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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John B

It is perfectly clear what the fundamental options are now. Detail in May. Nobody knows what the options will be in five years and that includes Sonos.

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W

WSu

Enthusiast II

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.

Yes yes… but the bottom line of all that is that you can only categorically state that a Sonos product you buy will be viable for 5 years - anything beyond that is down to trusting the company’s historical support. Which was, until now, excellent. But now it’s a matter of debate. It’s possible, however unlikely, that something you buy brand new from Sonos today will be dodoed in 5 years time.

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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.

Yes yes… but the bottom line of all that is that you can only categorically state that a Sonos product you buy will be viable for 5 years - anything beyond that is down to trusting the company’s historical support. Which was, until now, excellent. But now it’s a matter of debate. It’s possible, however unlikely, that something you buy brand new from Sonos today will be dodoed in 5 years time.

The seldom hardware failure outside of any manufacturers guarantee period not included of course, but what’s not to like about 5 years as being a bottom line support contract. Does any such provider offer anything better than that these days and do similar manufacturers have any better past support track record?..

I’m struggling to find a company that compares, or even comes close, to this type of commitment for customer support. The fact that 92% of Sonos products made, are still in use today speaks for itself in terms of the abilities of the hardware. You should not simply ignore the excellent past record when trying to determine the future of Sonos and their products in this instance.

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W

WSu

Enthusiast II

The seldom hardware failure outside of any manufacturers guarantee period not included of course, but what’s not to like about 5 years as being a bottom line support contract. Does any such provider offer anything better than that these days and do similar manufacturers have any better past support track record?..

I’m struggling to find a company that compares, or even comes close, to this type of commitment for customer support. The fact that 92% of Sonos products made, are still in use today speaks for itself in terms of the abilities of the hardware. You should not simply ignore the excellent past record when trying to determine the future of Sonos and their products in this instance.

I suppose it all comes back to the question of is it hifi, or is it tech… and it’s something in between. From the hifi perspective 5 years sucks! I have 30 year old speakers and 20 year old amps/power amps that are 100% working as good as they ever did. They don’t need to be supported in the same because there is nothing to support - I get that, no software. So then if you view it from the tech side then 5 years isn’t unreasonable… but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts - it sucks if you end up having to throw away the hifi elements just because the tech interface can’t be supported anymore. The physical waste is appalling, even if the cost was of no concern.

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

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Smilja

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

Not true. Replacements for defunct units are refurbished products. Therefore Sonos would ask you to send the broken item back to them where it would get refurbished and integrated into the RMA cycle.

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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)

W

WSu

Enthusiast II

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

Not true. Replacements for defunct units are refurbished products. Therefore Sonos would ask you to send the broken item back to them where it would get refurbished and integrated into the RMA cycle.

Eh? They replace broken units out of the normal warranty, whatever it is, 2 years? Are you sure?

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jgatie

Eh? They replace broken units out of the normal warranty, whatever it is, 2 years? Are you sure?

Each case is handled on its own merit, but there have been hundreds of examples where Sonos gave a significant discount on a refurbished unit to replace a non-working, out of warranty device.

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Ken_Griffiths

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

Not true. Replacements for defunct units are refurbished products. Therefore Sonos would ask you to send the broken item back to them where it would get refurbished and integrated into the RMA cycle.

Eh? They replace broken units out of the normal warranty, whatever it is, 2 years? Are you sure?

Yes, Smilja is correct I believe, from what I have seen mentioned by others. Out of warranty broken Sonos items are quite often replaced with discounted refurbished or new products offered to the customer (the discount rates set are presumably dependent on the age of the original item and use, I guess) and the faulty item is returned in the packaging sent out.

The replacement also carries a further 12 month warranty.

In many countries (not all) free shipping is included in the fee paid and a further shipping label is also supplied for the returned item.

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Smilja

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

Not true. Replacements for defunct units are refurbished products. Therefore Sonos would ask you to send the broken item back to them where it would get refurbished and integrated into the RMA cycle.

Eh? They replace broken units out of the normal warranty, whatever it is, 2 years? Are you sure?

I am sure. A few years back I had a faulty Connect which was replaced out of warranty with a refurbished one; the European 2-year legal guarantee period also started anew.

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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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John B

I have seen examples of Sonos doing this but it isn't standard practice. I have often seen worthwhile discounts offered to replace significantly out-of-warranty failures despite no legal obligation. Sometimes the threads are started by someone complaining that the discount offered is too small.

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