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AllanGR
Contributor I
April 21, 2021

Sonos Roam - Battery drain

Hi everyone, 

I received my Sonos Roam yesterday and I am quite concerned by the battery drain on standby mode.

My roam is losing about 10% every hour on standby, which brings us to 10hours but I was expecting 10 hours in playing mode.

Should I be concerned by those stats are it was the expected consumption?

Thank you 🙂!

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    afcchris
    Contributor I
    May 16, 2021

    hi all. A software update was issued yesterday. I have installed it so let’s see what happens. Does anyone have a link to the info on software updates? does such a thing exist? Would love to know the official view on what was being fixed

    The battery “drain” on the roam is not part of this update.   The issue is not actually the battery itself, but the way they designed the product to work in an existing Sonos environment.   The way its designed, if you keep the Roam in standby (sleep mode), it wakes up each and every time you use the Sonos app.  And I use the app constantly throughout the day for OTHER speakers.     That needs to change.

    Their should be an option to wake with the App every time, or wake specifically when you want to use the Roam.   The way it is now, I have to charge the Roam every 2 (maybe 3) days -- with only about an hours actual use.   Sure -- I could totally power down the Roam, but then I would have to physically engage with it to turn it back on (not acceptable for a Sonos speaker).

    So the best solution -- stop waking EVERY time you use the app.

    Apparently there was something for the Roam in this update according to many websites today….e.g. https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/sonos/156883-new-sonos-update-software-features-how-to-get-it

    Not sure what to believe now

    M F
    Lyricist I
    May 17, 2021

    On my side, it’s over.  The roam is now back at Best Buy.  Having to always to turn off the roam to save the small battery life was not acceptable to me.  And 10 hours of use with the volume at 50% is really not something that we should get from a portable speaker in 2021.  Back to my old Bose Soundlink Mini 2 now.  It’s still performing well and it’s giving me more than 10 hours on a single charge.  Not bad for a 5 years old speaker.  I wanted an Airplay portable speaker, but it won’t be this time.

      afcchris
      Contributor I
      May 17, 2021

      On my side, it’s over.  The roam is now back at Best Buy.  Having to always to turn off the roam to save the small battery life was not acceptable to me.  And 10 hours of use with the volume at 50% is really not something that we should get from a portable speaker in 2021.  Back to my old Bose Soundlink Mini 2 now.  It’s still performing well and it’s giving me more than 10 hours on a single charge.  Not bad for a 5 years old speaker.  I wanted an Airplay portable speaker, but it won’t be this time.

      I can’t believe some of the comments on this post lately. It takes 1 second to press the button and turn it off!! Omg...come on guys...

        wilwong829
        Enthusiast II
        May 17, 2021

        I think to have a WAKE UP option will be much better but tbh I’m okay with powering it on/off every time before/after the shower.

          JD_Power
          Lyricist I
          May 21, 2021

          Usually I just lurk here, but this is maybe the third time I’ve been turned off of a Sonos product after googling for known issues, finding this community, and seeing major problems completely ignored by Sonos.

           

          Would it kill y’all to have a mod or dev pop in occasionally and at least make me feel like device-breaking functionality will get addressed eventually?  

            Hellipsis
            Contributor I
            May 23, 2021

            Gutted. Everything else is amazing

             

            The battery life is so poor.

            Ended up buying the expensive charger.

            But when its not charging and playing standalone the levels go down so quick.

            Hoping an update soon will improve it

            My UE Wonderboom 1 left on all day seems to last longer.

            Tom19
            Lyricist II
            May 23, 2021

            I have the same issue and mine is going back. Lasts a couple of days max on standby due to the fact it keeps waking up.


            Those hoping for a fix any time soon should look at the move which has had this issue for over a year and is still not fixed.

            cmoore75
            Contributor II
            May 25, 2021

            Hey, I just received my Roam a few days ago and I seem to be having better luck with battery longevity in standby mode. I’m seeing battery drain of around 1% per hour when in standby. For my purposes, this is perfectly acceptable. I don’t know if my experience is due to my network (no issues with random waking) or if there is just variability in the hardware. Either way I wanted to post my experience because I almost cancelled my order after reading these posts and I thought others would benefit from knowing at least one person is getting better results. 

              bstahl
              May 26, 2021

              The Roam is my 11th Sonos speaker (Playbase, 2 Subs, and 7 One SLs) and it’s the only one I’m disappointed in. And it’s all because of the battery because the sound and design are good. Why can I leave my MacBook or iPad sleeping for days or even weeks (and they even do stuff while asleep) and they still have a charge, but the Roam is dead the next day from a full charge if I forget to turn it off after my shower? It’s shockingly bad, like some old Ni-Cad/No-MH device when battery tech was primitive and terrible.

                marvallous
                Lyricist I
                May 26, 2021

                Hi everyone, 

                I received my Sonos Roam yesterday and I am quite concerned by the battery drain on standby mode.

                My roam is losing about 10% every hour on standby, which brings us to 10hours but I was expecting 10 hours in playing mode.

                Should I be concerned by those stats are it was the expected consumption?

                Thank you 🙂!

                Same. I turned the power off and it still drained. What gives? Disappointing to see no response from Sonos. 

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