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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jwinther

Lyricist III

And so it begins

retailers-move-to-dump-sonos

Sounds like Sonos is indeed under pressure - and combined with having an unhealthy tone towards their partners and a technological base that is not modern, they have now begun doing such absurd things like we have seen recently. Certainly a sign of desperation from a company that doesn’t know what to do.

No disrespect, but what the hell is “Channel News”? To be very frank, that was one of the most poorly written and worded pieces I’ve read on the web in a bit… and one has to be forgiving of web pieces. I’ve seen posts here in the forum put together better (not mine, mind you, but they’re here :relaxed: ). Just had a strange air to it as well.

Yes, that online magazine seems to be quite negative towards Sonos - they have other articles with more or less the same tone.

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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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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

The message from Patrick Spence is welcome but it beggars belief that a corporation the size of Sonos can get it this wrong. Very pleased to see that the Customer remains king! What has still not been addressed is the environmental impact of the still bricked returned units if I decide to upgrade at some stage. What is happening to these?

Sadly the customer does not remain king. The message simply says we’re going to do what we said in the first place - stop updating software on your ‘legacy’ units (they might update bug/security aspects but they will potentially still stop working as soon as a streaming service updates its API). And if you want to keep using your legacy units while they last, they won’t interface with any new units you buy (or any “modern” units you own if you dare to update the software on them) - you will have to have two systems.

But if you look at some media comments, there may be a glimmer of hope that, whatever may have been their original intention, they are saying the issue was the inability of older units to be updated with capacity hungry modern updates. If one can’t update, none can. Therefore looking to split system for updates so each generation receives appropriate updates. One comment says looking then to see if old and new can work together… but does say not sure if they can… look at my earlier posts and you can see the development/ reference points of these arguments.. If this can be made to work with newer units accessing new features but old ones like out from them, but all units working together when requirement is within their capability, then I’m as happy as I was before and will upgrade when I feel the need to have the newer features… If whole home grouping not possible, then I remain angry…

I think you are projecting an enormous amount of what you want to see on to the situation. There has been nothing from Sonos in any of these announcements that has entertained the idea that legacy and current will work together. NOTHING.

The articles in the media you refer to also do not quote anyone at Sonos saying anything directly that changes anything. I think you give the journalists too much credit; some of them are doing the same thing you are and reading the wishy-washy language from Sonos and assuming the most positive interpretation of the ambiguity.

The number one reason to refuse sonos the benefit of the doubt is simply that we (referring to the members of the community who are technical, which isn’t everyone) know for a cast iron fact that there is NO barrier to an integrated system continuing to work other than Sonos’ business decision not to do so, yet Sonos have dodged this point in every statement and forum post they’ve made on this point.

They don’t want your old components to continue to work, they just want you to shut up and buy some new ones. They aren’t trying to do the best they can by you in the face of technical limitations, they’re trying to make the weakest possible commitments they can to make the complaining stop. That’s it.

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S

spunkworks

Lyricist III

What happens when my Playbar’s surrounds become legacy? will I lose my surround sound?

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John B

Appreciate the apology, but the Exec Team at Sonos need to give very careful thought to their next step….

MY HOME SYSTEM MUST NOT BE SPLIT AND MY OLD SPEAKERS MUST KEEP PLAYING MUSIC

This is not like buying a mobile phone where it is OK to replace every few years - many like me have invested £1000’s - I will not risk any future investment if I can not be sure my very expensive speakers will keep working

You are right, it's not like buying a mobile phone. Three years ago I bought a Ssmsung Galaxy phone for around £650. I bought a Play:5 gen 2 for £499 around same time. The phone might last me another year, maybe 2. The Play:5 will be fully supported until 5 years after Sonos stop selling it. I would guess that will give me 10 years use, fully supported . Thank God that buying a Sonos is not like buying a phone.

You only tend to own one mobile phone, so that model works.

Many people have many SONOS speakers all over the house that cost multiple £1,000s - to replace all speakers every 5 years does not work.

No it doesn't. But then some people will be replacing their ZP80s after 16 years. 5 years is a minimum. The ramp up in memory on more modern devices is huge. Yes, eventually that won't be enough, but I am confident that P:5 of mine will be playing fine 10 years from now. Not certain, but confident enough not to be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Just for the record I have 12 Sonos components over 7 zones, accumulated since 2011

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Mdfs

Lyricist III

I am raising a ticket with Sonos support to see if I can disable all updates to my devices and phone.

I just realised that I have never actually needed an update to my system since it was bought! I was happy with tune in, play from this device, play from network and that’s it. ( May be I’m just a complete Dino?). The Updates never fixed an issue I experienced! However, the updates have removed “play from this device” and will now mean that I have 2 legacy speaker out of 6… oh and the legacy speakers are my most recent purchases!!

So why have automatic updates enabled… security? Really, if you have the speaker product only (not the “one” series) do you really care that someone in China knows that your dark secret is that you listen to Britney? Oh and let’s face it… they only find the security issues after it has been exploited!

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

You are right, it's not like buying a mobile phone. Three years ago I bought a Ssmsung Galaxy phone for around £650. I bought a Play:5 gen 2 for £499 around same time. The phone might last me another year, maybe 2. The Play:5 will be fully supported until 5 years after Sonos stop selling it. I would guess that will give me 10 years use, fully supported . Thank God that buying a Sonos is not like buying a phone.

Do you re buy all the lightbulbs in your house even when they’re still working? How about your plumbing? What about your car? Car manufacturers like money too, you know! You should throw away your car (No reselling it remember! It has to go in the landfill) and buy another one of the same capability to help them out!

Phones are not a fair comparison to the Sonos system. A mobile phone of 10 years ago does dramatically less than one of the present era, and what’s more, if you choose to stick with an old phone it doesn’t sabotage every other mobile device you own by preventing them updating. You can even call a new phone from an old one! Fancy that.

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

What happens when my Playbar’s surrounds become legacy? will I lose my surround sound?

Based on what we know, yes. They will not be able to be part of the same Sonos installation.

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I

IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

I was angry, very angry … but if they can come up with a solution which enables all speakers, old and new, to work seamlessly with features extant today, and new features possibly being restricted to modern units, then I'm happy once more….Refer to earlier posts where I’ve picked up glimmers of such hope in media (BBC/Evening Standard/ Slashgear)

There are a few posts on here who can also see this through the fog of hysteria, which to my eyes might be lifting (slightly) and hope these thoughts are picked up by Ryan S and reported back ….

It's not happening. New units once updated will not be able to synchronise with legacy units. As soon as only the latest software will work with spotify etc, legacy units are landfill.

Sonos could choose to implement software that will allow newer units to be a master to legacy units and keep them all part of one environment. Or they could develop a control box to sit on the network and do this.

The truth is they dont want to, it's far easier to cut loose the "legacy" hardware and hope people will upgrade. If you are sat on £3k worth of connect amps, tough. Sonos dont want to know. They are moving to a 5 year premium subscription model for their hardware and that's it.

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Fan555

Lyricist I

So here’s my question to SONOS Management …. its really simple.

Every Sonos product in my my home works , it does exactly what I need it to do. I do not want or need any new updates, my own router is protecting me from the nasty people out there. The only people out there I am afraid of is you. So how can I ensure “YOU” do not break it.

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

For anyone who hasn’t come across this there is a relevant petition on change.org here : https://www.change.org/p/sonos-we-want-sonos-to-reverse-their-decision-to-stop-supporting-their-expensive-speakers

It probably won’t achieve anything but it also won’t take you very long to sign it so it can’t hurt...

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