What are people using for USB C charger for Sonos Move?
I asked this question over in the sonos reddit forum and others are having same issues so thought I would bring over here.
What are people using for their usb charger for the Sonos move? I attempted to use my MacBook pros charger but it didn’t work. I have the 60watt brick but from what I read it should be able to still work.
So then I read it might be the cord as they have chips in them and knowing Apple they locked their cord down. So I bought an anker power line 3.1 usb c cable and tried it with the MacBook brick again and it still didn’t work.
So before I keep buying and returning curious if anyone has had success with certain chargers with the move. Thanks!
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@AjTrek1 - thanks - I totally get it - I will be purchasing what you posted but if the Mac adapter is supposed to work I would love to get it working so I do not have to carry around extra chargers since I always have that one with me. We will see what happens with it. Thankfully I don’t have much of a need for the portable charger in the next couple months so I have sometime to try and get this Apple one working.
Hey Jake, from what I can tell, that charger should work. Make sure that you’ve updated the software on your Move to the latest build. That issue I mentioned above should be resolved with the Sonos software version 10.5.
I’ve finished my testing of the 3rd party products below that I found suitable for use with the Sonos Move.
Click each Numbered Item to view a picture and other pertinent information regarding each. Rather than refer to each item by name I’ll identify each by its respective number.
Disclaimer: None of the items listed are supported nor recommended by Sonos. They are presented solely by me for informational purposes only.
Items 1 and 2 are used together to charge the Move when use of the charging Ring is not practical. They will charge the Move in the same manner as the Ring with no noticeable difference. All Move functionality remains the same.
Items 2 and 3 are used together in order to make the connection via USB to item 4 to facilitate portable charging of the Move when no electrical outlet is available.
Using Items 2, 3 and 4 (and item 4 at 100% capacity) to charge the Moves internal battery to 100% from 22% remaining charge takes approximately 3.5 hours (per my testing).
The Move while connected to Item 4 functioned in the same manner as when on the charging Ring. It remained connected to Wi-Fi, Alexa voice assistant was present, operated in stereo pair (as I have two), was visible in the Sonos App as charging and showed battery strength progression.
Leaving one Move on item 4 and the other Move on it’s charging Ring showed no difference in behavior or appearance in the Sonos App.
All functions and/or limitations of the Move when using Item 4 and not connected to Wi-Fi were the same.
As of this moment I have no empirical data but I would guesstimate that one could expect at minimum an additional hour of uninterrupted use of the Move if starting at 22% remaining battery charge. Longer extended use should be expected if charging is begun at 50% depletion of the Move’s internal battery.
I hope this proves useful. Just some more Heavy Lifting done for you.
Cheers!
Hi AjTrek1. Item4 has a USB-C PD 45w Output. I cant fathom from the info why Item 3 is needed to connect item 2 to Item 4. I’m sorry if Im missing something really obvious. As best I can work out Item 2 can plug directly into Item 4 and the other end of Item 2 goes into the Move. Thanks for your advise even after all the heavy lifting so far. Cheers Bob
@bblaauw
The USB-C port on item 4 is Output to supply DC power to the Move after it’s internal battery is drained and there is no electrical outlet. Items 2 and 3 are used to recharge item 4 using item 1 after item 4’s charge is depleted. Got it!
Cheers!
@AjTrek1
Perfectly clear. I hadn't thought through that you might be indicating hardware for recharging Item 4. Thanks for taking the time to clarify. Much appreciated. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something wrt to supplying power to the Move. Cheers
Currently also on holiday and the Move won’t charge with a 61W charger. Extremely annoying as I never experienced issues with charging any bluetooth speakers. Please come with a fix for this Sonos. It’s worthless like this.
For those of you in the UK, I’ve struggled to find something that will work for travel in UK and EU having tested quite a few. The 45w 20V/2.25A is the key and is very limited for UK/EU from what I have found/tested. Unfortunately all the Anker multi port options are 20V/3a so no good and the one “plug” option is UK only so no good for travel. However I’ve just bought and tested this successfully - I hope it helps:
For those of you in the UK, I’ve struggled to find something that will work for travel in UK and EU having tested quite a few. The 45w 20V/2.25A is the key and is very limited for UK/EU from what I have found/tested. Unfortunately all the Anker multi port options are 20V/3a so no good and the one “plug” option is UK only so no good for travel. However I’ve just bought and tested this successfully - I hope it helps:
Your choice for the UK version appears to be very similar to that of what I suggested for the US version at 45W. See my post in this thread on the PowerAdd version. 45W appears to be the go-to spec for a 3rd party charger.
Cheers!
Thrilled to come across this thread as I have been experiencing this with my Move on holiday vacation and am so frustrated. I didn’t bother bringing the a Sonos charger, and am getting the worst intermittent charging performance from the Move with the two MacBook chargers I have along on my trip.
As I’m in a remote setting, I can’t buy the recommended charging apparatus now. Has anyone had any luck with resets or software fixes?
@Ryan S any update on this? I bought the Move launch weekend, so I assume it’s an early unit.
Hi AndrewBrian, there were some improvements made for the Macbook charging cables in the Sonos software version 10.5, so if you have that build, as long as your chargers meet the requirements listed in the thread, they should work fine.
The power adapter must be USB-C PD. For 45W operation the PD source must put out either 20V/2.25A (or higher current) or 15V/3A (or higher current). For 36W operation the PD source must put out 12V/3A or 15V/2.4A and charging speed is reduced if listening to audio at the same time. Anything less than 36W will not power or charge Move.
What kind of intermittent issues are you seeing with your charging cables?
For any Aussies reading this, I just bought a Comsol 90w USB-C universal power adaptor from Officeworks and it’s working well. It even has a USB-A port so you could charge your phone at the same time while your away from home.
Hi AndrewBrian, there were some improvements made for the Macbook charging cables in the Sonos software version 10.5, so if you have that build, as long as your chargers meet the requirements listed in the thread, they should work fine.
The power adapter must be USB-C PD. For 45W operation the PD source must put out either 20V/2.25A (or higher current) or 15V/3A (or higher current). For 36W operation the PD source must put out 12V/3A or 15V/2.4A and charging speed is reduced if listening to audio at the same time. Anything less than 36W will not power or charge Move.
What kind of intermittent issues are you seeing with your charging cables?
The Move is on 10.6, and almost completely unresponsive to the MacBook charger. It will eventually charge, but I can’t find any pattern to how or why. It’s been plugged in now for two days and has not charged at all. I’ve tried multiple outlets, and two different 61 watt MacBook chargers with no success.
Hi AndrewBrian, there were some improvements made for the Macbook charging cables in the Sonos software version 10.5, so if you have that build, as long as your chargers meet the requirements listed in the thread, they should work fine.
The power adapter must be USB-C PD. For 45W operation the PD source must put out either 20V/2.25A (or higher current) or 15V/3A (or higher current). For 36W operation the PD source must put out 12V/3A or 15V/2.4A and charging speed is reduced if listening to audio at the same time. Anything less than 36W will not power or charge Move.
What kind of intermittent issues are you seeing with your charging cables?
The Move is on 10.6, and almost completely unresponsive to the MacBook charger. It will eventually charge, but I can’t find any pattern to how or why. It’s been plugged in now for two days and has not charged at all. I’ve tried multiple outlets, and two different 61 watt MacBook chargers with no success.
Hi @Ryan S just to follow up on this, I arrived home today and placed the Move back on its base. It fired up right away. I took it off again and tried a third MacBook charger ... the 87 watt one … and got the flashing orange light again. Seems like something is not right with the USB-C charging on my Move?
Hi AndrewBrian, there were some improvements made for the Macbook charging cables in the Sonos software version 10.5, so if you have that build, as long as your chargers meet the requirements listed in the thread, they should work fine.
The power adapter must be USB-C PD. For 45W operation the PD source must put out either 20V/2.25A (or higher current) or 15V/3A (or higher current). For 36W operation the PD source must put out 12V/3A or 15V/2.4A and charging speed is reduced if listening to audio at the same time. Anything less than 36W will not power or charge Move.
What kind of intermittent issues are you seeing with your charging cables?
The Move is on 10.6, and almost completely unresponsive to the MacBook charger. It will eventually charge, but I can’t find any pattern to how or why. It’s been plugged in now for two days and has not charged at all. I’ve tried multiple outlets, and two different 61 watt MacBook chargers with no success.
Hi @Ryan S just to follow up on this, I arrived home today and placed the Move back on its base. It fired up right away. I took it off again and tried a third MacBook charger ... the 87 watt one … and got the flashing orange light again. Seems like something is not right with the USB-C charging on my Move?
Hi @AndrewBrian
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Move’s USB-C charging such as a design defect. I believe it’s more that the Move is extremely picky about the source from whence the charge originates.
It doesn’t sound like a problem with that particular unit, as AjTrek1 says, it can be picky sometimes. Have you tried a different cable or another charger that is known to work? I’ve seen some Macbook chargers work, but that doesn’t mean all will.
It doesn’t sound like a problem with that particular unit, as AjTrek1 says, it can be picky sometimes. Have you tried a different cable or another charger that is known to work? I’ve seen some Macbook chargers work, but that doesn’t mean all will.
@Ryan S Yes, I’ve tried three different MacBook chargers and an iPad charger, with about six different USB-C cables. I can also try a Lenovo USB-C charger that I have. But it does seem like there’s something more going on, since the chargers are providing more than enough power and the Move just isn’t drawing it. I’ll let you know when I try the Lenovo charger.
@AndrewBrian
Please note that some devices are designed to reject power from a source that is not 100% spec to it’s requirment. This is done to protect the device from overload and/or heat build-up. Of course underpowered charging sources will be rejected as well.
Maybe you’re just trying to save money and I get that. However, if you scroll up in this thread you’ll find my recommendations for the US and one by @tdjohn for the UK.
Cheers!
@AndrewBrian
Please note that some devices are designed to reject power from a source that is not 100% spec to it’s requirment. This is done to protect the device from overload and/or heat build-up. Of course underpowered charging sources will be rejected as well.
Maybe you’re just trying to save money and I get that. However, if you scroll up in this thread you’ll find my recommendations for the US and one by @tdjohn for the UK.
Cheers!
Thanks, those are great recommendations … I’m mostly trying to save bulk. I’m already lugging a big ‘ol speaker around and adding more chargers/cables to the mix is annoying. Plus, this thing is not a cheap little speaker that shouldn’t be able to figure out how to pull power from a pretty well defined source. I could see if it were rejecting some kind of knock-off supply, cheaply built, etc. But that it’s rejecting a clean source like a Mac charger is baffling. I’m by no means a USB-C power delivery spec expert but it seems like by Ryan’s admission the Mac chargers should be working and they’re not. A $400 speaker shouldn’t be this fickle, is, I suppose, the broader point.
Using this well priced wall charger and it works great:
I just received a MOVE ordered directly from Sonos today 16 Jan 2020 and if I connect my MacPro power adapter it works fine at charging the MOVE. The orange charging light comes on for approx 10 seconds and then goes out. Then I’m left with a lightning symbol on the battery in my Sonos App on my iPhone. This would suggest anyone finding it doesn’t work, either has a faulty MOVE, some other Mac PSU model numbers don’t work or the physical connection between MOVE socket and Mac PSU is a little off (assuming the Mac PSU works fine for your other Mac devices). Hope you get a replacement MOVE or find some other fix soon enough. Good luck!
I found these two chargers and they work great for my Move
I am a bit late to this thread, but have had a Move for a couple of weeks, and am not impressed with the standby battery life. Losing 15-20% per day? I use it in a bathroom in the UK, where we aren’t supposed to have mains electricity. I am therefore looking at portable chargers, or possibly putting a wall charger in the next room, drilling a small hole in the wall and passing a USB cable under the bath and up to the shelf where the speaker lives (not above the bath). Most of the products in this thread aren’t available in the UK. Thoughts?
By the way, the Move charges well with a Lenovo ThinkPad 65W power brick that I happen to have. From 30% to 90% in an hour. I would use this to charge the Power Bank below if I took that option.
For those of you in the UK, I’ve struggled to find something that will work for travel in UK and EU having tested quite a few. The 45w 20V/2.25A is the key and is very limited for UK/EU from what I have found/tested. Unfortunately all the Anker multi port options are 20V/3a so no good and the one “plug” option is UK only so no good for travel. However I’ve just bought and tested this successfully - I hope it helps:
and it’s not plug and play. sometimes it charges the move, sometimes it doesn't.
I am a bit late to this thread, but have had a Move for a couple of weeks, and am not impressed with the standby battery life. Losing 15-20% per day? I use it in a bathroom in the UK, where we aren’t supposed to have mains electricity. I am therefore looking at portable chargers, or possibly putting a wall charger in the next room, drilling a small hole in the wall and passing a USB cable under the bath and up to the shelf where the speaker lives (not above the bath). Most of the products in this thread aren’t available in the UK. Thoughts?
By the way, the Move charges well with a Lenovo ThinkPad 65W power brick that I happen to have. From 30% to 90% in an hour. I would use this to charge the Power Bank below if I took that option.
I see same, regarding standby battery drain.
Haven’t found a power bank that works with this. Tried a RAVPower USB C 45w bank that did not work, consistently.
