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Sonos kills its device-bricking 'recycle mode'
Sonos has been under fire lately for the way it has handled a few decisions around its oldest products. Last fall, the company introduced a "trade up" program -- if you owned one of Sonos' oldest products, you could send it in to the company and get 30 percent off new gear. However, to get the discount, you had to put your old products in "recycle mode," a setting that would permanently make them unable to connect to a network or work with other Sonos gear. Today, the company is reversing course. A Sonos spokesperson confirmed that the Trade Up program will continue, but recycling mode is no more. If you want to get the 30 percent discount, you just need to prove you own one of the eligible "legacy" products by validating its serial number. Once that's done, you can apply the discount to anything Sonos is currently selling at its online store. Indeed, the "Trade Up" name isn't exactly accurate, because you can continue using the legacy hardware as long as you want. Sonos says you can give it to a friend, keep using it yourself, sell it, recycle it, send it to them -- it doesn't matter. Unfortunately, if you've already set some products to recycle mode, you can't reverse it, but said customers in that situation should contact its customer service team.
Sonos will stop updating its 'legacy' products in May
Sonos is continuing to distance itself from some of the oldest products it has sold over the years. Starting in May of 2020, a group of "legacy" products will stop getting software updates and new features, the first time that the company has decided to end updates for a whole set of its products. In the past, Sonos ended software support for a couple of its oldest devices (including the Sonos Dock and CR100). And some new features the company has added, like AirPlay 2 support, didn't work on all of its older products. But in this case, there won't be any updates going forward for the following devices: the original Zone Players; Connect, and Connect:Amp; first-generation Play:5; CR200; and Bridge.
