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Waking Roam with App?

  • 23 April 2021
  • 7 replies
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Anyone else noticing issues sometimes waking the Roam when opening/ using the Sonos App? It is my understanding that opening the app or engaging an already opened Sonos app should wake a sleeping Roam.  I’ve seen this not happen, several times now.  The sleeping Roam continues to show as offline no matter what I do. Including closing and reopening the app.   

I know it’s not my wifi, because as soon as I plug the roam into the charger (which wakes it), it will then show up in the app.  


Ideas, thoughts?

 

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Best answer by caesar327 23 April 2021, 03:42

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7 replies

Userlevel 7

According to Sonos, the three ways to wake a Roam in sleep mode is:

  1. Press and release the power button
  1. Connect Roam to the USB-C charger
  1. Place it on the Wireless Charger

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5029?language=en_US

Userlevel 5
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According to Sonos, the three ways to wake a Roam in sleep mode is:

  1. Press and release the power button
  1. Connect Roam to the USB-C charger
  1. Place it on the Wireless Charger

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5029?language=en_US

That documentation is not completely accurate. Using the app DOES wake Roam. Just not reliably in my experience.  A Sonos employee posted 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.”  See here:

 

Userlevel 7

Is the Roam charged when you experience this issue?

My Roam is arriving tomorrow so I’ll be sure to test this and see if my Roam behaves the same way when in sleep mode.

Userlevel 5
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Yes.  Not always fully.  But yes. 

Having the same issue here. Cannot wake the roam up with the S2 app after the Roam has been asleep for longer for 10 minutes. Super frustrating. Need to physically walk over to the device and press the back button once for it to finally get out of sleep mode.

Userlevel 5
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Just simply power it off completely if you’re not using it all the time...

Userlevel 5
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Just simply power it off completely if you’re not using it all the time...

But that means you have to physically engage with the Roam to turn it on -- you should be able to wake it remotely (from another room in the house - like using other Sonos speakers) but ONLY if you want to (not as it is designed now -- where it happens every time you use the Sonos app -- even if you are not intending to use the Roam at that moment).  Some people have many Sonos speakers in various rooms -- not just a Roam.

This design “feature” was intended by Sonos so that you always had the Roam ready to direct music to, when you want to.  But the miscalculation is that some people (or many per the posts here about the Roam), have systems where they may engage with the Sonos App often throughout the day FOR OTHER SONOS SPEAKERS, but only using the Roam for brief periods (maybe while in the bathroom).   So the waking of the Roam by use of the Sonos App has the unintended effect of prematurely draining the battery. 

So to balance the “ready to use” design, without unnecessary battery drain, it seems the best solution is to have a software button/toggle that you engage in the App to purposefully wake the Roam from sleep mode when you actually want to use the Roam (yes, its one more click, but better than always waking it and draining the battery needlessly).  And for those who don’t mind the always waking the Roam upon using the app -- they could have a toggle to have that switch always on (or something like that).   Always Wake (sleeping) Roam when using App   vs.  Wake (sleeping) Roam when I tell it to via the App

Simple -- get to work on my solution Sonos engineers.  I’ll take just a few pennies per unit as my royalty.   Seems like a fairly easy algorithm to implement.