I’m trying to set this up away from home. The Sonos app doesn’t like the wifi so the system and account settings are greyed out. I just want to setup this one roam I brought for vacation. It’s crazy frustrating that I can’t use Bluetooth until it’s setup via the app that won’t let me use the system 

I agree that requiring device to be setup with app first before being able to use blue tooth is dumb. This device is advertised as being a portable first and foremost. Humans like simplicity. Sonos app is clunky. People not familiar with sonos software, buying the roam because it is supposed to be ‘portable', are going to want the device to work similarly to other portable speakers that require no app for blue tooth.

Other speakers have already set this expectation (blue tooth straight out of the box, no app), so when your device doesn't meet this already established expectation  customers are disappointed and frustrated. Designing for humans also means designing for their expectations.

Also, the app is clunky. Requiring app setup before Bluetooth frontloads the learning curve. Allow basic blue tooth functionality before setup, then as people become settled they will look into the other features that are account locked.

Also if you lend somebody your speaker, your not going to want to give them your account info or them to make their own account (maybe they are a prankster and don't want them to take control of speaker randomly later). If they can get simple blue tooth functionality then that makes things simpler.

SSID is the WiFi name. Channel 48 is in the 5GHz band. Channels 1, 6 and 11 are in the 2.4GHz band.

Please give model numbers for the router and the repeater.

The Roam, like other Sonos speakers, is stable and reliable.  If you are having problems when it is on your network, then the issue is a networking one - drops in sound are due to network issues 99.9% of the time.  This does not mean that there is anything faulty about your network. if may be that a setting needs changing somewhere, or that there is wireless interference. Or maybe just that you are too far from the router.

Tell us more about your router and network.  Is it a mesh? Any extenders or access points?  Dual band?

You have to resolve this.  There is nothing for Sonos to resolve.  My Roam, like Bruce’s, operates without a hitch.

Ok but what I wanted is my Sonos app to work on the go with the roam. 

Now when I'm away with my roam I cannot access my Sonos app and play list, I can only play things from outside Sonos. 

It would, assuming I turned off the Bluetooth on my phone, and then connect it to their Bluetooth, sure. But as long as I leave my Bluetooth signal active, it won’t connect to another one. 
 

Bluetooth, unlike WiFi, is a one to one connection, in most cases. Neither of the Sonos devices that have Bluetooth for music streams can connect to multiple Bluetooth sources at the same time. 

Yes, my experience is very similar to that mentioned by Bruce, the Wife and I take the Roam when we go camping/glamping/walking and it’s Bluetooth connectivity works absolutely fine (without WiFi) - with both our mobiles (iPhone SE and XR). Not ever had any issues connecting, as the attached screen-capture images perhaps show (Roam here is called MotorRoam).

Whereas mine works perfectly as a Bluetooth device. I set it up initially at home as required, and after that, I’ve had zero issues connecting to it using either Bluetooth sending device I have, no matter where I am. 
 

Have you tried contacting Sonos directly to see if they can help figure out what issue you’re running in to? 

It's quite hard to help with such  vague information. Surely the "repeater" has the make and model on it?

Do you know if the repeater is in bridge mode, also known as access point mode?

Which SSIDs have you entered into Sonos?

Thank You 

Thank you again  Bruce.   I called customer support today (finally at a place with stable Wi-Fi and cell service)…   the wait was short,  the agent was knowledgeable and walked me through the setup steps successfully and I’m listening to music over Bluetooth as I write this.    Relieved I won’t be carrying a brick for 2 months,   and happy to have exactly what I intended to have when I chose the Roam for this trip and later home use.    Without your support I might have tossed it into a river in frustration - I appreciate you.   

Norton

Bruce, 

Thank you for that.   To clarify, it's the Sonos app crashing.   I tried both your suggestions, but no luck.  Next I'll take your suggestion to call them.   

The behavior is:

Launch app

Add product, it finds Roam

It displays a window saying Setting up Roam, then crashes 

As far as I can tell, I can't use it as a Bluetooth speaker with other audio apps on my phone until I clear this step of adding it to a Sonos system.   

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4989?language=en_US

I set up my Roam on my home system on WiFi and verified it worked as a WiFi speaker in a group,  and as a Bluetooth speaker.   

Then,  I broke my phone,  and had to get a new one,  just as I left town for 2 months.   I bought this Roam to be my Bluetooth speaker on this trip.   

My new phone didn’t connect to the bluetooth…   I went to a place with Wifi,  and started a new system in the Sonos App,   factory reset the Roam,  and tried to add it as a speaker in the app.    The app sees it,  and tries to add it,  but crashes every time.   

Any thoughts on what I need to do?   

Thanks!

I’ve connected the roam at home, works fine.

So can I now take the roam to work and use it via Bluetooth? 

its showing I’m connected at work but I can’t select any music from my library!!

In the setting menu, my email is clouded so I can’t open it.

Thanks for your reply  John, I appreciate it.  Reliable? Stable? Mmmh! 
Well I have a modem, the Router and a Wifi repeater, and two networks with different names, but in my main network it often has connectivity issues, so I need to change it to an other network. Even though, Alexa gets stuck, Airplay cutting out, Apple Music stopped and skipped the last week or so, etc. 
The walls in my home are made of concrete and clearly this can interfere with the signal, but here my concern is:  none of my other devices are having  an issue, neither my iPhone 11, neither my iPad Pro, neither my HP laptop, neither my Alexa 4th gen,   neither my brother’s  Xbox Series X and neither  the rest of all other Devices in my network, just the Roam. Why? I’m glad I’m not the only one, but looking at other posts here in the community, many people don’t seem to fine an effective solution to these issues. What is the main cause?    What should I do if one of  my  neighbor installed a new device that’s causing interference in my environment? Talk to him and explaining that I have issues with my network? Let’s fix it. 
Thanks a lot for your kind help 

Why is the Roam the only problem?. Possibly because it is only one that has to talk to another device or devices across your network.

You have two networks, one with an extender. Extenders are not supported by Sonos. You can get away with a poorly configured network with lots of devices, but not Sonos. And your network situation sounds a bit of a mess. 

But you have clearly made up your mind that it is the Sonos that's the problem, so I wish you well

Agreed, it won’t function as a Bluetooth device until it’s been set up as a Sonos device. I’ll be interested to hear what CS has to say. 

As a guess, I’d be saying a VPN or other port blocking software, but it’s hard to tell remotely. 

Well John, I’m not  criticizing Sonos in any way, be aware that I’m just trying to find a solution to these issues, trying to stop my roam from behaving unstable, as technical support in Mexico is so unresponsive. 
I absolutely love my Roam as a sounding speaker, sounds great being too small, I tested outdoors near the beach and it was amazing. I just want to stop it from being so unstable, Which network requirements does it need to work flawlessly and errors free? Reading many posts here in the community, it seems to be a común issue without any fix, and this is the only and the first Sonos speaker I’ve ever had, so, if I don’t find any efective sollution to this issue, I’ll probably be returning it soon       

That’s odd. Once it’s set up, the Roam should be able to be connected to by any compatible Bluetooth device. Not just the single device that set it up originally. 

What app crashes? When using Bluetooth, you shouldn’t be using the Sonos app, but any other music app. 

Although you say you’ve done so, I’d be tempted to try another factory reset. If any app is crashing, it seems as though the factory reset didn’t ‘take’. I’d also be tempted to delete the Sonos app, and download a fresh one from the Apple or Google stores, on the offhand chance that it has become corrupt.

Finally, I’d really be tempted to call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

Have you yet gone onto try the suggestions provided to you earlier, in the various other threads - for example: Shift the Roam off your 5Ghz WiFi band onto the 2.4Ghz band and select a channel-width of 20Mhz?

I'd be happy to see if I can help make your Roam stable. Shall we try?

First question has to be why do you have two networks?

Do both routers have 2.4 and 5GHz bands? Do the bands have separate SSIDs.

Does the extender have the same SSID and password as one of the routers?

I think you described it very well. great <3

I’ll try firstly to set my wireless channel into my main  router hoping it would solve the matter, anyways, it’s been stable with Bluetooth playing content from YouTube, no audio  drop outs at all so far after a large reboot of my router an reinstalling the Sonos app   

Answering your questions, my main network seems to be 2.4 gigahertz because we had the 5 gigahertz but it  was removed, it no longer appears in the list,  but my Roam is connected to the second network because it seems more reliable for it to work because I noticed it was having many issues with the main one, I don’t know why, is the strongest.

We have two networks because my house is too big, in the back we have a new building for guests, where we have a dining room/ kichen downstairs, and upstairs a music livingroom, 2 bethrooms and a bathroom, and there isn’t enough signal for the main router so we had to put a repeater, and yes, they have different names and different passwords, and I don’t know anything about the SSIDs, neither  the channel of my main network, but the Tech support noticed in a diagnostic that my Roam was using the channel 48 and 2.4 gigahertz, but I don’t know if my provided network has the ability to change the channels into either 1 6 or 11 which are the ones that Sonos recommends for minor wireless interference. 
Thanks for your kind help guys