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Roam randomly offline, then reappears online many hours later (sometimes)

I’ve been using my Roam for may weeks now but every so often I find it offline, and then I can’t access it at all. If I leave it for several / many hours it might suddenly appear online.

The problem seems to happen most after I put it to sleep, or power it off or leave it off the charger long enough for it to put itself to sleep. Then next time I want to use it, push the power button, LEDs come on … but it stays offline !

If I leave it on the charger and as a member of a group (i.e. it never let it go to sleep) it will work for many days without hassle, but occasionally I still find it offline (but much less often).

It’s very odd that the only solution to get it back online (after powering on and LEDs on) is to leave it for several / many hours … and then it will suddenly, unpredictably appear online.

I would appreciate some pointers, it’s starting to annoy me !

TIA

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18 replies

Ken_Griffiths

The following is based on my own experience of using the device… The Roam should sleep after 30 mins. of inactivity. It can wake for a variety of reasons, see below:

  1. It’s connected to a charger.
  2. IP address is renewed by the local router.
  3. The Sonos App is opened (whilst connected to the same LAN)  or the App is moved from being a background task and bought to the foreground.*
  4. To let you know it needs recharging or to receive an update.
  5. The power button is pressed.

*NB: When the App is brought into focus the Roam will fall back into sleep mode after 3 minutes if music is not played to the room.

I hope that list assists. 

I am finding that playback should last around 10-12 hours at 50% volume. Standby battery lasts much more than 24 hours and it should stay charged for around 10 days when completely powered off (5+ Sec. press on rear power button until you hear the shutdown tone).

It seems to take 2hrs 15mins to charge from empty to 100% when using an adapter with 5v/3A power output. A Qi (Chi) charger can take much longer between 4-1/2hrs to 7hrs depending on how good the charger is - best used for overnight charging, or trickle-charging throughout the day.

G
Userlevel 7

@ninja2 It sounds to me like you are having some network connection issues with the Roam. Are you able to directly connect any of your other speakers to the router with an ethernet cable?

FYI… if you power down the Roam completely by holding down the button on the back for 5 seconds until you hear a chime, the Roam will stay offline until you power it on again.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
lewisc
Userlevel 4
Badge +9

What router do you have?

Authorised Sonos Installer
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

@GuitarSuperstarthat’s my suspiciaon, but I can’t prove it yet. I can connect by ethernet if need be … I’m interested to know the test/purpose ? (all my other speakers are working fine wirelessly)

I should mention I use Sonos boost. As I understand that means my speakers connect by Sonos protocol through the boost, not WiFi. My Roam is registered on my WiFi, but I’m not sure which protocol it uses (WiFi or Boost). Biut I’m no expert, this could all be wrong :)

@lewisc my router is a Fritz!Box7490

 

 

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Hoping to get Sonos staff help on this topic … please :)

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Ken_Griffiths

Hoping to get Sonos staff help on this topic … please :)

Isn’t the Roam just going to sleep, as it is designed to do? Have you tried waking it up using the various methods mentioned, such as a press on its rear power button, or simply opening the S2 App on the same network. Unless it’s a case that it’s battery is flat and you just need to recharge it.

N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

sure it’s going to sleep, but if I push the power button and the white LED comes on (two actually, because the mic is enabled) it simply shows in app as “offline” for hours at a time and I can’t use it, whether by itself or adding it to an active group. Then, suddenly, randomly, it will appear online in the app and I can use it normally.

Same thing happens whether I put it to sleep or power it off by pushing the power button. Also happens if I pause and leave it long enough to go to sleep, and it’s not on the charger.

And it’s not a charging issue, the battery is working just fine. But keeping it on the charger stops it going to sleep from the active state.

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Ken_Griffiths

sure it’s going to sleep, but if I push the power button and the white LED comes on (two actually, because the mic is enabled) it simply shows in app as “offline” for hours at a time and I can’t use it, whether by itself or adding it to an active group. Then, suddenly, randomly, it will appear online in the app and I can use it normally.

Same thing happens whether I put it to sleep or power it off by pushing the power button. Also happens if I pause and leave it long enough to go to sleep, and it’s not on the charger.

And it’s not a charging issue, the battery is working just fine. But keeping it on the charger stops it going to sleep from the active state.

It very much sounds like the Roam might be connecting to a different WiFi access point, do you have multiple access points in your own network setup perhaps?

N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Well I only have one router but maybe my boost is an AP too?

I’m assuming multiple router bands (2.4GHz/5GHz) and my mesh repeater don’t count as APs

If the Roam is seeing two APs, why would it pseudo-randomly jump between them ? curiouser and curiouser … :-|

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Ken_Griffiths

The Roam doesn’t use the Boost’s SonosNet connection and as you only have the one access point with dual bands, perhaps try this…
 

When your controller App loses site of the speaker perhaps just see if switching between your 2.4Ghz band and 5Ghz band (or vice versa) on your mobile causes the device to reappear in the App as that might give an indication to where the problem lies. HTH

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ninja2 

When your Roam has white lights but is missing from the App, can it play from voice command, the Spotify app or via AirPlay?

If so, then the issue isn’t that the Roam is offline, but that the network isn’t allowing the app to communicate with the speaker. As @Ken_Griffiths mentioned, the Roam does not make use of the Boost, so it’s connecting in a different way from the rest of your Sonos speakers and therefore is alone in this issue.

This first thing I would do in this case is switch the router off for at least 30 seconds.

Is your mesh also by Fritz!? If not, you may need to make sure it is in Bridge or AP mode. This might be worth checking even if it is Fritz! too. If you turn this unit off, does that help the Roam? If so, then there are probably some configuration changes needing done.

If that doesn’t help, it would be best to submit a diagnostic while the Roam is online and record the number given, then get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Hi @Corry P 

Thanks for getting involved.

Sorry I don’t use voice commands at all, Spotify or Airplay. But maybe there’s a simple voice command I can try. Any suggestions? I can always look it up in the user guide …

Meanwhile I’ll try turning off my Fritz! repeater and also power-cycling my router.

Re your sentence “ If so, then the issue isn’t that the Roam is offline, but that the network isn’t allowing the app to communicate with the speaker” . Just to clarify when the problem happens the App has the word “offline” next to the Roam, and I can’t group it.

BTW I’ve been using it for several days with it sitting on the charger with no issues at all. But as soon as I let the Roam sleep or I power it down it stays offline for many hours.

 

@Ken_GriffithsI tried yr suggestion but no luck. Tks anyway for yr suggestions

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ninja2 

If you don’t use voice, no problem. Just get something playing from the internet on the Roam and press pause. When the Roam is reported as offline, press it’s play button - if it starts playing, it’s clearly online but the app is having trouble.

Re your sentence “ If so, then the issue isn’t that the Roam is offline, but that the network isn’t allowing the app to communicate with the speaker” . Just to clarify when the problem happens the App has the word “offline” next to the Roam, and I can’t group it.

Yes, so if the app says the Roam is offline while it can play music, then there are local communication issues.

I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to get reports from your Roam as to what it thinks is going on.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Rebooting the router has fixed things. A bit annoying as I did reboot early on but it didn’t work then.

FWIW before rebooting, with my Roam was online and working, I logged into my router and saw the Roam connected at 5GHz through the mesh repeater. I turned the repeater off and the Roam automatically connected back to the router, and continued working fine.

So I rebooted router. Lo and behold: it came online promptly. I used it for a day or so with no problems, even if off the charger, or if I power cycled it would happily transition back from offline to online.

Today I turned the repeater on and the Roam continued to work OK. I noticed it wasn’t connecting through the repeater so I power cycled the Roam and it transitioned over to the repeater (it’s closer to Roam than the router)  and the Roam was back online quite soon.

So all WiFi aspects seem to be working fine AFAIK. Now I can go back to play with Bluetooth, pairing Roam with my phone to see how that goes.

Big thanks to @Corry_P and @Ken_Griffiths for yr suggestions

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

There’s a little more to this saga after all. Yesterday I bluetooth paired my Roam to my mobile and successfully grouped Roam with my other speakers. Yay, that’s exactly what I wanted. Much excitement was had.

But then I had trouble switching Roam off bluetooth and back to WiFi. The only solution seemed to be to turn off bluetooth on my mobile, then power cycle the Roam. It came back up with the white LED on, but it remained offline / inaccessible in the app, again. grrrr !!

I rebooted my router and it came up offline again for a while, but then re-joined and all was back to normal = unpredictable.

I tried changing to Bluetooth and back to WiFi today and I was pleasantly surprised that it worked, even without a router reboot. But I’m still not confident the issue is fully resolved.

For now I have one big question:

What is the right way to switch from Bluetooth mode back to WiFi ?

I looked though the SONOS User Guide and noticed the MOVE has a dedicated Bluetooth/Wifi swap button and lots of nice words explaining how to do it. But I couldn’t find any similar info for the Roam.

I also tried “Sound Swap” by putting my Roam near my Play:5 Gen 2 and held the play/pause button down, but nothing happened.

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ninja2 

The correct way to move your Roam back over to a WiFi connection is to go into your phone’s Bluetooth settings and disconnect it from the Roam - the way you’ve already been doing it.

Was your Play:5 part of a group of speakers? If it was in charge of that group (at the top of the list of grouped speakers), then Sound Swap won’t work with it. 

Although the Gen2 Play:5 will work with Sound Swap, the Gen1 will not - please make sure of the model.

If this doesn’t help, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
N
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Many thanks again @Corry P.

Switching BT off on the mobile to get Roam off BT seems is a bit clunky. But it works OK so I can live with it.

NB: I realised it’s very important the Roam isn’t powered down before switching BT off on the mobile, otherwise the Roam will just come back up looking for BT and can get stuck offline!! That was the silly circle I got into :-(

And I got sound swap to works thanks for your clue that it won’t swap with a speaker at the top of group. My Play:5 is usually at top of the group, but now I know.

PLAYBASE + P.1 pair + SUB | Boost | P.5 Gen 2 | 2xP.3 | P.1 | 2xOneSL | Beam + SUB | 2xRoam
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ninja2 

Many thanks again @Corry P.

You’re very welcome!

Switching BT off on the mobile to get Roam off BT seems is a bit clunky. But it works OK so I can live with it.

NB: I realised it’s very important the Roam isn’t powered down before switching BT off on the mobile, otherwise the Roam will just come back up looking for BT and can get stuck offline!! That was the silly circle I got into :-(

The Roam will still connect to WiFi when it comes back on, and you can stop it from looking for the Bluetooth device it’s not going to find by putting Roam into sleep mode and then wake it again.

I have to apologise as I’ve been thinking in terms of the Move. The Roam will connect to WiFi regardless of it’s Bluetooth connection (unlike the Move), so if you can’t connect to it at all when turning it on at home (over WiFi), then I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

And I got sound swap to works thanks for your clue that it won’t swap with a speaker at the top of group. My Play:5 is usually at top of the group, but now I know.

Great! This is to prevent you from “stealing” music from other people in the house, in other rooms. If you were able to Sound Swap with a group-coordinator, the whole group would have to stop playing, rather than that one speaker.

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