End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

There’s no way I’m letting Sonos force me into buying more of their products with this Legacy nonsense!  Before I spend another dime on Sonos I’ll buy another competitor’s system.  This is as bad as the ink scam for printers.

Dear Sonos,

When I bought my products from sonos I was not informed they were going be become obsolete in time. My speaker works fine and I don’t want new features, just existing features. I was not told that I could expect the speaker to last for only a limited time. 

I am shocked to be told that you are withdrawing support for my speaker and wish to ask for a refund. If I had known this would happen I would not have purchased a sonos speaker.

Please stop your withdrawal of support of the original features of the speaker that I paid for. I did not pay for a time restricted product.

Please either commit to maintaining the function of the product or refunding me the cost so I can get an alternative.

I think a major problem is that SONOS needs to better explain the specifics of the impact, the reasons for the impact on legacy systems, and the options going forward from here.

(1) What I am hearing is that they need to update the SONOS control app on the smart phone. And that changes to the app will require some matching changes to the software on the SONOS devices. And that they won’t make those needed matching changes to the legacy devices. (the functional impact is discussed later)
Is that a correct summary?
   (a) It is not clear if the changes are not technically possible (lack of memory?) or if SONOS just don’t want to make that investment. It would be good to hear an answer to that.
   (b) why is it not possible for the app to be programmed with a compatibility mode to work with legacy devices just as it does prior to the May 2020 cutoff?

(2) If I update a control app after May2020, what exactly is the impact on that app working with the legacy devices? Is there some guide as to what functionality might be lost? For example, perhaps only certain new streaming services may not be available, though streaming from my NAS based music collection would be OK.
Or it may be that even basic communication between unmatched app and devices would be lost (turning the legacy devices into expensive bricks)?

(3) If we do not update our SONOS smartphone/tablet control app after the May2020 cutoff, then the app will continue to work with our devices indefinitely after that point, though any newly discovered bugs will not be fixed. This can be accomplished by turning off the “Update Automatically” setting and not manually approving any app updates.
Is that a correct summary?

(4) The catch is that without new software updates, our frozen control app would no longer be able to support the newer devices, even with old functionality? SONOS statements imply that there is likely more lost than just new functionality (which many of us do not care about), but could impact current functionality.
Is that correct?

Would the frozen legacy control app be able to work with the newer “modern” SONOS devices, limited to old functionality? Would it matter whether the “modern” devices have newer software updates? It would be good to have a clear answer on that.

(5) Further, there is a possibility that SONOS will provide for download of the pre-May2020 control application for use on any new smart device, should I change smart phone or tablet in the future.(or need to delete/reload in a recovery situation).
Is that correct, and when would we see that as an available download?

(6) Is it possible to use two different smart devices, one with the frozen legacy app and one with the current supported app. In that case, I should be able to control and update “modern” SONOS devices from one while using the legacy app to control, at least, the legacy devices and perhaps even all my SONOS devices (with old function scope)?

(7) SONOS is saying all of this is driven by the major music streaming servers changing their interfaces. It is not clear if they are talking about control interfaces or about streaming protocols.
If the impact of the streaming servers changes is a control interface used only by the SONOS control app, than SONOS should be able to isolate that impact to the control app and still maintain backwards compatibility with the SONOS devices. Correct? Or does the SONOS device need to work with that same changed streaming service control interface?

If the impact is directly to the software in the SONOS network which is doing the streaming, then only that streaming device needs to be modern. The streaming SONOS device should be able to forward that music content to the other SONOS players/speakers using the old protocols. All of my devices have te ability to stream from the server, but I gather for any particular music stream, only one handles that streaming and passes the content to the rest (in a synchronized fashion).

This is an important point since, if true, you would only need to ensure that there is one “modern” SONOS device, in the network, for each different streaming source, in order to handle any streaming interface issues. I only use one source at a time, so I would only need one “modern” device. (I am making some educated guesses about the overall design of the SONOS network).
Is there validity to what I am saying?

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   The customers just need to better understanding of the situation and what alternate paths we have going forward. 
   Doing so can be a big win for both SONOS and their customers
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I cannot believe that Sonos has decided to take this action.  I understand that products evolve but I have 10 amps that would need to be replaced for the 30% off bargain price of $4543 when I’ve already invested over $10K in Sonos products for my system.  (I left out the 2 docks and a bridge since they were useless within a year of buying them.)   I rue the day in 2010 when the A/V guy talked my husband into Sonos.  I fought vehemently against leaving the standard A/V setup but NNNNNOOOOO.  We now also have 3 useless iPods in our walls because Apple discontinued them along with our now soon to be useless Sonos amps to drive our whole house system.  Needless to say… A/V company got FIRED today.  Aren’t you proud of yourselves?  You can bet they won’t be recommending any Sonos products in the future.  Oh… and I called our broker and told him about this and he’s now recommending that anyone holding Sonos stock sell.  REALLY, REALLY BIG MISTAKE. 

I too got the notification email today. I must say that I wasn’t that surprised. Yet, it’s still extremely disappointing seeing as how expensive Sonos gear is and their “upgrade” offering is borderline insulting. That said, I started purchasing my Sonos gear in 2011. My entire system is legacy. Honestly, none of the “feature” upgrades have benefited me in any way. So I’m fine with a frozen system. I don’t need or want any future “feature” upgrades. “Maintenance” upgrades are a different matter. Meaning, upgrades that keep the system working. That’s my biggest concern. I’m perfectly fine with everything as it is now. I just wanna keep it that way.

In short, I’m fine with a frozen system. I just don’t want a bricked system. 

Does anybody else regret being a brand ambassador for them in the past or is it just me? 

Very poor customer service. I like many others I have a significant investment in Sonos speakers and to only be offered a 30% discount on upgrading and affected speakers really SUCKS! Should be a 75% discount.

To add insult to injury if you use this  30% discount offer they brick your legacy speakers so they can’t be used again and are only good for the recycling depot.

Unless something changes looks like I and many other people will be looking at other speaker systems other than Sonos. Don’t want to get burnt by Sonos again as they obviously don’t care about their customers.
 

The new Amazon speakers are affordable and starting to look pretty good right now!

Well, we can think further and, as the software evolves, some services will stop working on the old devices anyway. It will certainly not happen in May. But I can think that some years later same Spotify will stop backward compatibility on their API and it will stop working then. 

I don't think I am able to re-buy all my stuff every 5-10 years, especially considering the fact that Sonos keeps selling previous generation goods while already planning to start selling new generation in a month. And not mentioning, that lifetime of that previous gen speaker is twice shorter!

I'm not asking for a bigger discount,  but why not offer a new device that will, well, bridge between older firmware and a new one?

That could be a good solution for owners of lots of legacy products that still able to work. I see here two main reasons for not doing that: a) it will cost more hours on development of two firmware versions at the same time and b) most of users after the first frustration will still start slowly trading in old stuff.

I myself am quite new to Sonos, the oldest product in my system is Play1, which I bought 2 years ago, when Sonos One has just appeared, so I saved some bucks and bought a device that,  as I see now, has a much more shorter lifetime, than One, that I decided not to buy because I don't have Alexa in my country. 

So this is why I've decided to write here: there are currently Playbar and Playbase devices on sale by Sonos, that are much older than Beam, so probably their lifetime is also very limited? 

Now we all know that we never know exactly how many years we have support for our products from Sonos.

I purchased my Generation I  Play 5s from Sonos in Aug.2014.  The new Generation 2 Play 5s came out in Sept.2015

 So my new Sonos Speakers were essentially obsolete in 13 months.  Why would I purchase more Generation 2 Play 5s (even with 30% off) that have been out for over 4 years when Sonos discontinued the first ones after 6 years. I buy quality electronics that I expect the manufacturer to 

stand behind. I have Great stereo equipment, some that I have used for over 30 years. McIntosh, Linn

Klipsch, Bryston. I expect to get more than 5 years of service from what I thought was a quality product.

Thank you Sonos. June 2016 I bought a Connect and 2 Play:1’s.

Because this Connect was produced in 2015 I won’t be able to update my system after May 2020. 
 

Can someone explain me what is the difference between those produced in 2015 and those in 2016?

I don’t think anyone has an idea, certainly not the seller who sold me the connect…… For him and me it was just a connect.