Same here. Not happy at all with the Roam.

Unable to connect it on my WiFi, apparently it does not work well with network extension, which makes little sense for a nomad device.

I swallowed this excuse from support but when I tried to configure it sitting next to the router it did not work either… I managed to listen 3-5 sons over the past month…

Also, the - expensive - charger does not work properly, I have to use the cable instead + for some reason Sonos decided the color of the charger is different to the device (white vs grey).

Today I have tried to connect it via Bluetooth as a fallback option now but the music disconnects after 20sec.. (I took the device to the countryside where there is no wifi). Extremely frustrating.

@Sonos team, please don’t ship products before they are ready. I was very happy with my other products but this very negative experience is harming seriously my trust in the brand.

Perhaps try it on a different band of your router. So if it’s on the 5Ghz band move it to the 2.4Ghz and set the channel width to 20Mhz.

If using SonosNet for your ‘other’ Sonos products then ensure the SonosNet and 2.4Ghz WiFi channels do not overlap.

Hope that assists to improve your Roam playback and overall experience.

The weirdest problem I experienced with Roam's bluetooth was after I took the speaker on holiday and charged it in my hotel room.

After that I could not get my phone (a samsung) or my partners phone (an iphone) to pair with the Roam. 

The only solution I could find was to set up my Sonos app and my Roam on the hotel's free WiFi. Once I did that the bluetooth connection worked fine again. 

I can only assume the Roam automatically connected itself to the Hotel WiFi when I turned it back on, and that triggered some kind of security features. 

It could be a problem if the Roam resets itself every time it comes in contact with a new WiFi environment. Bluetooth should work regardless of any WiFi signal

The easiest way I find, is that once the Roam Is Bluetooth ’paired’ to a phone/tablet, to activate/deactivate the Bluetooth link from the mobiles own Bluetooth list - don’t need to have any WiFi connection at all and the only time I touch the speaker is to wake it up, if it’s asleep, or powered off.

so i was trying to connect ROAM for the first time to bluetooth to my iPhone 

i had it unplugged from power and nothing would work - it kept powering off. 

the MINUTE i plugged it in, then i could get the bluetooth flashing blue light and then pair it with my iPhone

i will try pairing it with my chromebook later.  

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the directions on the SONOS website include 

FIRST CONNECT TO POWER

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4989?language=en_US

The Roam doesn’t need to be connected to external power to operate in either Bluetooth or WiFi mode - it sounds like your Roam isn’t quite charging correctly, perhaps? …what is the power-output stated on the charger in terms of volts/amps?

Reread 

FOR PAIRING you need to be connected to power otherwise pushing the power button turns off the speaker. 
At least MINE woUldnot pair until I connected to power 

Nope, I don’t need to have the Roam connected to power/charger to do that - it pairs just fine when I’m away from home and have taken it outdoors/camping, just like every other Bluetooth device… if it’s been paired with your phone once before, there’s no need to pair it a second time either, just select to reconnect/disconnect from your mobile BT device list. No need to keep pressing the rear power button unless you’re pairing with a ‘different’ device and you shouldn’t need to connect the Roam to power to do that either, just cycle through the pairing options.

Well that didnt work for me. 

I tried about 15 times.  it kept powering off and yes the power was marked as 100% in the Sonos app. 

As soon as I put the power cable in … i could pair. 

your mileage may vary but this is the only thing that worked. 

You may want to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. It definitely is supposed to work the way that Ken explained, I’m wondering if there’s a hardware issue with yours.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

@southern gal, 

Yes, as Bruce says, it sounds like you may have a fault. I have two Roans and both switch and work on Bluetooth away from home off their charger. So I would submit a diagnostic and call/chat to the Sonos Support Staff.

Same here. No solution. I also have a Move.  Looks like it going back. Terrible biz model to prevent Legacy users from growing their systems.  

It seems you perhaps may have a fault then on both your devices, which is really unusual… I’ve just tested both the Move and Roam here and each connect/pair to Bluetooth with no issues at all. I just paired them both and took the attached photo to show that is the case.

Perhaps submit a diagnostic report and then contact Support Staff via this LINK. 

Hi - I know this is an older thread….quick update on my end...I went through Sonos chat to figure out how to connect my Roam to my mobile via Bluetooth.  Couple of learnings…

1.  you have to connect your Roam to wifi and the Sonos app before you can connect to Bluetooth. 
2. If you have S1 app, you have to unplug all the S1 devices on your system and launch the S2 app.   Once you do that, the S2 app will start the connection process to the Roam device.  
3. Once you have the Roam connected to through the S2 app, you can connect via Bluetooth to your device.  
4. Plug back in the S1 devices and good to go…

Would be a lot easier if Sonos would publish this and also make the transition from S1 to S2 a little more gradual but the individual via chat was ver helpful. 

Just to add to these instructions here, which are really more about splitting and creating an S2 Household from an existing S1 system. The majority of Roam users will not need these instructions as they will normally be adding their Roam to an ‘existing’ or ‘new’ S2 HH.

Many will have (hopefully) seen on the Sonos.com website that the Roam is designed for an S2 setup only. 

The only reason that the Roam needs to initially be connected to WiFi is to add it to the S2 system and register the device in the users online account/profile.  The Bluetooth audio will work after that registration has taken place, whether the user is connected to WiFi or not.

So the instructions posted are likely only for the very few users who wish to split their HH before installing Roam. The details are also mentioned in these Sonos Support documents, which also highlight the limitations of using a ‘Split’ S1/S2 System…

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4845

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4824

HTH

I have tried everything and now have it plugged into my router to see if it needs an update. I cant even add it to my system, when i try it knocks off my amp in the other room and the music stops. for two days i have tried to BT the speaker to to different iphones. No joy. or even add it to the system, no joy. Broken, defective? not sure but not happy with Mr. Sonos

Intriguing and really quite amazing, all things considered ?

After a couple of trys the update did it, as soon as i want back to the app it recognized it and folded right in. Bluetooth came right up and played like a champ.

Sonos should put out instructions to look for the update in ever box they sell.

Thank you for your help 

I'm in the same boat. I don't understand why the operation has to be a 5 min process every time I want to play music. Here is a tip Sonos. Instead of your engineer team designing the logic on the on/sleep/off/Bluetooth/wifi button,  simply turn off her wifi, hand your mom this speaker, and ask to get music to play... 

It should be something like this:

 long press = on 

 Long press= off 

 X duration no music played= sleep

 Bluetooth pair = long press to turn on, then up+down volume.

*Then device remembers whatever method it receives data. I shouldn't have to need to Google how to setup Sonos roam everytime I move it or find that the battery is dead because I put device in sleep mode instead of actually turning it off.

5 minutes? …Do you mean 5 seconds - it doesn’t take 5 minutes at all to play music

These things that you mention above, are exactly, how the Roam works? 
Quick press:  (first tone on power button)… device sleeps/wakes

2 sec. press: (second tone on power button)… toggles between Bluetooth/Wifi

5+ sec. press: (third tone on power button) …device powers off, press again to power on

The playing queue stays in place till you shutdown the device - in standby the speaker keeps it’s playlist.

We have been struggling with this for a few weeks, off and on. 

Husband stumbled on what might work for others…

We have the Roam added to Sonos and updated. It will play using Sonos app. Of course problem was Bluetooth. So the issue was, we would do as directed; get the flashing white light and when you had a steady white light, press and hold and the blue light would supposedly illuminate and a tone would sound initializing  pairing. But what actually happened was that when you hold the power button the speaker eventually makes two little sounds and powers off. Never a blue light. The solution is to let go of the power button when you hear the small tones BEFORE power shut off. 

We have three of these beasts and it worked on each one of them. 

Also - conflicting Bluetooth connectivity can be confusing so use one device to control. We were not able to achieve individual pairing of a speaker on his phone and a speaker on my phone. Maybe if we are out of range from one another. 

Dear Sonos Gurus,

Brought Roam and learned the hardway while on vacation that one must first connect to your Sonos wifi system first (which was in Munich, Germany and I was working in Portland, OR).  Okay - all fair in love and reading all the fine print prior to buying something.

Got back to Munich, connected Roam, played music, worked great.  Read your very nice forum, read Sonos instructions, watch youtube video, got blue flashing light (no chime), my iphone 11 can’t see the Sonos Roam.

Okay

• Did factory reboot (hold play button while holding power button)
• Reconnected to my Sonos system
• Played music
• iphone App on S2 (went to Apple App Store and checked - latest)
• Could not find any special information on how to update Roam’s software…
• Went back, got blue flashing light (no chime) and once again, nothing on iphone bluetooth connection list
• After the blue light flashes for about 5 seconds, it stays a steady blue. 
• I have not connected it to anything and yes -- I have already done a factory reset (today - prior).

I find this amazing.  Sonos is such a quality product and this bluetooth setup is something.  If I would have known, I would have gone back to Bose….  I understand what Sonos is trying to do - no problem with the WiFi first setup and then everything -- but getting this bluetooth working is beyond difficult.

Depressing the amount of time I have spent and once again, I have read and re-read and re-read everything I can find yet all I get is the blue flashing light (no sound, no chime, no nothing).

Wow --

George Oregon

Dear Sonos Team,

Egads...it came up!!!!

What happened?  I was reading about how to do a factory reset and it said to hold down the power button for five seconds when powering off.  So I did it but then of all things, the blue light start flashing, a chime was emitted and it appeared on my phone.

This is insane.  I’m burned out on Sonos.  It should never be so fraught with sensitivities based on how long you hold down a button (please note that the end of my finger is sore since there is no tactile feedback as to whether or not you have pressed the button - that is silly - they could provide some sort of click or something since they are insisting on holding down the power button for a certain time amount).

Basically, I can’t recommend Sonos, my guess is that they have out-sourced a lot of their design...don’t really know but wish I would have brought Bose for my complete home system and for remote.  Not inspired by Sonos’es attitude of “strict adherance” or you will suffer mightily…

Logging out,

Burned out with Sonos,

George

@George de Oregon 

i have two Roams and currently out and about  travelling with one of them for a few days and my experience is what is seen explained in this YT video.

So I find it easy to switch the Roam between WiFi (or MiFi in my case) and Bluetooth and back again. It works exactly as shown in the video…

Just adding my frustration to this thread.

Out the box sonos roam WILL NOT connect to Bluetooth filling instructions from Sonos website.

I have about a dozen Sonos devices which are all in some partial stranded state due to the mix of Sonos 1 and Sonos 2. I am so incredibly frustrated that thousands of dollars of equipment are unusable due to this situation.

I bought a ROAM bc I wanted to completely bypass the app and registration due to that level of frustration. I just want the SONOS audio quality without any of the SONOS app crap. I just want to AirPlay or BT to THIS ONE ROAM. That’s it.

looks like it’s not possible and I’ll return it. JBL can likely help me at half the price?