New Sonos Roam - Wifi Connection Issues

If you ‘could’ do that, why not try?  At the very least, it eliminates one of the potential variables. 

Apologies, Airgetlam, we aren’t technically savvy and since it’s a brand new Roam, we wanted it fully fixed to use in all modes, not just wi-fi. Thanks, Kengriffiths, for that clarification that it could impact the Bluetooth mode as well. We’ll try this fix today!

All- Sonos support ran a diagnostic and confirmed this new Roam had the same issue as the last new Roam they shipped, so it too is being sent back and they are sending another new one. They said this is a known issue with a batch of new Roams, and the diagnostic they run remotely can easily identify the issue and there is nothing to be done to fix it. It needs to be replaced. Thanks again for the help from this community to try different things!

Thanks all for your work!!!  Mine has been failing like you describe for a month now and I was convinced that if I found the exact order of button-pressing I could get it to work.

I finally found this thread and am happy to learn my next step of calling Sonos support was the right call.

Lucky us to receive the “broken” Roams :-(

For what it’s worth, I’ve had the exact same experience. Two Roams that had the connection issues, orange flashing light, skipping, etc. 

Have tried all the troubleshooting steps to no avail. Will be returning the speaker and waiting for the next gen. All my other Sonos products work flawlessly… seems to be some spotty hardware.

 Follow-up and something of a workaround: 

I called support and I could not get the problem to occur while they were ready to troubleshoot.
Next day, it was back to skipping again  .

It continues to misbehave and I will send it back when I find the time.

For now, I have a clunky workaround that may help.
 

• Turn on the Roam
• Connect (via Sonos app or otherwise)
• Play audio through the Roam
• When it starts to skip, press the Play/Pause button on the Roam
  • Press close to the time the “skip” sound occurs
  • If you hear a bit of your audio play, press play/pause button again about the time it skips
  • Repeat, listening to “good” audio till the next skip and then press the button again
• Basically, continue to do this and eventually, audio will just play normally.
• Once it plays for at least 5 seconds, until the speaker goes to sleep or is turned off, it will work perfectly

NOTE:  I have not been able to determine one set of repeatable steps, but I can consistently get the Roam working if I take up to 20 seconds doing the above steps.

I still need to send it back, but I am just too busy to go through the support process right now.  I’ll report back if I figure out anything better, but I’m hoping this might help some other poor soul.

I’m glad I have tons of other Sonos hardware or I’d think badly of it going off the Roam experience.  I feel like they should have a recall or something as they must know what is causing this.

Hi

I have exactly the same intermittent problem on wifi.  I can get bluetooth working fine.  So this isn’t an isolated issue.

However, once I have got it working on wifi it doesn’t drop out.  Its like it needs a little time to settle and connect to the network.

Having got it working on bluetooth, I disconnected the BT and forgot the device as suggested.  I was then able to connect spotify directly to the Roam on wifi.  wierd.

Just an update from me on this topic. I returned the Roam to Best Buy and swapped for another Sonos One.

Sonos Technical support ran diagnostics on my system twice and made the claim that it was my router’s issue. As I had stated to the rep, the Roam was not the only product I had (as they confirmed by pulling the information of my system). They suggested moving the Roam and that it was in a location with a weak signal. I eventually became frustrated and returned the Roam.

I purchased a Generation 2 Sonos One and place it in the same soot as the Roam, in our kitchen. Works beautifully and we just recently added two new connected washer and dryers and dishwasher to our home network. My theory is that there are Roams out there with a terrible WiFi and Bluetooth antenna. Sad, because I was really looking forward to the portability of the Roam. for a portable speaker, I may settle on a UE Boom. 
 

There’s quite a lack of information in the comparison of the two Sonos products and their wireless connection to your network..

What WiFi band was the Roam using and what band is the Sonos One now using? - were they the same type of wireless connection to the router?

Are the devices using the same wireless channels and channel-width (you do not mention what they were?) …or… are the router channels perhaps set to ‘auto-select’?

Not to mention the potential influence from possible neighbouring channels.

If the router auto-selects it’s WiFi channels for each band, then you may just have a case here where you are perhaps simply comparing ‘Apples’ to ‘Pears’, and that’s without even actually altering anything yourself. You may have a case of auto-WiFi connections, which maybe entirely different from each other.

To be fair, I didn’t think I needed to be overly complete in recounting my problems!
 

However;

When Sonos Tech support ran their diagnostics, they suggested to dedicate my Sonos system speakers to WiFi channel 1, 6 or 11 and said that all off their products “typically” work best when on these channels. I tried setting the Roam to one of these channels and it did not resolve the issue. It was then suggested that I had too many connected devices (currently 34) on my netowork and that I may experience better operation when there was less network traffic. Still did not work, regardless of time of day or my disconnection of devices on the wireless network to test. 

Support later suggested that maybe my WiFi issues came from my network being on a similar WiFI channel as my neighbors - causing congestion and pushing the newer Roam on my network to the back of the priority line to connect. So, I did a WiFi scan and selected a less congested channel on my router. I also tried setting the priority high on the Roam in my router settings. Still, the Roam did not work.

The last attempt, Sonos tech support accessed my system online and said they did a reset on their end. The Roam started to work and stream music, but then after about 30minutes of straight running, the audio would cut-off and I could hear a popping sound of the audio coming on and off. There Roam would then no longer connect.  Sort of like a stuttering in audio. Bluetooth, still never worked correctly and with respect to Bluetooth and I was then told to disable all Bluetooth devices connected to my iPhone to try streaming, but that did not work. 

I tried moving the Roam closer to the router antennas, changing channels to the suggested ones that Sonos products best operate on. Nothing worked and so I decided to return it before my store’s return policy expired. 
 

Currently, my Sonos system is now dedicated all speakers to channel 1 (now six) comprised of Gen1 Play:1s and Gen1 and Gen2 Play One speakers. Same ASUS Router Mesh network comprised of an RT-AX88U and RT-AC66U. Some have suggested an issue with ASUS routers in general, but I keep the firmware up to date and never had problems until I tried to connect the Roam.

I may have received a lemon, but it gave me a poor impression that I don’t want to even consider the new RoamSL.