Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
4256 replies
269646 views

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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skyschemer

Enthusiast II

When I read this topic, I hear two things:

Your old devices won’t get any new updates because there’s no more room for additional services you don’t want and will never use. Making a plug-in type firmware where you can choose what you need is too hard.
We closed the announcement topic because people were really mad at us.

L

lynjones

Lyricist II

Please confirm that the 30% "trade up" or discount is on the lowest price offered for the identical yet newer device and not something else. I have heard different reports that this was not the case and want to make sure we are on the same page before I agree to your hostage demands and you murder my existing devices. So for every pair of Play:5 I replace it's 30% off this?

T

thor1980

Lyricist II

This is a masterclass into how to run a good brand into the ground with incredibly poor and greed based decisions.

If if I hadn’t wasted so much money on SONOS 4 years ago which is now obsolete it would be funny.

BOSE for me!

C

cosmo35166

Enthusiast I

Oh and by the way, the email you sent two days ago said I had three Legacy products. Logging in today on my account it now says four Legacy products. Is this because I’ve offended you? You better get this together, the Shareholder meeting is coming up.

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Sonicshoulder

Lyricist I

30% coupled with the constant reminder on my app and emails is beyond insulting. I have (2) play 5’s and (6) Play 1’s. I have decided not to bite on replacing my only Play 5 Gen 1. I’m not going to do this every 5 years. 30% is called a sale...not an attempt to appease loyal customers who have invested heavily. Give me 30% off a sale price at least.

R

Rcs476

Lyricist III

Limitations are fine, as long as the products work as they do today. If all that the speakers/amps/non-powered zone players need to do is broadcast the stream, whether local or online stream, then it should still be able to perform that task. If grouped with other zones, make sure the zones that are not getting axed (YET...) are the ones that the stream originates from.

If someone only has older legacy zones, maybe get a product out there that can act as the hub or main point of the stream.

I am not replacing $2000 (retail) worth of working equipment with another $2000 of replacements. These things receive a signal and output that signal, and there is a good amount of competition out there now. 10 years ago, I would have had to take it on the chin, but it is not the case anymore. At least when they killed off the cr100, they gave $100 in compensation, which was nice of them because the functionality is easily replaced with their app and desktop controllers, but a 30% coupon, and then a price increase (earlier this month) on the items that would most likely be replacements for people affected, is a ridiculous slap in the face.

I will also say this as a customer since 2008, I now have zero confidence in Sonos as a brand. I understand that a majority of newer customers (who are not effected by these changes) will not care about this issue, but eventually they will be in the same boat.

A

Adrianrabet

Lyricist I

I have spent over £4,000 on a Sonos system and know you have let us down.

Surely you can create a modulafr fix for the problems by replacing the computer “brain” inside the units.

If you dare say that you integrated the compuer inside the other ampplifier components then you were never serious about creating a future proof system.

H

HelterSkelter

Enthusiast II

The Sonos legacy debarkle has now made it onto the front page of the BBC news in the UK, with just 12 other news items ahead of it, including Terry Jones, Grammy Awards, Greta Thunberg, Bezos, China Virus, Weinstein etc.

Sonos have got a very small time frame to react with a positive outcome I fear.

Already I would say they are in a very difficult position to recover from.

L

lukeshoey

Lyricist III

This does not really clarify anything and is poor form to shut down the existing thread. Why do we have to wait until May for more information? This is shocking.

R

Ralph Bolton

Contributor I

Since I can’t reply to myself on the old thread now…

All this got me onto Google… and I find that Yamaha have a “whole house” solution, and a wide range of products, many of which fill gaps I felt I had with my Sonos gear. It all gets about equal reviews to the equivalent Sonos gear too.

Locking the old thread has also got me onto shop sites to do reviews of my previous purchases.

This is what, we in the UK call “doing a Ratner” - after a chap called Gerald Ratner literally killed his entire, quite successful, jewelery business over the course of a weekend by making a very ill-advised speech about his own products.

#sonosinthetoilet by the weekend.

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