Contributor I

Answered

Roam keeps turning itself on.

79 replies
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Just set up the Roam. Sounds great but a few minutes after I turn it off it comes back on. Has done this several times. Any ideas?

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James L.Answer

Retired Community Staff

Hey folks,

I answered this in the main announcement thread, but I’ll copy my response over here and also link the main thread below. I encourage you to read it as I’ve answered a lot of Roam questions over there. :relaxed:

“That’s correct, both Move and Roam do this. The Roam is designed to wake up whenever the Sonos app is foregrounded. It’s by design to ensure there is little to no delay between opening the app and being able to target playback to that speaker. When the Roam or Move powers on this way and is not targeted for playback, it will be in a low power state, so battery drain will be kept to a minimum. Rest assured, you shouldn’t see any negative effects from the Roam waking like this.”

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

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sjw

Local Superstar

@Corry P , Sonos claim a battery life of upto 10 days when in sleep mode for the Roam. Is that in a scenario where it is in a location with other Sonos speakers but neither they nor the App are never used? As the drain while in proximity to an activated Sonos App appears to be far in excess of 10% a day, what is the environment the Roam would need to be in in order to get this Standby life? If it's not near other speakers, users may as well fully power off instead and get much less drain?

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @sjw

@Corry P, Sonos claim a battery life of upto 10 days when in sleep mode for the Roam. Is that in a scenario where it is in a location with other Sonos speakers but neither they nor the App are never used? As the drain while in proximity to an activated Sonos App appears to be far in excess of 10% a day, what is the environment the Roam would need to be in in order to get this Standby life? If it's not near other speakers, users may as well fully power off instead and get much less drain?

The important point here is “up to”. The actual battery life (each charge, not the total lifespan) depends on a lot of factors, but one of the most important is battery temperature. Another is - yes - app and other speaker activity. Even the IP address lease time set on your router has an effect. Much like the quoted fuel efficiency of a car or the battery life of a laptop, the figure quoted is an upper limit - you will not see it go beyond the quoted figure, and the quoted figures generally rely on ideal conditions.

I don’t currently know the specific conditions under which the “10 days” figure was reached, but I can reach out and try to find out.

If you power off your Roam, the battery’s charge will last a lot longer, but it will not react to the app and needs physical interaction to turn on (button press or charger connected). Therefore sleep mode is for when you want to be able to play music to the Roam without touching it, but there is a power price to pay for this functionality - how can it react to the app without a functioning WiFi connection and CPU usage?

Personally, I would suggest the following:

If you’re not near a power supply (and therefore probably not near WiFi either), you should turn your Roam off when not using it - there’s no advantage to having it sleeping in this situation, other than how quickly you can get it playing again.
If you are near a power supply, (and therefore possibly connected to WiFi), you may as well charge it so you have maximum playing time for later, when there is no power. There is no direct connection from the USB socket or the Qi induction coil to the battery - the charging is controlled by software and you will not damage your Roam or it’s battery by leaving it on charge.
When you’re out and about, and are stopping playback and putting your Roam in your bag, for example, but plan on using the Roam again soon, put it to sleep so the buttons don’t get pressed by objects in your bag and so you don’t need to wait for it to boot up again when you bring it back out. As it’s a short time, the power usage difference between sleep and off will be negligible, compared to the convenience of being able to get it playing again in a few seconds.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

C

caesar327

Prodigy I

Hi @sjw

@Corry P, Sonos claim a battery life of upto 10 days when in sleep mode for the Roam. Is that in a scenario where it is in a location with other Sonos speakers but neither they nor the App are never used? As the drain while in proximity to an activated Sonos App appears to be far in excess of 10% a day, what is the environment the Roam would need to be in in order to get this Standby life? If it's not near other speakers, users may as well fully power off instead and get much less drain?

The important point here is “up to”. The actual battery life (each charge, not the total lifespan) depends on a lot of factors, but one of the most important is battery temperature. Another is - yes - app and other speaker activity. Even the IP address lease time set on your router has an effect. Much like the quoted fuel efficiency of a car or the battery life of a laptop, the figure quoted is an upper limit - you will not see it go beyond the quoted figure, and the quoted figures generally rely on ideal conditions.

I don’t currently know the specific conditions under which the “10 days” figure was reached, but I can reach out and try to find out.

If you power off your Roam, the battery’s charge will last a lot longer, but it will not react to the app and needs physical interaction to turn on (button press or charger connected). Therefore sleep mode is for when you want to be able to play music to the Roam without touching it, but there is a power price to pay for this functionality - how can it react to the app without a functioning WiFi connection and CPU usage?

Personally, I would suggest the following:

If you’re not near a power supply (and therefore probably not near WiFi either), you should turn your Roam off when not using it - there’s no advantage to having it sleeping in this situation, other than how quickly you can get it playing again.
If you are near a power supply, (and therefore possibly connected to WiFi), you may as well charge it so you have maximum playing time for later, when there is no power. There is no direct connection from the USB socket or the Qi induction coil to the battery - the charging is controlled by software and you will not damage your Roam or it’s battery by leaving it on charge.
When you’re out and about, and are stopping playback and putting your Roam in your bag, for example, but plan on using the Roam again soon, put it to sleep so the buttons don’t get pressed by objects in your bag and so you don’t need to wait for it to boot up again when you bring it back out. As it’s a short time, the power usage difference between sleep and off will be negligible, compared to the convenience of being able to get it playing again in a few seconds.

Can you address the issue of the Roam waking from sleep mode when using the app? It seems like this is causing unnecessary battery drain in sleep mode (yes it could be powered off- but there are disadvantages to that).

it seems there should be a way to use the app for my many other Sonos products, and not wake the Roam. Will Sonos make this software change? Give users a choice as to whether to wake Roam or not via the app (when in sleep mode)? And let’s assume for this conversation that sleep mode (NOT power off)- is desired.

James L.

Retired Community Staff

Can you address the issue of the Roam waking from sleep mode when using the app? It seems like this is causing unnecessary battery drain in sleep mode (yes it could be powered off- but there are disadvantages to that).

it seems there should be a way to use the app for my many other Sonos products, and not wake the Roam. Will Sonos make this software change? Give users a choice as to whether to wake Roam or not via the app (when in sleep mode)? And let’s assume for this conversation that sleep mode (NOT power off)- is desired.

Hi @caesar327,

As I’ve already stated in your other thread, I’ve passed your feedback and suggestions on to our development team for consideration. We don’t comment on our roadmap, so I don’t have anything to share regarding if, or when this feature will be implemented. Your concerns have been heard and noted.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

A

Audreyc

Contributor I

I’m having the same issue , I got mine a few days ago, I keep thinking I am turning it off but then after a while the white light comes back in . I went to use it this morning after being at 100% yesterday and it was completely drained. It’s now lost 20% over half a day . This is absolutely ridiculous. Sonos reckon on standby it will last around 10 days but I can’t see this happening we should be able to charge and be ready to pick up and go without charging everyday . I’m very disappointed I the roam for this. I thought maybe I was not turning off properly and came to see if I could find an answer and found this thread. .. has anyone found a answer to the problem? It is driving me mad keep turning itself back on. I don’t want it on standby permanently, I have other options for getting the weather etc. I just want to charge the roam , turn off and be ready to turn on when I want to take it outside. Surely that’s the point of a portable speaker.

A

Audreyc

Contributor I

Hellbat...I was still having the same issue yesterday afternoon where my Roam was still losing battery after the 5 second hold to turn “Off”. However, I removed the device from my system and set it back up again from the beginning. Now my Roam is functioning as its supposed to...if I fully charge it, then unplug and hold power button for 5 seconds, it will fully shut off until I manually turn it back on. Tried it this morning and it was at 99%, seems to be working correctly now.

I’m struggling how to turn it off . If I press once it goes to sleep mode if I press snd hold a few seconds it goes in to blue light mode.

Ken_Griffiths

I’m struggling how to turn it off . If I press once it goes to sleep mode if I press snd hold a few seconds it goes in to blue light mode.

Keep the power button pressed until you hear the ‘descending’ power-off tone about 5+ seconds

A

Audreyc

Contributor I

I’m struggling how to turn it off . If I press once it goes to sleep mode if I press snd hold a few seconds it goes in to blue light mode.

Keep the power button pressed until you hear the ‘descending’ power-off tone about 5+ seconds

Is there a sweet spot as if I hold it, briefly it goes in sleep mode , too long it shows the blue light

Ken_Griffiths

I’m struggling how to turn it off . If I press once it goes to sleep mode if I press snd hold a few seconds it goes in to blue light mode.

Keep the power button pressed until you hear the ‘descending’ power-off tone about 5+ seconds

Is there a sweet spot as if I hold it, briefly it goes in sleep mode , too long it shows the blue light

I think the more you use the Roam buttons, the more they become second nature… here is a video review of the Roam, which if I recall correctly, explains the button presses and features:

https://youtu.be/29w2rGVs5X4

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sdtheclub

Enthusiast I

Hi @sdtheclub

Actually mine turns itself back on after holding the power button for 5 seconds when on the wireless charger. I did do the hard shut down before going to bed and the next morning it had lost 5% in 9 hours.

The Roam will always power on while charging. We recommend you either leave it on charge until you take it somewhere, or power off when you take it off charge until you wish to use it. Sleep mode isn’t intended to preserve as much battery charge as possible, but to preserve some when not actively in use that would be lost otherwise.

But can we get a change put in place so that simply accessing the Sonos App for my other 5 Sonos speakers throughout the day, doesn’t wake the Roam from sleep mode? That “feature” is draining the battery unnecessarily-- but I want it in sleep mode many times (rather than always power it off) so I don't have to physically engage with the Roam necessarily to use it.

So there should be a software button/toggle to wake the Roam via the app, but ONLY when I want to -- not EVERY time I use the app (which could be for the many other aspects of my Sonos system).

Remember, there IS a home use case for the Roam, not just taking it somewhere else. My use is the bathroom (not taking it outside). But the way Sonos implemented the sleep/wake aspect doesn't really work in the home use scenario - (with the app always waking it even if you are just using other parts of your Sonos system). Can that be fixed -- pretty please?

It should turn itself back off after a short time if it isn’t being used instead of just staying on until the battery is dead

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