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Avid Contributor I
April 14, 2016
Answered

Severe battery drain with Sonos app in iOS

  • April 14, 2016
  • 125 replies
  • 19523 views
I am seeing very significant battery drain on iOS when using Sonos app. This morning I just used the app for about an hour to play music, and the battery usage report shows that Sonos has consumed 47% of the battery usage in the last 24 hours. This is a trend I've noticed a lot recently. What can I do?

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Best answer by Ryan S
Thanks for the details guys. We've been looking into iOS battery usage and so far it's all seemed pretty normal. The biggest drain on the battery that Sonos uses comes in two pieces, first off, the app is still going to try and keep alive access to your players while you're on a wireless network, which, even in background mode, will use a bit of the battery. The second piece, is that when you're using the iOS Lock Screen controls on Sonos, the app is "playing" a silent track on the phone. This is the only way to have a non-media app take control over the lock screen in iOS.

If you think your system is seeing an unusually high amount of battery usage, we're happy to take a look, and I'd encourage you to give us a call on our support line.

125 replies

reddot
April 14, 2016
Can you do another screen shot after you tap the little click button next to "last 7 days"? That'll show you the foreground and background usage minutes.
Prodigy II
April 14, 2016
The clock icon on the right will tell you how long the app was being used. May be useful in isolating what's going on.
swittersAuthor
Avid Contributor I
April 14, 2016
Here are two more screenshots with the clock icon revealed.



reddot
April 14, 2016
Wow. That seems really unusual. I guess I've been using the computer controller lately. I don't remember my ratio being so out of whack though. Try rebooting your phone and see if that helps. The next thing I'd try would be to delete and reinstall the app.
swittersAuthor
Avid Contributor I
April 15, 2016
I tried both of your suggestions. Will reinstall Sonos app and see what happens. Would love to hear from someone from Sonos if they're familiar with this issue.
reddot
April 15, 2016
Yeah, me too!
testcard
Prodigy I
April 15, 2016
Interesting. A couple of years ago many iPhone users, myself included, were experiencing excessive battery drain from the Sonos app running in the background. Sonos fixed this with an app update. Are you running the latest versions of iOS and the Sonos app? Reinstalling the Sonos app would be a good start.
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
April 15, 2016
There was some trouble a couple years ago as testcard says, but that should be long resolved. Just checking, what source of music were you listening to? Playing tracks off the phone will use the battery more than from a music service directly.

If you're still having trouble can you submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system using that controller and reply back with your confirmation number?

Thanks
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swittersAuthor
Avid Contributor I
April 17, 2016
There was some trouble a couple years ago as testcard says, but that should be long resolved. Just checking, what source of music were you listening to? Playing tracks off the phone will use the battery more than from a music service directly.

If you're still having trouble can you submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system using that controller and reply back with your confirmation number?

Thanks


I have only had Sonos for a few months, and am running the latest version 6.2.2. I am listening to music on Spotify and Apple Music, never from my phone or iPad. My diagnostics confirmation # is 6096812.

I tried restarting my phone, and deleting and reinstalling the app. The battery usage is still way more than it should be. Here is the latest screenshot:

Lyricist III
April 18, 2016
I have exactly the same battery drain issue. Bought Sonos two days ago. Using iPad mini IOS 9 (latest version) with Sonos controller 6.2.2. Set everything up two days ago. After one day noticed unusually large battery drain on iPad. Battery statistics for last 24 hours show Sonos 45 mins on screen - 3.1 hrs background!!

Why the massive gackground usage? No other app comes close.

Under advanced settings I have "usage data" turned off. Check for updates is on.

Clearly the Sonos controller is responsible for my batter drain. But why?? I really hope this can be fixed.