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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Ken_Griffiths

If you think that is the case, then just add a mobile hotspot to the list of networks in the Sonos App and enable it whilst you add the new WiFi network at your hold-all destination - that should hopefully sort it for you. I don’t personally think it matters, but at least in this way it should work for you either way.

Yes, back to the point that the Sonos Roam always need to have an existing known network available, or it needs a factory reset.

Has anyone been able to connect to a NEW network without having the Roam already connected to the internet or factory reseting it?

If a user were to own two Era-100 & 300 speakers, a Roam and a Sonos Move and they were to change their Internet Service Provider and receive a new modem/router with different SSID/Password - how do they then manage to setup a new wireless network when their old router has been returned?

If what you say were true, the user would not (easily) be able to setup their existing system on the new WiFi SSID, without purchasing a Sonos network adapter for their Era-100 or 300 speakers🤔? So what you’re inferring here doesn’t make sense to me.

Anyhow I think I have done enough here to assist you with things so I will just leave it with you, at the very least you now have a way to make things work for you when you arrive at your holiday destination.

Ken_Griffiths

My understanding by the way @Thorium Prime is that the new router Wireless credentials are passed to the Roam in one of two ways, either using 'Apple WAC', which stands for 'Wireless (or WiFi) Accessory Configuration’ over BLE, or by using an ad-hoc wireless connection, where the mobile controller uses the Roams own ‘invoked’ WiFi (hotspot) signal called ‘SONOS’ …and of course the pressing of the Play/Volume-Up buttons during the process, clearly thats for added security.

So I don’t see the point of those things, if the Roam already needed to be connected to the internet… so that’s another reason why I think your are perhaps mistaken about it needing an internet connection for the process to work. Note the above is just my personal opinion of how things work with the adding of the wireless credentials to the Roam. I can’t say I’ve ever seen Sonos Staff comment on the subject. All I can say is it works okay for me during my travels.

T

Thorium PrimeAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

If a user were to own two Era-100 & 300 speakers, a Roam and a Sonos Move and they were to change their Internet Service Provider and receive a new modem/router with different SSID/Password - how do they then manage to setup a new wireless network when their old router has been returned?

That's the question I am trying to get an answer to, and this requires some understanding of the initial handshake protocol that I do not have.

Anyhow I think I have done enough here to assist you with things so I will just leave it with you, at the very least you now have a way to make things work for you when you arrive at your holiday destination.

Thank you for your help Ken,
Yes always bringing the same SSID/network with me would of course work since that means the network never changes. And adding new network to an already connected device we know works.

Nevertheless,
Has anyone been able to connect a Roam to a NEW network without having the Roam already connected to the internet or factory resetting it?

B

betamax2875

Lyricist III

At one point I was definitely able to add my Sonos Roam to a new network without too much trouble, but this is no longer the case. When going on vacation, I would add my Sonos to a new network and enjoy uninterrupted music especially when using AirPlay 2 and white noise for sleeping. When listening via Bluetooth every time my phone would ring, the music or white noise stops which is annoying. I think this happened with a firmware update where the Roam switches to Bluetooth when it’s no connected to a network. In the beginning I would have to hold down the Bluetooth button for a few seconds to get it to switch. Now this isn’t necessary, but I am unable to get my Roam on a new network. It is highly annoying when I know i could do it a year ago.

Ken_Griffiths

At one point I was definitely able to add my Sonos Roam to a new network without too much trouble, but this is no longer the case. When going on vacation, I would add my Sonos to a new network and enjoy uninterrupted music especially when using AirPlay 2 and white noise for sleeping. When listening via Bluetooth every time my phone would ring, the music or white noise stops which is annoying. I think this happened with a firmware update where the Roam switches to Bluetooth when it’s no connected to a network. In the beginning I would have to hold down the Bluetooth button for a few seconds to get it to switch. Now this isn’t necessary, but I am unable to get my Roam on a new network. It is highly annoying when I know i could do it a year ago.

This is a duplicate post I see, but as similarly mentioned in your other thread…

Establish what WiFi networks are showing/listed in your Sonos App - ‘Settings/System/Network/Manage Networks’?

If none of the SSID’s are nearby, then just temporary recreate one of them, using a mobile WiFi hotspot or similar …and then add the local router WiFi network afterwards to the speaker. This alternative process, is also mentioned earlier in this thread.

M

Markmat

Lyricist I

@Thorium Prime I’m having a very similar problem to yours. Out of interest, what do you see in the Settings section of the Sonos app on your iPhone?

I noticed that Ken’s suggestions involve going in to Settings/System and checking the list of networks. However, what I am seeing in Settings is that ‘Account’, ‘System’ and ‘Services & Voice’ are all greyed out (and this persists if I delete the app and reinstall).

B

betamax2875

Lyricist III

I finally just got around to trying it now that I’m home. When on my network I can see the the previous networks just like Ken suggested. When I tried to forget my home network, turn on my guest network and then try the system was greyed out. Eventually I did receive a prompt to add a trusted network, but I couldn’t get my roam to connect. There’s clearly an issue that Sonos needs to resolve with a firmware update otherwise this is just a Bluetooth speaker when traveling.

ratty

Guest networks aren’t supported. They usually block communication between local devices.

I

Ian298

Lyricist I

Absolutely agree that the Sonos experience outside own network is awful. Fancy having a Wi-Fi network available when travelling and Roam speakers with you but being blocked from simple control of the speakers using the Sonos app.

Airgetlam

But that’s what I do? I carry my own travel router, which connects to the host WiFi (usually a hotel), and both my Roam and my phone connect to the travel router, so that I can use the Sonos controller. I also get the added benefit of an additional firewall, to protect against others accessing my Sonos device. I also have set up my travel router with the same SSID and password as my home, just for convenience. Both the Roam and my phone think they’re at home, I don’t need to set up a new ‘connection’.

Bruce

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