Software limitations of Sonos Roam – Issues with portability and Wi-Fi management

Please note this is a user community. Moderators are Sonos staff, and may pass on your comments. 
 

That said, Roam was a 2021 product, so is quite old. It was updated in May 2024. If you’ve just purchased an original Roam, I hope you got a good (low) price for it. 
 

I believe that some of your concerns have been addressed in the Roam 2.

Roam or Roam 2?

Lots of discussion on this topic here but all very old, don't have a Roam or Roam 2 to try this on.

So the steps mentioned here do not work on your Roam?
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/connect-sonos-to-a-new-router-or-wi-fi-network

First post says Roam, so no BLE. 

​@Zsori I travel with my Roam a couple times a month. I use a travel router to replicate my home network so when I turn the Roam on it connects without issue when staying at hotels air bnb etc. The Roam is still a POS but this is a way around your issue #1 albeit at a cost. 

It doesn't matter how old the Roam is, the point is to say that it's portable, which is partly true, but it can't fully serve the customer because it only works in Bluetooth mode. Yes, you can fool it with a portable Router that has the same name as the one at home, but why can't you make it so that you can carry extra things with you? It could simply be integrated into the application so that you can connect to another reliable Wi-Fi. I don't think that would be such a big deal for Sonos development.

I can’t anticipate Sonos development spending much time working to develop features in a discontinued product. 

it is not the rooms that need to be developed, the product already has everything, but only the Sonos application needs to be expanded a little, an additional function needs to be added and the whole problem is solved, only a Guest network function needs to be added to the application so that it can manage multiple networks without having to re-initialize the rooms, and this is not to say that you don't have to spend money on old products, but this also applies to the new product because this function doesn't work on it either

Most ‘guest’ networks automatically block the ability for a connected device to communicate with any other device, at the router level, as a security feature, to keep a ‘guest’ from accessing data stored elsewhere on the network. It only allows communication between a device and the outside internet. As a result, any Sonos device connected to a ‘guest’ network would be unable to connect with the other Sonos devices to maintain sync, or get commands from a controller. It could stream from the Internet, but I’m not sure how you would be able to define that stream for it. And certainly it wouldn’t be able to play any ‘local’ music, much less function across many speakers. 

it shouldn't communicate with multiple devices because you're not at home, you took a Sonos speaker to another house to a relative or a friend and you just want to listen to the music there without Bluetooth, just over the internet, this should be enabled in the app so that it can connect to other networks and work on that speaker alone, you don't need to connect it to another Sonos product because there's no need to, you can just simply play the music yourself without a phone, i.e. without Bluetooth

Why are you limiting your use case to only one “visiting” speaker? On WiFi two can operate as a stereo pair, and I’m sure folk would want that. And so the implementation difficulties mount up… and the cost of developing and testing escalates…

So Roam is missing from the unsupported products?!

It’s been that long since I added a new Wi-Fi network to a Roam, I can’t remember the process.

​@Zsori I do not own a Roam. Can you check if the steps mentioned in https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/connect-sonos-to-a-new-router-or-wi-fi-network really do not work for you?

 Yes all the battery powered Sonos speakers should act like a phone that automatically connects to a known network.  Does the Roam 2 do that?  I have a pair of Move speakers that I wish I could take to a friend’s home to show them how good they sound, but I don’t because it’s not user friendly to switch networks.  Sure, I could Bluetooth, but that’s not stereo.  The Move speakers shine in stereo mode.

Roam isn’t on the list of unsupported products to change wifi without factory reset. 
In the past I had a Roam1 and a Move1 and was able to add another wifi for them. For me it was possible like it is today with my Roam2 and Move2. 

And I found no information that Sonos has changed something on that for Roam1 and Move1. 
 

So what in detail isn’t working if trying to manage this? Be aware that Apple iOS hotspots and many hotel wifi networks are not compatible with Sonos wifi requirements. 

Mobile hotspots are not an officially supported network, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. I have used an iOS hotspot successfully in the past.

 If I go to my daughter’s home and want to connect my Move 1 to her WiFi I know the procedure, but is it automatic the next time I visit after initially connecting?  Does her network show as a memorized network?

Yes and yes. If I recall correctly, there can be 20 known networks stored.

According to Corry P, a reset is needed for a new wifi system. But, it can remember details of multiple Sonos systems. 

No, that’s not what he says. The reset is only required for the Roam to join another existing Sonos system. You can join another Wi-Fi network without a reset.

I absolutely can confirm what ​@Mr. T already pointed out. 
 

​@Mr. T 

I also was able to use an iPhone hotspot in the very distant past. But with one iOS update (two years or even longer ago) Apple changed something. You are right that mobile hotspots are not supported officially. But nearly every Android hotspot still works with Sonos.

I probably last used an iOS hotspot maybe 5yrs ago and wasn’t aware anything had changed. Good to know as I still see it being suggested in other posts.