My Roam went from fully charged to dead in about 40 hours. I listened to it for 30 minutes within this period. Surely this is a faulty Roam or Sonos’ claims about 10 hours standby is simply incorrect?  I know there are factors like temperatures and how often you use the Sonos system but I’m getting <20% of expected usage.  Despite thinking the speaker is great I think a return is unavoidable. My use for this would typically be to charge it and then use in occasionally. However, unless I keep charging it it will be dead (like this morning) every time I need it. I’ll see how I get on by using the clunky switch off process but I’d like some feedback from Sonos about whether this is expected or it is worth trying another unit. I don’t want another charger plugged in 24/7. 

Thanks for that (wilwong829).  Quite a slow charge for usb-c I would guess.  I’ve been using my MacBook charger which I think is about 65W but no idea what the Roam is pulling from that.  Just to add to the intrigue I charged mine 100% last night and was fully expecting it to be quite drained this morning.  Bizarrely it has been 100% on both occasions I’ve checked it.  I now wonder if the battery takes some bedding in or something as I’ve changed nothing in terms of set up and pretty sure there’s been no app or firmware updates.

Was that Off or Standby?

@Acer99 Off.  I had been getting massive drain whilst off, so continuing with that ‘test’ for now.

My Roam was fully charged overnight, turned on and in standby since 8am this morning (6 hours ago) and has only 47% battery life. I didn’t play music or use it once.

Same issue for me. This product is utterly useless when it is not able to hold a charge in standby mode. I would recommend Sonos make the following changes:

• Figure out and fix why battery standby is not holding out for more than two days. It must make regular wifi wake-up pings which are battery hawks. I’m okay if it takes 30 seconds for the speaker to wake up. Add this in the app: your speaker will start playing with 30 seconds.
• Be honest with your customers that this speaker is best kept on a wireless charger for home standby wifi use.
• Add a setting to automatically turn the speaker of when for example 50% battery level is reached in standby. At least this leaves me enough to still grab it for on to go use when I forgot to keep it on the charger. This should be easy to add.

Hey everyone! Joined because I am having the same issue. I’ve had portable Bluetooth speakers before and never had this issue. It’s very frustrating that it just dies when it’s not plugged in. I try to turn it off. Same issue. Turn it on days later and it’s  dead. This is unacceptable, especially at this price range. I am not able to use it as sonos intends. 
 

I’ve also noticed in the app I can’t get the thing 100% charged. 

SONOS - are you listening? What are you going to do to address this massive failure?

Having the same issue. Charged it a couple of days ago, haven’t actually listened to anything on it in that time, and it’s already at 10%. It’s dropped by 3% in the last hour or two alone. No voice assistants turned on.

I can’t remember when I last charged my old UE Wonderboom, must have been months ago, but it just turned on fine.

Bought this to extend Sonos into my bathroom, where I can’t have a socket. Was expecting to need to top it up occasionally but this is a joke.

Sounds like they did nothing with the move (which i just got too grrrr) so we will see.  This is much more portable so I assume a LOT more people will have issue and they will have to do SOMETHING. I hope. 

Same issue here. I am UTTERLY disappointed with the battery life.... Shame on you SONOS

I guess the battery is drained calling msmetrics.ws.sonos.com every 5 min.... 

I’m still dealing with support having sent numerous diagnostics and screenshots. 
 

After more testing, my Roam is using exactly 10% battery per hour. Seems reasonable, until you realise that’s at 15% volume. Sonos have stated publicly on their social media channels that it’s 10 hours playtime @ 50% volume. 
 

Reminds me of when B&O launched the A1 with 24 hours battery life, only to later revise it to 4 hours at “moderate listening levels” (50% volume). 

It would appear that there is a difference between ‘sleep’ and ‘off’ and I’m hoping this resolves the issue.  In sleep mode, the battery does seem to go down over around 10 days (which is annoying, but okay if there is an actual ‘off’ setting).

To turn it off, it would appear that you hold the button on the back down for 5s (it makes a different tone, and no longer appears in the Sonos App, so this looks promising).  I suspect that in sleep mode, the Sonos is constantly being woken by the App (as I do things, etc).

I’m okay if it drains relatively quickly in ‘sleep’ as long as there is an ‘off’ option (and it works as expected.  I’ll know soon enough!

I’m having this issue, too. I turned it off after fully charged, and turned it back on a few days later, it was 30%. Now the indicator shows battery draining-- while it’s plugged in and charging! I think I may return it.

So, some developments for me.  To recap, I was seeing massive battery drain even with the Roam powered down and not in standby.  I charged it last Thursday evening and was expecting to see significant drain the following morning.  There was none (battery was indicating 100%).  I’ve been away all weekend and on checking again this morning (which is now over 4 days since fully charging), it’s reporting 98% battery.  I’m now beginning to wonder if the battery needs a few cycles of charge/discharge before it becomes fully effective.  I’m not sure what else it can be as I’ve done nothing different in charging or in use in this last ‘test’ versus any previous ‘tests’.  I’m now going to keep the Roam in standby mode to see how that affects battery life.

I can attest to having the same issue.

leave at 50-60% come back 2 days later and its so dead that even usb power doesn't wake it for another 20-30 minutes.

I completely turned the roam off (power down for 5 secs, doesn’t Show up in the app) and that seems to help. 
I agree. It seems the Sonos app on WIFI “pings” and “wakes” up the Roam both when it’s on or standby (not completely off). 
 

My question is… has anyone taken this OUT of the house and tried in Bluetooth? It won’t be looking for the WiFi so I’m curious if the battery still drains. I am usually going to use this out and about. Like at the beach. If it drains fast there, I need to return it. 

I also have the issue, the Sonos app is used a lot in the house so the roam automatically turns on a lot which seems to drain the battery. When I go pick it up to take out it should be full but it's down at 60% when only charged the day before. Feels like for sure there is a solution in software but would be good to know its being worked on. 

I do not have google or amazon installed on the roam.

Crutchfield In Bed With Sonos

Just to let you know that last week I submitted a one star review on Crutchfield where I purchased the Roam from and described the battery drain issues, and guess what? It never got published on their site. However, they have since published six 5 star reviews and one 4 star review. So, that’s how the system works...

Are you saying that because Crutchfield didn’t post your review, Sonos is to be held responsible, so you’ll post in Sonos’ forum? That’s quite a leap. I’d expect your beef to be with Crutchfield, as I’d be willing to bet Sonos has zero control over anything on Crutchfield’s website. 

No - simply pointing out the disingenuous relationship that retailers may have with product manufacturers. Since yesterday, I noticed they did post a 1 star review from someone who couldn’t get it to unpair with the phone app. I just think it’s odd with so many people having battery issues with the Roam, not one review on Crutchfield mentions it - I don’t know, maybe I’m the only one having battery issues that purchased it from Crutchfield… If they do ever publish my review, I’ll revise my post. 

Ah, I see. Yea, Sonos is a company that, in my perception, does not remove negative posts/reviews, at least here in these forums. But Sonos doesn’t have any sway over companies like Crutchfield, which appears to be filtering your review from being posted, although I suppose, not being familiar enough with Crutchfield any more, it could be in a moderation phase. To further the situation, Crutchfield has no official (or unofficial, that I’m aware of) representation on these forums that you’re posting on, nor any forums of their own in which you can communicate directly to them.

While I haven’t purchased anything from Crutchfield in maybe 15 or 20 years, I’d encourage you to do purchasing of Sonos products directly from Sonos. They’re pretty good about responding to direct questions where they can in these forums. And they have a pretty extensive money back time frame on all purchases. 

However, it’s obvious that there’s more than one thing going on with the Roam’s battery, as some people are reporting changes when they factory reset the device, while others are not. 

Sonos does tend to be mute while things are under investigation, so it can be frustrating as a user, but if you’re patient enough, they’ll often finally come out with some official statement, which may or may not be included with a software update, depending on the issue. 

Same issues here of course..., it is amazing that this battery drain problem has not been noticed by any of the many reviews I have read.
The problem is so obvious that I think there are only 2 possibilities:
- they didn't actually test the Sonos roam but just copied the publicity of Sonos
- they got a Sonos Roam without the problem.

Already the second day (21/4) I talked to Sonos about this (battery empty after 1 night in sleep mode) and James L. (Sonos staff) replied this: "I recommend submitting a diagnostic report and getting in touch with our customer care team who can take a closer look at that and figure out what might have happened."

I cannot believe that they are not aware of the problem…

William

I seem to see two complaints in this thread:

• disappointing battery time while in use playing music;
• disappointing battery time while on stand by.

The last complaint has been explained by Sonos. The Roam is two speakers: a bluetooth speaker (like a UE), but also a multiroom wifi speaker. When the Roam isn't completely turned off it's part of the multiroom audio system. Like other Sonos speakers it needs to be in contact with  the system (this also goes for the Move), which will use electricity. So it is not a problem - it's a feature. The Roam can stay on the charger without any problem.

If you do not want the Roam to use electricity you need to turn it completely off. Then it should act as any bluetooth speaker and not use anergy.

But that is not what the Sonos specs say:

What is the battery life of Roam?

Roam offers up to 10 hours of continuous playback on a single charge. When not in use, Roam switches to sleep mode to conserve power, and the battery can last up to 10 days.

Based on this, I’d expect my Roam to switch to sleep mode and last close to 10 days (yes, will vary according to system use/temps etc).  I get about 1.5 days - 15% of expected.  So, the specs are wrong or my Roam is faulty?  I’d really like to know the answer.