Are the two homes tied to the same SONOS household?

Same Sonos account but different internet wireless network. 

Hi @Ejenkins57 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

You can take your Roam to the second location and use it on Bluetooth or on WiFi, but it cannot become part of the other Sonos system without being reset. You would then need to reset it again for it to once more be part of the first system.

If you don’t want to reset it, and assuming that the app on your phone “knows” both systems, it might be best to follow these steps:

1. At home 1, where the Roam currently is, reset the Sonos app and choose “Connect to Existing System”. This will erase the app’s knowledge of the second system.
2. Take the Roam to home 2, as well as a spare phone/tablet.
3. The Sonos app is not written to be able to switch between two systems on one WiFi network, so install the Sonos app on the spare phone/tablet and connect it to the existing system at home 2.
4. Turn on the Roam and open the Sonos app on your (first) phone - it should say that it can’t connect to your system. Tap Fix It and follow the steps on the screen to connect your Roam to the new WiFi.

To be honest, it may be easier to just reset the Roam and add it to whichever system you’re with.

I hope this helps.

The other option would be to set up both Wi-Fi’s with the same SSID and password, and make both Sonos systems the same ‘household’ (which I think it is, based on your post). Then the Roam would just connect to whichever network it was within, and join that ‘system’, since the network account would be the same in both locations. 
 

To be honest, I have never been so frustrated with a product that sounds so good when working properly. 

I am a contractor and work at many residences around my county. Fortunately, many of my clients share with me their wifi networks so that while I am working on their respective residences, I can enjoy higher speeds for things like project management and music listening. 

I can tell you that unfortunately, your products both the Roam and Move do not like actually moving nor roaming. In fact, I could say that at least a dozen of my clients have been turned away from your products when they see me struggling with your products as I’m promising them that I won’t be charging for the time it takes to just listen to some music.

It’s apparent that Sonos prefers that we use the Sonos app instead of the music app like Pandora or Spotify. However, that feature is unavailable unless you are connected to wifi. That wouldn’t be a problem for me since I already mentioned I have access to that. However, every time I leave my home network I have to reset my Sonos product to connect to the clients wifi. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn't. Either way it takes time out of an otherwise productive day. 

As for Bluetooth, it's about a 20/80 chance that it's going to work. Most of the time it connects to bluetooth, my music app will show the music playing but no music comes out. The 20% chance it connects to music, my phone will ring or some notification goes off while I'm on a ladder and have my tools, then the music does not turn back on automatically. 

Long story short, I’m very frustrated with your products and feel a sense of false advertisement. Your sound quality is second to none, but if you add up all of the hours if not days of frustration with technical difficulties it would have given even a Buddhist monk a near heart attack. 

I look forward to hearing your feedback and appreciate any reimbursement or resolution so I can continue using your products in the future. As we all know, word of mouth is one of the most important aspects of marketing. It’s not good for your company that dozens of my clients have witnessed this frustration first hand. 

Cheers,

Frankie

Hi @fdsalamida 

Thank you for the feedback, and I’m sorry to hear that you have had so many issues with your portable Sonos devices.

I have taken my own Roam to other networks (though not nearly as many as you, by the sound of it) and experienced no issues at all. Likewise, I have had no problems in connecting multiple devices via Bluetooth (admittedly, all Samsung). Also, there are plenty of users frequenting these pages that don’t have any issues, though, to be fair, there are quite a few reporting problems too, but then few people show up here to report that everything is going swimmingly and not to ask for help. As many say, this is like going to a hospital and wondering why everyone is ill.

The reason routers have settings pages at all is because sometimes the need exists to alter settings there to suit the needs of the devices that connect to the network. Therefore it is a little unfair to expect every network you connect to - and have no permission to alter the settings of - to be ideally configured for Sonos operation. We typically make use of networks in ways that other devices do not - talking to other, nearby devices using particular protocols being one.

I cannot offer you reimbursement here, nor could I do so without proof of unsatisfactory performance - 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 what it reports.

I hope this helps.

@fdsalamida .  Your post isn’t really relevant to this thread.  The original post is about moving between Sonos systems, not between WiFi networks as a standalone speaker,  The actions needed are completely different in the two cases.

The Rosm and Move can roam (or move) between WiFi networks without a factory reset, but really Bluetooth is the main intended tool when using the speakers away from their home network.  I am not sure why you are having problems getting your speaker onto other networks, but a simple solution would be to connect your phone to the network and use Bluetooth to play on your Sonos speaker. (Again I have had no problems with Bluetooth and I am puzzled by your problems.)

(As the monthly data allowance on my mobile phone is vastly greater than I could ever use, I don’t bother connecting to WiFi in other locations anyway, even when it’s available.)

The Roam roams fine, and the Move moves great.  Contacting Sonos Support sounds like the best option

I agree with John.  Using bluetooth seems to be the best course of action for your case, rather than connecting the speaker to  WiFi at each job location. Connecting to bluetooth should be pretty straight forward, but perhaps you are not getting the Roam in bluetooth mode, or your phone is trying to connect to a different audio device (headphones for example).

Hi Corry,

You indicate here that you can take the Roam to the second location and use it on WiFi, but it can’t be part of that system.  My question is… how do I connect it to the second WiFi without it becoming part of that system?

I have 2 Roam’s at work, and 2 Era 100s at home.  Occasionally I want to take my Roams home and airplay them together with the Era 100s.  But when I open the app at home, it doesn’t find the Roams.

Bluetooth is not the best option here, because I can’t play all at the same time.  I just want to connect them all to the same network so I can airplay them all at once with some surround sound… but why won’t it find the Roams and how can I force it to without resetting every time?

Thanks for your help.

Hi @beholder 

As mentioned in my post that you quoted, you will need to use an instance of the Sonos app that is not aware of the Era-equipped home system - only that way will you be able to get to the stage of setting the Roams up on a new WiFi network without the other system interfering with the app. If you only have one device upon which you can run the Sonos app, you will need to reset the app and turn off the Era’s in order to get the app to the point where you can connect the Roams to the home WiFi. Honestly, it would be much easier to have a separate controller device. This is all outside of normal operating parameters, so there are no set instructions or methods - I’m just trying to think of what might work, but without actually being able to try it.

Once you get the Roams onto your home WiFi, they needn’t be a part of the same system as the Eras in order for AirPlay to play to all the speakers - they just need to be on the same network. However, if you are the only person at your work who uses the Roams, it might just be easier to reset them both, join them on to your home system, and then take them to work when needed without resetting them again (you will need to setup your work WiFi again, though). Your Sonos “Household” (system) will then be split across the two locations. The next time you take the Roams home, that’s literally all you would need to do - once home, they would automatically re-join your home system. Note that having a system split across two locations can cause issues with cloud-based Voice Assistants (Alexa and Google Assistant), but as long as no room names are duplicated, it’ll probably be okay. Please also note that if you reset both Roams, they will lose any configuration, favourites and Sonos playlists (though when you add them to your home system, they will import all these from that system).

Again, this is not a supported way of doing things, so I can’t promise any of this will work, but I suspect it will.

I hope this helps.

Is there some way, or trick, to join the Roam to a network without using the Sonos app?

No. 

For this method, I reset the app at work where the Roam’s are to erase my home system (where the Era 100’s are).

Then I connect a different device (tablet) to home system.

Then I turn on the Roam and using the original phone and use the ‘fix it’ steps.

What do I do when I take the Roam back to work ?

However, if you are the only person at your work who uses the Roams, it might just be easier to reset them both, join them on to your home system, and then take them to work when needed without resetting them again (you will need to setup your work WiFi again, though). Your Sonos “Household” (system) will then be split across the two locations. The next time you take the Roams home, that’s literally all you would need to do - once home, they would automatically re-join your home system. Note that having a system split across two locations can cause issues with cloud-based Voice Assistants (Alexa and Google Assistant), but as long as no room names are duplicated, it’ll probably be okay. Please also note that if you reset both Roams, they will lose any configuration, favourites and Sonos playlists (though when you add them to your home system, they will import all these from that system).

@Corry P , For this method, when resetting both Roams at work, do I also need to reset the app?  Or just reset the Roams, take them home, join them there, then when I get back to work, will the app freak out?

Hi @beholder 

If you are the only person at your work who uses the Roams, just reset both, take them home and add them to your home system. When going back to work, take the Roams with you, turn them on and the un-reset app should just pick them up (though it will say your Era 100s are missing - as close to “freaking out” as it should get). You will need to add the work WiFi credentials the first time you do this, but as long as you don’t reset the Roams, you will only need to do this once. Do not reset the app at any point.

If, on the other hand, you are not the only person who has access to your Roams at work, please let me know, and I’ll do my best to come up with a method for you.

I hope this helps.

Hi @Corry P 

Thanks for getting back to me.  

Yes, I am the only one at work using the Roams.

I did reset them both and took them home last night.

I set them up on the home network, no problem there.

I took them to work today and opened up the app and it gave me the ‘fix it’ scenario, which did join them to the work network…

Before I did the ‘fix it’ method, I tried opening the app on my MacBook, but the problem there was that it gave me three  options:

1. connect to existing system 
   • it couldn’t find the roams so this didn’t work
2. learn how to set up a new system
   • this just linked me to the app download page on the Sonos website
3. cancel setup and quit the app

So the MacBook app setup didn’t work (I would’ve tried my tablet, but didn’t take it to work)

 I’ll have to get back to you tomorrow to let you know if everything joins up again when I take them home.

I really appreciate your help… these little speakers are awesome I must say, especially when joined up with the Era 100s!

We have an S1 system at work, and I have S2 at home. At home I have multiple WiFi networks and the SONOS units can make their own choice. Initially, of course, when I took one of my units to work, this unit was upset because it did not have work’s WiFi credentials. I was using my S2 controller at work and it offered to fix the WiFi issue. Eventually, after I returned the unit home, it updated my other home units to include work WiFi. Now I can take any of my home units to work and use my S2 controller to operate my units — without any fuss.

SONOS can track up to 16 WiFi networks.

Hi @beholder 

Yeah, that sounds like expected behaviour from the macOS app - it’s not capable of WiFi setup, so it wouldn’t offer you the option, and as the Roams weren’t yet connected to your work WiFi, it couldn’t communicate with them normally. Good to hear that you got them connected using your phone.

I am glad to hear you are enjoying the speakers themselves - I have one in my bedroom and just this very morning - no lie! - I actually thought to myself as I got up that it has very impressive bass for their size! I can’t remember what was playing, but it must have sounded good!

You are most welcome!

Hi @Corry P 

Ok, so no problem reconnecting to home network.

But this time when I brought them back to work, only 1 connected to the work network… the other is not connecting… what should I do to connect the second one?  I’ve powered it off and on, but still not connecting, and I don’t see anywhere on the app an option to reconnect.  Do I need to reset again?

Hi @beholder 

That is strange - but there’s enough information in the behaviour to suggest that the issue is with the network rather than the speaker. My reasoning is that both speakers have been treated in exactly the same way by you, so there is no explanation for why one would connect and one would not - not one that can be addressed from within the Sonos app or by doing anything to the speaker, at least.

If it’s not an Enterprise network (i.e. if you run a small store or private office), your best chance may lie with rebooting the network - but please only do this if you are in charge, or if you speak to who is in charge. Don’t risk your employment, is what I’m trying to say!

Resetting the speaker may help, but doing so would not address whatever is going wrong so you would likely need to do so again, at some point. Therefore I would not consider this a resolution - more a duct tape application. If rebooting the router does help, a more permanent solution might be to reserve IP addresses for devices that commonly connect to your work WiFi, including the two Roams.

I hope this helps.

Hi @Corry P 

Ok I finally got it!  This is how I fixed it:

• Turn both speakers off and force close the app… 
• wait for 1 minute
• Turn on app
• Turn on 1 speaker.
• click ‘fix it’ and follow steps to set up the network.
• Turn speaker off and force close app.
• Repeat steps with other speaker.

I tried several other things but this method worked… I don’t want to reset the network unless absolutely needed because we rely on it way too much here… but if needed I can make adjustments later.

Well this is working for now, so not too bad… we’ll see if it remembers everything again tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi @beholder 

Great! You really shouldn’t need to do WiFi setup every time you take the speakers to work, however. Hopefully that will be the last time!

Hey @Corry P ,

Worked perfectly today… thanks again for all the help!

Hi @beholder 

Fantastic! Thanks for updating the thread.

You are very welcome!

My favorite quote… “Roams don’t roam” in this thread.  I have tried the trick of using the same SSID on a portable network, and sometimes it works, sometimes not.  Getting bluetooth to work when I’m travelling with my Roams is brutally difficult.  I had spent hours trying to set it up on multiple trips.  I agree that it works 20% of the time. 

The most embarrassing thing is that I gave my family members Roams for the holidays.  Hopefully they are only being used on a network.  I bought 8 of the stupid things, only to find they don’t do bluetooth well at all.  Requiring wireless registration before bluetooth pairing is….. ?   I can’t describe. 

I love the sound quality of Roams and the entire Sonos line of speakers and componentry.  I’m heavily invested.  But I wish I could travel with a pair of roams in my carry-on instead of going back to my pair of MegaBooms.  But that’s what I do.  

And, do Roam 2’s support stereo over Bluetooth?  I bet not. Megabooms do.  

Love ya, but very frustrated with Roams that don’t.   They sound great in the home network but that’s not what they are for, right?  

jeff