iPort Xpress battery Life and iPort Support


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Am I alone with the iPort Xpress? I've rubbish battery life and there is no visible support!

Using the voucher for my CR100's I got one of these to try. I've never had anything like the suggested 3 months battery life, not even a full 24 hours from a full charge. It frequently loses connection despite me using commercial grade Meraki access points throughout the house.

It was to be the hardware 'pause' button for my office, a quick method of stopping Sonos if the phone rings but is unusable for such function with the frequent dropouts.

iPort Support is non existent and Sonos support, despite being the retailer, just point me in their direction.

Someone tell me its just unlucky and their iPort lasts ages on a charge.

(Don't get me started on £100 for it, if it was my cash I'd be gutted as the unit feels like a cheap £30 item)

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12 replies

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I did see a couple of other posts on this forum with the same issue, hopefully its just the odd one that’s got an issue as I intend to purchase several of these.
The poor battery life is a fault which others have reported. Presumably you've tried restarting and/or resetting the xPRESS using the button combinations.

As for losing connection, the xPRESS doesn't maintain a connection. To do so would cripple the battery. It connects on demand when a button is pressed, then keeps the connection up for a few seconds after the last press in case there are follow-on commands. Some routers/APs are slow to acknowledge the connection request. The fastest I've found is a humble Linksys WRT54G running third party firmware. Yep, good old 802.11g. So much for commercial grade.
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Yup , followed every instruction I could from the iPort support pages to no avail. In an update, Sonos have just issued me with an RMA number to return the item to them and a new voucher code is to be issued.

Is the poor battery life across the board with the iport units or limited to a poor batch of units?

I'll only have the £100 voucher to spend so it looks like a replacement is on the cards (Unless anyone wants to buy a voucher?)
Is the poor battery life across the board with the iport units or limited to a poor batch of units?
Nobody can say, other than anecdotal observations. I have two (and one unopened) which last for weeks. Maybe there's a poor batch. Sonos might know, but they sure wouldn't say if they did. At least they're quick to RMA them.
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So I guess someone from iPort reads this forum too as after 3 weeks of attempting contact I've now got an email back from them in reply to my support request.

Their resolution is below in case it helps anyone else

Resolution: When not in use, are you storing the keypad on either its stock metal plate or another metal surface? If you have been, try storing the keypad on a wood surface or other non-Iron based metal and let me know if it holds its charge.

Strange that the advice is NOT to use the supplied plate for storage.
I fail to see the logic there. The keypad simply has a magnet. I sometimes stick one on the fridge.
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indeed its a strange request that I can only assume is a checklist to be worked through but anyway following my RMA from Sonos I've told iPort to close the support ticket.
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I have a battery issue as well. My iPort Xpress need recharge for every 1-2 days. Will soon be returned to Sonos. ....... but , like the Devise, so hopefully it,s not a general problem ? 😕
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......... and YES , iPort support is NOT existing 😞
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I can't even get mine to connect to the network
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Got a replace for more weeks ago. ....... Works perfect.????

Never had problems with the network, only battery issues.

Do You follow the instructions, when You setup the item ? ....... remember , it works for ios devices only.
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So as an update to my support ticket with iport aka DANA INNOVATIONS, yesterday evening they closed my support ticket with "Closed ticket notice. If you require any follow-up, you may respond to this ticket and it will reopen."

Fair enough but that was their follow up to my last reply on Apr 16, 8:25 AM PDT asking for further suggestions of help.

Quality turnaround time ans service there! At least Sonos just replaced it (although its now consigned to the drawer and unused!)