Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
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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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M

morgan4x4

Enthusiast II

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C

cbgk82

Lyricist I

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

Doesn’t too good for Sonos

Thanks another place to post a rant 👌

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G

Gillydior

Enthusiast I

Ryan S wrote:

The app shouldn't cause anyone trouble in the future.

As we move forward, we will provide ways to separate your legacy and modern products so that the modern products can still receive updates, and legacy products can still be used. We'll have more details in May.

1/ I’d just like to keep the software we currently have so all my sonos components work together as intended (And sold )

2/ I don’t wish to upgrade my existing system (so to speak) as of yet even with a 50% discount

3/ Why didn’t you say the above at the same time as making your despicable money grabbing announcement.

4/ I wish I hadn’t added to my extensive system last week and bought the Playbar, given how much respect you’ve shown yourselfs to have for your customers.

5/ If you always intended to update the software to the extent of making older speakers not work, why didn’t you print it on the box like a honest company.

6/ Why do your software updates stop the system from working until the update has been accepted and carried out?

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

4.5 years of support is not persisting Mike Groeninger.

#boycottsonos

Exactly - this was precisely what the brand was based on… and now its gone.

Their market differentiator - what made them special has gone.

Why would you pay to upgrade only to be treated the same way again in a couple of years time?

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S

Seattlenerd

Enthusiast I

It’s still not clear why the 30% trade-up discount is not being offered for replacements of all of the now-legacy products.

For example, my Bridge has been flagged as “legacy” in the notification email (along with two Play:5 speakers). But the trade-up offer doesn’t seem to apply to the Bridge at all, even if I just want to replace the Bridge with the current Boost, as the Bridge is no longer being sold and Boost is touted as its replacement.

Will this oversight be remedied and all legacy products—even if some discounted legacy replacements are restricted to a current model/offering of the same product type—become eligible for the 30% trade-up discount?

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

Doesn’t too good for Sonos

Thanks another place to post a rant

73% of reviews are 1 star currently

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P

Paul000000

Lyricist III

As angry as we all are I do wonder what Patrick’s day was like?

Does this make him worry or is this just a ‘blip’…. a part of a larger business strategy. They will rebound from this.

Sonos has a reputation to ‘spin’ so are they thinking this will blow over as they put out some more news releases?

Is there humility in the equation or arrogance?

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N

Newhaven

Lyricist II

The recent SONOS announcement is an absolute betrayal of trust in its loyal followers. We pay premium prices for a premium product but are unceremoniously dumped and offered some derisory 30% discount. Shame on you SONOS. You deserve to go out of business. Trust is total. Disloyalty equally so. Goodbye.

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R

rwrgeo

Renowned Enthusiast II

Random musings.

Still so disappointed in this. I adore Sonos and have always recommended them to others. I do feel like I’ve had good value from the ‘legacy’ components in my system. I do have a degree of sympathy that having not bought a new component for a while but having Sonos support and steadily improved my products I have a good deal that isn’t sustainable.

But this isn’t the way to go about this. Its asking customers for too much outlay at once to move to a ‘modern’ system. And for those willing to do that will they now choose Sonos? Even if new components can be added to a ‘legacy’ system over time you’re seemingly going to need to have to replace every old component before you’re fully whole again.

I was planning to buy more Sonos kit. I love the look of the Move. I’d buy a gen 3 Play:5 with voice control tomorrow if it existed. Now I’m worried how long those purchases would last, both because of the direct implications of this announcement and because I’m wondering if Sonos will still be around in a years time because this seems desperate and destructive, particularly as Sonos knew the reaction they’d get to this announcement.

The best ideas I can think of as a route forward is

support older devices for the next 2 years, 1 year as a minimum. May is too soon especially as all details aren’t known now
ensure old and new devices can continue to work together without limiting new devices. Require a Boost/Bridge like device to be bought if necessary
allow services still supported on newer devices to be shared with older devices
Find a route for older devices to be put to some worthy use (schools, charities, less wealthy countries etc) rather than being bricked via the trade up scheme

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J

jaaroncook

Lyricist I

I have been using Sonos for 12 years with the promise that they will upgrade and the gear I purchased would still work. Now I am being forced to turn in my Sonos Play 5 which is EXPENSIVE and just throw it in the garbage and get a puny discount on a new one. This is a major screw up by Sonos which needs to be fixed!!! Why does my 12 year old sonos3 still have the memory to run the updates, but my 6 year old Sonos 5 does not??? This is pure dishonesty and lack of integrity and I will never purchase anything else from Sonos. You need to make this right by providing a memory update to the 5, or providing a FREE trade up to a new 5 by turning in my old one.

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