Sonos Roam does not work with Sonos S1 App

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78 replies

M

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.      

T
Badge

- Gosh, the same thing happened to me!

- Several months ago I added a new Sonos Beam and a  new Sonos Five. Both connected to my S1 system with no problem because Sonos made them backward compatible. 

- It didn't occur to me that Sonos would make a speaker that wasn't backward compatible. The reviews I read didn't mention that either.

- I was really looking forward to using the Sonos Roam as my shower speaker. Sadly, I guess I'll return it. 

:-( 

Ken_Griffiths

- Gosh, the same thing happened to me!

- Several months ago I added a new Sonos Beam and a  new Sonos Five. Both connected to my S1 system with no problem because Sonos made them backward compatible. 

- It didn't occur to me that Sonos would make a speaker that wasn't backward compatible. The reviews I read didn't mention that either.

- I was really looking forward to using the Sonos Roam as my shower speaker. Sadly, I guess I'll return it. 

:-( 

Some of the things you mention are not quite correct. The Sonos Beam is from July 2018 (before the S1/S2 divide) - The Sonos Five is not S1 compatible as shown in this link:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786

Any ‘new products’ that Sonos design/manufacture will be S2 compatible only. The engineers are not updating the old S1 software, other than for the purposes of security updates/bug fixes, or to try to keep their partner music services running on that platform. 

 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

And they’re not the only ones at it, too! Manufacturers of cars, computers, refrigerators, TV’s; they all do it. Must be a conspiracy.

J
Userlevel 1

JRico, I understand your frustrations. However you are vastly simplifying the technologies. There is no lack of effort, else Sonos would not have created the S1 and S2 hiatus. There was a generous 30% discount to upgrade and still keep the kit!  
 

There comes a point that anything computer based has a limit, whether that be memory or processor capability. The system infrastructure set up Sonos settled on requires all the speakers have the same firmware, that means inevitably older speakers will eventually get left behind as they don’t have the capacity for processing memory. 

 

I work in IT and can see the difficulties. I’m also willing to bet the smart speakers you refer to are not over 5 years old.  You can think this is Sonos conspiracy or plan if you want. Doesn’t  make sense to me though,  no company I’ve ever worked for has ever wanted to upset their customers deliberately especially if revenue is at stake. Maybe the likes of Google and Amazon can do that but  I suggests Sonos is small fry and needs all the money/revenue they can get. 

You miss the point.

No company should be able to decide that my hardware isn’t fit for me anymore and do it using a software update - forced on me to take or risk that ALL of my other components wont get updated...that is not a “choice” as others have proffered.

“There comes a point that anything computer based has a limit, whether that be memory or processor capability” - I totally agree, but its the person who owns that equipment that should have the right to decide it no longer works for them. There are many phones, tablets and laptops out there that still work albeit with limited functionality and unsupported software. 

No company wants to upset their customer base?; but that is exactly what the first CEO announcement did and it was so ill received that an apology and clarification had to be made and a change in direction to not brick other pieces of kit including speakers to avoid further negativity. There are pages of negative comments and some resolving to leave the brand. There’s no conspiracy, but clearly previous form will help people decide for themselves.

I have not seen any responses in the forums that reflects any sensitivity towards understanding the customer; all responses are “We (sonos) think...”

My personal belief is that I invested with Sonos early as it was then a game changing company; I no longer feel part of the brand and am not comfortable risking more capital with a company that may well in the future decide to simply brink hardware that they deem no longer works for them.    

 

J
Userlevel 1

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.

 

This thread isn't about adding Roam to S1; its about being able to keep a system I own working as well as I can and introducing a new sonos component . sonos should not tell me what they think I do with my system, just communicate what I can’t and let me make a decision...I might not need any of the ew features. You say that “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.” - but the set up sonos are offering doesn't give me the any of these abilities either; neither S1 or S2 app recognise or talk to each other, the Roam is S2 only and I have to choose which one (S1 or S2) to work with my Google home because I can’t add both??...yet I can buy a JBL google assistant portable speaker and add it easily to Google Home so I can voice command both my “old” sonos and my new JBL portable speaker. Was even this too difficult to achieve? 

There will have been loads of effort put in to this, of that I am sure but again the response is all about what sonos have done; unfortunately it’s my (the customers) perception that actually matters. Sonos continue to miss this part. With almost zero compatibility between systems (even with Alexa and Google home integration) and reasons given that it simply was too costly or too complexity for sonos, there isn’t any other conclusion I can arrive at - it was commercially driven and failed to understand the customer. 

melvimbe

Thankfully I bought my Sonos roam from Costco - will take it back in 80 days.

Not worth the effort to upgrade to S2 when I have 3k invested in S1 products.

BTW - Sonos can fix this if they put customer satisfaction above the bottom line - my Sonos PlayBars is backward comparable on S1…just sayin.

 

 

 

According to your profile, you have quite a few products that only work on S2, not just the Roam. 

Danny
L
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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!

That’s super interesting. I thought the Play 1s were excluded. I was actually thinking of selling the play 5s as we don’t listen to music in that room anymore. 

So I could drop the play 5s and use the new app for the rest. 

 

Thanks so much for the reply John. 

J

No problem.  I suggest you check in your S1 app in Settings, System Tools and see if there is a compatibility check tool. If so, run it, and it should give you an option to upgrade to S2 and leave the P5s behind.

Youshould factory reset the P5s before selling them.

Also note that there is value in the discount to upgrade the P:5s, which can be used against any current Sonos speaker.

 

J
Userlevel 1

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

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. 

J
Userlevel 1

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.

 

 

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.    

P
Userlevel 1

I want a device that will work with my current system.  I'm willing to pay for that.  I'm not willing to pay for something that won't.  So you say I don't get it.  I just disagree.  Any S2 device is powerful enough to do what the S1s can.  So let me as the consumer decide.     

V

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.  

Same here.  Ugh!  3 connect amps, a beam and they want me to remove all existing to use the roam.  It will   Unfortunately have to go back.

J
Userlevel 1

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.

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.   

P
Userlevel 1

I want a device that will work with my current system.  I'm willing to pay for that.  I'm not willing to pay for something that won't.  So you say I don't get it.  I just disagree.  Any S2 device is powerful enough to do what the S1s can.  So let me as the consumer decide.     

 

Nope, still dont get it.  What you ask for is impossible.  It's not a question of can the Roam can run S1, it's if S1 can recognize a Roam. There are no updates being done to the S1 firmware.  None, zero, niet, nada.  It simply won't fit in the older players.  So how is a ZP90 going to know how to sync with a Roam if S1 doesn't know what a Roam is and (once more for the cheap seats) S1 cannot be updated to recognize the Roam!!??

What are you like in high school. 

bockersjv
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

JRico, I understand your frustrations. However you are vastly simplifying the technologies. There is no lack of effort, else Sonos would not have created the S1 and S2 hiatus. There was a generous 30% discount to upgrade and still keep the kit!  
 

There comes a point that anything computer based has a limit, whether that be memory or processor capability. The system infrastructure set up Sonos settled on requires all the speakers have the same firmware, that means inevitably older speakers will eventually get left behind as they don’t have the capacity for processing memory. 

 

I work in IT and can see the difficulties. I’m also willing to bet the smart speakers you refer to are not over 5 years old.  You can think this is Sonos conspiracy or plan if you want. Doesn’t  make sense to me though,  no company I’ve ever worked for has ever wanted to upset their customers deliberately especially if revenue is at stake. Maybe the likes of Google and Amazon can do that but  I suggests Sonos is small fry and needs all the money/revenue they can get. 

Ken_Griffiths

Addendum to above...I mean my original Sonos Move, (I referred to it as a Roam)

When the S1/S2 split occurred Sonos announced that all new products would be for S2 only - this was posted clearly on this forum, online and by the reporting media. There’s also this Sonos support document to show what works with S2, S1 or both Apps…

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786

The Sonos Move was manufactured/released prior to the S1/S2 split and so works with both Apps

The Roam was manufactured/released after the S1/S2 split and so works with the S2 App only. It also highlights this fact in the Sonos.com shop.

I would just either install the S2 App and run it alongside your existing S1 setup, which is what I do and use it as a portable speaker, or I guess you could perhaps return it to its place of purchase (if within terms/date), or sell it on, if you prefer to do any of those things instead.

 

J
Userlevel 1

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. 

Just figured this out for myself. Pretty much done with Sonos at this point. What a joke 

jgatie

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.  

M

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. 

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. 

I’m beyond frustrated with SONOS at this, plus the fact that I didn’t read / find this article before. I will be returning mine too. It looks like SONOS did a great mktg job at covering this up.   Ex fan and brand advocate 

Ken_Griffiths

Well thank stinks! I’ve been a loyal Sonos customer since 2010 and have just bought a Roam and wireless charging base for well over £200 only to find it wont work with my system and that Sonos are not supporting their old products and that I need to buy everything again and “upgrade” to “Sonos 2”. I’ve no idea what to do? Perhaps return my new Roam for a refund and look at alternative systems? I feel no loyalty to Sonos and my intended soundbar purchase definitely won’t be Sonos now.

It’s so sad - like a betrayal.

I don’t understand why you need to upgrade anything here, just install the Roam to the S2 App and use it as intended, as a portable speaker. It doesn’t need to use your S1 setup at all.

jgatie

I’m beyond frustrated with SONOS at this, plus the fact that I didn’t read / find this article before. I will be returning mine too. It looks like SONOS did a great mktg job at covering this up.   Ex fan and brand advocate 

 

Really?  So you think Sonos is going to make new products work with S1, which is only being upgraded for bug fixes and security patches?  So tell me, which S1 bug fix and/or security patch is going to add the functionality to support a device that didn’t even exist when S1 was retired?  Serious question. 

G
Userlevel 7

@tomwickland The Five is actually only compatible with the S2 app. You must be referring to the Play:5 (Gen 2).

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786?language=en_US

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
S

Typical Sonos rip off. Nice sound, when it works, but appalling way to treat customers (and the environment), making products which need to be entirely replaced every few years. I think it’s disgusting.

jgatie

You miss the point.

No company should be able to decide that my hardware isn’t fit for me anymore and do it using a software update - forced on me to take or risk that ALL of my other components wont get updated...that is not a “choice” as others have proffered.

“There comes a point that anything computer based has a limit, whether that be memory or processor capability” - I totally agree, but its the person who owns that equipment that should have the right to decide it no longer works for them. There are many phones, tablets and laptops out there that still work albeit with limited functionality and unsupported software. 

No company wants to upset their customer base?; but that is exactly what the first CEO announcement did and it was so ill received that an apology and clarification had to be made and a change in direction to not brick other pieces of kit including speakers to avoid further negativity. There are pages of negative comments and some resolving to leave the brand. There’s no conspiracy, but clearly previous form will help people decide for themselves.

I have not seen any responses in the forums that reflects any sensitivity towards understanding the customer; all responses are “We (sonos) think...”

My personal belief is that I invested with Sonos early as it was then a game changing company; I no longer feel part of the brand and am not comfortable risking more capital with a company that may well in the future decide to simply brink hardware that they deem no longer works for them.    

 

 

Exactly what is it about your system that “no longer works” or “isn’t fit for (you) anymore”?  Your S1 devices work exactly as they did before, and will continue to do so in the future.  

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