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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A

attacama40

Headliner I

And still no word or communications back from Sonos of any sort?

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T

Thumbpicker

Enthusiast II

It’s amazing that a device that has always been able to stream an MP3 or an audio stream suddenly can’t do that when the bitrate required hasn’t changed. I need a new device to stream a crappy audio file? What a crock of …..

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K

Kumar

the level to which folks are flocking to this board is absolutely unprecedented, and dwarfs anything I’ve ever seen and by an enormous margin.
Damage is being done and it isn’t just limited to this forum or Reddit comments.

We/Sonos may be at an inflection point here; the thing about them is they are close to impossible to recognise as they take place. Time will tell.

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M

MrSwadge

Enthusiast I

Very unimpressed by this decision by sonos.
They should be looking at possible ways and costs to be upgrade the older speakers with better processor etc.
this would be more environmental and speaker’s would not be thrown away in half hearted attempt at recycling. Sonos would be part of the proper recycling of their speakers. In other words they would reduce electronic waste.
if a speaker has broken other components then the decision to scrap it would be the owners.

with the current legacy idea in May I gather that my older equipment will stop future updates to my whole system. In that case I will be happy to stay with sonos update I have. I can use the system as it is. I guess I can add to the system by buying older speakers which will now be plummeting in price as they won’t update.

this is devaluing sonos’s reputation too!!

overall sonos should find better solutions

You know what… I never considered this brilliant option! I could care less about voice control and other features. My Sonos system does what I want already. This could be an incredible 2nd-hand upgrade path for expanding a legacy system.

The danger with that approach is that a third-party content provider changes their streaming interface and then it can’t stream the content that you want. Although - I’m sure some clever people would create a subscription based service that translates x into y. At the end of the day, it’s just an audio stream to a speaker.

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S

sm75382

Enthusiast II

this is a good discussion - the presenter has 9 'legacy' products and has said be will not upgrade them because they will just do it again in 5 plus years -

"you just killed me as a customer, dead, Sonos"

"ill never buy another sonos product again"

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lee Tronix

Lyricist I

I believe Sonos as a business started to lose its market share a few years ago and when it was sold off the company marked up its prices and it has not been faring well as a result. Its plain and simple its just greed over quality and they want quantity sales over quality and quality service and products.

The lies they come out with are absurd in terms of not supporting the original speakers just like they killed off the CR controllers units which cost a fortune and provided excellent functionality.

So I am not surprised at all they are going to be massacred as a business now and I have no love for the company anymore. Im done with them.

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Good Riddance & Never Again Sonos

D

Dr Paccard

Contributor I

How to destroy a brand in one easy go. You had real loyal customers and whoever made this decision just doesn’t seem to care 30% discount what a joke.

This is a “Ratner” moment. If you don’t know what that is, look up “Gerald Ratner”

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chickentender

Very unimpressed by this decision by sonos.
They should be looking at possible ways and costs to be upgrade the older speakers with better processor etc.
this would be more environmental and speaker’s would not be thrown away in half hearted attempt at recycling. Sonos would be part of the proper recycling of their speakers. In other words they would reduce electronic waste.
if a speaker has broken other components then the decision to scrap it would be the owners.

with the current legacy idea in May I gather that my older equipment will stop future updates to my whole system. In that case I will be happy to stay with sonos update I have. I can use the system as it is. I guess I can add to the system by buying older speakers which will now be plummeting in price as they won’t update.

this is devaluing sonos’s reputation too!!

overall sonos should find better solutions

You know what… I never considered this brilliant option! I could care less about voice control and other features. My Sonos system does what I want already. This could be an incredible 2nd-hand upgrade path for expanding a legacy system.

The danger with that approach is that a third-party content provider changes their streaming interface and then it can’t stream the content that you want. Although - I’m sure some clever people would create a subscription based service that translates x into y. At the end of the day, it’s just an audio stream to a speaker.

Oh it’s FAR from ideal, I agree, and the risks are still present. That’s part of the uproar. For my part, I do an enormous amount of local streaming of my personal music collection and that is the *least* likely portion of the interface to affected going forward. And for streaming, I’ve already been thinking that I can use most any streaming box, from whomever for whatever price I choose, and wire it to my existing Connect to stream out to my Sonos speakers. I’d have to use the Sonos app for grouping changes and tweaks here and there which would be a bit kludgy having two apps involved much of the time, but at least it would be a workable solution for the long-term.

edit: and anyone wanting to do the same who doesn’t have a Connect…. there’s about to be a host of them available for cheap.

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lee Tronix

Lyricist I

Hahaha yes I remember that all too well... :grinning:

I think they read his playbook!

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Good Riddance & Never Again Sonos

T

Trussel

Lyricist I

Like many other users I’m appalled by the decision by Sonos to end software updates for some of their products. I purchased a Play 5 in May 2015 for £399. The current price on the Sonos website is £499. With the 30% discount I would still have to find £349. I don’t think this is acceptable, fair or equitable.

I’ve always been an advocate of Sonos and its products. On the few occasions in the past when I have contacted Sonos Customer Support the experience has always been positive.

Now I am completely disillusioned. I certainly don’t intend to expand my system with any additional Sonos products for fear that they will go the same way in a few years.

I suspect that this will become a future case study on how a successful company can get something so wrong. It’s certainly a good example of how not to treat loyal customers. I suspect that the well paid managers involved in this decision will have no appreciation or understanding of the financial implications to their customers. I’m retired now so whilst the decision makers may well feel that a 30% discount is generous I can tell them that it isn’t when you are on a pension. Finding £350 is not easy.

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