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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J

Johnas

Enthusiast II

Is anyone else having their posts “moderated” ?

Have I done something wrong?

I just tried to post and it said it needed to be moderated

This one went straight through and posted though

all very odd - especially as I was only trying to quote someone and say I agreed with them

You’ve probably been flagged as a non conformist and your posts will go through a moderating queue for content.

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melvimbe

The term hostage implies that you can’t have updates until you give us your money for new speakers. The tern fits. Sonos changed the entire legacy program in 24 hours, definitely skeptical about any reasons going forward and will not be giving the benefit of the doubt until they EARN it back.

Not going to debate the definition of the word with you. The reason why Sonos is stopping updates on legacy systems, or more accurately, what we each believe the reason to be, matters. That’s the point I was trying to make.

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Danny

J

Johnas

Enthusiast II

Seems to be a big spike in astroturfing/apologists today.

Odd isn’t it

Surprised it took this long.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Is anyone else having their posts “moderated” ?

Have I done something wrong?

I just tried to post and it said it needed to be moderated

This one went straight through and posted though

all very odd - especially as I was only trying to quote someone and say I agreed with them

You’ve probably been flagged as a non conformist and your posts will go through a moderating queue for content.

Yes I’d understand it if I swore or was aggressive or anything like that, but I try to objective open and honest and respectful

maybe it was a one off as I seem to be able to post okay now - very odd

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D

David_391

Contributor I

Is anyone aware of a commercial audio system that consists of a local/on premise streaming device that reads streams/audio from diverse sources, such as spotify, local file servers, CD players, and outputs streams to ‘dumb’ wirelessly connected speakers that can be grouped etcetera?

Just to be clear, what you are asking for sounds like sonos, but the distinction between Sonos and this solution you are looking for is “dumb” speakers?

Pretty much but I was thinking more of one central streaming server to minimise the replacement burden if it goes obsolete or fails. Also is there such a thing as ‘dumb’ wireless speakers, if so is there a standard communications protocol between these and a sender/server?

I don’t know of a commercial solution. I’ve started testing an open source solution called Picoreplayer which does what you ask, but it isn’t an out of the box solution by any means.

That looks interesting but probably a fair amount of work assembling it! I’d be interested to know how you get on with it.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

The term hostage implies that you can’t have updates until you give us your money for new speakers. The tern fits. Sonos changed the entire legacy program in 24 hours, definitely skeptical about any reasons going forward and will not be giving the benefit of the doubt until they EARN it back.

Not going to debate the definition of the word with you. The reason why Sonos is stopping updates on legacy systems, or more accurately, what we each believe the reason to be, matters. That’s the point I was trying to make.

Fair enough Danny, but this was not about the definition of the word - rather you inferred something from it that I did not mean, and I have clarified the meaning that I was trying to express. There should be no confusion or debate now that I have clarified it for you hopefully

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melvimbe

But it IS a hostage situation because sonos would clearly be able to make the legacy products work and still have newer firmware versions on the newer products.

Sonos has stated otherwise. No one has access to the level of technology to prove this one way or the other. The fact that you or anyone else isn’t aware of a technical reason is not proof that there isn’t one. You can chose to believe them or not.

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Danny

G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Is anyone aware of a commercial audio system that consists of a local/on premise streaming device that reads streams/audio from diverse sources, such as spotify, local file servers, CD players, and outputs streams to ‘dumb’ wirelessly connected speakers that can be grouped etcetera?

Just to be clear, what you are asking for sounds like sonos, but the distinction between Sonos and this solution you are looking for is “dumb” speakers?

Pretty much but I was thinking more of one central streaming server to minimise the replacement burden if it goes obsolete or fails. Also is there such a thing as ‘dumb’ wireless speakers, if so is there a standard communications protocol between these and a sender/server?

I don’t know of a commercial solution. I’ve started testing an open source solution called Picoreplayer which does what you ask, but it isn’t an out of the box solution by any means.

That looks interesting but probably a fair amount of work assembling it! I’d be interested to know how you get on with it.

I think https://www.hifiberry.com/ plus https://www.openmediavault.org/ looks pretty powerful

I was previously considering buying a couple of the IKEA speakers to add into my system before this situation blew up; previously I never had a reason to look elsewhere, but now I am and my eyes are opened up to the possibilities

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

But it IS a hostage situation because sonos would clearly be able to make the legacy products work and still have newer firmware versions on the newer products.

Sonos has stated otherwise. No one has access to the level of technology to prove this one way or the other. The fact that you or anyone else isn’t aware of a technical reason is not proof that there isn’t one. You can chose to believe them or not.

Look Danny whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not….

If we have a legacy system with old and new units in it, then our new units are being held hostage at an old version of the system.

You can debate the reasons for this all you like - you can object to the words that I use all you like…

BUT whatever defence you may suggest for Sonos’ decisions it doesn’t change the above fact.

(and I’m not trying to start an argument here)

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melvimbe

The term hostage implies that you can’t have updates until you give us your money for new speakers. The tern fits. Sonos changed the entire legacy program in 24 hours, definitely skeptical about any reasons going forward and will not be giving the benefit of the doubt until they EARN it back.

Not going to debate the definition of the word with you. The reason why Sonos is stopping updates on legacy systems, or more accurately, what we each believe the reason to be, matters. That’s the point I was trying to make.

Then why bring up in the first place? Just like that other guy in the other thread, this seems to be a major tigger for you apologists/astroturfers.

I disagreed with how someone else was using the word, not you, and was trying to have a reasoned debate. You’re correct, I never should have bothered to respond to you.

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Danny

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