Sonos Roam does not work with Sonos S1 App


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Just received my Roam today. 

Heads up for everyone as it’s not made clear anywhere prior to purchase that it’s only compatible with the new version of the app. 
 

This means if you have “legacy” Sonos products as part of your set up and use the S1 app to control them you won’t be able to see your Roam as part of your existing Sonos network. 
 

You have to download the new version of the app and then set up a new Sonos system to add the Roam to it. Then you have to add all your music services, any favourites etc etc again to the new app to be able to access them on your Roam. 
 

Pretty s*it experience to be honest, and annoying it’s not made clearer. 

By having “old” products Sonos doesn’t want me to have in my network I’m effectively left with a bog standard stand alone portable speaker. Struggling to see the benefit of it over a JBL Bluetooth speaker at the moment to be honest (build quality and sound quality aside obviously 😆). 
 

Anyway heads up for those of you still mulling over the purchase. 


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78 replies

Userlevel 3
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Ugh, so maybe if these people didn’t order stuff they should have known (by reading) it was not compatible with their existing systems -- I would have my Roam already.   Mine won’t be here until tomorrow -at the earliest.    

Why would anyone think a brand new speaker is compatible with S1.  I doubt any new product will be.

Perhaps I’m not as immersed in everything Sonos as the typical forum member here. 
Think about the average punter who has bought a few Sonos speakers over the years, they’ve got a couple of play 3s, a One, a Beam and so on. At some point my app icon changes to S1 but everything still works so they don’t really care about the new app and besides the one time they tried to upgrade to it they nearly lost all their “old” speakers from the app. 

Then they see a new portable Sonos speaker for less than £200! We’ll have some of that please. 
Is it really fair for that person to have to think “hang on, is this Sonos product going to work with my other Sonos speakers” before they buy it? 
 

Anyway that’s probably why they think a Sonos speaker would work with the Sonos app. 

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Sonos have said that all new products will be compatible with S2 only.  But I can understand why users who just enjoy their system, and aren’t obsessive Sonos geeks like me, would not b aware of this.  On a look through the material about the Roam on the Sonos website I could not find any mention that the Sonos S2 app and system was required.  I am sure it is on a help sheet somewhere, but I wouldn’t expect potential purchasers to hunt down that info, given that they don’t know what they don’t know.  So I have some sympathy for @laconic ‘s position.

Btw, @laconic  - I don’t know how random your list of Sonos products was, but all of the ones you mention are S2 compatible!

You cannot really ‘lose speakers from the app’.  The app is just a remote control.

Thanks John. I’ve got Play 1’s and gen one Play 5s in my network. My list above was a random one. 
Ive just checked the Roam box and there’s no mention of the app requirement on it either. 
 

I guess it’s frustrating because it’s unnecessary friction. I’ve gone from oh my god Sonos are amazing everyone should buy them to Christ alive Sonos are irritating in a short period of time. 
 

Still my post was to try and help others in my situation that might stumble across it before they purchase. 

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I just received my Roam and discovered it’s not compatible with my existing system and so I’m sending it back.  To echo earlier replies, as a customer I shouldn’t need to take the time to read through all of the specs for a widely-known brand’s products to ensure they work with my existing system (any company that sells a “system” or “network” should offer backward compatibility).  I spent over $10,000 to have12 Sonos zones installed inside and outside my house only to read last year Sonos abandoned all of this hardware leaving it stranded in 2019 forever.  Who does this to its customers?  What company encourages its customers to install a network of hardware (not easy-to-upgrade software) that will not be supported a year later??? Sonos’ CEO apologized for this immense mistake but didn’t make it right.  Given Sonos management’s complete insensitivity to its customer base, I questioned purchasing the Roam, but now that I realize it doesn’t work with my system, it’s clear I’ll never buy another Sonos product again. Bye, Felicia

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I’m in the same boat.   Sonos Roam all alone on its own network basically its just a Bluetooth portable speaker now of which there are better speakers on the market so will be sending mine back to.  

I’ve owned Sonos since their inception and was always portrayed as future proof.   At the end of the day it’s only the app upgrade that is the issue and I guess Sonos didn’t want to design their app to allow the use of old and new generation hardware because too many people weren’t upgrading to their new stuff.    The only way to get people to upgrade is stop support for older equipment and the easiest way is to switch off support in the app and launch it as a new app.      

 

Your suppositions on Sonos’ motivation for the split are so incorrect, it’s silly.  The fact is, the older S1 equipment doesn’t have the memory or processing power to coexist with S2 hardware.  Period.  It’s like trying to run apps on a flip phone from 2005, except that flip phone doesn’t have to run the exact same content in perfect sync with a brand new iPhone from 2021.  


S1 products can all link together and play music from a streaming service.  But an S2 product with more memory and processing power not can’t?  It’s so dumb.   I want to buy new Sonos products to complement my system.  Not be forced to buy a new system.  

Nope, not fiscally or commercially driven at all.  Technically, all devices need to recognize all other devices so they can group and sync.  But S1 has no idea what a Roam is, and you can't add Roam capability to S1 because S1 would then be too large to run on the older units.  Those are the facts.

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Heads up for everyone as it’s not made clear anywhere prior to purchase that it’s only compatible with the new version of the app. 

Pretty s*it experience to be honest, and annoying it’s not made clearer. 
 

 

Clearer than the following statement right on the product page?

 

Thanks for this. 

Unfortunately I purchased mine from Currys and didn’t think to check which version of the app the product would work with before my purchase. No mention of it Currys or on John Lewis etc. No mention of it in many online reviews.

I guess it becomes a question of whether it’s deemed acceptable for a consumer to have to check to see if a product works as advertised (ie as part of your Sonos network, with easy handoff to existing speakers etc) with that consumers specific version of the manufacturers app. 

Seems like an unfair ask when you’re dropping £160 don’t you think? 

 

Userlevel 1

I just got my Sonos Roam today for fathers day.  I didn’t realize it wouldn’t work with the rest of my Sonos system.  My bad I guess.  But I’ll be sending it back.   This is a deal breaker for me and I suspect others.

And for those that will say I shouldn’t expect new products to be backwards compatible.  Well why not.  It’s a little like saying my 4K TV could only stream in 4K.  And wouldn’t be compatible with my cable TV signal that isn’t in 4K.  

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I’m in the same boat as many other legacy Sonus customers.  The lack of integration of new products like Roam and Move with our legacy S1 products is a betrayal of those loyal Customers that helped make the company successful.

I could understand Sonus developing S2 to take advantage of additional features that may not be available for S1 compatible equipment, but to not make them backward compatible at some basic level is either lazy or incompetent - the alternative, suggesting this by design smacks of a company seeking to generate future revenue from planned obsolescence rather than innovation.

Only option for me at this point is to take both the Roam devices back to the store and no longer consider myself a Sonus Customer.

Heads up for everyone as it’s not made clear anywhere prior to purchase that it’s only compatible with the new version of the app. 

Pretty s*it experience to be honest, and annoying it’s not made clearer. 
 

 

Clearer than the following statement right on the product page?

 

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Ugh, so maybe if these people didn’t order stuff they should have known (by reading) it was not compatible with their existing systems -- I would have my Roam already.   Mine won’t be here until tomorrow -at the earliest.    

Why would anyone think a brand new speaker is compatible with S1.  I doubt any new product will be.

Then explain how my move is on S1???

 

Because S1 actually knows what a Move is.  Roam was created after S2, so there is no way S1 knows what it is, and since S1 can’t be added to due to memory restrictions on the old devices, there’s no way of adding the Roam to S1.  

Sonos have said that all new products will be compatible with S2 only.  But I can understand why users who just enjoy their system, and aren’t obsessive Sonos geeks like me, would not be aware of this.  On a look through the material about the Roam on the Sonos website I could not find any mention that the Sonos S2 app and system was required.  I am sure it is on a help sheet somewhere, but I wouldn’t expect potential purchasers to hunt down that info, given that they don’t know what they don’t know.  So I have some sympathy for @laconic ‘s position.

Btw, @laconic  - I don’t know how random your list of Sonos products was, but all of the ones you mention are S2 compatible!

You cannot really ‘lose speakers from the app’.  The app is just a remote control.

Changing all my connect amps is still too much for me at the moment so I'll stay with S1... And I still makes sense to be frustrated that new products are not compatible with the old system, and looking at the thread it seems like it irritates lots of people... 

But it seems you have already begun to do the switch, as your profile also lists the new Sonos Amp? That seems to contradict your earlier post too - you could easily split the C:A’s off to S1 and run everything else alongside on S2 and perhaps over-arch both setups with Airplay by leaving a ‘One’ in the S1 HH, at least until you migrate all to S2 - it’s probably far cheaper too than starting-over with a completely new system from a different manufacturer.

Fair enough.  Play:1s are of course S2 compatible too, but the gen 1 Play:5s not so.  There is, IMO, a big difference between the sound quality of the gen 1 and gen 2 Play:5s, and I understand that the Five is similar to the gen 2 Play:5.  So you might want to consider upgrading at some point.  I realise that would be a significant chunk of money, even with the discount and net of selling the gen 1s, and I am not suggesting that you ‘should’ upgrade to accommodate the Roam!

I have to agree. Your hardware life is at the whim of a manufacturer that encourages purchase and then decides to no longer support it, which I totally understand, but to force you to upgrade as the system you invested in is no longer capable and even making the decision to no longer allow the hardware to ever be used again (CR100 for example) is not acceptable. What promise does any one have that Sonos wont simply disband S2 hardware and force yet more upgrades. They have a track record of ignoring loyalty and customer outlay that is not mirrored by other manufactures. 

 

Sonos promise is that they will continue to provides functional upgrades and support for a minimum of 5 years after a product is discontinued.  Based on history, it’s likely Sonos will support much longer than that, but 5 years is the guarantee. 

As far as comparing Sonos to other manufacturers in the smart speaker/wireless multiroom audio market, Sonos has been around for much longer than anyone else, so it’s hard to conclude what other companies would do when their original products can no longer keep up with modern tech. Even then, there have been a few product lines that are no longer producing products.  Bose in particular has dropped their original line and started a completely new line of speakers that don’t work with the old line. 

It will be interesting to see what happens a few years from now when Amazon and Google state they are no longer supporting their original smart speakers.  Although I doubt people will care that much, since their devices are much cheaper, and perhaps very few will still even be operating.

 

 

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You need to realise that for all speakers to be compatible they ALL have to run the same Firmware. That is a must if music is to play in sync around all the speakers.  it’s a fundamental part of the architecture and what it gives in syncing features it prevents older kit with limited memory getting later updates.   There is simply not enough space on older S1 only devices to have the same firmware that new products like the Move, Arc etc have.  This firmware gives you Bluetooth, Atmos, Music Swap features and whatever other new features are in the pipeline. 

 

That’s why S1 was created.  Otherwise the legacy kit would have ceased to work when the new Sonos app, with it’s associated Firmware went live.

 

Well put. However, Sonos was a start up multi-room offering needing people to invest in the brand - which they did, often heavily - who have now been under under-valued and over-looked.

People do not need “forever” support, nor do they expect their products to perform all the new stuff; but I have not seen any legitimate reasons for why software cannot cope with different hardware platforms; surely the software should be capable of identifying the hardware and determining what can and cannot work? Windows 7 has stopped support but it has not stopped laptops from doing the basic tasks that they did previously. There has been little to no thought around compatibility. Sonos is now a bunch of compromises until I again invest heavily and my gut feel is that past performance is probably an indication of future performance unfortunately.    

 

It gets complicated, and it’s been discussed at length many times before, but the idea that any new feature can be added to the more modern speakers, while leaving the older speakers untouched, just isn’t accurate.  The older speaker’s hardware limitations hold back what the entire system can do.  So Sonos had 3 choices to make here.

1 - Keep everything on the same system, with limited ability to improve the system as a whole.  Competition’s systems would be able to provide new features that Sonos cannot since they were not held back by old hardware.

2 - Have an S1 and S2 system, allowing new products on both with different feature sets.  This would allow Sonos to keep up with competition, but would add customer confusion as to what features are available on what systems, and perhaps double that development, testing, and support costs.

3 - Freeze the S1 system, and only add new features to the S2 system.  This allows for new features with a less confusing feature set (although I guess some people didn’t realize S1 was frozen), while keeping the same development and testing costs while only slightly raising support costs.

The right decision would depending a lot on the volume of people with S1 legacy hardware, level of competition, and costs of dev/testing/support….all these that we really can only guess at.  It’s understandable to believe that option 1 or 2 would have been the better way to go if those options fit your needs better, but entirely possible that those options were not sustainable for Sonos.

Ugh, so maybe if these people didn’t order stuff they should have known (by reading) it was not compatible with their existing systems -- I would have my Roam already.   Mine won’t be here until tomorrow -at the earliest.    

Why would anyone think a brand new speaker is compatible with S1.  I doubt any new product will be.

Why would a company sell a product that had previously been back and forward compatible and basically force users to upgrade the older components. I have a small fortune invested in Sonos equipment and cant justify scrapping my 3 connect amps for a meager 15% discount on new equipment. There needs to be a workaround for the Roam to work with S1. I hate being forced out of my current equipment. Not good customer relations

This was gone over ad nauseam when the S1/S2 split was first announced. There are threads here extending over dozens and dozens of pages. In a nutshell the legacy units are so lacking in memory they can no longer be enhanced functionally, nor can they interwork with modern devices whose software is now two major versions ahead.

If you choose to stay with S1 that’s your entitlement. It will continue doing what it does and Sonos have said they’ll maintain it for as long as they are able.

If you want to acquire new, S2-only, devices you have the option of splitting the system or of replacing the older units.

By the way if you really have legacy units each is eligible for a 30% discount coupon, not 15%. And each coupon can be applied against a product or entire product ‘set’. Depending on the ‘set’ you could even end up with a discount that exceeds the legacy unit’s original purchase price.

Again, nothing I can’t disagree on, but the third option deflects a significant cost onto your user base and away from Sonos...a natural choice (especially give the tone of the CEO and approach by Sonos when announcing this). 

If you have the technical detail as to where this has been discussed at length (or even able to summarise here for general consumption), that would go some way to helping people understand things better, but without it we can only continue to assume; driven by the context in which these changes where announced: the user base is, and is expected to, support a significant cost of Sonos moving forward with the competition. Its a win win really, trapped user base, and sell more products to upgrade.   

 

You could look at the link below, but it certainly isn’t organized in any logical fashion.  Filled with lots of speculation and emotional reaction.

 

 

I disagree with the statement that option 3 deflects costs to the user base, at least in part.  Obviously, no one is forced to upgrade to S1, as S1 will continue to go on as is without new features. And I get the impression you understand that continuing to support S1, keeping it sustained, isn’t free.   Second, Sonos is offering a 30% discount replacement program.  I get that a discount isn’t free, but it should help in most cases.  I would also argue that if Sonos continued to go down a path where they had unsustainable costs and could not keep up with competition features, they would cease to be in business and thus costomers would have no support at all and need to switch to a different brand entirely to have a system...at a significant cost.

 

And I would add the lack of effort with even trying to achieve any degree of compatibility shows; the S2 speakers dont work alongside the S1 system at an virtual assistant level, so users have to make a choice which “system” they want to use with their home assistant...when I can simply add a smart speaker from a competitor and still control both separately.

 Ken talked about your specific example, but in the general sense, Sonos had to decide if it made sense to put more effort into compatibility between legacy and modern speakers, knowing that it would complexity and confusion to customers.  For example, this thread is about adding Roam to S1...what would look like if you could add it to S1, but you could not share a bluetooth stream or use sound swap, or it could not be group to be played with certain speakers.  Would that result in more or less upset customers.  I would argue that it doesn’t make a ton of sense to try and add compatibility for a smaller and always shrinking group of customers, many who aren’t even interested in new products, when it comes with other negatives.

And you’re claiming there wasn’t enough effort, when you actually have no idea how much thought was put into these decisions.  We are also looking at many of the complications to deal with from an theoretical/intellectual point of view where we would miss some of issues involved that Sonos would discover in practical testing and experience.

 

Sending mine back: my partner isn’t techy, and doesn’t understand why it won’t just work with the £1,000s of Sonia kit we have already.  Explained that, for it to work, we have to renew every bit of Sonos kit in the house.

and frankly, if I’m going to do that, why would I buy Sonos again?

Sending mine back: my partner isn’t techy, and doesn’t understand why it won’t just work with the £1,000s of Sonia kit we have already.  Explained that, for it to work, we have to renew every bit of Sonos kit in the house.

and frankly, if I’m going to do that, why would I buy Sonos again?

I am not sure what you want Sonos to do.  The whole point of creating the S1 / S2 split was to allow product developments that were held back by needing to operate with the oldest products.  if the Roam had to be compatible with the ‘legacy’ devices, it wouldn’t be the Roam.

You cannot group the Roam with your existing devices but you don’t need to get rid of them.  Which Sonos products do you have?

 I am pretty hacked off that Sonos have (in their opinion) updated a system such that those early adopters and supporters are now deemed legacy users.  

What else could Sonos do? Longer term users are inevitably those with devices that cannot keep up with the most recent features.  'Legacy users' can still do everything they could when they bought the products, and more.  But this is all discussed ad infinitum in other threads.

As @Ken_Griffiths says, you .must do as you wish, but there is zero sense in your posts.

I had to retire a perfectly functional Android phone because the service providers are turning off the cell towers that support the phone. Regardless of the tower situation I would have retired the phone anyway because it could not be updated to run applications that I need for work. I’ve had similar issues with older iPads not being able to run current software needed for work. And I had to retire functional computers because they did not have enough resources to run newer operating systems and programs.

The public accepts, appreciates, and demands the feature and performance upgrades of the newer technology.

The attitude is completely different for audio equipment. Here it is buy once, stay compatible between new and old, and play forever. 

It’s also generational. For the young generation those old audio “boxes” are ridiculous old artifacts used by their parents and grand parents -- music belongs in the pocket. For the audio equipment producers those older people will never be customers as long as their “box” continues to function. It’s a tough business selling forever “boxes”. Most of the traditional audio companies from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are gone or have transformed into something else.

We’ve had technology revolutions before. Leaded gasoline faded away, glass TV picture tubes and the supporting broadcast technology have faded away, VCR’s faded away, generations of business and personal computers have faded away, only audio technology is forever.

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The S1/S2-split was unfortunate but unavoidable. The fact all new products introduced after may 2020 are S2 only is not a secret. If there's one company that can not be accused of using "built in obsolescence” it is Sonos, still supporting devices sold in 2006 (though not to the standard you would like).

 

 

By the way - the company you're complaining about is called Sonos…….