they still sounded amazing until the S1 was bricked on my devices.

How did the S1 app “brick” your devices? All of the older Sonos devices are supported on the S1 app.

 I have a Play 5 and a Connect that I still use with the S1 app in my home with no issues.

The Play 1 and Play 5 Gen 2 are supported on the S2 app, so I do not get your post.

My Play 1 is still working like a champ on the S2 app.

My 2 x Play 1 works perfectly.. Have used them as surround with my Playbar.
I have now bought Arc Ultra and therefore sold them as I have chosen to upgrade my entire system with Era300 among others.

A moderator has already had to correct your disinformation on this thread

https://en.community.sonos.com/using%2Dsonos%2Dwith%2Da%2Dturntable%2D229138/can%2Di%2Dconnect%2Dturntable%2Dto%2Dplay%2D5%2Dand%2Dplay%2D3%2D6905819?postid=16820847#post16820847

So why are you repeating it here?

Also, your post is randomly tagged “Sonos One”” despite your profile  (created last week) mentioning lots of speakers, but no Sonos One.  This looks like very sloppy trolling.

I have the Sonos App I just downloaded.  And trying to set up my Play 1s (I have 2 of them).  I’m trying to change the network connection from tethered Ethernet to Wifi.  It’s looking for unit that is plugged in and can only find a sound bar looking unit/ equipment.  Why the heck does Sonos not just make it default to WiFi after set up?  And why is the wifi or Ethernet option so imbedded in the system’s setting?  Should just be able to click on the speaker on the app and toggle from Wifi to Ethernet.  Who the heck is designing the software… user interface sucks!  Not intuitive.   For now I have one speaker tethered to my router.  Sonos is supposed to be wireless?  Ain’t that the big ploy?  Mission?  
 I’m 2 hours into setting up these old Sonos Play 1s.  And still not the perfect outcome.  Have factory reset it 3x… of which, why does it take over a minute of holding Dow the power button to factory reset?  I miss the days of the pin hole and you just pin to reset.

I have a similar issue. I have a Gen 1 Play 1, Gen 1 Play 5 and a Playbase. They all worked fine. I have recently moved house and they have been powered off for almost a year. I am now trying to set them up again from scratch and have factory reset them all. Every time I open the Gen 1 Sonos app, it states it wants to update when I try to add a device. It will not allow me to proceed without updating to the latest Sonos app version. As soon as I install it (IOS version), that version tells me it is incompatible with my older devices! So I am completely going round in circles. I installed the PC app, but everything is greyed out. I have sung Sonos praises in the past, often quoting their ease of set up with other inferior products (such as GoPro etc), but this seems to have taken a nose dive. Why release software that seemingly renders older products in to land fill?

Hi. Are you using the S1 app?

Btw there was no need to set  up from scratch. 

Some of the speakers you have will only work with the S1 app, so I suggest you delete the new app (Black) and only use the grey sonos S1 app. If you already updated the app, take a Play 1 or Play 5 near your router and connect it to your router with a cable. They may need to be hardwired to your router in order to be updated if they were powered off for a year.

The point here is, as soon as I select system in the older S1 app, it will not do anything other than tell me to upgrade. When I upgrade it tells me my devices are not supported! So you say only uise the S1 app, but I simply can’t do anything with it!

When I said system, I meant ‘Add Product’

Add Product

Sonos app needs updating

I update and it downloads black Sonos app

Get started with setup (speaker or component)

I sign in

It finds the Play 5 but tells me to use the S1 app

It suggests use the S1 controller to set up a separate system for this product

or:

Add this product to an existing S1 system

or:

save and upgrade through the upgrade program

So I am absolutely baffled as to what I’m supposed to do to get this working again

If they haven’t been used in almost a year, the firmware is probably too out of date to add wirelessly.  Connect each device to your router with an Ethernet cable, then try to add.  Once they are added and updated, you can then deploy them wirelessly. 

It is also worth clearly distinguishing between:

Updating - bringing the software up to date for the operating system being used

and

Upgrading - moving from S1 to S2

If ​@jgatie’s suggestion to wire the speakers temporarily does not prove sufficient I would suggest you try the following

1. Continue to wire temporarily as advised by ​@jgatie 
2. Powee off all Sonos speakers
3. Uninstall all Sonos controllers apps on all devices
4. Power on your gen 1 Play:5 ONLY (while wired to router)
5. Download the Sonos S1 app on a mobile device and see if it offers you the option of “join existing system”.  If it does, then select that option.  You will need to enter your Sonos user name and password to access any settings.
6. See if you can now play music through the Play:5
7. If you don’t get the option to join existing system, choose to Set Up New System and follow the prompts  (If you go down this route you will lose all Sonos playlists and other customisations, so be prepared for that

Please post back at that point, whether it has gone well or badly!

In some cases, a well-out-of-date system needs Sonos’ help to get an interim update or two, which they should provide for you - they certainly have done for others… Contact Sonos support and see what they say. 

I ended up chatting to someone in support and it was resolved. His name escapes me but began with a J and deserves a mention, so my bad. It was a long process but it all worked in the end. I don’t like two different apps supporting different devices. It is not what I’m used to with Sonos. They should have thought this through and invested in software development which allowed older devices to connect and just not offer certain features that only newer devices can offer. Sonos has always been incredibly easy to set up and use (and sound great), but this dual app nonsense has taken them a step backwards.

It did indeed involve resetting the app, resetting the Play 5 and plugging it in to the network with an ethernet cable. It needed an update, as did the Playbase but after it was all done I changed the network back to wireless and it worked fine.

That's great news. The speakers that are now supported only within S1 have 32MB of RAM. That was a lot when they were designed and manufactured but impossible to include those without holding back the latest developments 

But you are revisiting a debate that was done to death at the time of the S1/S2 separation. I'm not going there again.

If Sonos wrote all of their software that might have been a possibility but they use software from the Linux project at the core of their devices and the Linux folks made some key changes that increased the memory requirements. Then the Samba (SMB networking) folks did the same and there just was no way to fit the new, bigger core software into the old low RAM/ROM devices.

That happens a lot with embedded devices, too small, less durable, too slow are common issues. Not from bad decisions when the systems were built but economic/technical necessities. Ones that are no longer as strict so modern devices seem fine, but that is for now, they too will not age well as requirements keep evolving and improving. Some backwards compatibility can be built in or reverse engineered but that is far too limited to make most users happy. You can research what was available and when to see the issues here. Sonos didn’t put in junk back then, but near leading edge bits, just too long in tooth today.

I have a rather large stack of ARM 32 bit driven hardware around here, some painfully expensive, and the OS folks have mentioned “we are done doing 32 bit releases” which leaves me with no options outside running old software (think Sonos S1) that isn’t going to make me happy. I also see the point it will have to be discarded as usable kit (think SMB v1) and I’ll have to bin the lot and move on.

Once upon a time we would all be considering the cost of ditching and replacing, and let’s face it, Sonos is not cheap. Now though, on top of all that, I picture a bulldozer raking it all in to a big hole. This is what companies need to avoid and design products to be repairable or modular and supported. I have managed to get mine all working again, which is great but could do without the constant nags about a new version which isn’t going to work. Users should be able to switch this off. We are also now at the mercy of businesses like Apple to keep supporting the older S1 in IOS.

Did you try this? 

I certainly would try that if I could find it. I’ve searched everywhere!