Roam battery SUCKS!

Every time I pick up my Sonos roam and arrive at my destination, it has no power and we have to wait 30 minutes of charging just to get connectivity. It does not work with my older Sonos ecosystem and is a big disappointment. Not sure I can return it at this point to Best Buy. I would have been better off getting the JBL speaker. #dissappointedSonosFAN #batteryissues 

Sounds like the charger power output is perhaps too low try 5v/3A (15w) unshared power output (not input) and see if that works for you. 

Not an issue of charging. The issue is the battery drains even if the Roam is turned off! Must permanently be connected to a charger! 

Definitely not a power issue, is using an upgraded usbc power adapter. 

All lithium-ion batteries will lose some charge, even when a device is fully powered off. It very much sounds like yours however is in ‘sleep mode’, rather than the ‘off’ state, or it’s faulty and operating outside of normal conditions.

My 2 Roams lose about 1% or 2% per day in their fully powered off state.

You should maybe contact or chat to Sonos Support - that can be done via this LINK.

You aren’t turning the Roam off completely, you are just putting it to sleep. If you want to turn it off, press and hold the button on the back for five seconds until you hear a chime.

T

Dear Ken Griffiths,

There are 7 pages of comments here from diverse commenters about the disappointing battery life of the Roam. Most of us are Sonos fans and were enthusiastic enough to buy this product on release.

I can't help feel your comments are gaslighting. "It's not Sonos, it's us. We aren't turning it off correctly. We aren't using the right charger". 

Your help and advice is much appreciated but, please don't diminish the issue. Sonos needs to address these concerns- this is a user-experience issue as well as a hardware issue.

If we can't figure out how to turn it off, that a design flaw. 

If its not reliable on outdoor journeys, then it's not fit for purpose. 

@DuranDoranMartell You make some valid points, but the majority of users who are experiencing problems with the Roam’s battery are not shutting it off completely or they aren’t using the right charger. If they make these two simple adjustments, it will greatly improve their user experience with the Roam.

I have two Roams and I am just a customer, the same as you, and the Roam’s here each take 2hrs 15mins to charge to a full state with a 5v 3A charger - they play for 11+ hours continuously on one charge and if powered off (fully), they lose only one or two percent battery/charge per day - that has been my personal experience and is the case for both devices.

In standby/sleep mode they will lose some power as the WiFi adapter network connection is in use for the WOL packets and the devices will wake up if the S2 App is opened on the LAN (NB: if the Roam is not used under those circumstances, it falls back to sleep within a few minutes).

If the speaker is used/operated, then it will fall into sleep mode after 30 mins of inactivity. Same as the Sonos Move.

So that’s been my personal experience.

I cannot help the case where users perhaps ‘may’ not understand the difference between the ‘sleep’ and the ‘powered off’ state - I was aware of that as a ‘Sonos Move’ user, but the two modes are clearly stated in the Product tour that is presented to every user after the install of the product.

Yes I’m in agreement with what @GuitarSuperstar says in his post here. 

I’m not here defending Sonos, I really do think that what @GuitarSuperstar mentions is the truth of the matter and I’m just trying to suggest things to hopefully try to help other Roam users.

The charger that some use, can often be at the centre of the charging frustrations and the other is perhaps a misunderstanding of the difference between ‘sleep’ and ‘standby’ .. if, after exploring those things, the problem persists, then it’s clearly time to then contact Sonos Support Staff and discuss the matter with them.

I had this issue as well. I returned it. May buy again once it’s out of beta testing LOL. 

I can appreciate the comments. That is definitely a factor in my case and not understanding proper use of power down and sleep mode. I will work on that. Next disappointment I cannot fix is that it does not work with my legacy Sonos speakers. Any work arounds? I am not giving up on the 6 speakers and amp currently in use. #sonosfan

The only way I know of to do that, is if you have an iOS controller device, rather than Android and are happy to put an AirPlay capable Sonos device into the S1 HH and group it with the S1 devices - Then (Air)play the same stream to that device and the Roam at the same time via iOS.

I retract my statement. Charged all night and team for 2 hours before power failure. Multiple Bluetooth connection issues with iOS 14.6. Will call support but probably returning it unless they can solve this. 

But the issue with sleep mode is that using the App wakes the Roam, even when you are NOT using the Roam.    AND if you are using the App fairly regularly --  as I do when choosing from my music library, the sleep mode ends up being useless, since even though you aren’t using the Roam, by using the App, the Roam drains in 2 days or so in sleep mode.  Powering it down completely isn’t as convenient and isn’t a good answer.   Sleep mode does NOT last 10 days (as the spec say), unless you do not have any other Sonos speakers that you engage with regularly.

This has to be changed.  And seems easy to do via software (i.e. wake Roam now).   I should be able to use sleep mode as intended, but still have a robust Sonos system that I engage with numerous times throughout the day. Otherwise, sleep mode is essentially irrelevant for Sonos’ best customers (those with larger, more robust systems that they interact with via the app a lot).

Carsar326,

I’ve no issue with a ‘feature request’ for a ‘no wake’ feature when the S2 App is launched. I just want a toggle switch if that ever does happen so that the Roam will continue to work here whenever it is needed.

One option at the moment is to perhaps leave the Roam on a Qi, or USB, charger pad when only used very occasionally, that’s IF you don’t wish to switch it off completely, either way the Roam should then stay charged and ready-to-use indoors, or out.

Its in a bathroom shower on a ledge, no power nearby.  So that won’t work.  Yes, the software feature should allow someone to choose to wake/use the Roam or not when the app is engaged -- NOT every time the app is engaged.  The few seconds to do so, shouldn’t matter.

This device is pretty trash. It does not hold a charge.

Power it off, completely (not sleep mode), the next morning it’s red LED is on for low battery. How is that even possible? 

Get more battery juice if you put it into sleep mode instead. That’s completely ridiculous.

This thing is a joke of a smart speaker and a waste of $200.

I suspect you either did not fully power off the Roam, or your charger/Roam is possibly faulty. I powered off the Roam on Thursday night and went away from home until 4pm on Monday.

On return home I powered the Roam back on and it was still fully charged. It was off its charger and unused for approx. 88 hours over the long weekend period, not left in sleep mode.

I would perhaps contact Sonos Support, if you are certain it was fully ‘powered off’ (not asleep) and that your Roam lost virtually all of its full-charge overnight.

Decided to finally make my first forum post, as I was frankly tired of reading “power it off” as a solution. Let’s be clear; it is not. Would you keep your mobile phone off except when you had to make a call or send an email? 

The standby battery life is undeniably poor; less than half - or at best, barely half - the advertised 10 days (who knows under what conditions Sonos achieved 10 days. I actually tried disconnecting if from my wifi and did not use it at all; checked at end of week and it was dead). 

For those who seem perplexed why one would not simply leave it plugged in, is it so hard to imagine that there are people who purchased a Roam primarily to leave in a space that does not have a power socket nearby (bathroom, patio etc)? Charging it once a week would’ve been a very acceptable compromise (I had no difficulty getting 1 week standby on my old JBL link which is also a wifi speaker with voice assistant); doing so once every 3-4 days is not.

The worst part of all this is that Sonos hasn’t even bothered acknowledging the standby battery issue. Heck, even the known bugs (Google assistant turning the Roam on and disabling trueplay; stereo pairing; soundswap hit&miss; etc) have not been fixed.

I have to say that the Roam soured my experience with Sonos as a whole (after enjoying the Arc 5.1 a lot) and I’m slowly gravitating back towards Chromecast speakers for the rest of the house.

@JoeJoe405 Since you are comparing the Roam to a smartphone, do you think charging a phone every 3-4 days is considered unacceptable too? I charge my phone at least once a day. I imagine most people do. Yet most people don’t complain about it.

Do you own a flashlight? When you aren’t using the flashlight, do you turn it off or keep it on at all times?

You are missing the point. Most phones are rated for about a day’s worth of intense use, maybe double for moderate use. Assuming one wants to avoid the phone dipping below 20%, charging once a day is in line with expectations. The proper analogy here would be having to charge your phone two or three times a day, and having people tell you “well, obviously turn off your phone when you’re not using it!”

As for flashlights, does yours have a standby mode? 

It’s mind-boggling that there are folks here who would rather blame other customers than hold Sonos to higher standards. Or simply the standards that they proudly proclaimed when they advertised 10 day standby battery life.

Managed to get mine working for my requirement by adding a 10,000 mAh power bank with a short braided cable.  It is in the bathroom and was only lasting a few days due to waking up when another part of the Sonos was in use via the app.  Not an ideal solution but means I only have to charge it once a week assuming everyone remembers to do the short button press after use rather than using Alexa.  The wife and children are not able / willing to do the full power off which I can understand - it is a pain when you are rushing to get ready in the morning and difficult for the very young.  Please Sonos, add a do not wake up Roam when using app option.  You are penalising your most loyal users - those that have Sonos in many other rooms.

I don’t think this would help greatly, as when a Roam is woken up by the S2 App on the LAN, the device is only fully awake for 3 minutes, if not used, then it returns to sleep mode - so you might save half hours worth of battery over an 8 hour period perhaps?

In general, whilst in sleep mode the Roam’s WiFi remains connected to the network anyway for playback, IP address renewal, updates etc; So the only real way to save battery is to switch the device off completely.

In our case the Bathroom/Shower is next to our Bedroom, so I just leave the Roam on a Qi charger pad and carry it in/out to the Bathroom and use SoundSwap to move the audio to the speakers in the Bedroom and vice versa.

I think switching off the wake-up option when the Sonos App opens, is not going to have any huge impact on battery life.