I have had the same play 5 gen 1 issue. Owned my play 5 for 4 years, use it 6 months of year. It just quit working. Called Tech support and did all the resets.  Like many of these comments, I expected a higher quality. Will be interesting to see failure rate on my other Sonos products. It seems like Sonos could trace the problem and make sure they understand the failure mode.

I all, I have the same problem, one of my PLAY 5 LED shut down and no sound anymore.

I contact the sonos support….THey tell me to buy another one :-))

because it is out of warranty !

I see thi is a problem own of SONOS product (many people get it).

So this is obvious that the SONOS material has an concept default !

I propose to communicate about that on internet to force SONOS to take in account this engineering problem.

This is NOT NORMAL to loose a PLAY 5 power so soon !

I have an old HIFI since 1976.....still WORKING !

LEINAD.

Same exact problem here 12/29/2019.  Play 5 stopped working after years of just light use.  Will be calling Sonos tomorrow for help??

Hard to tell. It might. Why not try?

I have the same problem... tech support acted like it was a new problem but plenty of evidence online that it isn't isolated. Reasonable expectation that it should run longer... I'm not even at 4 years yet!

Yes, this my view  - and one of the reasons why I no longer consider Sonos a quality product…. My AV receiver went wrong after about four years - but they repaired it… My Quad kit could be serviced and restored to new after 20 years use - and probably still could be nearly 40 years from new...

You need to class Sonos kit along with smartphones, etc - i.e. throw aways….

Well you can chalk up another user to this completely inexcusable issue with the Play 5 Gen 1 units.  Speaker diligently taken care of from day 1, never played at excessively loud volume, and has stayed in the same spot for over 5 years.  3 days ago speaker started sounding fuzzy, would randomly cut in and out, and then the next day absolute silence.

The trouble is, my app still behaves like the speaker is fully functional, so I’m not experiencing the issue that some are with them not turning on.  I have been able to factory reset, re-add the speaker to our system both with Ethernet and WiFi, but the issue still remains.  If I turn the volume up to 100% with a loud song playing and I put my ear next to the mesh I can hear music playing, but it won’t go any louder than that.  This leads me to believe there is something that can be done as it is responding to the app requests (both from the Sonos app as well as other apps like Spotify) and there is music playing.  Does anyone have any experience with that specific issue? 

I got the same run-around from Support with their blanket statement that “there is an unfixable hardware issue (yeah right), RMA $349, yadda yadda, BUT WAIT!!!  We have a new program that will give you 30% off of a brand new product if you return your old one so we can fix it and re-purpose it for someone else.”  Please, Sonos, give us some other options - I’m begging you.  I’ve been a committed customer for over 5 years and have given numerous references for your products that have generated over $5,000 in purchases for you.  Please don't turn your back on your committed customers this way.  When they work, I love the products.  As others have stated - this is the first time in my life I’ve ever experienced a speaker simply quitting working with no explanation.  Had this been a self inflicted issue by playing music at too loud of a volume, getting spilled on, or dropped I would completely understand the cost of the RMA.  However, when a premium product such as this quits working without explanation I'm finding it incredibly difficult to understand the stance the company takes.

Me too - or at least similar. I have a Play 5 Gen 1 that refuses to stay connected to the rest of the system over the last couple of months and won’t even accept line-in input from my i-Pod except if I power it down and back-up, then plays about 2.5 tracks before stopping again. As others have said, it has become a very expensive and power-consuming paper-weight.

Casting my mind back to 21st Jan I had an email (as did all other Gen 1 kit owners) advising that this and other Gen 1 devices would no longer be updated or supported after May 2020. This was shortly followed by another e-mail on 25th Jan from the Sonos CEO, Patrick Spence, doing a U-turn on the first email due to the outcry from customers. How strange that within days of that my Play 5 began to refuse to work………………

Overall, I’m not impressed with Sonos. All I want is a system that plays music without interruption or delay, and without the need for constant attention and `fixing’. Instead I have spent countless hours setting-up and trying to get this Sonos system working, endured periods where tracks get interrupted and skipped part-way through, devices that drop-off the system and other periods when the entire system will not work at-all. If Sonos cannot come-up with a system that is plug ‘n’ play, consistently reliable and that lasts longer than a few years, then I am not willing to throw more good money after bad.  

My story is similar to Josh_1’s, I have a Play 5 gen 1.  App shows speaker is connected and music is playing but sound volume controls must be all the way up just to get very low volume (so the wifi is working).  Headphone plug works too.  I will reach out to customer support but after reading the experience other people have had I have little hope of reasonable solution.  I had been considering purchasing other speakers for the house but now not so much.

Hi all, this is a sad thread! I've just joined the "my 4 year old Play 5 is dead" club. We use(d) our speaker frequently but it was well cared for, in an out of the way location where it doesn't get knocked or bashed and has given us many happy hours of listening. Unfortunately, today it just isn't working - no lights, no power and not registering in the app. I've tested the power cable which is fine. Over the last few months Spotify playback has kept stopping and starting but I wrote it off as the bandwidth restrictions that have been going on due to lockdown.

I have to echo other people's thoughts on this being very disappointing and totally unacceptable - a £500 speaker useless after less than 5 years. Sure tech goes wrong but this sounds like too many units with identical symptoms all dying around the same time.

Would be great to get some official investigation and response from Sonos.

Yet another Play 5 (Gen 1) failed!

I accept that yes failures occur from time to time but the amount of posts on here suggests a bigger quality issue here.

Mine blew the 5A fuse and tripped the circuit RCD. I replaced the fuse and checked the power cord and the socket all of which are fine.

The only conclusion here is an inherent fault with these units. 
 

It’s very disappointing as I have invested heavily in SONOS products under the perception they are quality units that are tested lasting a long long time. As another post said speakers should last a very long time. 

2 x Play 1’s

2 x Play 3’s

2 x playbars in

1x Sub

1 x Move

1 x Amp 
I guess I’ll get the offer of giving them more money for another one.
A disappointed customer. 

I am sorry you have had a problem  Gen 1 Play:5s are now between 5 and 11 years old.  Given that Sonos probably shipped tens (hundreds?) of thousands of these the number of posts on here reporting failures is remarkably low.  On the whole, people do not come on here to say, ‘hey, my gen 1 Play:5 is still working fine’.

As the Play:5 gen 1 is a ‘legacy’ speaker you can use your failed unit to get 30% off a speaker or speaker bundle of your choice.

As i say, sorry you have had a problem, but the suggestion that there is a wider manufacturing issue (or might have been a long time ago) is not supported by the evidence.

It's definitely worth touching base with support. I emailed them yesterday and they came straight back asking for a video of the unit being plugged in and turned on, which I did straight away.

Today they have come back saying they'll replace it, so I'm boxing it up right now!

Praying they replace it with a gen 2 just so I can get the software update but even if they don't, that's pretty bloody good service - thank you Sonos, you keep me as a customer!

I’ve just had a notification that a new Play5 is on its way and should be here Monday. The item number is ‘PL5G2UK2’ which sounds like a Gen2 to me which is awesome!

My play 5 (gen 1) has also died today after updating to S1. On the release of S2… how convenient... 

Exactly what are you implying?

I know its likely a coincidence, just frustrated. Play 5 Gen 1) was happy this morning playing the radio and I updated my whole system to S1, everything upgraded fine, including the Play 5 at first. It showed as OS: S1 in the about screen. I went to play music on all speakers for the first time after the update, all the others played music except the play 5. I went back into the app and the Play 5 had disappeared. Checked the Play 5 and no light on. Switched it off at the wall and switched it back on again and no light at all. So it was working fine seconds before the S1 update and completely dead (no lights) after the update. The cable and fuse are fine as tried it on another speaker. Just really annoying :(