Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
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We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer.

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features.

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features.

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade.

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

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szkorupa

Lyricist III

Oh Sonos! I am so angry about your announcement. I have 9 of your speakers all still “modern” but what is next? My Playbar and surround Play1s? I mean this is unbelievable way to treat customers who spent a lot of money for expensive sound system. I was sold a lie! Keep adding to your existing system and built upon it! There is no technical reason why older speakers cannot be still grouped with modern ones and receive sound in multi-room configuration. I will withheld from any further purchases until this sorry state of affair is resolved to customer satisfaction. For the amount of money I spent I would expect a short of a lifetime of music enjoyment. You have really lost in my eyes and I cannot recommend your system anymore to any of my friends.

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BlueCreek

Contributor I

I had plans in the new year to upgrade my living room sound system to a 5.1 set up from sonos, costing well over £1000+, I will now have to look elsewhere, as I’d expect this system to last many years, and not become obsolete after a few years! The playbar has been in production for a while, is this next on the list to be legacy???

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BoboBoca

Lyricist I

Your Company truly does not respect the early adopters and if you believe that the way you handle this matter is not going to be noise that will fade into the sunset . I have invested in many dollars in the faith and the quality that sonos came to represent but that is about to change I have recommend prob over 50 systems to friends and family. We feel betrayed forget the business economics and greed factor how about the fact that you have miss lead us next one to die will be play ones for sure as they are discounted at Costco so not this year but next and another misleading sheeps clothing just very disappointed and now I need to replace my system with products that will not be trashed by company that think money grows on trees and uses that are blind ….. Sad day for all of us

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Fairfax22

Trending Lyricist I

The News has now hit the UK Press, it’s in The Times, Headline Sonos Speake’s are obsolete within months! I think a quick rethink needs to be made on the announcement, but even with this they have lost trust in what was a loyal following. For any management reading these comments let’s see you put this right

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ArtAngel

Contributor I

i was wondering how many people on this forum feel they were mis sold their product? I was sold mine by Sonos staff in two shops as 'Sonos 5' (my product) is 'made to last and has a lifetime of updates’. I was told that they are quality products and Sonos has ‘one of the best customer services’. I try not to buy ‘disposable’ products and saved hard to buy my Sonos. I was sold a product that would last longer than 5 years. I would not have purchased a Sonos 5 if I had thought there would be a limited ‘shelf life’. I also think that it is certainly not ‘value for money’ as I would have bought something a lot cheaper if I had known.

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Sonos-user

Lyricist III

I don’t own any of the products that are soon to be legacy but I’d like to add they already lost me as a customer after removing the ability to play locally from an iDevice. When my 2xPlay 1s become ‘legacy’ I’ll be looking at another brand for replacement speakers.

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HelterSkelter

Enthusiast II

The News has now hit the UK Press, it’s in The Times, Headline Sonos Speake’s are obsolete within months! I think a quick rethink needs to be made on the announcement, but even with this they have lost trust in what was a loyal following. For any management reading these comments let’s see you put this right and admit what a balls up you made.

Ouch!

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gracja

Lyricist III

I have just decided to turn off updates. I will see where I end up with the system. Happy as it is at the moment. (I have Alexa turned off - she is stupid and functionality sucked anyway.)

If I notice my CURRENT functionality is impacted on “Legacy” or “Modern” units it will be time to cut my losses and look for another system.

No longer interested in the Sonos of the future except to see the company stock value tank and Patrick “Ransom” Spence get ousted.

If I sound bitter it is because I am.

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db001

Lyricist I

Sonos have you have ripped me off! You took my money for 7 sets of Speakers and now you tell me they are to be made redundant... why should I buy any more Sonos? I shouldnt because you did not take care of me. I invested a belief and my money in you... you took it and left me high and dry.........

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ChaosChild

Lyricist II

What I really don’t understand is that it’s being said if Spotify update there protocol for example it will stop working. Sonos are saying they can’t continue to update these devices due to processor and memory requirements. How do they know what these processor and memory requires will be before any such protocol update has taken place?

I understand limiting new features etc, this is fair considering how good Sonos has been in the past with this, but why not just provide a protocol update?

If they are saying that the protocol updates are going to become impossible for the processor and memory in these systems, then exactly what processors and memory were they putting in these expensive systems? They certainly were never fit for purpose at point of original sale if this was the case and Sonos need to acknowledge there mistake and offer higher discounts on the newer range of products.

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