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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Cisume

Enthusiast II

Owner of over 20 Sonos products.

Ill give another view of this debacle since everyone else has pretty much detailed most of it.

Over the last 5 years I have lost the following features with new updates

PC software to set Sonos Settings (One speaker is at an isolated site with no wifi, hence no android connection)

Web based info queries without adding to app

Nice wireless charging tablets to use as interfaces now told android OS not supported.

Direct Android connection to speaker not wifi (Poolhouse doesn't have good wifi but does have good SonosNet connection) now my Android tablet at location needs to find wifi, just have to walk back towards house how convenient.

Pandora sort by date??? I know its their issue but again with all the “new” updates I lose functionality

Features would love to see added in the new updates never happening

Advanced grouping (with 20 speakers a useful tool)

Trueplay tuning (Android house)

New option for media library (65K limit) yes I use Plex some but response isn't great when you have lots of albums, local folder from Sonos media library helps because I can separate by folders to make filtering easier)

Home Theatre Audio, too many to even list.

SMBv2

Multiple Amp station hardware (instead of four/eight in a whole house installation) one nice unit combined would be a winner.

With all the “new” updates I really haven't gotten any new features that I need or desire. I have lost quite a few of what made Sonos awesome!

So True !

Sonos you are chasing the new market for customers that buy one maybe two products. Competing with Amazon, Google, and Apple which have much higher volumes and can beat you at that game. Younger customers that only care about a cheap price and not quality.

All the while angering customers who invest in you as an eco system. I feel like you are the best in class for that. Still are. Problem is you are chasing a market where you wont win and killing the market where you did. Where you have name brand reputation.

In a world where people “like” a speaker the size of bagel, Bluetooth connection is deemed good enough, talking to your speaker is more important than the sound, and price is a factor you aren't on the right track.

Dont lose your multi device customers!

This reminds me of the turn Radio shack took and thought competing with mobile phone stores was a good idea and didn’t focus on the part of the business what made them unique.

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mcjfauser

Trending Lyricist I

As a Marketing Manager, and student of one of the global top 3 business schools, I KNOW this decision from SONOS will go down in Business School history as one of the best examples of brand suicide. Complete idiots. SONOS had such a great concept but have repeatedly demonstrated difficulty in delivering the seemless experience we expect these days, with problematic networking and poor controller clients both on desktop and mobile. It’s like they had a super developer for the initial concept and then went cheap on engineers thereafter.
Your only way out now is to maintain for ever after two software models, 1. one that allows all devices on a mixed ‘old’ and new system to continue being maintained and debugged, as a complete system, 2. one where we can chose to run two parallel networks where the ‘modern’ kit can operate all new features, the old devices continue to operate and be bug fixed, and the two networks allow two way music play and functionality upto the limit of every device.
Of course there is another option: much higher (like 90%) discounts on a replacement kit.

Now THAT would have attracted enormous kudos and customers who would have felt reassured that obsolescence would be a minimal threat. It would still cover manufacturing costs, but retained customers and attracted great media support as well as new customers.
I am now going to go back to the drawing board that I last looked at when I bought my SONOS speaker, and see how I have a networked music system at home without using any SONOS devices - if I succeed I will sell my SONOS kit and never buy from SONOS again. I expect my HiFi to last forever, like the Arcam seperates and 55 yr old valve Telefunken radio amp still going strong.
SONOS, you’re a barrel of crap!

Well said, especially in regards to the problematic networking and poor controller clients both on desktop and mobile.

The clever thing would be for them to redesign the way that the software and applications function rather - it’s entirely possible to do more with less.

It’s just easier for them to keep this same overly complex resource taxing system that does not meet user needs and make hardware obsolete.

Who is at the wheel of Sonos? Sounds like a bloody fool. When proposed with those two options,

Redesign the Sonos architechture from the ground up to create a better user experience, ensure that Sonos speakers do not become obsolete, and give more FLEXABILITY to the whole platform in the way that people connect and stream music and audio.
Continue on business as usual and make a whole heap of speakers obsolete, create some landfill, piss our customer base off, ruin the brand reputation and cause individuals stress and necessitate wasted financial resources

Any intelligent person with decent values would choose to make the hardware buy it for life and adapt the software. What I have to say to this individual, or group of individuals: WE STREAM MUSIC MATE, WE DONT RUN AN INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

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Horsleya

Lyricist I

So in December I added a sonos one to my other 3 sonos devices. And now I find that this new 1 month old device will no longer receive any updates after May unless I remove 50% of my existing devices. How can this be legal let alone ethical?

they can keep there 30% discount I would like to receive a 100% refund on the compromised product they sold me a month ago with no warning of their intention to severely restrict it’s inter-operability and upgrade path.

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Thumbpicker

Enthusiast II

With this announcement, it should be clear to anyone that there is no reason to buy any Sonos product that has a speaker or an amplifier in it, because they may become prematurely obsolete. The only product that makes any sense at all is the “Port”, to which you can connect your own amplifier and speaker. And even then, the price point for the Port is quite high for a product that may be obsolete in a few years.

But… the ZP80 is being rendered obsolete and it’s no different to the port. It has cat 5 and if you really wanted to you could get an ethernet to wireless n adapter for it.

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Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

There’s a new message posted from Patrick today that will help answer many of the questions we’ve seen. You can see it above in the top post, or on our blog here ‘A Letter from our CEO’.

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Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Rob NYC1

Enthusiast II

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

To Sonos customers: SONOS is having its quarterly earnings call on Feb 5, 2020 and will have a Q&A sesssion we can all dial into. I encourage all upset customers/shareholders to dial into this call and discuss their concerns with the CEO. The stock analysts that cover SONOS will be on this call. If the shareholders who actually SONOS hear how upset the customer base is we can get SONOS to reverse this decision. Call in information is below. Please feel free to repost!

Feb 5, 2020

5pm (eastern time)

calling from US - (833) 236-2748, with conference ID 9666837.

calling outside US dial (647) 689-4173, with the same conference ID.

PLEASE REPOST THIS. MAYBE IF THE PEOPLE WHO BUY SONOS’s STOCK HEAR HOW SONOS JUST PISSED OFF THEIR CUSTOMER BASE SONOS WILL REVERSE THIS DECISION.

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drn00ben

Lyricist I

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.

This isn’t what we want. You’re still not understanding. We want modern and legacy to work together. I have invested time and money over the years, now I have to manage 2 systems? Absurd. If the legacy doesn’t support new features then fine, but we should be able to stream/group/etc… to both new and old without splitting out the system.

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doctorhifi

Trending Lyricist I

just got this email:

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 just 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.

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In May 2020 the following products in your system will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience: Connect:Amp x 3, Connect x 1, Connect (ZP90) x 2

pompeygreg

Trending Lyricist I

Have I got this right? Sonos answer to making my 4 year old speaker obsolete is to ask me to buy more product from you?

You must think we are stupid.

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User273555

Lyricist II

I have also spent many thousands of dollars on Sonos products and have enjoyed them greatly. They are made well and seem as though they will last a long time. I get that one wants to advance their integrated product line, but I also am less likely to expand my system using Sonos anymore. All of the “trade up” offers and changes that have made my system less functional have destroyed some of my loyalty and trust.

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