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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Paul000000

Lyricist III

Youtubers are picking up this story and this forum is being echoed.

Please continue to engage social medias.

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gallows_pole

Contributor I

I am a very early adopter (16 years) and own a dozen Sonos amps in two homes potentially bricked by this move. While I have a sympathetic view of the business case here for Sonos than most posters, the approach here was backwards, and the communication plan flat out bizarre.

I totally understand the desire to cease supporting these products, although it seems to me the window here was too short for $500 items. Whenever support ceases, if streaming services and third party apps cease working in the Sonos app, so be it, perhaps the stream can be cast from the underlying App, or maybe Pandora/Spotify will step in to allow their apps to control the legacy Sonos devices. Obviously new versions of Windows won’t run on 15 year old PCs, and new phone apps often don’t work on even 6-7 year-old hardware. We experience that all of the time. But you need to maintain a least common denominator of software that remains safe, interoperable with new and old devices, and it available for third parties to program to. Frankly, little in your software updates over the past 16 years have been of any use to me beyond integrating streaming services. I wish I could still use my old controllers whose battery lasted a week. If I can continuing using what I have, and seamlessly replace any broken equipment as needed (which has amounted to just one amp in 16 years), I could not care less if you add new features to the software.

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jmw_sono

Chromatic Producer I

Just got an email from Sonos and CEO Patrick Spence.

Looks like they are taking action on the issue of updates in May.

Whatever the solution, thank you Sonos for acknowledging the issue and working on it!

Best hardware streaming media system as always and happy to hear you are looking into our concerns!

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Playbar(2) Sub(1) Play:5(2) Play:3(6) Play:1(5) Connect:AMP(3) Sonos:AMP(5) Move(1)

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jwinther

Lyricist III

My initial reaction was much like many others but actually this probably was inevitable at some point and all competitors are likely to face a similar problem.

The miscalculation is to offer a measly 30% which effectively is no discount at all bearing in mind some of the reductions available elsewhere.

For me it was mostly the mafia method used: first an offer to buy more before prices would increase. Then, when not reacting, an offer to trade in existing products for new ones. When not reacting on that either, then a letter stating that “now you give us some money within 4 months, or else...”

Any kind of reseller who decides to threat and blackmail their customers do not deserve to have any.

Besides: I really cannot find any advantages in the new products compared to the old ones. If Sonos wants me to buy something, they must offer me something that I need or otherwise want, and for a price that I find appropriate for what I will get.

The one advantage - “or else...” - is not a real one as it is fully up to Sonos to plan which software updates they want to provide.

As I do not expect electronics products to last forever, I would in fact have accepted - fully and no questions asked - a product retirement plan that was stretching sufficiently far ahead to allow for the planning of buying the needed product replacements. 4 months is absurd, 2 years would be more reasonable.

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“This is a chance now to come up with a system that doesn’t cause massive planetary damage in exchange for disposable stuff,” Proctor said. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3a8dpn/sonos-makes-it-clear-you-no-longer-own-the-things-you-buy)

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duxzitta

Lyricist I

Why would I spend a fortune investing in the Sonos hardware ecosystem and then they send an incredible mail that my speakers could be useless after May?

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Niaccurshi

Lyricist III

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’.

This letter, unfortunately, doesn’t clarify the concerns of those of us that are simply looking to understand that legacy systems/devices will be able to be streamed to from modern devices, even if this requires new hardware, much as Sonos is able to stream audio to “normal” speakers via a Port or similar.

I have to repeat as strongly as I can, If we cannot stream music between speakers in the network, regardless of their legacy status, then the original selling point and purpose of having invested in Sonos in the first place, is destroyed.

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shonasdaddy

Enthusiast I

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’.

Wow that message from your CEO is just gonna wind people up even more.

Another slap in the face.

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Paddymac

Lyricist I

Wow. Bad decision. I am a loyal customer, and recommended you to more people than you know. SERIOUSLY?!? You are destroying brand loyalty. Come on! This is just a force to get people to buy new products, and this is worse than Apple...I will not, I would switch brands on principle.

Make me stay by being fair. I spent a lot of money with you.

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Rob NYC1

Enthusiast II

Just got an email from Sonos and CEO Patrick Spence.

Looks like they are taking action on the issue of updates in May.

Whatever the solution, thank you Sonos for acknowledging the issue and working on it!

Best hardware streaming media system as always and happy to hear you are looking into our concerns!

That email stated that: “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.”

So, it means that nothing has changed. New products wont work with older products. These are speakers and any claim that there is a technology hurdle that prevent the older speakers from playing music with newer speakers is a lie.

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Rob NYC1

Enthusiast II

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’.

Tell the CEO that older speakers need to work with newer speakers. Because, you know, these are speakers. The SONOS board needs to fire that guy

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