Sonos Roam is Pure Garbage

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.

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

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).

Fair enough Ratty, appears I got a defective unit

Submit a diagnostic anyway, and quote the number to Sonos Support when you call.

@kaicrowe @GuitarSuperstar 's answer may have been a statement, it is a reaction to you making a statement, instead of asking co-users for help.

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

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. 

Im just gonna leave these here. Trust me “Trying again” doesn’t do any good. 

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”.

Just switch on the ‘battery saver’ option in the Sonos App.. I have not seen the Roam here drop it’s WiFi connection, in fact I’ve taken the Roam outside the Home and carried it at least 40 feet away across the garden and it stays connected to my Home WiFi network.

@FinTaxi - I’ve no idea what you’re attempting to show with you’re photo’s in your post above, but it appears you’re trying to connect your mobile device WiFi to the Roam, whereas you need to use the S2 Sonos App to connect your Roam to your local WiFi network instead. Perhaps see this YouTube video for how to setup the Roam:

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. 

Your message does not contain anything that would help people to help you - it does not even contain the trouble you ran into. What’s the worth of this message to anyone?

Send it back and buy a Move imho.

I use both and they each work really well - not had any issues with either device. I just can’t carry the Move too far when hiking. 😀

I normally take two Moves with me when hiking, so it's very frustrating that they can't be Bluetooth paired.

Note to self - ‘I must try to eat three shredded wheat’

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.

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.

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.

Not to nitpick, but a portable speaker that also offers Bluetooth would be considered a Bluetooth speaker to the casual consumer.

I like that this is covered in the FAQ, but again to be fair to the casual consumer:  This would not be a Frequently Asked Question, nobody would know that there was a need to ask about the prerequisites for a Bluetooth speaker.  The actual FAQ should be “Why doesn’t Roam work with Bluetooth out of the box?”  Unfortunately most don’t research before picking up something like this.  A Roam could certainly be an impulse buy.  A mistake could easily be made.  I just don’t think that this mistake falls completely on the consumer.

And no, I don’t have a Roam so I have no feeling one way or the other about how it should work.