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Sonos ending software updates for older devices this May

Owners of the original Play:5, Connect, Connect:Amp and more won't get new features, although the devices will continue to function.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury
2 min read
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Pre-2015 products such as the BU250 system will stop receiving software updates in May

Sonos

Streaming music player manufacturer Sonos will stop sending out software updates to some older devices after May 2020. The devices will still work, they just won't receive regular feature updates.

Sonos says the affected devices were on sale from 2004 and include:

Sonos says that the hardware will continue to receive bug or security fixes as needed and where possible, but that new features and streaming services would not be made available. 

Read more: Best Sonos speakers starting at $100

If you have a whole-home system that includes one of the legacy devices, you'll have to remove it from your system if you want any of your Sonos gear to receive updates. That's because every component in a Sonos system needs to be on the same software version. Systems that combine the older devices with newer Sonos hardware like the Sonos One will not be able to be updated until the older device is removed. 

Sonos says you can either continue using your hardware -- again, despite not receiving updates, it will still work -- or trade it in, using the Trade Up program announced last year. Users who upgrade their components get a 30 per cent discount.

A Sonos representative said the company had heard the negative feedback on its recycling program but said customers could still either drop the "recycled" item off at a local e-cycling depot or send it to Sonos at the company's cost.

Newer Sonos hardware offers updated processors and memory in addition to newer features such as Apple AirPlay 2 support and onboard voice assistants. A Sonos representative told us a system would work better without older hardware connected.

Even though Sonos is one of the few companies that has supported all of its streamers since 2004, the news has attracted a reaction from fans, including CNET's own Ashley Esqueda.