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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upstatemike

If

. The Amazon Echos come closest in that department in my opinion. But they don’t have a equivalent to a “sonos connect” right?

Amazon has Echo Link - which is a Connect/Port like device with digital in/out. I've never used it, reviews are so/so.

I have an Echo Link conneded to a wired multi-room system. I named it “stereo”. I can be in any room and tell the Echo in that room to play “xyz whatever” on the “stereo” and music plays in all of the rooms. Works fine.I also have a Sonos Connect attached to the same system. I’ll have to see how much use it gets going forward. Maybe I am already past the point where Sonos even matters anymore.

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Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

S

Sparkyboots

Enthusiast I

Incidentally - SONOS share price down almost 3% again today in the first 90 minutes after the market opened, Down almost 10% in the last 5 days. I see it going further and it has gathered pace each day.

now down almost 4% today

Wow

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Johnas

Enthusiast II

I have an Echo Link conneded to a wired multi-room system. I named it “stereo”. I can be in any room and tell the Echo in that room to play “xyz whatever” on the “stereo” and music plays in all of the rooms. Works fine.I also have a Sonos Connect attached to the same system. I’ll have to see how much use it gets going forward. Maybe I am already past the point where Sonos even matters anymore.

Thanks for posting your experience. I am intrigued by the Link's ability to auto switch between sources. Do you use this at all and if so is it reliable?

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8

8joycem

Lyricist III

Am probably not going to add anything that hasn’t already being said. But I think SONOS need to understand the level of concern out there in their loyal customer base.

At the moment I don’t have any kit marked as legacy, thankfully. But the announcement has left me very fearful and has shaken my confidence in SONOS. I’m asking myself, at what point will my Play 1’s and Play 5(gen2) be earmarked as legacy?

Stupid me hadn’t even considered that SONOS would do this. These are not smartphones that are physically handled and knocked about for 2-3 years, which still makes obsolescence hard to swallow but not so much of an issue.

But in my foolish mind I thought I was paying the kind of money I have for SONOS because it’s top quality and I thought it was going to last (10-15 years would be my expectation), minimum. I hadn’t really thought about the software side of things. Maybe that’s my fault?

I’m still holding out some hope SONOS can turn this around. I hope they can find a workable solution for the kit they have just earmarked as legacy and hope they can offer some guarantees around the rest of the SONOS, and confirm that it will not be declared obsolete when the physical hardware is still working fine. That’s just an insane waste of materials and money.

Bottom line is that all SONOS spend is now on hold. I won’t be adding to my SONOS system until I have the assurances and confidence that SONOS will continue to support the kit that I have and any kit that I would buy in future for the rest of it’s natural life.

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U

upstatemike

I have an Echo Link conneded to a wired multi-room system. I named it “stereo”. I can be in any room and tell the Echo in that room to play “xyz whatever” on the “stereo” and music plays in all of the rooms. Works fine.I also have a Sonos Connect attached to the same system. I’ll have to see how much use it gets going forward. Maybe I am already past the point where Sonos even matters anymore.

Thanks for posting your experience. I am intrigued by the Link's ability to auto switch between sources. Do you use this at all and if so is it reliable?

Sorry, I have not used that yet, mainly because the order of priority on the inputs does not meet my needs and I have other ways to do auto source switching. You might find better info on that if you check the Amazon device forum.

Translate

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

J

Johnas

Enthusiast II

I have an Echo Link conneded to a wired multi-room system. I named it “stereo”. I can be in any room and tell the Echo in that room to play “xyz whatever” on the “stereo” and music plays in all of the rooms. Works fine.I also have a Sonos Connect attached to the same system. I’ll have to see how much use it gets going forward. Maybe I am already past the point where Sonos even matters anymore.

Thanks for posting your experience. I am intrigued by the Link's ability to auto switch between sources. Do you use this at all and if so is it reliable?

Sorry, I have not used that yet, mainly because the order of priority on the inputs does not meet my needs and I have other ways to do auto source switching. You might find better info on that if you check the Amazon device forum.

Thanks did not know about the Amazon device forum, will look there.

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

Wow. Is there even anyone at Sonos anymore or did nobody come in after the weekend?

It is mind boggling how passively they’re just sitting there watching their business burn down from a fire they voluntarily started (and have had numerous opportunities to put out).

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CA-Brett

Lyricist III

From what i have seen, the electronics inside the IKEA Symfonisk is exactly the same as inside the Play 1, with the only difference being that the Symfonisk has 256Mbyte instead of 64Mbyte

The Symfonisk is essentially identical to a play 1 inside, apparently.

Yes, the Symfonisk is the same PCB but with added ram and rom

Should be an easy retrofit when the Play 1 is obsoleted in a couple of years….If they have not changed the PCB in the Symfonisk or stopped selling it.

If you think about a Symfonisk is more functional than a play 1.. when Sonos brick your Symfonisk in a few years you can at least continue to use it as a shelf.

You do know that they put a kill switch on the rear bracket don’t you? When Spence approves a particular software update, it falls off the wall… Though he may not be around to approve it.

But who wants the aesthetically challenged IKEA products?

This is the problem I am having in researching a alternative to SONOS. I like the way my products look. Most of what I am seeing and either just plain ugly or they are too much over the top for my taste. I like the simplicity of the design I have now. The Amazon Echos come closest in that department in my opinion. But they don’t have a equivalent to a “sonos connect” right?

To maybe answer your question RE: Sonos Connect Amazon equivalent - I’m looking at the Echo Link Amp and Echo Link at the moment among many other options (check them out on Amazon if you haven’t seen), and trying to figure out my going forward strategy - as I’m done with Sonos.

I am doing a backyard, California room renovation and was going to go with Moves for around pool and Amps and a Playbar, Sub for TV etc, but of course I’ve discarded that idea. Looking at the Bose 51 hard wired outdoor speakers now (instead of Moves), and trying to decide how to get rid of Sonos completely for the rest of the project . . .

. . . even thinking about a hardwired AV receiver now . . .

. . . it’s crazy like someone said above. Sonos was a default no question purchase before this fiasco for me. I wouldn’t even consider price or competitively shop - that’s how well the previous leaders built the Sonos brand! And I’ve gone from that to “never again” in 1 week - and I’m telling everyone I brought over to Sonos to get out of their ecosystem because they can change your functionality (or shut you down) on a whim (based upon what they see as to their financial benefit) - and they are testing those whims now.

I am convinced they may go out of business because of this brand destruction - and all my speakers will eventually die. In my 52 years of life I cannot think of any company that I have turned against so quickly . . . it’s amazing really . . . it would be hard to do worse in terms of destroying a brand if one really, really (did I say really) tried. I laugh and imagine the leaders at Sonos sitting around the boardroom table (like in a Dilbert cartoon) and saying - “hey, let’s destroy this company and our brand - who has the best idea about how we can do it?”

The sad thing is, the employees that built this (and us the customers) will be the ones that suffer. The leaders will profit when someone swoops in and buys them to pick-up the pieces after the stock drops to 5 . . .

I think the miscalculation that Sonos and Patrick made was that they did not understand the intelligence of their average user. People agreed to pay a Sonos premium because they understood the value in backwards compatibility, a whole house system (ie: we do not want segregated legacy and new systems), etc (ie: ROI). And also, to pay the premium, their customers naturally have to be somewhat successful in general and have substantial disposable income. People that fit that description are not dumb and can read through corporate BS when they see it.

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D

Danos1

Trending Lyricist I

Wow it looks like even Wall Street agrees Sonos messed up on this! Apparently even they know sacrificing a companies reputation with its customers is a bad idea.

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User533936

Lyricist III

ok, so here’s a thing. take a gen 3 chromecast (£25), add an hdmi splitter (£8) , plug chromecast into splitter, plug audio cable from splitter into sonos play:5 , turn on autoplay

You can now cast to the chromecast, and play music on the speakers. You can also add each chromecast to a speaker group .

And with a little bit of lateral thinking you can cut the audio cable to each speaker to have only L and R wires active, so you have a stereo pair

So, for just over £30 you can “fix” your sonos 5 speakers to use the latest streaming tech.

Which begs the question - why can’t sonos produce such a device and keep the play:5 speakers working indefinitely - after all the “puck” wouldn’t cost *that* much to make. If they were to offer this at cost, I’m sure that most Sonos owners would be delighted at the forward-thinking and customer support of this premium brand and not the PR disaster it has become.

I have been responsible for my family purchasing 10k+ of sonos gear. I will not be doing so going forwards, and neither will they. Such a shame

Will the chromecast speaker groups be sync’ed ?

This is what was so great about sonos, you could just add another speaker and it would sync up perfectly.

yes, they are synced :)

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