Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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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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patbla

Enthusiast II

Does anybody have an email address to send comments to Ikea? I wonder how they feel about partnering with a company that is bricking equipment in light of its sustainability goals?

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stejogar

Lyricist I

Very disappointed with this announcement.

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chris_h1957

Enthusiast I

I’m curious about the timing of this announcement. Any decent software \ technology company would give users at least 12 months notice of a product being no longer supported. In this case we have a ridiculously short 4 month’s notice. What is happening in May? Do Sonos have a significant system update that their testing has identified won’t work on the ‘legacy’ items? Or is one of their major music services making changes that won’t work with our older equipment?

Or is this just an attempt to boost trade up sales in this financial quarter??

All may become clear in May. Meanwhile my current thoughts are to continue with my equipment in ‘legacy’ mode, while looking for alternative systems. I’ll not be spending anymore on Sonos equipment. Sad end to a happy relationship!!

I am with you, same plan. I had planned another 3-4 devices this year costing about £1k but no more, will save up for when my legacy equipment fails and then replace with something else, probably stand alone devices as the same is likely to happen with other offerings in this marketplace.

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Mr Pie

Lyricist I

Very disappointing from Sonos.

I was looking at buying a Playbase later this year and 2 x Play:5 to go with my existing 2 x Play:3, 2 x Bridge (effectively obsolete May 2020) and 1 x Connect (effectively obsolete May 2020).

The Sonos kit I have (since 2011) has been brilliant - easily one of the technology best buys in our home in terms of usability, quality and customer support. And it still works brilliantly for what I bought it to do - stream music from local NAS and Spotify. I was looking to expand my Sonos network in 2020, but now I’m being recommended to replace existing, perfectly functional and non-faulty kit, before I can consider extending that network? Madness.

I certainly won’t be buying any new Sonos kit unless there’s a rapid change of policy from the company, which, sadly, I’m not expecting.

Since I received the email 2 days ago re. the May 2020 (effective) de-support, I’ve already started looking into Yamaha Music Cast and I expect this will be the replacement solution for this household. For the money Sonos are asking for their trade-in/up, I can buy a new Yamaha AV amp (driving 15-yo and still fantastic passive Acoustic Energy speakers and a 1-yo XTZ subwoofer), 2 x Yamaha Music Cast speakers (to replace the Play:3s) and have plenty of change left over to buy a Yamaha soundbar (instead of the Playbase). And I will retain all of the functionality I wanted from Sonos.

I have seen Gerald Ratner mentioned a few times on this thread. In terms of customer respect, I have to say it is very apt with regard to this move by Sonos:

If you don’t respect your customers, why should we respect the company?

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NO MORE SONOS

Trending Lyricist I

the biggest kicker here is that if you wish to keep your system as a "whole home" single system - as it was sold, or also now also known as legacy - you won't be able to buy another Sonos product ever again.

At some point, factory bought Sonos units will have software on older than our "frozen" systems and any new hardware just won't work with the legacy stuff. No whole home audio system anymore...

Without any further information that is what these announcements are currently saying.

Or in other words, if you have old kit that works and you don't want to upgrade it you're no longer welcome as a customer!

What utter b......s and abject marketing failure. Kind of reminds me about that Ratners jewelry chap and we all know what happened there!

Good point but the newer hardward could have a legacy mode too. Would be a shitter if they didn’t do this.

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#BoycottSonos

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josephdz

Lyricist I

BREAKING NEWS:

SONOS WILL OFFICIALLY BECOME A “LEGACY“ COMPANY AND WILL LOSE ALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND FUNCTIONALITY BY MAY 2020.

Customers mourn as Legacy Sonos products were rendered useless by company and buried alive.

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Chris0288

Lyricist II

Not good enough I'm afraid

Not only have you shafted loyal customers, you have also opened up those people buying on the 2nd hand market to fraud. I'm sure there will be many people putting the deactivation on to get a discount then selling the units on.

This has been an absolutely SHOCKING decision, and whoever made it needs to re-evaluate their position within the company quite frankly.

If you don't reverse your stance and offer a lite OS option to continue support for these older devices, sonos will fail as a company. The worst part is you will deserve it.

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

Does anybody have an email address to send comments to Ikea? I wonder how they feel about partnering with a company that is bricking equipment in light of its sustainability goals?

As IKEA does not make the speakers or the software themselves, i would not risk buying any of their speakers either.

I saw someone on twitter yesterday, ask IKEA if their speakers were also going to be made obsolete and if so, when.

The poor twitter rep, said that “IKEA has no plans to make any of out speakers obsolete anytime”.

But then, that was what sonos said on twitter a couple of months ago as well, so i would not put a dime of trust into such a statement.

It seems that as soon as sales drop, they will just take another of their product out behind the barn and shoot it, to force people to keep buying.

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username1234

Lyricist I

Very sorry to see how stupid decisions kills a great company, there is no shortage of these kinds of stories in history. With new lawsuits with Google, and possibly with Amazon later, this is how you lose respect!

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Neal_8

Contributor I

I’ve been a user since 2007, still using a ZP90 and ZP100 with a Play5 and a recently purchased Sonos One this month. I get that legacy players may not have the processor power or memory to handle new functionality. Thats the nature of tech.

I’m not bothered that my legacy players won’t get any new software updates with jazzy new features. What my system does at the moment suits me just fine - playing from my NAS and streaming from Amazon Music and Spotify. If it will continue to work as it currently does then I’m ok with that. But whats not ok is to stop support, threaten the removal of streaming functionality and not allow new players (with their new functionality, services, etc) to co-exist with legacy players.

Like others have said, surely some new bridge type product can be created to send out data to the legacy players. Afterall they’re just speakers that play a digital packet of data !

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