Sonos Roam takes forever to connect to bluetooth

  • 30 March 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 240 views
J

I want to hear from other Sonos Roam users on how long it takes for your Sonos Roam to connect to your phones bluetooth. I had been using my little $50 Sony SRS-XB12 for years and it was fantastic. Then I got my Sonos Roam from work as part of my christmas gift and I was super excited considering it costs more than 3 times as much as my Sony guy. And the sound quality didn’t disappoint, but the connectivity was a HUGE let down. My Sony is 7 years old now and it still automatically connects INSTANTLY to my phones bluetooth. Like even after sitting unused for several months, I picked it up today and within 2 seconds of powering on, I heard the tone that means its connected. 

Conversely, when I turn on my Sonos Roam, I wait and wait and wait and it usually doesn’t auto connect at all, and generally takes at least 2 attempts at manually connecting in my phones bluetooth settings before I can actually use it. Considering this is meant to be a portable bluetooth speaker, this is a massive annoyance and kind of kills it for me… I want to be able to just press the button once and have it connect automatically and quickly. If my 7 year old cheap Sony can do it, why can’t this $170 Sonos do it?

My only idea is that since the Roam also connects to Wifi, maybe it prioritizes that connection first? Anyone else experiencing this? 

8 replies

SarahN
Userlevel 6
Badge +14

Hi, I have 4 Roams (yes a little mental I know lol). Since some of the upgrades, I have all the toggle features turned on. Particularly the 'always autoconnect' and the 'idle auto disconnect'. 

Since doing this, and of course after pairing with my phone and laptop, I now initiate the BT connection by the device not the Roam. I don't touch the Roams controls, and just use say my phone, to connect to whichever Roam I want to connect to. It works perfectly.  So much so that with my older Move (which does not have such up to date features) having to use it's BT button seems like a bit of a pain. 

Maybe try connecting this way with those settings toggled on? See if that works better for you 

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆
J

Thanks for the reply Sarah! I already have all of those settings turned on. I can pretty much always connect to my Roam, but my issue is with how long it takes to connect. With all previous bluetooth speakers (and headphones) that I’ve owned, they have always automatically connected to my phones bluetooth within a few seconds of turning the speaker (or headphones) on. But for some reason this fancy expensive Sonos can’t seem to do that. When I turn it on, the white status light slowly flashes for a while, then seems to stutter a bit and continue slowly flashing. It isn’t until after this little stutter that it will connect to my phones bluetooth. Even if I try to connect to it using my phones bluetooth settings, I can’t connect until after its done this little stutter. 

I just don’t understand why it takes so long to connect. To me, speedy bluetooth pairing is a very important feature for something intended to be a portable speaker and even though the Sonos is a very nice speaker with better sound quality, I still find myself reaching for my Sony because of how quickly and seamlessly it connects. 

SarahN
Userlevel 6
Badge +14

That does not sound normal I have to say. Mine all connect immediately with no delay.

Maybe speak to Sonos support about it as I could be a fault.

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆
L

Me too I only use my sonos roan to connect to my TV and it alway takes 2 minutes to conect, so we have slients fron disconnecting from to TV speaker to when the sonos roam kicks in., an this two to three minutes feels like an eternity. And this has to be repeated every single tine we turn on the TV. Its a very goos samsung TV and our boom speaker has no problem comecting automatically each time the TV us turned on

This is * functionality from what is supposed to be a quality priduct. Im so frustrated with it.

I hate it.

Is there anything I have missed in the setup to avoid this.

Thanks in advance.

 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

Airgetlam

What are slients ?

Why are you using a Bluetooth speaker of such a diminutive size, rather than a Sonos speaker designed for TV connection, such as the Sonos Ray, the Sonos Beam, or the Sonos Arc?

Have you submitted a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and called Sonos Support to discuss it?

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Bruce
J

Hi Bruce, 

I called Sonos support ages ago when I realized that the connectivity issue wasn't improving and was getting frustrated by it. They were entirely useless which is why I resorted to this forum. 

Another issue I've noticed more recently is that this speaker cannot hold a charge. I do the full shut down where you hold the power button down for 5 seconds and it completely powers down (fully charged). Weeks or months later I will pick it up to play music and it won't even turn on, I just get the orange status light slowly flashing a few times and then nothing. This speaker has been a tremendous let down and I'm just glad I didn't spend my own money on it. 

Airgetlam

It certainly seems like you still have an issue, but my response was to @Lmgillies . Were I you, @JOZB3AN , I’d call back in, it sounds to me as if your Roam has a failed battery. 

Bruce
P

Did you ever get this resolved?

I am same… all my cheapo BT things connect instantly - Roam takes at least 30 seconds on either BT or WiFi. It’s hideous for such a “quality” product

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings