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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Chris Bee

Lyricist II

Amazon

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Smilja

Amazon

On Amazon Marketplace or whatever the third-party sellers platform is named in USA and GB resp.?

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»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

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Chris Bee

Lyricist II

I can’t recall whether it was Amazon or a third-party seller, but I do see in my Sonos account that the devices were registered in 07/2017. What’s the relevance of the question?

I understand that code isn’t “free” and I’d be quite willing to pay a modest software update fee every once in a while to keep the programmers employed creating updates when a new iOS, API from streaming service, etc requires they spend money on updating the code.

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J

John B

The relevance of the question is that independent authorised Sonos retailers are not permitted to sell on third party websites such as Amazon and you were probably sold old stock, manufactured pre-2015, by an unauthorised seller . Nothing manufactured in 2017 would now be 'legacy'.

I am not trying to suggest that that is any comfort to you, just explaining how it has probably come about.

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Seattlenerd

Enthusiast I

I can’t recall whether it was Amazon or a third-party seller, but I do see in my Sonos account that the devices were registered in 07/2017.

It’s also worth noting that relying on the registration date listed in the Sonos account is not always an accurate reflection of purchase date.

All of my Sonos products are listed in the Sonos account page as having been registered in 10/2017. However, my email receipts show I purchased a number of them in 2013. So I wouldn’t rely on just the Sonos account registration date on the Sonos site.

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kassey22000

Enthusiast II

And yet few comments on the terrible environmental impact of Sonos’ decision to purposely brick working electronic devices (1st controllers then so called “legacy” audio equipment). The whole Trade-Up program smells of hypocrisy (with the CEO’s commitment to keep products working at a recent US congressional hearing) and green-washing (see Sonos’ sustainability page).

They hide behind “we don’t want new users to have a poor initial experience with older products” when it’s clear there were other ways to move these still useful audio devices into user’s hands and not dumpsites/e-waste cycles. Habitat for Humanity comes to mind as well as others.

See also Scientific America’s recent article about tech waste: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/tech-waste-is-a-danger-to-us-all/

Crickets from Sonos’ sustainability executive nor Mr. Spence regarding the impact of their choices of bonuses over planet earth.

Great products, great US support team, very questionable management decisions.

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ausono

Enthusiast I

Had a friend ask me if he should buy a Sonos system for his new house.

I told him to wait until May when Sonos reveal the precise details for how this all pans out, but he looked up the drama and it has turned him right off.

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Ken_Griffiths

Had a friend ask me if he should buy a Sonos system for his new house.

I told him to wait until May when Sonos reveal the precise details for how this all pans out, but he looked up the drama and it has turned him right off.

This is interesting…

Considering you initially referred to Sonos in a derogatory way in your first post here not so long back, saying “I won’t negotiate with terrorists”. I can see why your friend would be put off buying.

However as you told your friend to wait and see what happens in May, that seems to somewhat infer that your views are changing and thst you are perhaps now willing to negotiate after all, otherwise why wait and why hang about here?

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User694694

Enthusiast II

Had a friend ask me if he should buy a Sonos system for his new house.

I told him to wait until May when Sonos reveal the precise details for how this all pans out, but he looked up the drama and it has turned him right off.

This is interesting…

Considering you initially referred to Sonos in a derogatory way in your first post here not so long back, saying “I won’t negotiate with terrorists”. I can see why your friend would be put off buying.

However as you told your friend to wait and see what happens in May, that seems to somewhat infer that your views are changing and thst you are perhaps now willing to negotiate after all, otherwise why wait and why hang about here?

Perhaps not everyone’s opinions are as zealous, fanatical and unmovable?

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Had a friend ask me if he should buy a Sonos system for his new house.

I told him to wait until May when Sonos reveal the precise details for how this all pans out, but he looked up the drama and it has turned him right off.

This is interesting…

Considering you initially referred to Sonos in a derogatory way in your first post here not so long back, saying “I won’t negotiate with terrorists”. I can see why your friend would be put off buying.

However as you told your friend to wait and see what happens in May, that seems to somewhat infer that your views are changing and thst you are perhaps now willing to negotiate after all, otherwise why wait and why hang about here?

Not again - this trawling through old posts to drag up something you then post about someone is so unhelpful and unproductive - it does nothing to move the conversation forward.

The simple facts are that different people have different opinions and different ways of expressing them

There is nothing wrong with someone having a different opinion to you.

As I have said to you before its “best to play the ball and not the man”, having a dig at someone is unlikely to help you get your argument over better or to move them toward your point of view.

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