Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
4256 replies
269801 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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A

attacama40

Headliner I

Oh my. Came back after posting on the other thread this morning. Thought i would catch up after dinner. Can’t believe you locked the other post. When you planning on deleting it?

Here’s my annoyance….

Over 20 or so years i amassed a huge physical music collection. After seeing Sonos many years ago, i decided to take the plunge. I was very impressed - And i built up a nice (and expensive) Sonos setup.

I never bought into the whole streaming music service thing - just purely because i would be lost if my favourite service shut down or lost the ability to play music which i enjoyed. Plus those rare and exclusive B-Sides and recordings that would never be found on a streaming service.

I then proceeded to digitise my entire music library in lossless format. Superb.

Then i hit the 65,000 limit. Frustrating, but worked round by buying a new NAS and running Plex with Plex Pass on it. Job done. I take pride in my Metadata and i enjoy my current setup.

I never ever thought my ability to listen to my own music stored on my own server in my own home, on speakers i paid a small fortune for could come to and end by a manufacturer flicking a switch.

I don’t do streaming from online services. I have a local library on Plex. 5 years ago i enjoyed listening to my music on Sonos. As i type this, i’m listening on Sonos. I expect to listen to my music on Sonos in another five or ten, even more years. I expect to renew devices as they fail etc but not bullied into trading up on a mediocre deal.

As i said previously - by all means bring out new speakers with new features and abilities i don’t need.
But please don’t screw over your existing loyal customers who have bought into Sonos ecosystem and got the company to where it is today. If i like the look of a new feature, i might buy a new device based on that if it was of interest.

I cannot afford to replace my Sonos devices because you are unable to push out updates with un-necessary features to my presently working Sonos devices and therefore force me to “trade up” or make do with speakers that will remain incompatible with modern devices. I have 5 devices all purchase in 2015 - and i wait for further emails telling me you are pulling support.

Which leads me onto my final point.

My next purchase to my Sonos system was a Playbar and amp. Not any more. Knowing fine well if i buy, you’ll switch off support in the future, even though it functions as i want it too.

Sonos, i fear for you. I think you have just committed commercial suicide and i deeply worry how you will ever recover from this. You have a lot of angry loyal customers, and a lot of making up to do.

One a happy customer, now an angry customer.

Very solid and rational assessment and again mirroring a lot of the motivators that bought me to the Sonos world and a significant amount of cash approaching £20k invested.

P

potz1024

Contributor I

So I invested in Sonos believing it was top end gear that would last me for years. I’ve recently lost the ability to be able to play BBC radio stations on Sonos via Alexa (not a Sonos issue I know), and now I’m not going to be able to update my whole system. Couple with the fact that I find the Sonos app slower and clunkier as time goes on, its just not working for me any longer.

I’m sorry Sonos, but we’ve reached the end of the road, not sure where I will go from hear (I really love the sounds quality on Sonos products), but I’ve invested well over £1000 and I’m not going to burn money like that again.

Sorry Sonos, but there is a huge amount of additional competition in the market these days, and I predict that by dropping so many loyal customers like this, you’ll be under or bought out in the next 2 years.

Sad day, and a big mistake. Very angree.

W

Witthaus

Trending Lyricist I

Uh oh, 18 pages of negative comments! I wonder how long till they lock down this thread too?

F

FarFromGruntled

Lyricist III

Add me to the list of long-time users who will never buy another Sonos product again. I have bought Sonos for two different locations. I own the products, I paid good hard-earned money for them and they are mine. It is not for you to tell me that I may no longer use them. I expect to be able to do so for as long as I wish.

If a product fails or breaks that is one thing; I can choose to get it fixed or to buy something else. Mine are still working, so for you to remove the functionality that I have paid for is underhand and shows that you treat your customers with contempt.

M

mortench

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos, I can’t understand why you think you will benefit from alienating your loyal customers and needlessly causing lots of environmental waste by planned obsolesce of working devices.

This is irresponsible and not a way to succeed in the long term. It is a sure way to burn bridges though and get people angry at Sonos!

Sonos ought to be able to add features that only work for new devices without dropping support for existing functionality for old devices. It is all about money (as minimal support for an old platform costs money).

But now that Sonos has show how little regard it has to both customers and the environment, I will now actively look for alternatives to my Sonos setup – maybe I can even find something more simple so my wife and 5y old kid can easily use it (unlike Sonos that unfortunately never succeeded in this aspect).

A

austin.sammon

Lyricist I

I am so shocked and disappointed! I was really impressed with the Sonos systems,and have spent £600 over the past few months on Sonos and intended to spend a lot more. Now, I'm not going to spend another penny on equipment that might and probably will be useless in a few years time.

Shame on Sonos!

M

MrDave77

Trending Lyricist I

So despite all the rage yesterday from probably thousands of people (and rightly so) is your response basically -

sonos are still going ahead with this.
Sonos are clarifying that we don’t care about customers opinions.
we will eventually cause your old products to probably not work.
We want you to buy new ones please to replace them.
then we’ll do it again in the future.

Have I missed anything people?

Bravo Sonos - great response. Let me Clarify that I’ll never buy your equipment again.

J

jc2001

Lyricist II

Shame on you Sonos. I’m a long term loyal customer and many of my family bought Sonos on my recommendations. We are about to move house and I was designing the installation which would have included new play devices to add to my old - and then I got the email!!!! As others have said I’m not sure I would trust sonos again.

M

Mike_132

Lyricist II

SEVEN of my SIXTEEN sonos devices now rendered “obsolete” with an asinine incentive to repurchase at a “discounted” rate to ensure it will work in harmony across all devices...until Sonos gives the next bombshell obsolete product email.

(by the way, I run enterprise level software support for one of the fastest moving segments in the software industry and NOBODY has a 3 month “end of support” cycle let alone and “end of life” policy of this nature with such *little notice*

Sonos, if you are listening;

my total Sonos investment = is >13,000 USD.
the total of my re-purchase of the 7 (now) “obsolete” devices represents almost 4300.00 WITH the discount.
- 4 of these 7 devices were purchased in the last 2 years.
I have represented SONOS as a brand ambassador with friends, businesses and family with *THEIR* purchases representing >60k USD. I feel like a complete idiot in those recommendations now.
CEO: patrick.spence@sonos.com
- I sincerely hope you are keeping abreast of the developments around the “boycot sonos” movement. Things are about to get real hard real quick
Chief Product Officer: nick.millington@sonos.com
- This is clearly being seen:
  - (at best) as a communication failure up of immense proportions (Sorry, I dont have your CMO’s information here or I would call him/her out as well)
  - (at worst) a clear cash grab or the inability to tackle a business decision to develop new product direction WHILE keeping your existing user base.
COO: david.perri@sonos.com
- I do not envy the situation you are about to encounter with loss of brand loyalty, active boycotting of your product and opportunistic competitors out to eat your lunch with this debacle.

I feel that the policy is so incredibly insensitive to your customer base, that we must be misunderstanding your posture on this problem. Unfortunately the clock is ticking before your current fan base collapses. I am afraid you dont have much time to rectify.

Please clarify your stance, ensure you meet your most devoted customers needs and most importantly “Do the right thing” by ensuring (that although you may not support new features on EOS/EOL products, that the system will still play the music coming from the controller in its current form and capabilities.

L

Lomas

Lyricist III

eBay £1.00...bit pricey me thinks...

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