Ability to Add Sonos Roam to Multiple Sonos WiFi Systems?

@Ken_Griffiths, @John B, @Corry P 

While I agree that adding a network or resetting/adding to another system are alternatives, @lifely makes some great points.

• Manage Networks is limited. You can not group speakers via the Sonos App from two different systems, even if on the same network.  Side note: you can use Airplay 2 to do this, but not everyone has iPhones and even if you do, managing the Airplay 2 group volume is a bit painful and has other challenges.  I mention this only because I didn’t see this alternative in other responses (maybe I missed it).  I’ve personally done it this way and prefer the reset/add method so I can use the Sonos app to manage the group.
• Resetting and adding devices on another system is an alternative, and one I use frequently when I take my Moves/Roams to parties with other Sonos households.  That said, it simply shouldn’t be necessary.  Not to mention that either I have to have the host’s account email/password or the host has to do the ‘add’ part from their Sonos App.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the option to share systems?  I understand there could be device name conflicts so would propose it work like this:

1. There is a System Name option in the Sonos App (under Settings > System). Set that as “Ken” and “Lifely” respectively
2. Go to your friend Liflely’s house with your Sonos devices, let’s say a pair of Roams
3. Join Lifely’s WiFi network
4. Power on your Sonos devices
5. Bring up Sonos App and select “Share system with Lifely”.  Sonos already recognizes when a Sonos system is available on a WiFi network and prompts you to connect to that system.  So perhaps it is a choice “Connect to or share system with Lifely” and you select “Share”
6. Sonos App prompts Lifely to accept request and Lifely does.  I’m not sure this step is even necessary. I can see a use case where you take your Moves/Roams on a trip to an AirBNB or VRBO that has a Sonos system and you want to share your devices temporarily with that host.  Perhaps the host can elect to “Always allow sharing requests” via a setting
7. Lifely can now see your connected Sonos devices, all appended with the System Name “ (Ken)”.  So if you both have a pair of Roams named Sonos Roam and Sonos Roam 2, the device list will look like:
   • Sonos Roam
   • Sonos Roam 2
   • Sonos Roam (Ken)
   • Sonos Roam 2 (Ken)
8. Devices from Ken’s system that are not present/connected would ideally be hidden or alternatively shown ‘offline’
9. When Ken goes home, the devices automatically connect to Ken’s system
10. When Ken goes back to Lifely’s house, steps 1-6 are no longer necessary.  Any Sonos devices Ken brings just automatically show up on Lifely’s system, appended with “ (Ken)”

What I really like about this solution:

• I don’t need to know the remote host’s account/password.  Once I share my system, I’m connected to the remote system and can manage groups, but the host retains ‘system’ control over everything.
• It allows you to choose your path.  If you’re going to a host that doesn’t have a Sonos system, use Manage Networks.  If you’re going to a host that does have a Sonos system, use Share System.
• Set it and forget it.  No more resetting/adding.  Just bring your devices and share your system once and then it is done.

Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but is this possible?  If not, why? If so, what is the best way to get this feature request up the chain (if not already)?  In my opinion, this is a game changer for Sonos as the ecosystem gets larger and more people want to easily share their Sonos products.

Sonos is fundamentally designed around the concept of a system / household.. The things you are requesting would require radical changes for a marginal gain for a tiny proportion of users.

It's easy to add a new network. It only takes a minute to reset a speaker and add it. 

Just forget it.

@Music Nut,

Some brief ‘initial first thoughts’ from me….

I would like a Sonos speaker to continue to boot-up and connect to the network in this order…

1. Wired SonosNet Connection
2. Wireless Connection (Previously stored WiFi network credentials list held on device)

However, if the above is unsuccessful, to then automatically switchover to ‘Hotspot’ mode where its mobile controller device can connect to its WiFi adapter broadcasting ‘Hotspot’ and allow configuration of the player to allow it to then run on a nearby WiFi network with either that devices ‘existing’ Sonos Household, or to detect and add the speaker to an ‘existing’ system on that nearby network, perhaps identifying that system by pressing a join button on any one of the players (as there can be more than one system on the same network)… simply hand the controller device to the system owner to add their WiFi credentials to begin using the speaker.

The system owner can then either choose to also give the mobile controller permission to join the local network or not - I think this authorisation needs to be a separate step as they may want to allow your speaker to be part of ‘their’ setup, but not your mobile controller device, or perhaps let them undertake its setup with their own controller device.

There needs to be a way so that a user (ex boyfriend for example) cannot sit in a car outside the house at some future date and start blasting out music in the middle of the night… so  controllers need separate authorisation to join another persons system.

I’m sure I will now go onto think about this some more, but clearly these things are always much easier said than done and a good many things would probably need to be considered.

I do like these kind of feature suggestions however and this is definitely an area where I think Sonos could improve their software as people do want to be able to take their speakers out and about and play/share them (securely, but with ease and simplicity) on other wireless networks with their family and friends etc.

I recently bought a Roam (set up for home WiFi network - the only S2 speaker, others are all S1 controlled) and have just taken it on holiday - expecting to be able to connect the phone to the local WiFi, open the S2 app and update the WiFi in it and connect to the speaker.  The WiFi was a dedicated router, not hotel etc.  I’d read it shouldn’t need any Factory reset etc. and was aware of the ability to connect to upto 15 different WiFi networks.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the Roam to connect to the WiFi.  The App saw the Roam and came up with a message along the lines of ‘Do you want to add Roam to the secure network <SSID>?’ to which I said ‘Yes’ - but it went away and came up with the other Sonos speakers I have at home and I was in a loop of saying ‘Yes’ and it going to ‘Find’ it but listing my other devicees.  The details aren’t totally clear as it was a couple of weeks ago but I ended up just doing a Factory reset and adding it quickly.  I had to add the services, Voice etc. again but it added fine.  I added it to th same account etc/ as all the other Sonos speakers I have.

I assume this is now classed as a separate Household - so I can’t add it back into the S2 App at home and will need to Factory Reset it again?  The reason I say this is, now I’m back at home, it’s not seen in the S2 App - even if I select ‘Set up new system.’ and fill in my details to sign in.

I get this screen after signing in:

From previous experience, I click out of the white box, click ‘OK’ to Cancel and get to this screen:

So, it sees the Roam - but selecting it doesn’t change anything (I can do the Product Tour though!) - I just get this screen:

and all options make it scan my WiFi, see my existing S1 speakers and give me the option to Open S1 App  or reset the App.

I assume this is all expected as my S2 Speaker is on a different Household? - and I do need to Factory reset the Roam to get it connected?

If so, I’ll do it now - and then look at adding it to a separate WiFi network (local hotspot) - to try to achieve what I originally wanted to a couple of weeks agio - and hope I just missed something obvious...

It’s probably been brought up in this thread already, but it’s important to realize that the data for your Sonos system are stored on the speakers themselves, not your phone.  The name of your rooms, the streaming services you have access to, the voice assistant accounts….all on the speaker. 

So for example, say you have speaker 1 from system A setup with Apple muisc and Amazon voice.  Your friend has his speaker 2 with system B setup with Spotify and Google voice.    What do you expect to happen if you were trying to play speaker 1 and 2 together?  They don’t have any shared services (even if they did, likely different accounts).   This is why you would need to reset one of the speakers and have it join the other system, so they have all the same accounts.

Airplay works entirely different.  The music you’re playing comes from the phone itself.  That’s obviously an advantage for your scenario, but it also means you’re relying on the capabilities of your phone, and music will shut off the moment your phone goes off network.

Yes, because it requires access to the music and voice services that your host owns and has access to.

Again, your only thinking of the network connectivity, not the actual services these two networks have access to.  This would only sort of work if the temporary guest speakers went into a dumb speaker mode of sorts where they can’t player their own music services, they can only be grouped with host speakers and play whatever those speakers are playing.  Just doesn’t seem like this would be practical.

  Devices that are not present wouldn’t be known to the other speakers or your phone, so they would not even be shown as hidden.

I’m sure the music services the two of you are paying for would love this sharing arraingement you’ve got setup.

I can’t imagine there are a ton of people out there that one to bring their speakers with them to their friends house to be honest.

I think the ‘sharing’ of accounts etc. is pushing it and could also get confusing - hence some of the ‘What do you expect to happen when….?’ questions.

However, also lots of the reasons being given for some of the requests are because of how it works ‘now’.  The point of a Request is to change the way it works now - and who knows how much of a ‘fundamental’ change they may necessitate from the way it works now, other than Sonos?

I totally understand that all settings etc’ are part of the speakers’ storage etc. - but I quite like the idea of a speaker being able to be temporarily added as a Guest to another system.  All of its settings are kept segregated and inaccessible to the system being added to - the speaker can ‘simply’ be added to and controlled by, the ‘new’ (friends/family) system in ‘Guest’ mode - even given a name.  It’s a dumb speaker that can be used as such - no access to the credentials or services from its ‘home’ system.

Once it’s back at home everything is back to normal and no need to reset it again and add everything back again (in the case of it being a sole device).

OK, I reset my Roam and opened up S2 and it detected the Roam and I added it fine.  It’s the only speaker in the App.

I then want to allow it to connect to another network and found myself in the previously mentioned loop….

i.e.

I connected my phone to a different SSID and opened the S2 App - I’m presented with this:

I select the Update Network Settings Option - and get this screen:

I select Find System - and get this screen:

I select Continue and get this screen:

I can swipe to the left and it shows my S1 speakers (on another network!).  I think this is stored in the App though (?) as these were also seen when I was trying to do the setup on holiday.

I hit ‘Select’ when on the Roam screen (above) and it takes me back to the second image above - to ‘Find system’ - where again, it finds multiple Sonos systems and I’m in a loop.

How do I allow it to connect to a different WiFi network without resetting it?

@melvimbe

Good point on the voice assistant.  That is also a negative for resetting and re-adding the speaker.  You have to configure all of that again.

Regarding the music services, I believe that is a system/account setting.  I’m not prompted to set up a music service for each speaker I add, only the voice assistant.  I use Spotify and when I’ve added speakers to a friend’s system, works seamlessly.  I can’t speak for the other music services.  In the model I’m proposing, the host would just have additional speakers to use in a group where the host is controlling the music.  In that sense, they would become ‘dumb’ speakers in a group.  If this is the limitation, but am able to share my speakers without having to reset, worth it IMO.

Other manufacturers (Bose, UE, etc.) market their ‘party mode’ feature. It may not be something you’d use, but it does drive sales.  In the case of Sonos, it just creates frustration.

That was not my point at all.  The point is that if you and your friend have different voice accounts.  His service can’t control your speakers, and yours can’t control his.  And it’s not as simple as “we’ll we just won’t use that” because Amazon would have write their programs on how to handle that situation.  Google too. Conflicts like that can’t just be ignored.

Music and voice service accounts are both stored at the account level. The difference is that you need to enable voice on the specific speakers, although voice can control music playback on all the speakers in your system.  But again, these credentials are stored on your speakers, not on your phone or in the cloud.

Turning smart speakers into temporary dumb speakers, which sound simply on the surface, is actually rather complicated.  It’s not impossible, but a rather big change that would impact Sonos code as well as 3rd party code that integrates with Sonos.

UE makes bluetooth speakers, not WiFi.  Bose still makes WiFi speakers as well as bluetooth.  Are you saying that you can take your Bose WiFi speakers to a friends house and have them play in sync with other WiFi speakers without doing a reset?

So, going back to a third Roam wifi roaming scenario referenced by Corryp earlier in this thread, I would like to have the Roam work in my own back yard for a start, given my Sonos-equipped country estate hasn’t quite materialized yet. Corryp for Sonos acknowledged in a separate thread about a year ago that the Roam’s inability to easily switch between access points on the same wifi network was a known issue, and that Sonos was working on an update to fix it. Afaik, that hasn’t happened yet as of firmware update 14.14. My specific question is re Corryp’s advice earlier in this thread, that a power down of the Roam and restart in the new location will allow the Roam to connect to the stronger wifi signal in that location. That does not work for my Roam - it apparently stays connected to the more distant router in the house and the sound continues to cut in and out badly. Is there another workaround to force the Roam to grab the signal from the nearer, stronger wifi signal from my access point? ( And I mean without having to set down my mint julep and get out of my comfy chair in the back yard.)