Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

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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 The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.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.

More information.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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N

NeveragainbuySonos

Lyricist I

You’ve just lost another customer, Sonos.

I’ll be putting your email which informed me that I’ll need to spend £££ more to keep my system working, on social media.
This is nothing short of blackmail and a huge commercial own goal.

Farewell.

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Andrewnoob

Avid Contributor I

Such crap - a Connect doesn’t need to do voice control either, and I’d be more happy if some things were disabled for it, and it alone - but holding the whole system to ransom is inexcusable.

As the OP said, you can opt for no more updates.

You’re literally missing my point.

If a Connect had some new feature disabled for it - fine. But it still should play nice with newer equipment that can support the new feature. They are keeping the WHOLE system ransom due to one older device. Not only that, but when a music service inevitably changes their API, the integration will stop working, so over time the speakers will break. This is unforgivable.

This is exactly what I was thinking… Why can’t the older units continue to operate as is, streaming the music throughout the house. Buy newer ones to enhance the brain trust and let the other ones slave off them. Maybe I am terribly misinformed about how the system works, but somehow I think this could happen.

There’s not really any reason this can’t happen - after all they were able to add Airplay 2 to the whole system by adding ANY SINGLE airplay 2 compatible unit.

This IS forced obsolescence. I was on the verge of buying a couple of Play 5 Gen 2s tonight to replace my Play 5 Gen 1s, but then the more I thought about it, I don’t now trust Sonos to brick my Play:1s or my Soundbar.

So I am going to wait until the announcement in May. If they haven’t come up with an acceptable solution to keeping my Play 5 Gen 1s in the same system, then I am going to assume the same will happen to everything in my kit and I will be looking at alternative ecosystems.

I am not wedded to Sonos, despite owning:

Playbar

Sub

Play 1 x2

The One with Alexa

three Gen 1 Play 5s

I will buy the best available alternative and sell my kit.

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C

castalla

Local Superstar

I’m very unhappy about this. Why is my 5yr old Connect:Amp I purchased from Bestbuy now a legacy item? So is the life cycle now only 5 years for your hardware? So if I purchase new amps I can expect to have to purchase new ones again in 5yrs to continue support?

I can not justify upgrading hardware this often, the expense and the cost to the environment. I will put my effort towards helping build an open source solution then.

No need to build a open source solution - one already exists.

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It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -

J

JohnB52

Lyricist I

So just checked with a lawyer friend of mine - his view, In Europe, if you bought any Sonos product in the last 6 years that is affected by this you can take it back to the original retailer and get your money back!

Well...we’re not in Europe! Therefore...SONOS is suing Google and the customers are going to start a lawsuit against SONOS. Time to dump their stock!

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C

cjacks12002

Lyricist I

Hmmm. What lifespan do my old Play:1 speakers have? Given that they’re not listed as a product in the store any longer. I don’t want to fork out for a new Connect to Port replacement to find that not long down the road I have to replace all my Play:1 speakers too.

Does anyone know the official line?

Sonos, please answer his question. We want to know what’s next. Maybe not a date, but what’s next.

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W

Walt

Lyricist III

Who has the *alls to try and peddle this to a loyal and devout customer base?

Then insult us ever further by offering a 30% discount on replacement hardware?

Ich habe nur Befehle befolgt. (I was only following orders.)

Didn’t pass the smell test at Nuremberg, doesn’t now.

Pathetic way to run (ruin) what was a great product line. You should be ashamed to treat us this way.

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julesft

Lyricist I

All my Sonos system was bought at the same time only 4 years ago. Expect play 1 x2. 2 Sonos 5 and amp would now need replacing. Extremely disappointed

Play:1s are unaffected, and if you truly only purchased 4 years ago, that would be the Connect:Amp and Play:5 Gen 2, both sold after 2015, also unaffected.

The point I am making is I was clearly sold old stock not the 2 gen and yes truly 4 years ago. This also clearly affects the usability of my whole sonos system of 12 products

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D

dpeaslee

Lyricist I

Have you alerted Best Buy to staff up for the rush of customers looking to take advantage of that generous %30 discount on SONOS gear being offered to it’s most loyal customers? No, I think not. I can’t imagine there are too many folks out there who will jump to take advantage of this offer without exhaustively researching all alternatives, including going back to hardwired systems. I notice SONOs is markedly down in the market today. I suggest you declare this disaster an early April Fools joke and go back to the drawing board before national consumer media gets a good grip on how UNHAPPY people are with this. Before your company goes under.

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Tom F.

Lyricist III

You’d think with a little work they could have programmed their software to help support legacy hardware so new hardware in the cluster could pick up the processing power/memory for the legacy items. That would have been a better route to go to support sales and they could say…

“Hey we notice you have x number of legacy items for us to continue support on these items you’ll need some newer sonos hardware added to your cluster to pick up the slack.”

I would be much more willing to purchase some new hardware so that my legacy hardware can still work. Instead of having to remove my legacy hardware so that my new items can continue to get updates.

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Neil McRae

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos has been considering this for well over a year, as this quote comes from Sonos’ November 2018 10-K filing:

We may choose to discontinue support for older versions of our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction that could negatively affect our business and operating results. We have historically maintained, and we believe our customers have grown to expect, extensive backward compatibility for our older products and the software that supports them, allowing older products to continue to benefit from new software updates. We expect that in the near to intermediate term, this backward compatibility will no longer be practical or cost-effective, and we may decrease or discontinue service for our older products. Therefore, if we no longer provide extensive backward capability for our products, we may damage our relationship with our customers, and the value proposition of our products with existing and prospective customers may decline. We may lose existing customers if their older products cannot integrate with newer versions of our software, and this may also result in negative publicity that could adversely affect our reputation and brand loyalty and impact our ability to attract new customers or sell new products to existing customers. For these reasons, any decision to decrease or discontinue backward capability may decrease sales and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

haha so some financial analyst folks at Sonos had actually, honestly looked at how detrimental this move could be to the company and somehow someone convinced the bigwigs to do it anyway?

you could not make this shit up! I imagine Sonos offices are like an episode of the office.

Not Mr. McRae from the M3 forums?

hell yes dood :)

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