Still testing.
Move: Battery Drain Test
Userlevel 7
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Userlevel 7
Here are the results of my two Sonos Move Battery Drain tests.
Test One_4 Days starting at 98% battery charge
- Removed the Move from Charging Ring
- Set Move to BT Mode to dis-engage Wi-Fi
- Depressed the Power Button
- Move went Dark (no LED’s illuminated)
- Move not visible in Sonos App
- At the end of 4 days Move showed 37% battery charge remaining
- Average discharge per day calculation_98% - 37% = 61% / 4 = 15.25% avg.
- Based upon 15.25% average daily discharge the Move battery would be depleted in 6.4 days (98% / 15.25% = 6.4)
Test Two_7 Days starting at 100% battery charge
- Removed the Move from Charging Ring
- Depressed the Power Button until verified “Ding” was heard
- Move went Dark (no LED’s illuminated)
- Move not visible in Sonos App
- At the end of 7 days Move showed 1% battery charge remainig
- Average discharge per day calculation_100% - 1% = 99% / 7 = 14.14% avg.
- Based upon 14.14% average daily discharge the Move battery would be depleted in 7.07 days (100% / 14.14% = 7.07)
The 0.67 day difference between Test One (6.4 days total drain) and Test Two (7.07 days total drain) IMO is negligible.
Test results versus Sonos statement of 120 hours of Move battery life; if left off charging Ring and unused.
- Test One at 15.25% average daily battery drain indicates that at 100% charge the Move battery would be useable for 6.5 days or 156 hours. Allowing for error the Sonos claim of 120 hours is supported.
- Test Two at 14.14% average daily battery drain indicates that at 100% charge the Move battery would be useable for 7.07 days or 169 hours. Allowing for error the Sonos claim of 120 hours is supported.
So there you have it. Just bare in mind that my tests were conducted with no control subject in my home environment. Laboratory testing would most likely yield more accurate data. However, I feel confident in publishing my results for your review.
Cheers!
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi everyone, I mentioned before in this thread that the team is investigating an issue where the Move turns itself on when it should be off. Here’s the previous message:
Hi everyone, the team is looking into some things around battery and powered off state behavior. You should see about 5 days in standby, but it should drain over 30 days when powered off.
There have been a few cases we’ve seen where a Move powers itself on and we’re looking into it. It’s early on in the investigation stages right now as they’re trying to see what’s causing the powering up. But I’ll let you know if there’s more to share. If it does power itself back on after the unit had be turned off properly, it would then go into standby mode and drain out the rest of its battery over, at most, 5 days.
They’re working on the issue and as soon as it’s resolved we’ll let you know.
what about battery life while in use. I am not getting anywhere near 10 hours while listening off charger?
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi everyone, the team is looking into some things around battery and powered off state behavior. You should see about 5 days in standby, but it should drain over 30 days when powered off.
There have been a few cases we’ve seen where a Move powers itself on and we’re looking into it. It’s early on in the investigation stages right now as they’re trying to see what’s causing the powering up. But I’ll let you know if there’s more to share. If it does power itself back on after the unit had be turned off properly, it would then go into standby mode and drain out the rest of its battery over, at most, 5 days.
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi
Add my name to the list. Set my Move up last week and have been shocked at the battery life, or rather the lack thereof. 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’ve read all of the suggested ways of improving battery life - completely powering down, removing voice services, disabling status lights - but why? I paid a premium to use those types of features under the premise of a promised battery life that included ~10 hours of playback. I am in deep with Sonos, but I am failing to see the benefit of the Move when it’s essentially going to need to be tethered to a charge brick more often than not.
There's a simple explanation for the battery drain and I doubt Sonos will ever admit to it.
When you purchase a Sonos Move, you’re ultimately purchasing a premium speaker riddled with spyware not by one, but two of the largest data-whoring companies in the United States.
There’s a reason Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Home products require a 120v receptacle. That reason simply being that the devices would die within mere hours had they been wireless. Regardless of what “buzz words” Amazon or Google tell you their devices strictly listen for, you must understand that these devices are always recording/listening. There are plenty of horror stories available online to read through if you don’t believe me. And in the case of the Sonos Move, an always-on microphone = massive battery consumption.
I don’t forsee Sonos fixing this problem as they have minimal control over Amazon and Google’s horrid software.
If Sonos were smart, they’d release a microphone-free Move. I assure you all battery issues would be completely resolved.
Smarten up people and get these listening-devices out of your homes. You’re sacrificing privacy to save yourself 3 clicks from your smart phone.
If a device is powered fully off by a long button press, for me it should no longer respond to any remote commands and should be completely off (no WOL equivalent) and require a button press to switch it back on. It should still be in the very high nineties a week later.
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.
Got another reply from support saying it’s normal for the battery to be consumed when in standby mode even though in every single email correspondence with them I have clearly stated that the Move was turned off completely!
I don’t think I’ll ever get a satisfactory answer to the question I’m asking so will not bother considering the Move at the moment.
Every battery will lose its charge, even when there is nothing being powered. My tool batteries will eventually go dead and need a recharge, even if they are detached from the tool.
Also, as I understand the term, “standby mode” is not completely unpowered. Standby mode would be not playing music, but still on the network and ready to play. That of course would require power, just for the occasional pings needed to keep it on the network.
Userlevel 6
+11
I’ve just tried it, turned my Move off completely when on wifi, it was at 100%, 4 days later it was at 71%.
Why is it consuming battery when supposedly completely turned off
Hey everyone,
I’m experiencing a couple of the issues outlined in this thread too:
1. I turned my Move off completely when on WiFi and the battery was at 82%. 1 day later I checked the battery life and it was at 63%. Really don’t understand why it’s consuming battery power when it’s completely turned off. The speaker was not on the charging ring when I performed this test.
2. The Move speaker randomly turns on and comes out of standby all by itself. I don’t have any other Sonos products in my house so I don’t understand why it’s doing this. I’m not using any voice assistants with the speaker either.
I’m happy with the speaker but these couple of things are kind of bugging me and I am considering returning it if Sonos don’t offer some kind of explanation/solution soon as to why this is happening.
Cheers
Hi folks! I can imagine how inconvenient it is to all of you and we really appreciate your patience. Just to let you know that the issue is open and the designated team are still working on it. We’ll keep you posted here.
The issue was originally raised 12 months ago, and no real resolution? I love my Move except for this battery life issue, which completely defeats the purpose of a portable, battery powered speaker.
If the design is flawed such that so many people are experiencing issues, why has it not been addressed or at least modified the marketing materials to be correct?
And while we’re at it, if the Move is being reworked, can the updated/next version support a larger variety of charging profiles? Specifically lower wattage chargers? Even if a lower wattage charger (think the 20w Apple USB C chargers) won’t charge the battery during playback, it would be great to use for overnight standby charging. Consider this a feature request :)
I'm pretty sure that's not true to be honest. There are certainly issues with the Move but they're not related to the Mic.
Hi folks! I can imagine how inconvenient it is to all of you and we really appreciate your patience. Just to let you know that the issue is open and the designated team are still working on it. We’ll keep you posted here.
Thanks Krishma! But please really have to solve this problem as soon as possible!! This is not a cheap product… with good finishing and sound, but annoying battery drain that make me don’t really want to use it! I remembered when I bought the MOVE, I promised to bring and show my friend how good it is and therefore I’ve fully charged it the day before we met. However for some reason I was not available that weekend and therefore we met the next weekend… When I tried to show him the MOVE, the battery was completely drained… and you can imagine how embarrassing that moment was!!
I have been having the exact same issues.
I always turn my Move all the way off by holding in for 5-6 seconds until I get the power off tone. After 6+ days, the battery is practically dead. Not only that, but a quick press on the power button turns on the power light right away, as if it were in standby mode.
When I leave the Move on the charger, the battery obviously doesn’t drain, but even if I turn it off completely, I find that the power indicator is on some hours (<1 day) later.
This is unacceptable. The reasons we turn it off are to make sure it’s not listening and to make sure that the battery doesn’t drain (for instance, if we know we need to take it somewhere soon).
Please issue a firmware update that addresses this issue. It has been identified for quite some time now.
Hi
Thanks
So 5 mins after I published my question, I turned off my Move (that is on 12.0/S2 ) via a 5 second push. It was at 100%.
Just turned it on today (it was still offline in the app)→ sitting at 97%. Ive turned it off again and will update tomorrow.
Got another reply from support saying it’s normal for the battery to be consumed when in standby mode even though in every single email correspondence with them I have clearly stated that the Move was turned off completely!
I don’t think I’ll ever get a satisfactory answer to the question I’m asking so will not bother considering the Move at the moment.
Every battery will lose its charge, even when there is nothing being powered. My tool batteries will eventually go dead and need a recharge, even if they are detached from the tool.
Also, as I understand the term, “standby mode” is not completely unpowered. Standby mode would be not playing music, but still on the network and ready to play. That of course would require power, just for the occasional pings needed to keep it on the network.
I’m not interested in standby mode but that’s all support seem to want to talk about! My power tools batteries last months when not being used and my mobile when completely turned off also lasts months. I want to know why the Move appears to lose 30% charge when completely turned off in less than a week.
I emailed Sonos support to ask them about this but only got a reply telling me how long the battery lasts when in standby even though I specifically said that the unit was apparently switched off completely.
I’ll see if I get another reply answering the actual question I asked :)
I’m experiencing the same disappointment. Purchased my Move three weeks ago and have taken it through all sorts of discharge tests. It consistently (not randomly) turns itself on when off (long off), discharges over 50% overnight in standby with mic off, etc. I want to like this thing and recommend it but these battery issues are complete deal breakers, Sonos. What’s the latest on a software fix?
Really disappointed with the battery on my Move, especially the drain speed when turned completely off.
Hoping a software update fixes it soon.
Day 2 - 92%. I did play some music on my home theatre setup via the app but the move was left off and showed as offline in the app at the time but a 5% drop in one day is a bigger drop than I would expect for something that is supposed to be off. Li-Ion/Li-Po batteries aren’t supposed to discharge that much in one evening so something is going on. Li-ion is closer to 10% a month self-discharge.
I’ll probably want to use my Move this weekend but I will at least run the test for another day.
Userlevel 6
+11
Yeah that’s what I did, held down for 5 seconds until it powered down.
I’m watching this with interest as I want to keep the move in a bathroom, charging it elsewhere once per week. I’m very happy to manually power on / off the move but not willing to purchase if it won’t keep the battery for a week with light use.
I did my own testing further back in the threat and I found it lost about 5% per night. That is still not great self-discharge, it should be 5% a month, but you should get you through a week of light use.
They specify 11 hours of playback time in general, so 30 minutes a day for 7 days is already 3.5 hours the battery (or ~33% of the battery) though plenty of real world tests show it not getting 11 hours more like 6 or 7-but its a function of volume, whether the mic is on or off, auto-trueplay on or off, not sure if Sonos ever specified what settings they used to get 11 hours. Add in about 35% over a week with the 5% a night self discharge and a week might be pushing it.
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