So why not submit a diagnostic, and call Sonos about it?

Again, I agree, and I didn’t buy two for the purpose of portability, but rather I was impressed with the size and sound (always a Sonos plus for me) and where I intended to use them.  I even intended to accept “plugged in all the time” if it would work, but tech support told me that would severely diminish the battery life by doing that, so that was a non-starter, and like you say, without sound they eventually sleep, as they should. So, I have seen no movement by Sonos to make a change or even commit to development, other than customer support “opening a ticket” for consideration by the developers, with the caveat, “but there is no guarantee they will act on it” as I was told.  As such, I will returning the second one and accept no stereo for me. (Except in other rooms where I have One’s and One SL’s paired). BUMMER!!!!!

Add mine to the chorus of voices Sonos apparently doesn’t care to listen to with regards to problems stereo pairing two Roams.

It’s not even something I want them to do very often. Typically, they just sit in different parts of the home. But we’re leaving on a road trip, so I thought I’d pair them as stereo and take them as a mini-system on the road for two weeks of travel. That’s not going to happen.

The two don’t even stay paired for longer than a few moments. Tried it on an Android device as well as an iOS device, to see if it might by software related. Fails on both Android and iOS within moments after initially announcing success in pairing two speakers, quickly reverting to playing music only through one speaker (the one, incidentally, it plays the chime through in the pairing process).

Pairing two speakers as a stereo pair is something Ultimate Ears had down *years* ago. Very disappointing that it clearly doesn’t work well, if at all, on Sonos, given the considerable premium one pays.

I am having same issue with dropping stereo pair as well. My roams are connected Wi-Fi, and seperate every time I turn them off. The do connect back without any issues. It is annoying but I do hope Sonos will address the issue. 

Same for me.  I had hoped for a while that a recent update (13.1.1) may have fixed it but again today my Roams went to standby, then show as Offline in the S2 app.  When they show back online they show as individual speakers.  The pairing process is quick but potentially I would have to do it every time I want to use them.

Keeping a portable battery powered speaker on charge all the time is not a solution or even a workaround.  It spoils what is otherwise a great little speaker.  Well the other issue is likely to be the poor battery life.  I thought I was getting 5 days on standby then revised that to 4 and now I think that might be optimistic.  I would be interested to know how Sonos can claim it lasts 10 days on standby.  

I also bought a pair of the wireless charges so I could keep the roams charging while playing on the deck and they still seperate pairs. I don't find those chargers work all that well 

Just picked up a pair of Roam and my issue is a bit different.  I don't mind so much that they unpaid, though my play 1s never had this issue.  My issue us even when I pair them as stereo, app seems to play as stereo but one of the two will not have sound.  This appears to be random as sometimes it works sometime doesn't.  I end up just playing both and that's more reliable, as stereo pair doesn't always work for me.

Bummer as I like how small they are and playing both fills the room very well (though still lacks base).  If I cannot reliably connect both, they are going back...

I created an account just to share my experience with this and possible solution.  
 

Me: Sonos power user/brand advocate with setups in multiple rooms, in ceiling speakers, 3 Amps and 1 port total. iPhone 12 max pro with latest iOS, google fiber/mesh. 
 

Purchased 2 Roams with intent to pair for stereo. Went through same steps. Sonos confirmation audio in stereo. Tried to play music in Music app. Failure. Only 1 speaker played music. Tried reconnecting from other speaker, etc. I could select both speakers separately and they would play together but each in mono. That was not satisfactory at all obviously.  

THIS WAS LITERALLY MY FIRST EVER BAD EXPERIENCE WITH SONOS AND I WAS SOMEWHAT SHOCKED  

I just now randomly tried loading music through the Sonos app instead of iOS Music, which required me to authorize my phone on my Apple Music account (had no idea it wasn't authorized). I logged in, loaded My Library, opened a playlist and suddenly everything plays in stereo. 
 

Note this isn't a perfect fix. I went back to Apple Music app and stereo broke again. But I didn't have to repair the speakers again. I just had to back to Sonos app and load Apple Music in the Sonos app again and back to stereo. Not perfect but good enough for me. 
 

TLDR: if you're having issues using 2 Roams in stereo mode, try loading your music within the Sonos app (ie, use Sonos app to play music.)

This is depressing!! I’d planned buying a second to add a stereo pair in the conservatory or outside. But they would be joining other speakers around the house. I thought they'd act as one speaker, my old Sony cubes worked similarly & brilliantly in stereo, and would join other easily. Is Sonos aware of this as it is a feature they promote?

WTF Sonos? Just got mine today, and setup stereo pair, sound great. Stopped the music for a few hours, and when I play via Spotify or anything, Only the right speaker (primary) plays sound (altho the left will control the music, they still show as paired). This is a similar problem that the Move had last year with Air Play, taking a few minutes to play in stereo. Do you test your products anymore?

Same issue losing the stereo pair. (two roams) Raised a ticket with sonos support, casenumber 02829603 (last april!). No reply and never got solved. Another complaint, ability to use the roams as satellites (for example with a beam and/or an ARC). Never got an answer on that one. Although these speakers are not cheap at all, you can only use them as a expensive BT speaker (and for that there are much cheaper options). Not satisfied at all.

A 0.

Called support, and they had me power cycle my router to see if it was a UPnP discovery error, and they seem to work better now. (altho, the support technician was also confused about the need to re-pair to stereo after power cycling the Roams, lol)

Getting worse. Now, they pair but only one plays. The other is silent. I have factory reset and reinstalled multiple times and no resolution. I own about every Sonos product and am a huge advocate. As a founder of a software company, I consider Sonos a Gold Standard in quality and customer experience. It’s a new product and I am hopeful fixes will follow. For now, running unpaired I suppose. 

So frustrating! Just bought a pair of Roams today and already have had to re-pair them a few times - ridiculous. 

This has been deeply annoying for me.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1066?language=en_US

This article (now) says that powering off a Roam or a Roam going to sleep will break a pair.  What a terrible design choice.

So they are basically useless as a pair, since you will need to re-pair them all the time.

Thanks for pointing that out - truly frustrating. Add in that one speaker usually doesn’t play any sound, even though it’s close to the one it’s paired with - you’re right - useless as a pair. 

same issue here.  Hope they come up with a fix soon.  It’s easy enough to pair, but the fact that my Moves stay paired with no issue makes this very perplexing and frustrating. Am I far off base thinking one could simply copy/paste the code modules used for pairing in the Move and apply to the Roam?  Confused….

There was a software update yesterday which deals with this some, have you installed that?

Installed the update ….. doesn’t seem to have fixed the issue though. Very frustrating!

It might be time 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.

I bought a couple of Sonos Roams to use outside in our patio, under cover, but next to the pool. I experienced some strange behaviour, similar to what was previously mentioned in the thread, like the stereo pair splitting and only one speaker playing in a pair.

 I spoke to Sonos support and potential issues included:

• each speaker connected to a different satellite in our mesh network. Make sure they’re on the same satellite. This seems to be the biggest issue, and it’s mostly related to AirPlay2.
• one speaker connects at 4.4GHz, the other at 5Ghz (although it sometimes works, but intermittently)
• Network settings supporting 20Mhz/40Mhz coexistence

It was also confirmed that stereo pairing won’t be retained once powered down. This is a potential deal breaker for me. I got them for their wifi and weather resistant capabilities (it’s right next to the pool), but it also needs to be user friendly. As I’m planning to store them away after use in any case, I might as well get two HomePod minis and be a bit more pedantic about keeping them safe. It’s not in direct sun and potential rain.

I don’t understand all these pairing issues with ROAMs as an issue.  They are not intended as a fixed stereo pair, they are meant to walk away with you and ROAM.  If you make a new configuration, you have to go to the app and set it up and it is meant to go back to baseline when the end of the scenario is detected and become a singular ROAM.  Maybe there should be a save and recall configurations function, OK, but there are endless configurations many people may have included breaking the link to use bluetooth in the car or your phone at a party or pairing with friends ROAMs at a party or something.  There is not really a good way to predict in software how anyone really wants to roam around with their ROAMs without decreasing their capability to roam.   Many of these things I am reading seem to be about not wanting to buy other SONOS equipment to satisfy their specific needs or disliking the go back to baseline scenario because they have to go back to the app.  The ROAM seems to have more capability and control for any number of situations and still go back to being a singular roaming around speaker.  These are just my opinions as a SONOS  user.

When I bought my pair of Roam’s, pairing was a specific feature that they supported.  It still says pairing is a feature on the product page today.

The thing that is not stated is “unlike any other Sonos pairing, you must go and re-pair your Roam’s every time you want to use them because they separate from the pair each time they go to sleep”.

I bought Roam because I can take them with me when I want, and also have them live most of their time in my study as a pair.  If I did take one away with me, and needed to re-pair, fine.  But thats not whats happening.

This is what the Staff have said about the Roam stereo pairing features (off its charger):

Obviously they always stay stereo paired when on WiFi and placed on a charger and work great when on the Sonos magnetic Qi charger base.

They not stay stero paired, as it's impossible to pair them in the first place. You can pair them, but only one plays music after this "pairing".

The stereo pairing for Roams used to work for me a couple months ago, seem like Sonos "improved" the firmware in the meantime.

This is the case of over ambitious project (do everything) crippled by hardware savings (why just one button with several use functions - I had to print and glue to my speaker short manual how to turn on the BT, go to sleep, shut off). The designer assumed the software will work flawlessly and all will happen automatically, the device will always guess the user needs. But the flawed overly complex software is not cooperating :(

So I decided for old phone and two BT speakers- it works all the time, no issues, no tinkering, no firmware updates, no decoding of blinking LEDs, no repairing. Simple and works.

It even allows me to listen in stereo in hotels, where Sonos refuses to connect to WiFi at all, so stereo pairing was never possible.

The sound of Sonos is great, but to get it I spend more time tinkering vs. listening. Beautiful product destroyed by poor software quality control.

Initially I was impressed by Sonos sound, especially in stereo. Now the stereo pairing capability is broken, and the product is useless.