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

John B

I rest my case, thanks for your support.

Also @train_nerd wrote ‘I was worried about whether those two older Sonos Ones would work or be obsoleted’.

Therefore, he was equating ‘obsolete’ with ‘not working’.

You are funny, one day you are telling me Google home and Alexa are like 50 year old Ford Anglia cars and the next you are redefining the meaning of words away from what is specified in the dictionary to your own definitions to suit your own purposes. I mean its laughable.

Perhaps I should redefine the word square to mean triangle - I mean that’s how it works isn’t it?

Still at least you are making me smile, which is nice :)

Perhaps you should not attribute someone else’s remarks to me?

That’s not what I posted

It most certainly is. I quoted without amendment. I trust you are not suggesting otherwise.

Edit - ah, I see you have gone back and edited out the reference to Ford Anglias etc - but too late because I had already quoted you.

Further edit: I have no objection to that in principle. I have realised I made a mistake in the past and gone back to edit. But by the time I had corrected the mistake my original had been ‘captured’. It happens. But PLEASE don’t imply I added that. I haven’t got a clue what you are referring to with the Ford Anglias.

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T

train_nerd

Trending Lyricist I

FWIW, it took several days and exchanges with Sonos Support to figure out the status of the old Sonos Ones. Then we have an apology from the CEO, ad naseum reading of these fora both of which also helped to clarify then confirm the status. Shame on me for thinking sharing my experience adds value and becomes subject shall-we-say “commentary” (this author’s quotes.) I’m inclined to think worried about status is indeed what I felt initially, rather than someone else’s interpretation.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

FWIW, it took several days and exchanges with Sonos Support to figure out the status of the old Sonos Ones. Then we have an apology from the CEO, ad naseum reading of these fora both of which also helped to clarify then confirm the status. Shame on me for thinking sharing my experience adds value and becomes subject shall-we-say “commentary” (this author’s quotes.) I’m inclined to think worried about status is indeed what I felt initially, rather than someone else’s interpretation.

Sorry, let me be the first to apologise - all the best :)

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John B

If it took Support more than three seconds to conclude that a Sonos One is modern I would be amazed. There has to have been some misunderstanding here. How old is an old Sonos One? The product was launched only just over 2 years ago.

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Smilja

Guys,

Look here…

Sonos legacy and modern products

The table below shows which Sonos products are classified as legacy and which are classified as modern.

Legacy products will continue to work with your Sonos system but will no longer receive software updates or get new features and services. If you have at least one legacy product in your system, your system will no longer receive software updates. You can learn about what the end of software updates for legacy products means for you.

Modern products will continue to get new features and services as they’re released via regular software updates.

Check your My Account page on sonos.com to see if you have legacy products registered to your Sonos system.

Legacy Products
Bridge
Connect
(Manufactured 2011-2015)
Connect:Amp
(Manufactured 2011-2015)
CR200
Play:5 (Gen1)
ZP80
ZP90
ZP100
ZP120
Modern Products
Amp
Boost
Beam
Connect
Connect:Amp
Move
One, One (Gen 2), One SL
Play:1
Play:3
Play:5 (Gen2)
Playbar
Playbase
Port
Sub

Sonos legacy and modern products

Legacy Products
Bridge
Connect (Manufactured 2011-2015)
Connect:Amp (Manufactured 2011-2015)
CR200
Play:5 (Gen1)
ZP80
ZP90
ZP100
ZP120

Modern Products
Amp
Boost
Beam
Connect
Connect:Amp
Move
One, One (Gen 2), One SL
Play:1
Play:3
Play:5 (Gen2)
Playbar
Playbase
Port
Sub

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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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annascott

Enthusiast I

But they have said what the options will be. If they haven't changed their minds what else is there to say?

Sounds like you are across or then. So John, what happens in a few months or years time, there are more legacy "part 2" devices? Do those devices that were part of the modern group in modern firmware working with the latest streaming services, be pushed back to the legacy group? So in effect then all future marked legacy would go back to what will work ending May 2020?

Or will there be multiple legacy groups, all supporting different services? You could end up then with 3 or 4 groups in years to come.

I don’t know. There is no way Sonos are going to repeat this exercise in months, so it will be a few years before this possibly becomes an issue. Given how long they have have kept the 32MB devices going on miniscule marginal amounts of memory, I believe that is likely to be many years. And I can live with the possibility that I might be wrong. Life is uncertain. II have no intention of worrying about what my options might be in a hypothetical situation some years from now. I’ll make my choice on the information available at the time, and then change if necessary as things pan out. If this is the biggest thing I have to worry about in that period I shall count myself truly blessed.

Its not the point John and pulling the "life is uncertain" and "biggest thing to worry about" cards might be fine for you, but others see it differently and you have to respect that. Also you were saying "what else do you want Sonos to say". You can't belittle people who are asking these questions.

People investing thousands of dollars in whole home systems have the right to know how it's all going to work in a few years time.

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John B

You think Sonos knows? Or should make themselves a hostage to fortune with a best guess?

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attacama40

Headliner I

You think Sonos knows? Or should make themselves a hostage to fortune with a best guess?

It doesn’t come with a choice for any decent organisation. And that’s their issue to contend with John.

No-one should be guessing at this point … not the organisation and certainly not the high price ticket paying public spending his/her hard earned.

Ask Boeing, Ask Hotpoint, Ask Cathy Pacific with their current trading conditions. HSB this morning. IHG in Wuhan this last same period of time. A half dozen others. It’s the parameters of the game.

The organisation that has a strong affinity with it’s customer base, goes the extra distance and sets expectations, sustains. Can even grow as a result.

Bore you to death for a moment. I wrote a published paper years back (yawn) about industrial systems, reliability and repeat sales. Conclusion: Buyers’ love reliability and dislike failure. But guess what? The system that fails but the company concerned responds with clarity and a cast-iron solution gets the repeat sale. Not the company that ‘never failed’. True if odd.

Having empathy is admirable. Having a degree of understanding likewise. Having an expectation as a higher price ticket owner (and potential buyer) is also reasonable.

Buying a 40” 4K TV from Aldi you have differing expectations than a 2019 GZ2000 Flagship OLED from Panasonic. About £3.2K worth of difference.The product & price tag defines the expectation.

Premium products (and organisations) absolutely should be expected to behave in a premium manner. That does not mean trying hold Sonos shotgun … sometimes the answer might be one we do not like. But a premium buyer will have a significantly higher expectation of it being a satisfying answer. I reserve a room at an an Intercontinental Hotel, you have a significantly higher expectation that say at a Holiday Inn Express … no disrespect to HIX.

And as mentioned some days back, if Sonos do not know their corporate way forward at this point, then they really are in trouble. Nearly end of Feb, so that’s 8-9 working weeks till May? I know of no organisation in the upper sector that would not know their business plan and deliverables for that time frame. Operational details? Most likely not.

Regardless of the pressure, risks, then yes, Sonos do need to reassure these folks as to their investment and the way forward. Is their problem to contend with. In the most decent possible way.

And this is very real …. I’m hovering on buying a Roon Nucleus +. I’ve already bought Roon and Tidal. And the Sonos debacle prompted me pull my new NAS investment forward.

Ask yourself why? Is obvious … lack of certainty and confidence. And then the curious nature of buyers (me) triggered by those emotions. Is what the last poster said. He’s concerned as the Sonos future and his investment. Who’s fault is that? Very clear answer.

Until Sonos manage things, the more folks will defer investment, cancel investment or find other solutions.

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Smilja

I don’t understand -- is Sonos’ way which is here recorded in writing not straightforward and obvious?

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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)

Ken_Griffiths

You think Sonos knows? Or should make themselves a hostage to fortune with a best guess?

I have to agree with John B. Sonos have already committed themselves to a lot of things already in their announcements, which I will try my best to very quickly summarise below. This is how I interpret their words so far...

Sonos have given a guarantee/reassurance that the 'customer support' for a product will be for a minimum period of 5 years after the product has ceased manufacture and so is therefore no longer available for sale at Sonos.com.

In practice however, Sonos have provided a lot longer support than that post-manufacture period, for a good many of their devices, far more than double the period in fact in some instances. Even then, these (now called) old 'legacy' players still continue to work today and apparently will continue to receive updates to help provide them with any necessary security patches or minor fixes to keep them going, but they just will not receive any new features, going forward, as part of a legacy system.

Sonos have mentioned that their aim is to keep all the legacy devices running with all the features that they have now, for as long as it remains practicable for them (or presumably their 'partners') to do so. Thats at the very least for the 'foreseeable future'.

No one can truly know what will happen beyond the foreseeable future… and I don’t see that trying to second-guess what may happen achieves very much at all here, as a comment about any product/device in that situation could apply to absolutely anything we purchase from any manufacturer. Speculation and guesswork aside, I think we should just patiently wait and see what happens in May.

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