Move: Battery Drain Test

One year and still the same issue. I tell people not to buy this speaker now. Disappointing for the price. 

Sonos read all posts so you have to accept you are being ignored now.

If you are really only getting those battery drain figures @Steve9912 you are in a small minority.  Even though they are much bigger than they should be, they are much smaller than others.

levir03

‘I’m having to charge every 2-3 days with about 60-90 minutes of total use and the rest of the time on standby.’

I think I’m getting longer playback than that but on standby over-night, I lose about 20-30%. Quit a lot, considering I think.

@sjw if you read my post, my numbers were with it in the OFF state (5 second press on the off switch). 2 of them are the same values. In general, it’s easy to pop the battery out for storage. Just do that.

I did read your post, have you all of the others from using who are also completely powering down their Moves (long button press) and are still getting ridiculous battery drain?

I tried powering it down manually - the drain was definitely less noticeably but still happened. With it without powering it down manually, I found that my device also wouldn’t wake up without me manually turning it on first (i.e walk over and physically press the power button on the device) so it also defeats the purpose for having it enter sleep mode if it doesn’t activate from the app (especially with the power drain). 
 

Even went back and forth with Sonos customer support testing out different things.  I have those results in my email chain but basically it was disappointing results.  They didn’t offer any solutions and at the end; basically just said the device was operating as expected and there wasn’t anything wrong with it. 
 

All in it was disappointing and poor value given my usage so I returned the device for refund. I don’t recommend the product even if it was on sale. 

@goalsux I agree, very poor value for my use case as well.  My intent was to keep on a shelf in the bathroom to listen to 15 mins a day while I showered, and ideally only take it down every week to 10 days to charge.  Pulling it down every few days is a deal breaker, especially at the price point.  It’s going to be infinitely easier and more economical to just connect to my $80 Bose SoundLink over bluetooth.

This is from back in the days that Sonos responses were more than they are now.

There was even this too.

Having the same issue with the Move battery. I spoke with a Sonos rep via webchat recently and was told the battery drain is nothing unusual. Yeah right. No other device I have ever owned has this issue.

Going to try to return to the point of sale and won't buy another Sonos product just because of the perceived lack of care for everyone on this thread.

Shame because the One I own is a brilliant speaker. 

I am as aggravated as anyone over this entirely unacceptable battery drain.  Fact is that they are selling every one they can make, and their stock price is up 80% over the past 6 months.  Putting out bad products will catch up to them at some point but for now don’t hold your breath for anything to happen.

Received the Move 2 week a ago and i wish I had seen this trend. I will tell everyone NOT to buy this product. Battery shelf life is way too low and when in use can last 3-4h, so far away from what sonos claims. I think a lawsuit is justified, any lawyer out there to help all of us??

Having the same issue with the Move battery, very disappointing…

I buy mine last December in Black Friday and Im seriously thinking about the return.

With the announced Roam portable speaker, I wonder if it will have this same issue. A 4-5% per day self-discharge would be horrible for a speaker that doesn’t even come with a charging dock in the box (you need to buy it seperate)… 

If the issue is fixed, hopefully that fix can be pushed to the Move (if it was software and not a hardware fix).

10 days for the Roam on standby.

My Move battery drains from full to empty in 3 weeks. 

I just called the support line. Waste of time, guy sounded clueless and a summary of the call is the battery drain issue is normal get over it. 

The support page gives an email address for the CEO, no doubt it goes to a bureau or secretary at best. If enough people email it though, they might start to listen? Ceo@sonos.com

Can't believe how crap their customer service is.

Thats certainly better than the Move on standby but the issue is when the speaker is completely off its still draining.  

Standy its still reachable in app, etc…  so needs to maintain connection to wifi…  understandable that power is still used but a hard off should drain little power while off.  

The issue with the move is that it still discharges quite a bit while  completely off and not in standby.

I also have this problem. Of course my Sonos is out of the window for returning. It seems as if my $400 wireless speaker has now become a wired speaker. I thought maybe it was me leaving it on or something and so I didn't bother to look into it until too late.

For the ROAM when I put it completely off by pressing the power button for 5 seconds, the battery drain problem is not serious at all… However, for the MOVE when I did the same, it dead in around 4 to 5 days even I didn’t use it…

Anyone experienced the same?

I purchased a MOVE one month ago and I’m having the same battery drain issues.  Fully charged but moved off base and turned off -- battery drain of about 15% per day while not in use.  Completely dead within a week.  I called Sonos support and the representative noted:

(1)  A 15% drain per day =  7 to 8 days of charge being held.  7 to 8 days = 168 to 192 hours.  Therefore this actually exceeds the 120 hour battery charge life Sonos advertises.

(2)  He said the MOVE is an “early generation” rechargeable portable speaker for Sonos.  They now have released the ROAM which has better battery life, because it’s a newer model with improved software etc.  I suppose I should appreciate his honesty -- he’s telling me “it is what it is” with the MOVE.  Just wish I hadn’t spent $400 to learn this lesson.

So….  Looks like I’ll be charging my MOVE every week, until the battery loses its recharge ability.  Then I’ll buy a different portable and the MOVE will stay 100% on the charging base.  At least I’ll get great sound in the meantime.

@BigEngine - just for clarification, did you power off your ‘Move", off its charger-loop and by holding the rear top power button for 5+ seconds until you heard the power down "descending" tones and did you then leave it off the charger all the time?

@Ken_Griffiths -  100% charge then off the charging ring base, held down power button, full power off.  Afterward remained off the charger sitting on a shelf in my home office (i.e. 72 +/- degree location, no extreme temps to affect battery life, etc).

Some posts above suggest keeping the MOVE within WiFi range may cause it to “communicate” with the network even when supposedly powered off.  I’ve also read some users have discovered their MOVE turned on even after all the power off steps.  I’m certainty not a tech guy, but perhaps Sonos’ design with overall integration into a home WiFi network keeps the MOVE “active” even when we think it’s not.

In any event, I own other supposedly lesser-quality portable speakers (Bose and Boom) that hold charges at least 4X longer while powered off.  Sonos wins for sound quality, but the MOVE’s battery issue is a significant negative IMO (especially given the price).

@BigEngine, thank-you for clarifying. I have an early Move here too. I know li-ion batteries do lose some charge, even when powered off, but I’ve not tested my own devices recently to see what happens when they’re powered off for a period, so when I get chance I will try this too to see what I see with my device and report back here.

Ok as mentioned above, off its charger I powered off my ‘Move’ two days ago and have just powered it back on after a 48 hour period, it lost 7% battery in that time. I find that acceptable for a lithium-ion battery.

Is there a good alternative to the Move, wireless to connect to my NAS and Tunein capable?.

I was mulling over a Move for working in the shed but reading all this it's not up to the job and at £400 not worth the gamble.

I'm on S1 so no Roam, doesn't have to be Sonos tbh.

They say they have designed the battery chemistry so it doesn't get damaged when left on the charging base for long periods so I wonder if the discharge maybe a byproduct of that?.

I have just bought one for weekend use in the garden / shed so I'll just leave it sat on the base in between and not worry about it.

After looking for an alternative I decided I was cutting my nose off to spite my face not going for the Move and really glad I bought it, sounds excellent.