Trending Lyricist I

Sonos Roam and Traveling with Wi-Fi

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 11, 2023
52 replies
4979 views

Hoping to get some clarity from the community on how painful this is supposed to be…

I am travelling with a couple of Sonos Roam between my home and various office locations. I’m one of few very oddball people that like STEREO, you see. And I understand that the roam is intended as a Bluetooth MONO system when roaming, but since I am a difficult customer I tend to hook them up using the Wi-Fi network to get STEREO. Like we have had since the 1930s.
So far, this has required a factory reset of the speakers EVERY TIME to connect to a new Wi-Fi network.
Today I contacted support and asked how to do this without factory reset, and was told that this was not possible, I needed to factory reset. Pain.
The experience at every location so so far has been, step by step:

Start Sonos app, it finds the system missing and select the change network option.
Attempting to find the system fails with “Sonos not found”. Surprising, since it's already connected via bluetooth, but apparently it's incapable of finding what it is already connected to. (Unlike my camera, my car and everything else that seamlessly configures network over Bluetooth and switch to WiFi transfer mode as required...)
Disable bluetooth on my phone in the hope that it will connect over WiFi.
Being told by the Sonos app to turn on Bluetooth, in which case it again connects to the Sonos Roam over Bluetooth, and still “Sonos not found”.
Give up, and perform factory reset of both Sonos Roam.
Detect both Sonos roam, this is hit and miss and sometimes a royal pain.
When they are found, the funny thing is that I am already logged into the app, but now I need to re-enter my user name and password to log in again. More needless pain.
Attempting to add the speakers back to my main system will not work, since I am not on my main wifi network. Therefore have to set up a new system.
Hooray. Now finally able to use my roam speakers. In STEREO. But all my settings, favourites, playlists and music services are wiped out. So I don't have anything to listen to anymore.
I can now start the process of reconfiguring the system from scratch.
Tomorrow I am going to another location with another WiFi network, so I look forward to having to set up all settings and music services from scratch again.

Did I get this right? Is that how the Sonos ownership experience is supposed to work? What is the point of having a Sonos account? Did I miss something?

I have been a Sonos customer since 2006, and have two houses full of Sonos gear, but it's becoming increasingly harder to justify the huge investment in effort to keep these systems running.

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buzz

Grand Maestro

Consider using a travel router. One side of the travel router will be configured for the local userid/password and the other side will always be your ROAM’s WIFi userid/password.

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Consider using a travel router. One side of the travel router will be configured for the local userid/password and the other side will always be your ROAM’s WIFi userid/password.

Yes, that's what I was afraid of. I need to bring dedicated network infrastructure with me to use my Sonos Roam for travel. Really? 2023?

Airgetlam

A single device is that big of an issue? Mine is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It makes things much easier, as my phone, my tablet, and my Roam all connect to it, along with its added security. I would be much more worried about connecting a Sonos device to a public network, exposing it to any random command initiated on that network.

Bruce

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

A single device is that big of an issue? Mine is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It makes things much easier, as my phone, my tablet, and my Roam all connect to it, along with its added security. I would be much more worried about connecting a Sonos device to a public network, exposing it to any random command initiated on that network.

I understand you might have a strong case to bring additional network infrastructure with you on your travels, but I have access to, and control, private Wifi network at every location that are either my offices or homes. Introducing an additional device of unknown firmware does not improve my security, it reduces it.

However, I was hoping I wouldn't have to bring an additional devices with me to travel with the Roams.

buzz

Grand Maestro

If you have control over all of the networks and want maximum convenience, use the same SSID/Password everywhere.

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

If you have control over all of the networks and want maximum convenience, use the same SSID/Password everywhere.

I should change the password in our office to the same password I use at home?
Thank you for your advice.

106rallye

Though I do not own a Roam I just cannot believe the Roam can only be set to a new network when it is reset. According to https://support.sonos.com/article/connect-sonos-to-a-new-router-or-wi-fi-network you should get to see this:

and work on from there.

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Though I do not own a Roam I just cannot believe the Roam can olnly be set to a new network only when it is reset. According to https://support.sonos.com/article/connect-sonos-to-a-new-router-or-wi-fi-network you should get to see this:

and work on from there.

Thanks, that is usually where I start. And unfortunately can't move on from there, I get the “Sonos not found”. When chatting with support they confirmed that factory reset was the only way possible. I can't make sense of that information, as I don't think it should be this difficult to own the Sonos product line.

Ken_Griffiths

@Thorium Prime,
The wife and I carry several devices when we go away on holiday including two tablets and two mobile phones. Each mobile phone WiFi hotspot has been added to the Roams and so when we arrive at the holiday destination - we can either use the Roams, on either hotspot, or transfer them to a local WiFi network via the ‘Update Networks’ option in the Sonos App network settings.

I understand that up-to 16 WiFi networks can be added - currently we have 5 stored as shown in the below attached image. We have added and deleted many WiFi networks over the past year, or two, and because the Sonos Household is always carried with us, we have never had occasion to factory reset either speaker - in fact we would never do that, as it means we would lose all our playlists/services whilst we were away from home. We’ve personally had no issue adding/removing WiFi networks to the speakers/S2 controller App.

If you want to invent/name ‘any’ WiFi network SSID - I will happily add it to my Roam/S2 App and post back here with that wireless network shown in the WiFi network list… proving there is no need (ever) to reset the Roam when adding a new WiFi network to it.

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

The wife and I carry several devices when we go away on holiday including two tablets and two mobile phones. Each mobile phone WiFi hotspot has been added to the Roams and so when we arrive at the holiday destination - we can either use the Roams, on either hotspot, or transfer them to a local WiFi network via the ‘Update Networks’ option in the Sonos App network settings.

That's great, and this is what I was looking for. However, support tells me I have to factory reset the roams to get on a new Wi-Fi network, and the app (S2) fails to connect. So your experience is that you don't need to do this?

we have never had occasion to factory reset either speaker - in fact we would never do that, as it means we would lose all our playlists/services whilst we were away from home.

Exactly, this is a bit of a disaster every time.

If you want to invent/name ‘any’ WiFi network SSID - I will happily add it to my Roam/S2 App and post back here with that wireless network shown in the WiFi network list… proving there is no need (ever) to reset the Roam when adding a new WiFi network to it.

I don't think the name of the SSID is what matters. I think the issue is how the Sonos Roam deal with "Roaming” in the literal sense of the world. It seems to be unable (in my case) to follow my phone/app on to a new Wi-Fi network without factory reset.

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