This is the the worst Sonos product out there, and we have 15 total products.
the connection almost never works; it won’t charge, and the music cuts in and out almost every attempt.
don’t buy this piece of crap
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Userlevel 4
This response feels like a scripted Sonos employee and the fact that it came in 2 minutes after my post is suspect.
if you are a sonos customer and having a good experience with this product that’s great.
I am a sonos customer who just bought a completely useless product. The more you read about issues online suggest this product is a complete piece of crap. Sonos has really dropped the ball on this thing
Userlevel 2
It is garbage. I have an enormous amount of Sonos products throughout my home and have for nearly 10 years now. Love it all. But this Roam…I just want to slam it against the wall. If I’m lucky enough to get it to connect, i better never let it stop playing. Because if I do, the next time I want to use it I’ll have to reboot everything and HOPE it connects again. And it’s not just this one at my home. We have one at our record store and that one never connects either. The only way it’ll work is with Bluetooth.
These things are not ready for market.
Userlevel 4
It is garbage. I have an enormous amount of Sonos products throughout my home and have for nearly 10 years now. Love it all. But this Roam…I just want to slam it against the wall. If I’m lucky enough to get it to connect, i better never let it stop playing. Because if I do, the next time I want to use it I’ll have to reboot everything and HOPE it connects again. And it’s not just this one at my home. We have one at our record store and that one never connects either. The only way it’ll work is with Bluetooth.
These things are not ready for market.
100% I’m three weeks into using it, complete garbage, simply never connects.
Sonos, recall this garbage and re release when it’s a quality product like the rest of your stuff
Sonos roam is the worst product I’ve ever used. Basically a homework assignment to get the thing working. Why do you need to go through the app? why can you not just connect via Bluetooth? my guess/concern is that the app is there so they can sell your data, which is really annoying as I only wanted speaker!!
Probably a good idea to actually check the privacy statement if you’re concerned about Sonos or any other company selling your data. A quick summary….they don’t sell your data.
Is it not advertised as a Bluetooth speaker?
No, it’s advertised as a portable Sonos speaker that also offers Bluetooth.
If anyone took the trouble to read the FAQs on the Roam product page they’d see:
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.
Similar experience - very unreliable connecting to home Sonos via WiFi; often drops the connection; doesn’t show up in the list of devices on the Sonos app; discharges in standby mode (why not turn off completely after fixed period to save charge?); hold the (inconveniently positioned) button for 5 secs to turn off - why?
Steer clear. Definitely a “do not buy”.
Userlevel 7
I have 10 Sonos devices. I love my Sonos Roam. It connects to my home network with no problem, easily connects to my iPhone via Bluetooth, charges very quickly, and rarely ever cuts out.
GS isn’t a Sonos employee, nor am I. Sonos usually don’t staff the board at weekends.
The Roam works fine, given a decent WiFi signal. If yours is dropping out then Sonos Support could take a look at a diagnostic.
As for it not charging Roam requires at least 1.5A, ideally 2A (https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5078).
Sonos roam is the worst product I’ve ever used. Basically a homework assignment to get the thing working. Why do you need to go through the app? why can you not just connect via Bluetooth? my guess/concern is that the app is there so they can sell your data, which is really annoying as I only wanted speaker!!
It very much sounds like you didn’t do any research, or perhaps understand what you were purchasing. I wanted the Roam for its BT Line-In features to a Sonos HH and its ability to SoundSwap, pair/group with my existing Sonos System, use with SVC & Alexa voice control and to link Sonos with Amazon Echo and so many other things that it is able to do too.
If you just wanted a BT speaker, you should perhaps have just bought a cheap BT speaker, particularly if you’re not using it’s computer controlled features. It appears you might have made a mistake, a bit like spending your money on an OLED 4K TV when all you wanted to do was to listen to a local radio channel, is perhaps one way of looking at it.
Userlevel 7
What’s the problem?
The problem is not with the product, but lies within the unwillingness of some to look beyond their first glance at the product.
This stupid machine cannot even connect to regular home WiFi. So fed up with this. My first and last Sonos product ever. I had big expectations on this but but what I got is complex device with unstable BT, stupid buttons which cannot see without reflecting against light, multi-color leds blinking which requires user’s manual to find out what it means and on top of all, it’s over-heating in use.
The Roam here works fine too - it has been playing most of the morning with no issues. Takes about 2.5 hours to charge fully from ‘empty’ (USB-C) and lasts all day. No complaints from me.
It sounds great for it’s size and love the built-in Alexa voice assistant. I mainly use iPhone XR when out and about and no issues either with its Bluetooth connection.. I am able to control the speaker playback with the iPhone’s Siri Assistant too whilst connected over Bluetooth.
Sorry Sonos. I have 8 different speakers around the house, and the Roam has had issues since day one. Its basically a paperweight in the house now.
Handy tip for my only gripe with the roam until I realised this: you don’t need to hold the back button down to switch between Bluetooth and Airplay. The only time you need to do that is initial connection, thereafter you just connect and disconnect (via device menu) to Bluetooth, depending on Bluetooth connection status Airplay will or won’t be available.
Totally agree. Whenever I want to add the Roam to my Sonos ecosystem, 50% of the time I have to plug it in and reset it, even if it’s at full power. Even then it takes five minutes of fiddling before it deigns to make an appearance in the Sonos app. The Roam is without a doubt the least reliable Bluetooth speaker I’ve owned in the last fifteen years, and I’ve probably had twenty different speakers. A $20 JBL is more dependable than the Sonos Roam, and at the price point of the Roam, I could buy ten of them. How this made it out of beta testing is beyond me.
(and don’t get me started on the absurd user interface of beeps and whistles. The blinking white, the blinking orange, the blinking blue lights. Don’t have the manual in your pocket? Too bad. Sonos is too cool to put labels on the buttons or include a key on the product itself.)
Why can’t Sonos just admit they released a garbage product instead of gaslighting their customers?
I realize that this post doesn’t contribute a thing. For the 20th time in the past year, I decided I would be optimistic today, spend a bit of time fiddling and cajoling my Roam into waking up and doing something. 30 minutes of futility later, for the umpteenth time, it is totally unresponsive. I was curious and thought I’d just search for “Sonos Roam is garbage” found this thread with others feeling the same. Comfort in not feeling alone.
No, I’m not going to get into the specifics of what, how, and wherefor the Roam reacts or behaves. It quite simply is a useless device and is now in my dumpster. I have multiple Moves (love), several deprecated 1st Gen Play 5s, Beam, PlayBar, Ones, etc. Like others, I am a long-time Sonos believer and have also started to build out a collection in my daughter’s home. But the Roam is a bad product plain and simple. The other Sonos products have been as reliable as electricity, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. The Roam on the other hand - I mean who else has gotten sore fingers trying to hold down that undepressable button on that thing ? The product line is very impressive, but Roam is the rotten egg.
Sonos never gave me any option to return or get a exchange or refund and I'm stuck with this crap.
Welcome to the Community. I have good news for you. Despite what you say, Sonos in Canada offers a 45-day returns option so I assume it is still not too late to get your money back.
Totally agree I have the Arc and a 1 GBPS connection and it always tells me it can't connect or can't find system it's one of my life worst purchase ever. By the way I'm really good with troubleshooting and have a degree in computer science everything works perfectly at home I have to workstations with custom built PC have my own server workstation but this product is by far the worst 1200$ in the dump nothing less with zero customer service support I even try returning it right after purchased it I had to go through a whole process with Sonos never gave me any option to return or get a exchange or refund and I'm stuck with this crap. Buy something that does both Bluetooth and wi-fi setup not unilateral Wi-Fi that doesn't recognize and good wi-fi connection and just doesn't let you use it at all I'm gonna stop there because it drives me crazy having spent that much money on something that useless
Welcome to the Community. I have good news for you. Despite what you say, Sonos in Canada offers a 45-day returns option so I assume it is still not too late to get your money back.
Also, punctuation is your friend.
Totally agree I have the Arc and a 1 GBPS connection and it always tells me it can't connect or can't find system it's one of my life worst purchase ever. By the way I'm really good with troubleshooting and have a degree in computer science everything works perfectly at home I have to workstations with custom built PC have my own server workstation but this product is by far the worst 1200$ in the dump nothing less with zero customer service support I even try returning it right after purchased it I had to go through a whole process with Sonos never gave me any option to return or get a exchange or refund and I'm stuck with this crap. Buy something that does both Bluetooth and wi-fi setup not unilateral Wi-Fi that doesn't recognize and good wi-fi connection and just doesn't let you use it at all I'm gonna stop there because it drives me crazy having spent that much money on something that useless
As you have a degree in CS, maybe go onto look at your issue from another angle of it possibly being an SSDP discovery issue by your mobile device across the LAN and nothing to do with the speed of your internet connection which is irrelevant. I suspect your Sonos product is present on the LAN and can be pinged etc; but ‘multicasting’ device discovery isn’t working as it should be, to be able to discover your Sonos product, perhaps?
Is the wireless LAN segmented across different wireless access points operating on different channels?… something is likely blocking the multicast packets. I would explore that possibility.
Or… Step one: Pair to Bluetooth like any other Bluetooth speaker. And then… well… no more steps.
If it can do more than that, then great, even better.
Userlevel 4
Fair enough Ratty, appears I got a defective unit
Or… Step one: Pair to Bluetooth like any other Bluetooth speaker. And then… well… no more steps.
If it can do more than that, then great, even better.
And pay the developer costs to make if work entirely differently to every other Sonos product and rewrite the user-manuals, support pages, product tours etc. for this their cheapest device?… That doesn’t make financial sense to do that, as the Roams primary function is a wireless portable speaker that forms part of the Sonos ecosystem. The Bluetooth function is its secondary form-factor.
Yes, I think they should have invested in making their cheapest device easy to use.
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