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Pwestdubs
April 25, 2021
Answered

Roam setup nightmares.

The product is branded “roam” it should be easy to use away from home… right?

I was naive enough to think that.

I am currently traveling for work and my go-to bluetooth travel speaker kicked the bucket. I took it as an opportunity to pickup the roam, something I had been eyeing for a bit. Getting the thing setup (just so I can use bluetooth) while I’m on hotel wifi is near impossible. It also REFUSES to do bluetooth pairing without wifi setup first.

 

I finally did it, it took an hour and a half. Multiple devices, hotspots, new sonos systems/accounts, etc. Completely unacceptable experience.

 

 

This is going to be a ton of people’s entry product into the sonos ecosystem. It NEEDS to work with simple bluetooth pairing out of the box. I don’t know why I have to tell you this, get better product management.

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    ratty
    rattyAnswer
    April 25, 2021

    None of your quotes detract from the fact that the unit first needs to be set up on -- or as -- a Sonos system in order to operate.

     

    The FAQ on the product/store page are quite explicit:

    Will Roam work with Bluetooth out of the box?

    Like all Sonos speakers, Roam must be set up with the Sonos app whilst on WiFi before you can connect a device directly via Bluetooth.

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    39 replies

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    John B
    February 4, 2022

    Seems a little strange to me that you would assume that a speaker that is so much more than a dumb Bluetooth speaker would behave exactly like a dumb Bluetooth speaker, but whatever...…

    There is certainly a reasonable chance of setting it up using a mobile hotspot, but another device would need to be used as the controller. A mobile device cannot join its own WiFi LAN.

      JTC
      Contributor I
      February 4, 2022

      Actually, turns out it is a very dumb bluetooth speaker - as it does not work out of the box w BT.  

        106rallye
        106rallye
        February 4, 2022

        Dumb is the word that springs to mind…….

          Ken_Griffiths
          Ken_Griffiths
          February 4, 2022

          Problem Solving?

          A lad in college and his mates can’t figure out how to setup the Roam by themselves... that’s the bit I find difficult to understand?

          What are they teaching kids these days?

          JTC
          Contributor I
          February 4, 2022

          Trust me, support responded saying, wont work...out of luck.  Will return and go elsewhere.  Read the other scenarios in this string - not ideal.  Sonos support stated, “the wifi requirement frustrates a lot of our Roam customers”.  Hmmm…. 

            Ken_Griffiths
            Ken_Griffiths
            February 5, 2022

            Trust me, support responded saying, wont work...out of luck.  Will return and go elsewhere.  Read the other scenarios in this string - not ideal.  Sonos support stated, “the wifi requirement frustrates a lot of our Roam customers”.  Hmmm…. 

            I’m sure my young grandson would want me to pass on these steps to your Son & his college mates…

            1. Enable WiFi Hotspot on Mobile ‘A’ (use a mates mobile hotspot, if necessary)
            2. Connect Mobile ‘B’ to Hotspot and install S2 Sonos App
            3. Power on Roam - open App and setup FR Roam on either new, or existing, Sonos Account.
            4. Roam will BT pair once setup/registration is complete.
              Falorian
              Lyricist I
              February 23, 2022

              ++ bump.

              Love Sonos sound.  Bought the Roam because… well the name seems to suggest that it does act more like the other Bluetooth speakers on the market with the Wi-Fi speaker awesomeness.  I was totally expecting that I need to connect with the app for full feature use, but the fact I can’t use a public access point to set it up? That is just bad product design/product management.  Working in tech industry for years and I can tell you, this is a VERY easy to solve for even in a firmware update.  Some exec heard the product marketing team say this was a feature that would be value-able and it was nixed for some silly reason - probably wanting to collect user data or the “app team” objected because… god forbid you don’t utilize their software. 

               

              I’m also traveling on business and wont be back on a home network for several weeks. I’ve tried public Wi-Fi that has no password, and this also doesn’t work.  Maybe I should ask my friend to use his Wi-Fi to set up my Bluetooth speaker? Haha come on - complete silliness.  If you can enable NFT product recognition you sure as heck synchronize a BT connection to stream some music.  

               

              If anyone has a work-around, would be great to hear it.  

              Ken_Griffiths
              Ken_Griffiths
              February 23, 2022

              @Falorian,

              Just setup the Roam using a mobile Hotspot. Connect your mobile controller to the same Hotspot and set it up with the Sonos App inside of a couple of minutes and then simply switch to using Bluetooth.

                Falorian
                Lyricist I
                February 24, 2022

                Thanks @Ken_Griffiths.  I tried using my cell as a mobile hotspot as I have 2, but it got stuck.   

                 

                Update: left it in my room with my other cell phone and it must have found a way through the issues and it setup.  Bluetooth is working fine.  Have no idea how that worked, but I guess I’m happy now. Haha

                 

                Thanks for the suggestion =)

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