Is My Roam Dead? Won't power on.

  • 24 April 2021
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After struggling to get my Roam pairing with Bluetooth devices and finally succeeding, I managed to get my Roam working both via the S2 app and via Bluetooth. For a day. It charged to 100% and was working plugged-in and on battery. I turned it off last night and woke up this morning and nothing I do will turn it on or wake it up (if it were sleeping. I've tried multiple chargers and cables (in case the battery somehow went dead. No joy, no lights, no sound, nothing. I could occasionally see a faint orange LED near the center below the SONOS logo underneath the mesh, but it goes away eventually. Anyone else have the same problem or suggestions? I've tried to factory reset and that isn't working. Held he power for over 20 seconds with and without the play pause button held simultaneously. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

Xander P 2 years ago

Hi @smarner, welcome to the Sonos Community!

If none of the steps above have worked, including the hard reset (13~ seconds holding down the power button), and you’ve confirmed that the charger in use meets the recommended requirements (5V/2A), then I’d recommend reaching out to the Support Team via live chat or phone call so they can take a closer look :)

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76 replies

Userlevel 1

Came back here to report maybe some positive news for other folks - I spent some time with Sonos support today, and they recommended a hard reset, which isn’t in the user guide… Hold the power button down for 12 seconds until the orange light turns back on. Wait a few moments and then see if you get the white light at the top back. If you do, check the app and see if it’s back online. This did the trick for me and now it’s working normally again! (Before I did this, I couldn’t get it to do anything outside of the orange light turning on when I plugged it in.)

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Oh great, so this is a wide spread thing. I got my Roam yesterday and it’s dead now. So far the hard reset is doing nothing. The button on this thing has to the most unsatisfying button ever

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It would really help if those who reply here first read the narrative and other comments before suggesting the OP do something that has already be explained has been done. 

Userlevel 1

Oh dear, mine seemed to be experiencing the same problem but I have just tried it to charge via usb cable and it seems to have started working, but it doesn’t explain why it didn’t charge on the wireless charger. Try using the USB cable instead of wireless charger if you haven’t tried it, must be some bug for the wireless charger

Really disappointed in this product. Have had it less than a month and every time I want to use it I need to hard reset it. Would advise others not to buy. I have a lot of Sonos equipment and this is the first utter failure. 

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I’ve been charging it all day on various chargers. It simply won’t turn on. I’m pretty sure this one is defective.

Has Sonos not chimed in on this thread?

 

55 people saying their product is defective and no representation from the company?

 

im having all the same issues, btw. Wireless charging, power button not responsive.

Userlevel 1

It would really help if those who reply here first read the narrative and other comments before suggesting the OP do something that has already be explained has been done. 

I am sure many people will be rushing to help you and share their experiences of what they did to fix their issues….

My Roam is also dead. Bought it to be used in our newly bought housemobile. Bought Sonos since I wanted something reliable...here we are 😂

Came back here to report maybe some positive news for other folks - I spent some time with Sonos support today, and they recommended a hard reset, which isn’t in the user guide… Hold the power button down for 12 seconds until the orange light turns back on. Wait a few moments and then see if you get the white light at the top back. If you do, check the app and see if it’s back online. This did the trick for me and now it’s working normally again! (Before I did this, I couldn’t get it to do anything outside of the orange light turning on when I plugged it in.)

This worked, thanks

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No, it no longer appears in the app. And nothing happens when I perform a reset.

Same problem.   My new Roam worked for 2 weeks, but now it won’t power on.   Orange light comes on when I plug in the USB C cable, but nothing else.

I don’t mind, this is the second unit that I have, clearly is faulty product. The UE Wonderboom 2 is much better, I want mine back😔. Guys… Before buying the Sonos Roam think twice, is not as good as people suggest, it has too many connectivity issues and battery drain issues, I’ll probably be returning it soon, and buy an other speaker in stead, either the JBL Flip6 or the UE Wonderboom2, no mor Sonos Roam   

The two Sonos Roams that the Wife and I have here have both been fine, they will charge fully inside of 2hrs-30mins (USB-C PD) and will then play for 10+ hours, without any problems (using Amazon Music Unlimited mostly, but we do use Deezer too and our local NAS library).

As for WiFi connectivity, I really cannot recall the last time either Roam lost their wireless connection, they work just fine with our home mesh WiFi (even outdoors in the garden (40+ feet away)).

Our Home WiFi uses ‘non-overlapping’ channels in the 2.4Ghz band at a channel-width of 20Mhz only and mostly DFS channels are used in the 5Ghz band.

When travelling we use the Roams either with mobile WiFi using a D-Link dwr-2101 5G LTE router, or we use Bluetooth (and quite often a combination of both) with our phones and/or tablets and that’s been excellent too.

In our small camper van the Roams will also BT pair with our small 12vDC/240vAC TV and FireStick and that greatly improves the sound output of that setup too. 

So personally speaking, I’m very happy with the Sonos Roam and would highly recommend the small portable speaker to everyone.

Glad I stumbled across this thread to find I'm not alone. Just recieved my Roam (which I bought directly from SONOS) 4 days ago. 3 out of those 4 days have been spent trying to get the bloody thing to work. Thought I was going mad, because like others I have a number of other Sonos products and had very little issues with them, so didn't expect this one to be so difficult to use, or unreliable.

I spent the last couple of days back and forth with the support team and they have now agreed to send me a replacement unit. I made a video for them demonstrating the issues because it became far to complicated to describe the problematic and sporadic behaviour of this device in anything shorter than a thoesis.

Video is here if anyone is interested:

 

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My unit sometimes shows a solid red light before turning on even  being unplugged  but it works, not without issue, but works, with many Alexa, Airplay and Bluetooth issues, but it’s batery life is poor. Is the red solid light before turning on  something wrong? I have it for 3 months and talking about power it works perfect, is my first Sonos unit, but honestly I don’t like at all its battery life. Notice that the solid red light had been happening since I the first day I got this second unit as a replacement, but I’m afraid something serious could happen later with its hardware. @Comunity: What do you recommend? Should I keep trusting on Sonos or shud I change it and buy other brand? I was happier with the Wonderboom 2 I had before, but I want to hear about all of you with  

I have the same issues with Roam. It goes dead even though the app shows it’s fully charged, turned on and has volume. Have to perform the hard reset at least twice/week. And of course it happens when you’re really looking forward to hearing music. Should not be causing so much frustration to use---something’s not right. My other two Sonos speakers don’t have this problem. 

Also same issue, contacted support, said to leave it charging for 2-4 hours.  What kind of product requires 4 hours of charge to even turn on? Either way, here I am 8 hours later, same dead Roam, solid orange light, power button (which is easily the worst power button I’ve ever experienced on a product) does nothing.  Factory reset steps do nothing.  

It died while it was on the official Sonos wireless charger, its sat on that base since I purchased it at launch.  Never moved, never bumped, no interuptions to power.  Suddenly it was just offline and now won’t turn on.

Pretty shoddy product to be honest.

It’s the official Sonos Roam charger with the included type C cable.  5v/2.1amps

@martinwesterstrand 

That sounds a little like a faulty button (possibly?). I would perhaps video your experience and also submit a Sonos diagnostic report and make a note of its reference. Then contact/chat to Sonos Support via this LINK.

Hope you get it sorted.👍

The button works just fine.

So why the difficulty starting/resetting it etc? My Grandson (12yrs) has the Roam and he has no issues with his device buttons, they all work perfectly, exactly as described in this YT video…

 

Same problem here and none of the above solutions resolve the issue.

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Hi @smarner, welcome to the Sonos Community!

If none of the steps above have worked, including the hard reset (13~ seconds holding down the power button), and you’ve confirmed that the charger in use meets the recommended requirements (5V/2A), then I’d recommend reaching out to the Support Team via live chat or phone call so they can take a closer look :)

Sonos replaced it, new one working as expected.  
Was happy they at least had advance RMA available.

If you read the thread you will see that others also have issues with the device being “bricked”. Meaning not responding to anything. Not charging, buttons, resets etc. Suddenly the device starts to work and everything works just fine. For me the Roam will not start(efter normals standby mode or manual standby) without a reset using the fully functional power button for 12+ seconds. 

I can only reiterate what I mentioned earlier…

I would perhaps video record your experience and also submit a Sonos diagnostic report and make a note of its reference. Then contact/chat to Sonos Support via this LINK.

And… I do sincerely hope you can get the matter resolved.👍

I'm having  the same issue :(

Charged to 100%.. now it won't turn on but I get the orange faint light. It won't detect on the sonos app either.. 

I'm considering sending it back. 3days in.. I  shouldn't be having issues this early on