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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chickentender

I’d suggest moving on pragmatically like a number here have decided to. No longer recommend Sonos to others. Continue to use your system as a legacy system; if you are not interested in streaming services, you’re unlikely to be affected by using a legacy system in any way. If you’d like to expand your system, don’t buy new product, buy additional used-market units that are also legacy and thus extremely inexpensive comparatively. (Case in point: I just got a gen-1 Play5 for 100 USD following this mess). You (we) ought to be fine for years, provided Sonos doesn’t completely go under - that is the true risk in all of this. But even that is remote; I suspect they’d be acquired by another company before shuttered entirely. At any rate, I’m just going to pay attention to what’s happening, and carry on as usual, not being bothered by missing future software updates (which, to be frank, have offered me nothing in several years, except occasional system instability).

Stupid question and i am not at home to check (i may have my system set to auto-updates) but i have never knowingly updated my system for years, i run it mainly from my PC and my CR100 still works…. I am in a parallel update free universe? I can’t even remember registering my products it was so long ago i bought them, i assume i did but it will be to some email i no longer use... [i just created this account to vent my anger ]

Not a stupid question. Entirely possible. If you’ve turned off auto-update at some point in the past and not moved beyond a certain version, then yes (there are plenty who’ve done this intentionally). Have you added new hardware in the past while? Are you still able, via your desktop controller to manage advanced settings like wi-fi channels or invididual speaker compressions settings etc.? Current desktop controller has lost all of that and can only affect playback and basic EQ settings, speaker groups, etc.. You could well be on an older version already.

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Str2der

Lyricist II

Why bother and staying with Sonos? I made up my mind in just a few hours. There are other systems on the market that hopefully wont stab us in the back suddenly.

Just sold three ZP100. Next step: the rest of the system. So looking forward to Yamaha Musiccast!

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Str2der

Lyricist II

And - the new e-mail is just comic:

1. We heard you.

2. We are sorry.

3. We are still doing exactly what we said in the first e-mail.

4. We will however release security patches.

5. We are sorry.

6. Can you forgive us?

Answer: No. Too late.

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youveheardus_youllhearuslonger

Lyricist I

My Mail to Mr Spence…

Dear Mr. Spence,

I’ve read your statement. https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo/
It’s definitely not clear and satisfying enough. It’s a good indication that you’ve heard us but it will not make us paying any money to become even more depended on your system and your – as it seems – good will. Splitting up a multi room system makes it becoming a single-room-system. That’s not what the customer has bought and paid for. That’s not why we choose Sonos.

Concentrate on your main business, playing music from as much as possible sources. Offer the newest tech stuff which needs stronger hardware on separate devices two those who really want it. Start to split weak and strong devices in terms of software but keep them together in the same group.

What you’ve done made us aware of how much we have to rely on you. It cleared up my mind, how great the simplicity of a bluetooth speaker is. It can be connected to whatever device – in can solely replace if it’s not workening any longer and it will work (almost) forever. How clever it ist to split up the wireless connected music playing device and the speaker itself.

There will be plenty of used Sonos devices on the 2nd hand market the next few weeks and months. Your sales will break down.

Show us your true good will. Provide us with even better solutions (direct play from a mobile device – android and apple).

Yours sincerely

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Danos1

Trending Lyricist I

My Mail to Mr Spence…

Dear Mr. Spence,

I’ve read your statement. https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo/
It’s definitely not clear and satisfying enough. It’s a good indication that you’ve heard us but it will not make us paying any money to become even more depended on your system and your – as it seems – good will. Splitting up a multi room system makes it becoming a single-room-system. That’s not what the customer has bought and paid for. That’s not why we choose Sonos.

Concentrate on your main business, playing music from as much as possible sources. Offer the newest tech stuff which needs stronger hardware on separate devices two those who really want it. Start to split weak and strong devices in terms of software but keep them together in the same group.

What you’ve done made us aware of how much we have to rely on you. It cleared up my mind, how great the simplicity of a bluetooth speaker is. It can be connected to whatever device – in can solely replace if it’s not workening any longer and it will work (almost) forever. How clever it ist to split up the wireless connected music playing device and the speaker itself.

There will be plenty of used Sonos devices on the 2nd hand market the next few weeks and months. Your sales will break down.

Show us your true good will. Provide us with even better solutions (direct play from a mobile device – android and apple).

Yours sincerely

This is what everyone is upset about. Either Spence didn’t understand why people are upset or he’s still not willing to listen to customer feedback.

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jrgatlin

Contributor I

Wow, I was just getting ready to order a “Port”. Guess not. Hopefully you haven’t completely destroyed your brand. I have moved from recommending your products to a hold position.

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macallan18

Enthusiast I

Although the jan/22 CEO message points in a better direction, this still needs a lot of improvement.

One would think that after the bricking of controllers you would have learned.

Hi-Fi is not a phone which people expect to get obsolete. Especially a whole house system with thousands invested. What your users expect:

Devices to remain operable for as long as possible, even if they don't have all NEW features. That means keeping the streaming services we use functioning. You don't need a ton of memory or processing to keep existing features.
Devices to remain interoperable between new and old, as has always been the case. That means we need to be able to group old and new devices while playing.

You need much better communications, PR and crisis management if you are to keep your customers loyal. Get your act together you you'll destroy the brand.

I've been a loyal customer for over a decade with 9 zones and am an evangelist, bringing many new customers to Sonos. I hope you find a reasonable solution to this hole you've put yourselves into.

An unsatisfactory solution will mean thousands of your customers will no longer trust you with a single cent. Sonos is a long term commitment. Long term commitments require trust. You're managing to lose ours.

With all due respect, the CEO message said nothing of the sort. He said they got the whole thing wrong, and then basically repeated what had been said previously with different wording.

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NaptownMike

Lyricist I

Why should we believe anything SONOS promises about future support? Earlier this month before Congress, CEO Spence said that SONOS was different from larger rivals because it supports products for many years: “Our business model is simple — we sell products which people pay for once, and we make them better over time with software updates.”

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baconator

Trending Lyricist I

Why bother and staying with Sonos? I made up my mind in just a few hours. There are other systems on the market that hopefully wont stab us in the back suddenly.

Just sold three ZP100. Next step: the rest of the system. So looking forward to Yamaha Musiccast!

What made you pick Yamaha? I'm looking at that and Denon Heos for the equivalent to the connect amp.

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Danos1

Trending Lyricist I

This is a current SONOS advert.

It states that you can ‘Build your system’ and ‘expand it any time’.

Looks like somebody forgot to tell the advertising department, that the management has changed it’s mind about all of that.

No, you cannot any longer expand your system unless you throw away all the stuff we sold you 5 years ago.

Man, false advertising.

False advertising indeed.

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