Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
4256 replies
269777 views

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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andyd1302

Enthusiast II

Great to see SONOS getting a ton of well deserved negative press on this major debacle. I would just like to get my money back. Perhaps chief product officer Nick Millington who coincidentally just sold 1/3 of his stock before this announcement would like to pay me for my now obsolete gear.

https://boycottsonos.com

CEO: patrick.spence@sonos.com

Chief Product Officer: nick.millington@sonos.com

COO: david.perri@sonos.com

The bold bit of this ^ post is astonishing :rage:

The company ought to look at the quote given earlier (under the following heading), to give an indication of where this debacle seems to be heading...

If we are not able to maintain and enhance the value and reputation of our brand, or if our reputation is otherwise harmed, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Our continued success depends on our reputation for providing high-quality products and consumer experiences, and the “Sonos” name is critical to preserving and expanding our business. Our
brand and reputation are dependent on a number of factors, including our marketing efforts, product quality, and trademark protection efforts, each of which requires significant expenditures.
The value of our brand could also be severely damaged by isolated incidents, which may be outside of our control…..

….Any damage to our brand or reputation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

https://s22.q4cdn.com/672173472/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/52d86c5b-248f-4939-aa85-1489c1828e7f.pdf#page=17

I feel some sympathy for RyanS though, being left to deal with this as he obviously cares about the brand & the product & is incredibly helpful whenever I’ve had dealings with him, but on the face of things he’s being put in an impossible situation not of his making...

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bonervz

Enthusiast II

Dear Sonos,

I am like so many, still very upset over yesterday’s press release. I feel cheated, betrayed, sold a lie. I will never invest in another "expensive" smartish audio device without a clear TTL laid out, in writing, this sets a precedent never before seen in the audio industry. Buyer beware.
Are all expensive audio speakers destined for the landfill and only going to last 2 years like today’s phones are, which I might add is the single biggest ripoff/scam in history.
There are many posts comparing SONOS to phones and computers.... Well, here is my comparison, I am still using my 2010 iphone 5, and my Lenovo Thinkpad w520 workstation from 2011, same year I got my first SONOS, and my Lenovo Thinkpad is still working just fine and guess what, Microsoft and Linux have NO issues continuing support for it. It will run even if it doesn't have the latest techno fab installed. So take that.
This is an embarrassment and is total BULL SHITE!

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.

S

sm75382

Enthusiast II

....so in a nutshell sonos are now a speaker rental company - £xxx every 5 years.…

wish i knew this when sinking £1.5k on their average 5.1 set up.

definitely getting my own 5.1 system (Yamaha av / wharfale dx2 'dumb' speakers) this year.

melvimbe

Legacy mode

Oh dear.

This is a Ratneresque move that is going to rapidly backfire. As others have said, Sonos have in effect just announced that their products are disposable.

Dropping support of a product means that all the companies products disposable? Do you feel the same way about Apple, Google, Microsoft, and all of the products they’ve ended support for over the years?

Not saying you can’t be angry or it’s not justified, just not following how ending support results in disposable, unless disposable applies to every computer related product ever made.

As it stands, you are alienating loyal customers from the kind of socio-economic categories that companies yearn for.

What does that mean?

Danny

G

gafutch

Lyricist I

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.

Well, May is a bit late isn’t it if we’re being encouraged to make decision about our kit now? This is a crucial option not mentioned yesterday and would be a viable one for me - although a frustrating one as it negates one of the key positive attributes of Sonos which is a home wide network. Will it mean a separate app interface for that one speaker and juggling app when moving between rooms?

As many people I’ve read comment from today, I was an early adopter, strong advocate, happy Beta tester who was willing to make a considerable financial outlay on a product that is, let’s be honest, not cheap but a quality sound. I expected it to last. But I look now at my other kit and wonder how long that has got before there’s more financial outlay and whether there is any point in investing further.

M

musicorum

Contributor I

Yes. I think that’s a reasonable position/choice for sure. If you wire everything, you will not have to worry about these issues. Or you could use cheap Alexa pucks on all your speakers and have powered speakers or

I don’t think connection via Ethernet will make any difference because we rely on their software. I think most people use apps on mobile devices to operate their Sonos system. At some in the future this will cease to work with older speakers. Of course I don’t know that for sure, it’s just what I think will happen. It will probably always work on Mac/PC because older versions of the software are available.

chickentender

One thought that just came to mind. As long as you can group an AirPlay Sonos speaker with these legacy products, you should always be able to use any music program through iOS to play whatever you need to, no? So even if you can’t use the Sonos controller to play Spotify (because they change their API), you could still use your iPhone and just group the rooms.

I’m sure we’ll see many workaround as months and years go by. As has been mentioned a number of times, Sonos should simply allow the legacy devices to be released entirely, fork the codebase to an open source one and release it into the wild. These legacy system would continue on in perpetuity in that case. Why won’t Sonos go down that road (in my estimation)? Because it will dissuade users with legacy devices from buying modern replacements from Sonos.

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MJPDX

Lyricist I

Just making sure I post in angry thread 2.0. This is still BS, and I’m still done with this platform.

E

ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

Yes. I think that’s a reasonable position/choice for sure. If you wire everything, you will not have to worry about these issues. Or you could use cheap Alexa pucks on all your speakers and have powered speakers or

I don’t think connection via Ethernet will make any difference because we rely on their software. I think most people use apps on mobile devices to operate their Sonos system. At some in the future this will cease to work with older speakers. Of course I don’t know that for sure, it’s just what I think will happen. It will probably always work on Mac/PC because older versions of the software are available.

Sorry I meant speaker wire (conventional speakers). Not Ethernet.

E

ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

One thought that just came to mind. As long as you can group an AirPlay Sonos speaker with these legacy products, you should always be able to use any music program through iOS to play whatever you need to, no? So even if you can’t use the Sonos controller to play Spotify (because they change their API), you could still use your iPhone and just group the rooms.

I’m sure we’ll see many workaround as months and years go by. As has been mentioned a number of times, Sonos should simply allow the legacy devices to be released entirely, fork the codebase to an open source one and release it into the wild. These legacy system would continue on in perpetuity in that case. Why won’t Sonos go down that road (in my estimation)? Because it will dissuade users with legacy devices from buying modern replacements from Sonos.

Also a good idea. And agree - that’s likely the reason they won’t do it. That and IP concerns.

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