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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Neilda

Enthusiast II

Well, I started the exodus from Sonos. With no more official communication, I disconnected a couple of my old Sonos speakers and bought two new HomePods from Apple. I will be giving away the old Sonos speakers to a family member as there is no way I would trade up for just 30% off. Hard to believe that only a few short months ago I was looking at adding more Sonos speakers after we moved to a new home.

Yep, I’ve gone too…. from a very early adopter with multiple zones and through to being a genuine ambassador for the brand. My Sonos system is disconnected and I am currently listening to a pair of (very easy to connect to) Kef LSX speakers. Far better sounding too.

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K

Kumar

A link to what will be a flood of such issues; very few of them will surface here:

https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/play-5-recycled-6837731#post16410304

It will be interesting to see the Sonos response to this new challenge.

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K

Kumar

What is also surprising is the complete silence from Sonos on this reversal that is now all over the net for more than 2 days; Sonos is heading into the “silence implies assent” territory here, if that many reports are indeed lies or fake news.

Is the recycle mode still there to be selected? What of those that do this selection now, in ignorance of the reversal, but before Sonos withdraws this selection from being made? Assuming of course that the reversal is true.

PS: this quoted in italics, from the BBC, so there isn't any doubt about this:

Sonos said people could now apply for the upgrade discount just by registering the serial number of their existing speaker.

"We also respect the customer's right to decide for themselves when a product has reached the end of its useful life. So, while we are fully committed to supporting customers that wish to recycle their old hardware, we removed the Recycle Mode requirement from the program," the company said in a statement.

What statement? Where is it to be found on this site?

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

What are the general rules for the trade in program.

I read somewhere that i would be able to use it to get 30% off on any sonos product.

So i would be able to get 30% off on a sonos sub, if i have a Play 5 1.gen for example

But what about if i have 3 Play 5 1.gen, can i combine those and get 90% off on one new product or is it one for one ?

If yes, it would be possible to buy 3 of those off of the internet, claim the 90% discount on their most expensive product, sell the 3 Play 5 1.gen at nearly the same price online afterwards, and then sell the new product i got.

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D

DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

Yep, I’ve gone too…. from a very early adopter with multiple zones and through to being a genuine ambassador for the brand. My Sonos system is disconnected and I am currently listening to a pair of (very easy to connect to) Kef LSX speakers. Far better sounding too.

To be honest i think this will be Sonos single most serious problem.

The amont of people that went from “I need to expand my setup, what sonos speaker will suit my needs” to “What else is on the market”.

6 months ago i would not even have looked at alternatives, because i was so heavily invested into Sonos, and the “only” solution if i wanted to expand, would be a sonos, to go with the rest of my sonos.

Now this has changed to “There is no way in HELL, that i am going to give sonos any more of my money…...Oh and look, there are actually a lot of other alternatives, that seem way smarter, better and in some instances even cheaper”.

Sonos has turned me, from being an avid Sonos supporter, to a “Never sonos again”.

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F

Fobskid

Enthusiast I

Ditto from me to ,

You absolutely nailed it ,,,,,

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F

Fobskid

Enthusiast I

And as for this 30% RRP magical discount .…

30% off the RECOMENDED RETAIL PRICE Is total nonsense … nobody but nobody ever pays the manufactures full advertised price

The discount should be higher ….. say 50% . Right now it's costing Sonos NOTHING for their trade in at 30%

I believe that they even raised the RRP on some of their kit before offering a discount ?

As I said before ..its all been ploy to sell new kit and make even more money .. all been planned right from the very start .…

My eyes have been opened and I've seen the light … I will NOT be investing in ANY new Sonos kit in the future …..never mind any so called special discount

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K

Kumar

The amont of people that went from “I need to expand my setup, what sonos speaker will suit my needs” to “What else is on the market”.

6 months ago i would not even have looked at alternatives, because i was so heavily invested into Sonos, and the “only” solution if i wanted to expand, would be a sonos, to go with the rest of my sonos.

Now this has changed to “There is no way in HELL, that i am going to give sonos any more of my money…...Oh and look, there are actually a lot of other alternatives, that seem way smarter, better and in some instances even cheaper”.

Sonos has turned me, from being an avid Sonos supporter, to a “Never sonos again”.

I agree; I was one of those Sonos fans; and I still am, but of the tech, not of the management and that, at more than just the CEO level. And in more than one way; for lack of marketing smarts and for the deeper integrity issues that surfaced in this fiasco.

But while a fan of the tech, I have always wondered how in a field with such rapid progress, Sonos remained a tech leader on the strength of what essentially is a 2002 or so innovation, for over a decade. But there was no real incentive or motivation for me to look outside the Sonos product portfolio, because that covered all bases for me.

Sonos blundered in changing that blinkered view starting with the delay in releasing the Alexa integration for India; Amazon released Alexa here in Oct 2017, and Sonos still has not followed in those footsteps even today. That led me to Echo and the realisation that there are many ways to skin the “multi room, streaming music from the net” cat, some that are better than Sonos in many ways. As soon as I saw how well Echo worked, and how easily the line in jacks on Sonos kit allowed for these solutions to bolt on to Sonos in the exact same way that Sonos Connect/Connect Amps bolted on to the kit that Sonos obsoleted in 2005, I changed the way I saw Sonos: it stopped being the no brainer recommendation.

I became neutral towards Sonos then, but the way they threatened, however briefly, to put my Connect and Connect Amps out of commission turned me to becoming anti Sonos, from being just neutral. Of course, Spence did some back-pedalling on Jan 23, and then this latest back-pedalling, but Sonos management has lost credibility in my eyes. I no longer trust them, even when they now say that my Connect/Connect Amps will continue to function the way they do today, playing nice with my play 1 units as long as I am willing to give up on new features for the latter. I have therefore set my systems such that these will continue to work till the end of hardware life even if Sonos continues to break their most recent promises made in connection with these.

And obviously, I will never again recommend any buy of any system/product that does not have a cheap smart module that can be replaced every 3-4 years without any financial stress. And not just in the field of home audio.

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melvimbe

Well, I started the exodus from Sonos. With no more official communication, I disconnected a couple of my old Sonos speakers and bought two new HomePods from Apple. I will be giving away the old Sonos speakers to a family member as there is no way I would trade up for just 30% off. Hard to believe that only a few short months ago I was looking at adding more Sonos speakers after we moved to a new home.

And now I can finally listen to music from my iPad again from a wireless speaker! I gave Sonos the benefit of the doubt when they removed this skill, but not anymore after this debacle. As Sonos speakers continue to degrade I will be removing more from the system.

The reason Sonos removed the ability to play music files stored on your ipad is because Apple changed their iOS in a way that prevented the feature from working correctly. Apple came out with airplay 2 and the homepod, which uses airplay 2 for the ability to play music from your ipad Most of the modern Sonos speakers also have airplay 2 capability and can play from your ipad the same as the homepod.

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Danny

K

Kumar

Sonos has turned me, from being an avid Sonos supporter, to a “Never sonos again”.

A long post from me, explaining my reasons for this exact change, has gone into the spam filter.

Also, I expand the “never Sonos again”, to never again a smart audio system that does not have a cheap and easily replaceable smart front end. For instance, I would not hesitate to buy or recommend Echo Dots, or even the cheap Show 5, but never something like the Echo Studio or Echo Sub.

And a link to an article that is another example why looking to not buy expensive integrated smart solutions/products is the smart thing to do in future:

https://www.slashgear.com/signify-philips-hue-bridge-end-of-support-owner-reaction-06612426/

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