Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
4256 replies
270584 views
Translate All

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

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

P

paulrw

Prodigy II

Costs. They were trying to mitigate support costs, hoping not to keep S1 at all, that everybody would ditch legacy stuff for 30% off new.

Translate

melvimbe

Costs. They were trying to mitigate support costs, hoping not to keep S1 at all, that everybody would ditch legacy stuff for 30% off new.

That doesn’t explain why they didn’t lead with this information. Some positive news that customers might look forward to rather than just the bad news.

Also, from the FAQ…

Sonos S2 will enable higher resolution audio technologies for music and home theater.

Translate

Danny

K

Kumar

@Ryan S

With your FAQ saying the quoted:

Do I have to update to S2?
No. If you have products that are incompatible with S2 and would like to keep your system as is, you can. The app you are now using will be renamed the Sonos S1 Controller, and it will continue working with your existing products, music services, and voice services. When prompted to update in the app, simply confirm that you would like to continue with your current experience. If all of your products are compatible with S2, however, we recommend you update so you can enjoy the new software features.

Bolded bits by me.

Would you please confirm that if we say once to the quoted and bolded prompt in the quote above, that we will prefer to stay on S1 across the entire system, we will not be again prompted to update? In a way that carries a risk that inadvertently we will end up stuck with a split system?

This question is relevant for those of us that have zero interest in moving beyond S1 in the foreseeable future. Any that wish to change their mind about this should be allowed to do so without being persistently prompted to do so, because of that risk attached to an inadvertent response to such a prompt.

With that said, I pray that you are able to do this in May, for what being able to do so will need to be present in the world at large.

Translate

S

sonossucksreally

Contributor I

Sonos is doing it again, cut compatibility and obsoleting full functional devices! This in times of Climate Warming and waste economy.

Shame on Sonos. The at least should open up the system for alternative Firmwares.

Translate

melvimbe

Sonos is doing it again, cut compatibility and obsoleting full functional devices! This in times of Climate Warming and waste economy.

Shame on Sonos. The at least should open up the system for alternative Firmwares.

Doing it again? This is additional details on what they previously announced.

Translate

Danny

Smilja

Sonos is doing it again, cut compatibility and obsoleting full functional devices! This in times of Climate Warming and waste economy.

Shame on Sonos. The at least should open up the system for alternative Firmwares.

Which would inevitably brick your system. Developing firmware for multiroom systems isn’t as straightforward as programming an Android custom rom build. In that case one would have no option but throwing the gear to landfill sites.

Translate

»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)

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

It’s been mentioned already in here by Smilja, so as you know now, the main article on our support page for this topic has been updated. Please read through it carefully if you have any questions because it answers most all of the questions we’ve seen so far. We will make sure to keep that article up to date with the most recent and official information that we’re ready to make public.

There’s also an article here on Using separate S1 and S2 Sonos systems.

And @Kumar,

Would you please confirm that if we say once to the quoted and bolded prompt in the quote above, that we will prefer to stay on S1 across the entire system, we will not be again prompted to update? In a way that carries a risk that inadvertently we will end up stuck with a split system?

That’s absolutely the plan, and if there are any issues, our support team will be around to help sort them out.

Translate

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

K

Kumar

@Ryan S Appreciate the quick confirmation, thank you. Obviously there will be some kind of update process to the S1 system itself in line with what has been promised for legacy products, that will be separately managed.

Translate

D

DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

Anyone want to take a bet, that sonos knew all of this back in January.

Why they wanted to keep this a secret i beyond me, the “You will get higher quality music” would have calmed some people down.

Instead they kept everyone in the dark, endured a “storm” and had to rephrase what they said at first, all because they did not just tell the truth from the beginning.

Shares are right now, down to USD 7, from USD ~15 the day before the announcement, and if the trend continues it will be below USD 7 tomorrow or even later today

Translate

S

smallstool

Enthusiast I

Another P.R. Mess Up sonos

Spence shouldnt make it to the weekend to help try and save the company!

Translate

Connect Amp x 3, Connect x 1, Sub x 2, Playbar x 2, Beam x 1, Play 1 x 4, Play 3 x 2, Play 5 x 2, Boost x 1, Amp, Arc, 2 x Era 100, 2 x Era 300, Symfonisk x 2, Roam

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community