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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Show previous replies

T

train_nerd

Trending Lyricist I

Oopphh, Sonos!!! I’m techy but not an engineer. Soooo pissed that this serves as public disclosure.

Build and sell $25 module that bridges Legacy and Modern. Use speaker ethernet port to talk to module. Module is upgradeable, handles WiFi, making Legacy speakers/hardware dumber.

Honor customers, preserve their investment and your company. Somebody other than Sonos will do this if you don’t first.

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jmb5240

Lyricist II

Yes, equipment gets old. When the CR100 retired it was clear it was time to go. The CR200, well those turned into a POS and I retired them. Not many complaints there as the company moved on. The issue here is that while product do expire, the large number of products Sonos is sunsetting at one time puts immense pressure on those of us having large systems. It is as if 75% of my system will not operate the same after May. Yes, they will still power on, but not group, likely require two controlling apps with multiple systems/environments, imminent loss of access to streaming services, etc...

There is more success with guiding folks down a path rather than force - Walk with them don’t shove.

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PeteD

Enthusiast I

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other.

That’s a thing that computers all do, John. For reference please see the Internet.

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Well, they will be able to if they stay on tbe same software. And we don't know for sure what the final outcome will be on legacy vs modern. But let's assume it won't be possible.

Sonos is an integrated system that has always relied on common software. Geouped speakers need to be able to perform identical tasks. Either speaker has to be able to act as 'group co-ordinator', running the show for the group.

Now, I find it entirely plausible that the more the system has to do, the more likely it is that a player with a paltry 32MB of memory cannot keep up. That seems far more likely than the cynical view on here that Sonos are making all this up and are just profiteering. You are free to believe otherwise.

Why should the system have to do more? I think 99% of the contributors to this discussion just want it to carry on doing the same. And grouped speakers don’t need to be able to perform identical tasks. Why shouldn’t I be able to group a speaker which takes voice commands (not that I actually care about having that facility, but that’s another matter) with one that doesn’t?

And PS to previous - obviously we can currently group speakers which don’t perform identical tasks!

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Wkelkel

Enthusiast II

They've since backtracked and stated that they will look for a work through. So there must be a way of doing this.

The problem lies with the fact that we've been mislead and some have gone for their half hearted promotion.

Get as Technical as you want defending the issue but the way for Sonos to rectify this mess is simple.

1 find a way for modern units to update along side legacy units

2 stop the brick count down and let people who have traded keep their legacy units to keep until natural end

Simple, Sorted !

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John B

The system needs to do what it has to do. We all have features we want and don't want. This really isn't about evidence. It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that this is about technical limitations. That a certain amount of conmon capability is needed. To others it looks like a money grab. Although in the same breath they say Sonos are committing commercial suicide.

So believe what you like.

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Yiannis74

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other.

That’s a thing that computers all do, John. For reference please see the Internet.

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Of course there is absolutely no technical reason why ‘legacy’ sonos gear cannot continue operating alongside newer generation speakers. 25 years may even be feasible excluding a big shift in home wifi technology. The way Airplay 2 is accommodated is a case of how this can be achieved. The basic functionality of synced multiroom audio is very well served by existing legacy hardware. Any new service that cannot be accommodated by older hardware can be dealt with potentially in the same way as Airplay 2 with no need to split the systems. Purchase a new gen speaker which supports new services and then acts as a gateway for synced audio to the rest of the system. As a very last resort, new services can be shown as operational for new gen units only. There is no technical imperative to split the systems and there is nothing that prevents the ‘legacy’ units from lasting A LOT longer than 10 years.

Now, one may argue that the above would not be a viable business for sonos and that is an important restriction that has nothing to do with the engineering / technical side of things. Being able to offer a technical solution that ensures longevity for 25 years may mean that sonos cannot financially survive with the present business model. Different issue albeit important.

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rwrgeo

Renowned Enthusiast II

Sonos speakers are not just speakers. They are essentially computers, and computers that need to constantly communicate with each other. Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree. And therefore consistent with much of the outrage on the ridiculous thread.

One bites ones tonge

Can’t bite mine! Many like me have huge investment (22 players across four houses, a mix of legacy snd modern). The Sonos sales pitch was the experience would only grow and get better over time with software updates. No one on here expects old units to handle some of the new features (eg as was the case with Airplay2; voice control) which may be coming (DTS? high-res? etc) but we DO expect continued functionality, including whole home grouping, at the levels previously enjoyed.

Which is why I wished they’d announced this the other way round - say there is a new Sonos OS coming that can handle high res or whatever and to move your whole system over to that you need all post 2015 components or to split your system, but otherwise things largely stay exactly as they are now.

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TONIC

Avid Contributor I

Really upset! Even after the rectification message from the CEO.

Not investing into any new Sonos products until this is properly addressed & clarified. This is not a 1000$ investment (like a IPad or iPhone) Not a positive message.

I will keeping a good eye on this tread.

Don’t get intimidated!

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rwrgeo

Renowned Enthusiast II

The problem now is no one trusts Sonos, or its PR spin on its own announcement, or the lame ‘apology’ about ditching support for their original and best customers.

F

Finn1000

just now

Agreed, trust is a huge problem now for Sonos customers new & old.
whether you’re running a linked system with legacy/new or running speakers separately... the issue of trust & continued support( updating) is a huge issue for customers.
Its up to Sonos how they square it.
I dread to think what will happen if Sonos ignore & plough on!

Speakers are not mobile phones or TV’s .

People expect £250- £500 speakers should have a 15-25 year life span or last until the speaker fails.

Never heard such nonsense of high end speakers being disposable.. its obscene

Wait, when did TVs become disposable? I had my last TV longer than any of my Sonos units to date and my current one cost more than any of my speakers and I hope it outlives them.

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

Asking for a 25 year lifetime for a bit of traditional hifi equipment is reasonable. Asking for it from a multiroom wirelese audio system is stupidity and ignorance of the highest degree.

Ok, explain why. Produce one logical argument why a play 5 is going to lose the ability to be grouped with a play 1, especially given that Sonos control the protocol in use.

Well, they will be able to if they stay on tbe same software. And we don't know for sure what the final outcome will be on legacy vs modern. But let's assume it won't be possible.

Sonos is an integrated system that has always relied on common software. Geouped speakers need to be able to perform identical tasks. Either speaker has to be able to act as 'group co-ordinator', running the show for the group.

Now, I find it entirely plausible that the more the system has to do, the more likely it is that a player with a paltry 32MB of memory cannot keep up. That seems far more likely than the cynical view on here that Sonos are making all this up and are just profiteering. You are free to believe otherwise.

Wow. Where to start.
No belief or faith is required if you have an understanding of technology; different devices of different capability working together is the entire essence of computer networking. They don’t need to be running the same software, they just need to speak the same protocol. As one example, the protocol that moves email around the Internet, SMTP, was ratified in 1982. It’s been extended many times to add many capabilities to it but (and this is no exaggeration) you could take an SMTP mail client written in 1982 and it could send an email over today’s internet.
You want a less extreme example - Skype. You can send a real time audio/video stream between two a massive beefy Windows PC and a (comparatively tiny) android phone running completely different software and it works fine.

There’s even precedent for this within the current Sonos portfolio - you can group an airplay capable device with a non airplay device and they work together fine.

So let’s be very clear this is absolutely possible on a technical level. When Sonos implies it isn’t they. are. lying. What they mean is, for business/commercial reasons, they don’t want to facilitate that happening. They’re screwing us for profit.

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