINABILITY under their main menu…..
Who thinks any of their blurb is sincere?
Does any of it have substance… ?
I think you have misunderstood the page. They are referring to their shareholders.
They have a responsibility ….. “For Their Shareholders”
Forward thinking to make sure they make more money ….. “For Their Shareholders”
They will make decisions that will have a positive effect…. “For Their Shareholders”
Exceed Goals… “For Their Shareholders”
Build Stakeholder Confidence ….. “For Their Shareholders”
Be transparent… “For Their Shareholders”
Their customers on other hand can go and whistle, they’re just the muppets providing the funding… “For Their Shareholders”
On a Positive note, I am now looking at new ways to provide music to the house hold now that 2/3 of my system is being kicked into touch. We use streaming services so, “Freezing current software” is a death sentence given they seem to constantly change, update and add new features to their streaming services.
I think I’ll be basing a system around Airplay 2 or Roon. I don’t want to place all my eggs in one basket again. Especially, like most people, you buy a lot of the hardware in one go to get started so when they ditch their customers paid for hardware, you can lose a lot in one go rather than one piece here and there.
Certainly glad I held off till the new year for the Beam, Sub and surrounds. I’ll be looking at alternatives for the living room system now.
EDIT… Oh, and Sonos, 30% is literally taking the P***. That level of discount I can happily throw away rather than taking the risk of you doing this to me again… which you will and now everyone knows it. You’ve successfully killed off ALL TRUST in your company.
Their customers on other hand can go and whistle, they’re just the muppets providing the funding… “For Their Shareholders”
I bet the shareholders will be super happy when the share price takes a dive.
I just can’t imagine this could possibly sell more units, I’m certainly not buying more now and every friend I’ve spoken to that was considering it now won’t touch them with a 50ft pole.
Speakers aren’t mobile phones, nobody wants to buy them on a subscription for thousands of dollars.
I have two play5 gen1 speakers they get light use both in my dining room and second living room.
I don’t want voice control on them or any additional functionality. I just want to play my music when I want to. It cost me £700 to have those speakers as part of my system.
I am in the unfortunate position where one speaker has now died, no light no power on it and it won’t connect to my Wi-fi. I guess I need to raise a ticket and get a repair done. The other is showing as that it won’t be supported from May 2020. I want stronger assurance that it will continue to function as is.
Even were I interested in the trade up (30% off) scheme, that can only be applied to the device on the network.
Kind of feels like I’m being held to ransom, get rid of those £700 speakers and buy these new shiny ones, which will really not do that much different to the ones you currently have.
nothing has lifetime support but I think perhaps the message is too strong.
A ransom requesting I spend another £900? I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my sonos system go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
Yep in the same boat. Home theatre room with play bar, sub, 2 x play 1’s that survive, and a play 3 which I find weird as pretty sure I got it before the 2 x play 5’s that are screwed. Also a old bridge still using.
I, along with the masses, are incredibly peeved and disappointed by the news from Sonos. I took a phased approach to purchasing my Gen 1 Play:5 and Connect:Amp / Connect hardware, and thankfully am not in the same situation as some who have invested $1000’s more. Sonos was supposed to be different… planned obsolence like this is greedy and wasteful, not to mention terrible for the environment. All my speaks work perfectly well.
I highly recommend you rethink this strategy, and have the option to allow legacy hardware on your stack just be a speaker, participate in the mesh network, but only when grouped with a newer Sonos. At least this way you could allow software upgrades to continue for the app and overall system, services would continue to work, and people would have the option to still use their old hardware.
Why would anyone purchase Sonos now after this approach? This will end your reign. I now have to go and explain to all friends and family who followed my lead why they too are screwed by your tact.
The likely first draft of the Sonos “End of Software Updates” email
I've been an evangelist of Sonos for almost 10 years now but I feel nothing but guilt about my friends who I have recommended their products to. Considering most of your customers are by definition tech savvy, you insult us by pretending you can't maintain a 'legacy' interface to only receive audio streamed from the newer devices. There's no increase in audio quality that requires more bandwidth or anything legitimate like that, you're taking us for suckers.
You've just killed your business with this announcement unless you fire that new CEO of yours and probably the entire board for approving this and start publicly back pedalling as fast as possible. Tick, tick, tick...
Their customers on other hand can go and whistle, they’re just the muppets providing the funding… “For Their Shareholders”
I bet the shareholders will be super happy when the share price takes a dive.
I just can’t imagine this could possibly sell more units, I’m certainly not buying more now and every friend I’ve spoken to that was considering it now won’t touch them with a 50ft pole.
Speakers aren’t mobile phones, nobody wants to buy them on a subscription for thousands of dollars.
Even if I was to discount the financial impact, why oh why are we chucking away hardware that works perfectly given the impact it will have on the environment for disposing of it and mining for new materials for the new electronics etc… compete insanity.
They should be developing their software so it can see older hardware and provide the reduced feature set to them. That doesn’t include taking away a feature it already has and managed perfectly well…. streaming a music service provider. That requires ZERO extra cpu/memory power.
You money grabbing corrupt sons of bitches. I will be selling all my Sonos gear and looking for an alternative product. Fuck you
I understand that the presence of legacy components in my system will block software updates to more recently added units but what will happen to updates on my Android controller? Will I need to manually bock these, will they be blocked automatically or will they proceed and hence possibly trash my system as it will be attempting to run different versions of the software?
Yes, to all of the above
There are no reseller channels today from which anyone can purchase a new Windows 98-based computer system, and oddly, even if you could it would still be entirely network-friendly with other machines of varying OS flavors and eras without having to downgrade all to the lowest common denominator.
Conversely, no one can currently purchase or even find the last stand-alone version of Adobe Creative Suite anywhere, thought readily available just a year ago, now that the platform has moved entirely to a subscription cloud model.
Sonos is indeed hi-fi equipment, was marketed and sold as such, and it all exists together in an ecosystem that works as a reliant whole. Many analogies being tossed about (software, mobile devices, etc.) are just not workable here.
One scenario I do find similar is when the local cable company deprecates a known-good and working modem model that I own outright as a result of their pushing updated leased models to the bulk of their customers. Nothing I can do, because it’s their network and they can approve or disapprove the equipment they’ll provision and support that connects to it. I’ve been burned by this three times historically. The situation with Sonos here and now is in many ways the same.
I often giggle about class-action talk surrounding this sort of product hullabaloo, for whatever the product may be, because it’s normally pipedreams and naivety. I am not giggling today. It’s a possibility.
But more than anything I’m just disappointed and a little sad. I really liked and believed in Sonos for quite a few years now, and I’m one of the many who’ve also talked less technically affluent family and friends into investing in the ecosystem. Bit of an embarrassment to be honest. I hope some course-correction comes, if even a bit, in the next few coming days or weeks.
