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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M

MWI

Contributor I

Dear Patrick,

It was with unprecedented regret that I received your message about Sonos's plans regarding the lack of support for "older" products of the brand.
For many years I have been a sincere fan of the Sonos philosophy and I have always been strongly recommending your products to all my friends.
Now I don't know what to tell them ... Anyway, I don't know what to think about it myself.
First of all, the products I have are still functional, secondly, the vision that they are "older", as you say, does not fill me with pride, thirdly what Greta Thunberg, for example, would say, knowing that quite good equipment is to be deactivate and go for recycling, even though it is still functional ...
Sorry, but in times when "Ice on Fire" these are not wise decisions from the point of view of global business ...
Shame on Sonos, shame on Patrick ...

Marcin, Sonos user

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T

train_nerd

Trending Lyricist I

Sage commentary about recent events and the path forward by a guy I respect Leo LaPorte, The Tech Guy. Watch video at timeline: 56:30 thru 1:05:30

https://twit.tv/shows/the-tech-guy/episodes/1663?autostart=false

Speaks for itself.

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D

Danos1

Trending Lyricist I

Sage commentary about recent events and the path forward by a guy I respect Leo LaPorte, The Tech Guy. Watch video at timeline: 56:30 thru 1:05:30

https://twit.tv/shows/the-tech-guy/episodes/1663?autostart=false

Speaks for itself.

Yeah that sums it up right there. More people need to see this, including SONOS.

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K

kassey22000

Enthusiast II

It has been only 6 days since we all got ‘the email’. …..feels a lot longer doesn’t it???

Since then there has been a lot of activity from previously loyal customers on this forum and a fair bit of damning activity from Wall Street.

But very little comment or action from Sonos!

i am bewildered by the silence…...there are even a couple of great threads that actually suggest to Sonos how they can fix this

Something just doesn’t feel right…..

I’m thinking the same thing. Has anyone else had trouble with Support getting back to cases or being able to reach support at Sonos directly (in the US not their contracted off-shore group)? I was working with with a very responsive lead tech just last week to solve a 4-week old issue and suddenly crickets and no replies.

Maybe they are in a huddle (hope so) but something does feel odd. I’ve always had great service/support from the CA team, hope they are all ok.

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Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

I’m thinking the same thing. Has anyone else had trouble with Support getting back to cases or being able to reach support at Sonos directly (in the US not their contracted off-shore group)? I was working with with a very responsive lead tech just last week to solve a 4-week old issue and suddenly crickets and no replies.

The team is very busy answering questions and helping people. A lot of questions came up last week and they’re working through them currently. They’ll be in touch as soon as they can.

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Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

T

train_nerd

Trending Lyricist I

Yep, circle the wagons, update CVs. Strikes me competitors ought carpe diem.

Stick with Legacy here until dust settles.

Has anyone used or explored the Kilpsch wireless system?

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X

xnigelx

Enthusiast I

I've been with Sonos a very long time. I just bought two new Ones for my kids rooms. I have 6 zones in a small 1700sqft house. And now 80% of my perfectly working system is obsolete.

30% is an absolute joke. It's literally employee discount for any vendor that sells your product.

I'd be willing to pay 30% to send you my perfectly working system for a new product.

You say hardware limitations.. Why not allow us to choose what services we NEED in our system to reduce the size required? I for one use radio, Pandora, Amazon music only. I could care less about the 50 other services you might provide. Have your software build out a custom "kernel" tailored to what the user needs.

Really disappointed in you guys.

I too have gotten many customers to buy in to your product and instead of paying all that money again, they want new solution.

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C

CA-Brett

Lyricist III

I've been with Sonos a very long time. I just bought two new Ones for my kids rooms. I have 6 zones in a small 1700sqft house. And now 80% of my perfectly working system is obsolete.

30% is an absolute joke. It's literally employee discount for any vendor that sells your product.

I'd be willing to pay 30% to send you my perfectly working system for a new product.

You say hardware limitations.. Why not allow us to choose what services we NEED in our system to reduce the size required? I for one use radio, Pandora, Amazon music only. I could care less about the 50 other services you might provide. Have your software build out a custom "kernel" tailored to what the user needs.

Really disappointed in you guys.

I too have gotten many customers to buy in to your product and instead of paying all that money again, they want new solution.

Actually, I worked with a Sonos employee (he was a good client) a while ago and we grew close. Employee and family discount at Sonos was 50% he told me, he offered to buy a couple of speakers for me under the employee program (this was before they required registration), but things may have changed since then . . .

. . . I didn’t want to take advantage of the relationship, so never did it. Kinda surprised I didn’t now that I look back.

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J

John V

Enthusiast I

Hi all you loyal Sonos customers that feel betrayed

I was speaking to a Bose dealer today. Obviously They know all about the Sonos blunder. After a long discussion I’m seriously contemplating jumping ship. They have great deals on seemingly a great product. Much better than the 30% trade in from Patrick. I’m going to check it out in person. But from what I’m hearing SONOS needs to worry since they have just seriously upset the 37% revenue stream (conservatively) from loyal customers, not to mention a large chunk of Thier free sales team and advocates

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ausono

Enthusiast I

but if legacy you might be better served purchasing 2nd hand. This is the route I’m taking.

How do you know the second hand speaker you are purchasing hasn’t already been bricked by having been used in a “trade up” by the original owner?

You can’t even test it before handing over cash to someone, because they might have done the “trade up” and the delayed bricking just hasn’t kicked in yet.

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