Hi @Martin Banham,

Hmm, you’re correct, it doesn’t wake up with any other button press other than the power button. Could you please link me or tell me where the instructions you saw that say you can do this?

Hi James. 
in settings / system / Roam, underneath Hardware, click on “Get to know your Sonos Roam”. A pop up Product Tour is displayed. Swipe left through this and you find the tip of “Save Some Energy”. 
I've attached pictures.  

Thanks for that! I’m able to reproduce this on my own Roam and also see the same messaging in app. I’ve flagged this with our engineering team as an issue to be investigated.

While talking about the product tour, it wasn’t intuitive to me that you needed to swipe to move the next screen.  Indeed, the first screen says which button to press for Bluetooth, and my thought was that I needed to connect Roam via bluetooth to move to the next screen.   I thought it was a more interactive tour.  I readily admit that that was a rather silly assumption looking at it now, but maybe a hint to swipe to the next screen may help others who are as easily confused as I am?

That’s something I’ve personally fed back too  I’ll be sure to add your feedback to it.

@Martin Banham - I’ve received a response from our team already. The user guide is incorrect - only the power button will wake the Roam from sleep. The product tour text will be fixed soon.

Thanks for the quick response - I am pleased

that I haven’t got a dodgy unit and that it’s working as planned. Perhaps the wake with any key is a roadmap item for later release…I do think it’s a good idea. 

So does this mean when it goes to sleep due to inactivity -- you have to physically interact with it to wake it (you can’t use the Sonos App to wake it -- or Alexa)?   If so, that’s kind of odd, since you may want to send it music and not be near it?

I understand it’s possible to wake the Roam from sleep-mode (not powered off-state) by opening the S2 App on the network from either a fully closed state, or by bringing the App into the foreground from a background/minimised state. It also wakes when placed on a charger.

James, it would be better to change the product/ not the user guide in this instance.  Can you ask the product team to change it to ANY button press wakes (not just the power button)?  I just tested this extensively -- and it is a bit of a problem from a typical use case scenario. 

For example, you use the Roam generally as a bathroom speaker.  So you wake up in the morning, enter the bathroom and want to just say -- “Alexa play my morning music”.   But, alas, it’s asleep; and alas you don't carry your phone with you into the bathroom (nor do you want to fumble with the app in the morning).   So, then your only half awake self  has to press the button on the back (which is a little dodgy to press and get right - there is no real tactile feedback with that very flat button, and no audio feedback noise when successfully pressed to on).   

It would be WAY easier to just press either play/pause or volume up/down.  There is tactile feedback and you wouldn’t have to wrestle with the Roam as much by using any of the buttons on the top part.

So can you make this request please?  Seems like a simple software fix:  when in sleep state; power on with press of play/pause button.  

Thanks!

Yes I can confirm that after putting the Roam to sleep last night i’ve just woken it this morning from another room by bringing the app back from the foreground as the red offline dot has disappeared and battery life percentage showing. Thanks Ken. 

I can certainly make the request for you  I believe the rationale behind this choice is that it would result in less accidental wakes if a top cap button is pressed when placed in a bag during travel, for example. Ken is correct that there are other ways to wake the Roam, including opening the S2 app if your Roam is in WiFi mode and placing the unit on charge.

The problem is , the power button is too difficult.  Moreover the buttons on top are not too easy to press (even accidentally in a bag).  They are overthinking this. Also, Not everyone will be throwing this in a bag everyday to travel.  Or at the very least, make it a software choice to use the top buttons for this purpose -(like the light on or not). 

Please tell the engineers to think about a home use scenario (where it may rarely leave the house). where you have Alexa enabled. In that case it is very annoying to pull out your phone and open the app each time - or wrestle with a difficult power button (since once powered on you intend to speak to it - not use the app!). 

I should be able to tap a top button to use my product. I strongly disagree with this design decision. 

Telling me to plug it in, or use the app or pick up the product each time to deal with the power button is not okay.  A home bathroom user of the Roam - clearly a market here too, should not have to do these things  it makes the product much HARDER to use, not easier.  

Finally, even if a top button was accidentally pressed in a travel bag, it would return to sleep if not otherwise used.  So that imaginary issue is not a big deal. Telling home users of the Roam to use their phone (in a bathroom) is just wrong.   

So please tell the engineers all of these reasons.  Thank you!

Completely understood. I’ve already passed your earlier feedback on for consideration. What I hypothesized around the design decision is entirely that; a hypothesis. I’m not sure exactly why that decision was made, nor do I have ready access to the design documents on Roam to confirm, and these are just my own theories. I do like your suggestion about an app toggle for the top cap buttons, and I’ve added that to the feedback from earlier.  

Thank you!  Or have a travel vs home mode toggle for the top buttons.  (And maybe not sleep so quickly when at home too). 

I‘m not sure if one of the top buttons wakes the roam up or not… definitively you can‘t control anything after pressing one of the top control buttons, but if you have a look on the app opened and roam in standby you will recognise that after pressing one of the top buttons roams status in the app will change from offline to online. 
So at the moment for me this is „not fish and not meat“, because obviously standby mode no longer is activ but nothing without using the app or pressing the power button can be done to control roam. 
So an update imo has to change something… stay in standby mode or wake up and be able to be controlled with hardware buttons.

That’s by design, the opening of the Sonos app is what wakes the speaker from sleep (not powered-off) mode. Sometimes the controller needs a few seconds to catch-up on its status change. 

The other ‘wake-up-from-sleep’ options are to short press the power button or return it to the charger.

All true about the 3 wake up options. BUT- a top button press SHOULD wake it.  It is much easier to do that than fumble with the app or press the narrow/shallow power button in the back - which lacks tactile feedback. This would be perfect for the shower/bathroom scenario (an apparent popular use of the Roam). 

Yes, I’m certainly not against the play/pause button waking the device, but it’s clear from James L post, it was considered and set aside on the basis that it made it easier to ‘accidentally’ wake in a carry case/bag… that’s not to say Sonos may decide to perhaps revisit the decision.

Personally speaking, it currently works the same as the Sonos ‘Move’ and I’ve not experienced any difficulty waking either device with the power-button press.

I think Sonos should  give the option to the user (particularly users like me, who will likely never throw it in a bag).  Could be a software toggle to select - “allow any button press to wake” 

@Ken_Griffiths

I know the wake up function by opening the sonos app... 

I wrote: „pressing one of the top control buttons while roam is in standby and the app already is active opened“. 
Normaly if the app is open and roam is in standby it is shown as offline and you have to close the app or put it in the background and then open it again or get it back from background to wake roam up. 
But this also can be done by pressing one of the control buttons. 
With Sonos move this doesn‘t work. 
 

Edit:

Because of this imo the feature is not activ as perhaps planed in the past but also isn‘t deactivated completely at the moment. ;-) 

The issue with such ‘alternate’ user-options are that some ‘novice’ users forget such settings and then generate additional ‘support calls’ stating their play/pause button isn’t working properly etc… bearing in mind that all the buttons on the Roam can be completely disabled in the App already.

That said I’m completely understanding why users here want to see this option.

It‘s difficult to give many options to the user and also keep the system simple. 
 

@Ken_Griffiths 

Can you reproduce what i tried to describe...?

Or better yet- just make it where any button wakes it.  I honestly fail to see how a top button could be easily accidentally pressed in a bag.   It still requires some fairly significant force on those buttons.  I guarantee you the likelihood is extremely low.  

See the bolded text in the quote above... 

The only ‘control’ button that I’m aware of which will currently wake the Roam from sleep (not idle/standby mode) is the rear Power button. The Move works in exactly the same way, whether the App is open or not and both devices fall into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity (with exceptions).

Well it’s just a case of wait and see if Sonos implement it - maybe if they do, then they will do it for the Sonos Move too.