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Avid Contributor I
Apr 14, 2016 9:02 PM UTC
Answered

Severe battery drain with Sonos app in iOS

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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Ryan S
Ryan SAnswer
Retired Sonos Staff
Mar 29, 2017 5:55 PM UTC
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.
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125 replies

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Prodigy I
Aug 26, 2016 7:02 PM UTC
I'm running iOS 10 PB 7 on both my iPhone and iPad. Just checked battery usage for Sonos controller on both devices across the last 24 hours. iPad, the controller I use most, is at 1%. iPhone, that I hardly ever use as the Sonos controller, is at 20%. Definitely something wrong there.
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Prodigy I
Aug 26, 2016 7:19 PM UTC
Sorry, I submitted a diagnostic but forgot to add to previous post. Here's confirmation number for diagnostic from iPhone: 6481944.
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Jeff S
Retired Sonos Staff
Aug 26, 2016 8:07 PM UTC
Sorry, I submitted a diagnostic but forgot to add to previous post. Here's confirmation number for diagnostic from iPhone: 6481944.

I've created a support ticket for you: 160419-001076. Please give us a call and reference that number, we'll help figure this out. You can find our phone number and hours here.
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Prodigy I
Aug 26, 2016 8:09 PM UTC
Thanks Jeff.
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Lyricist I
Sep 2, 2016 4:30 PM UTC
I have the same issue on my iPhone 6s with the most current IOS. Even though I've used the SONOS app lightly, it is the highest battery drain of any app. I've noticed because the drain is so significant that is causing my battery to run down before the end of the day. I'm going to start keeping the app shut down when I'm not using it and I'll report my findings as per the battery drain.
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Lyricist I
Sep 17, 2016 9:16 AM UTC
I now also have this issue. Just picked up a new iPhone 7 yesterday and literally only opened and closed the sonos app to check that it worked - it severely drained the battery out of the phone - more than Apple Watch updates, etc.

All apps are updated to latest version.:(
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Lyricist III
Sep 17, 2016 3:15 PM UTC
Me too. Diagnostic sent here - 6553580
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Lyricist III
Sep 17, 2016 3:16 PM UTC
To be clear, iOS 10 on iPhone 6S with latest controller 6.4.1. Only noticed battery drain after iOS 10 upgrade. Nearly emptied my phone. 10 hours background activity seems very odd?
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Lyricist II
Sep 18, 2016 5:41 PM UTC
Having the same issue. Diagnostic confirmation # 6557651.
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Edward R
Retired Sonos Staff
Sep 20, 2016 11:43 AM UTC
Guys, when you have the App. open in the background, it is constantly communicating with your system over WiFi. There is nothing unusual about this. The way to avoid it, is to close the application when not in use.
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