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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mrgrieves

Avid Contributor I

I bought a couple of Sonos:Ones in the last year or two to complement my 3 existing play:5s (all of which are classed legacy now). I’ve had them a good long while and had probably more updates than I would have expected.

However, had I the knowledge then that my existing system was obsolete, I would have spent a lot more time researching the alternatives. I went with Sonos again specifically to integrate with what I have.

I don’t like the idea of nuking my play:5s from orbit just so that I can presumably play black friday prices for a new product. The environmental aspects also really concerns me - what is happening to the old dead goods when they get sent back?

The “minimum 5 years” thing concerns me too.

From my own point of view, most software updates do nothing for me. A couple have been great - Spotify, AirPlay and Google assistant - and some have been really bad - e.g. the new Mac app, or my CR200 being rendered virtually obsolete.

I can’t see how having a legacy system and a modern system in tandem works. For me, it defeats the object as I usually group everything together so I can walk around the house and enjoy my music. But when they then decide that the play:% gen2 is legacy, how does that work?

I’ve always thought the Sonos update thing a bit strange - sometimes you update all devices in the system seemingly just because the font in the app changes.

But I get that Sonos as a company are under pressure, as more and more smart speakers flood the market for ridiculously low charges. AFAIK Sonos don’t make regular revenue from speakers once they’ve been sold, so I can see that they are potentially entering a difficult period in their life. And I can imagine the software developers being desperate to move on from some of the old kit. Having said that, this is a time when they need customer loyalty more than ever I would have thought, and it works both ways.

Personally, I’m going to watch this space and see what happens. If my old kit continues to work, I will wait for Sonos to deliver something compelling enough for me to decide to ditch my old kit. Otherwise I will have to try to fight my nerd-fuelled need to always be on the latest software. It has dissuaded me to extend it further, and it means a big caveat should I ever be recommending it to anyone else.

Or, TL;DR - +1. :)

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jjs30

Lyricist II

I spent over 8000€ to build my Sonos system over the years. And now you tell me that it won’t work as intended after May 2020?

Sonos? Never again.

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jwinther

Lyricist III

You can even call a new phone from an old one! Fancy that.

It is really amazing :)

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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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Sweeny1000

Lyricist I

Apologies if this has been asked before, but does anyone know what the position is regarding on-going software updates for the play 3?

It seems it is too old to receive an Airplay 2 upgrade but not old enough to stop receiving software updates after May 2020. Is this correct or did software updates for the play 3 stop prior to this recent announcement?

Given the relatively similar hardware specification of both the play 5 gen 1 and play 3, a decision to stop software updates for the play 5 gen 1, but continue them for the play 3, looks a bit suspect if it is being justified on the grounds of hardware limitations.

Sonos have committed to supporting speakers for a minimum of 5 years after they discontinue sales. So they are kerping a promise, not that anybody on tbis thread is going to believe that.

Also, the P:3 has twice the RAM of the p:5 gen 1 I believe.

Thanks for the quickly reply. So if Sonos keep their promise we can look forward to play 3 updates until July 2023 (as I believe sales stopped in July 2018).

Double the ram would make a difference if you are referring to the flash memory which holds the firmware, but not if you are referring to the temporary ram used to buffer the music being streamed. Will try to find the full hardware specs online and report back.

Update:

Found the below chart on reddit which confirms both types of ram doubled between the play 5 gen 1 and play 3. The chart may also help other Sonos users assess which devices have the longest upgrade life based on their memory and storage capabilities.

Link to full reddit page: (in case the image is stripped from this post):

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/dip1pb/sonos_hardware_memory_chart/

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DK_Madsen

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.

That is crazy. I just bought a Playbar two weeks to work with older Sonos speakers i had bought years ago,

Earlier in the thread some poor sod, had a playbar for sorround, backed by 2 Play 5’s as rear speakers.

He can either go legacy og pay up for 2 new speakers to replace the relatively expensive speakers he bought 4 years ago in 2015/2016, when resellers were still selling their remaining stock of gen 1 play 5’s.

Imagine buying 2 speakers ~4 years ago, paying over $1000 for them, only to be told they are obsolete now.

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gary2011

Lyricist I

So I'm not really satisfied by this clarification. At no point when I was spending over £2000 on a play bar 2 play3s 2 play ones and a play 5 was I made aware that in a few years time my products may stop working or be reduced in usability to such a level that I would have to fork out another 2k to replace them. This is utterly appalling and I fully expect these products to remain working fully and integrated fully with my subscription Deezer service until they physically fail in some way OR I choose to upgrade to upgrade them for something else. If in the future Sonos are unwilling to allow these devices to operate I will never purchase another of their products ever again.

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Stuart_17

Enthusiast II

@DK_Madsen

“Imagine buying 2 speakers ~4 years ago, paying over $1000 for them, only to be told they are obsolete now.”

Yup, that is me as well! Feel like a right chump!

Now I have calmed down a bit, I know what my plan is. I am not going to buy any more speakers until the May announcement. Then I am going to watch these threads and wait and see how it all plays out.. Time will tell.

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vgflondon

Lyricist II

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!

Why are you emailing Support? You can turn off automatic system updates in the Sonos app and controller updates in your app store.

And with respect, whilst you may not have realised you needed the update there is a good chance that without it your system wouldn’t have kept on working with tune in/ play from network!

I am not at home to check, so i have no idea if i have auto-update on or not and it may well run in the background, but as far as i am aware I have not updated my system for years, for example my CR100 still works fine...

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gary2011

Lyricist I

@DK_Madsen

“Imagine buying 2 speakers ~4 years ago, paying over $1000 for them, only to be told they are obsolete now.”

Yup, that is me as well! Feel like a right chump!

Now I have calmed down a bit, I know what my plan is. I am not going to buy any more speakers until the May announcement. Then I am going to watch these threads and wait and see how it all plays out.. Time will tell.

not great. The wording of that clarification, whilst on the face of it seems to try and backtrack...they haven't stated specifically that the units will work fully for as long as you want them. Imagine spending 2k on a HiFi system only to have to replace it in 5 years because the manufacturer deliberately built it of parts that were non replaceable and would only last 5 years. really angry about this.

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mrwarped

Lyricist III

Here’s another thought, given there are lots of eyes on this forum at the moment a few of them have to be bright spark techies or electronics wizards, unlike myself I hasten to add😁

what we need is one of these clever guys to whip the top off a play1, 3 or 5 and figure out how to retrofit a line in, aux Jack, possibly even a Bluetooth module. I love the sound quality of my Sonos kit and always have and I would personally pay to have my gear retro fitted and thus make it independent of any software shenanigans. I think people would queue up for this to be done.

come on one of you bright sparks get the soldering iron out and get yourself a profitable ready made business all in one go 😁👍🏻

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