Is My Roam Dead? Won't power on.

  • 24 April 2021
  • 76 replies
  • 53443 views

Userlevel 3
Badge +4
  • Prominent Collaborator I
  • 66 replies

 

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 :)

View original

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

76 replies

Userlevel 1
Badge

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

Same problem as other posts - suddenly stops playing. Attach to power and could only see orange light at ‘foot’ of speaker. I had success with the ‘hard reset’ as described above. If it does it again, it’s going back. 

Can’t believe the build quality on these things. I’ve used them twice in total, as every other time I’ve tried to use them, nothing happens. Same as the above issues. I’m now outside the returns period, so stuck with two book ends, as that’s all they’re good for. I would definitely recommend steering clear of these devices until Sonos can get their act together. Such a shame as I have 10 other Sonos device which are built to a much higher standard.

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. 

Same issue here. Have had the Roam for less than a month and it’s completely dead. Same symptoms as everyone seems to experience. No response at all to power button. Solid orange light when connected to power via USB. Missing from my app. Bought this one for travel and never even got to use it before it became an overpriced paperweight. 

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.

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.

Have you tried an off-charger power reset? Take the Roam off charge and hold power button for approx 20-25 seconds and return to a charger which has a minimum of 5v/1.5A power output for half hour to an hour and then remove from charger and try the power reset procedure again and try to get the status light to show and it reappears in the Sonos App and then return to charger and leave it until it’s fully charged.

I believe so, do you get any indication that its working when you do this?
I’ve held the power button off charger for 25 seconds, but nothing happens, nothing lights up.  Returned it to charge.  An hour later I try the same thing, 25 seconds of power button, but still no led light or anything.  When its plugged in the light is solid orange, but otherwise it won’t come on.

I believe so, do you get any indication that its working when you do this?
I’ve held the power button off charger for 25 seconds, but nothing happens, nothing lights up.  Returned it to charge.  An hour later I try the same thing, 25 seconds of power button, but still no led light or anything.  When its plugged in the light is solid orange, but otherwise it won’t come on.

What is your charger power-output (not input) in volts/amps? - some mobile device chargers are sometimes only 5v/1A (which is not enough power to charge the device when battery is ‘flat’) so just double-check it’s charge capability

Note if it’s a USB ‘shared’ charger, then just leave any other devices disconnected. I actually use a 5v/3A USB PD charger and that takes about 2hrs to charge the Roam battery from an empty state.

The ‘second’ off-charger reset process I mention in my post usually results in the status LED showing but you may not see any light indication from the first reset - I would repeat the process if no joy ..but check the charger output too. If no joy after trying it a couple of times then contact Sonos Support via this LINK .

Hope that helps you to get it sorted.👍

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

I had the same issue, had to send it back. Powered on and connected once, the first time I used it. After that it bricked, the very next day. Tried everything, got absolutely no where.

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

Mine charged for 10 seconds and then turned the amber led off. Other than that the Roam was completely dead.

Tried the 12 seconds on the power button and that solved my problem.

 

/Anders

mine has been shocking since i recived it, on off, reset, onto sonos, different LED’s, power wrong, saying its playing in the app - no music. they are swapping it with me after 3 full days of 30 emails back & forth.

btw, waiting to send it back thought id give it a try while i wait, cant even get an LED on it on charge with teh sonos cable. hoppe my next one is much better or i want my money back. very dissapointed.

If anyone is having trouble with the wireless charger, try removing ROAM from the charger, then remove power from the charger for a few seconds.

Same problems here. Problems with play back from the start and now won’t even turn on. Very disappointed with what should be a premium product - will think twice before buying anything else from Sonos. Bought from John Lewis so will be taking back. 

Same problem. Mine’s lived since day one on the Sonos QI charger. I suspect in my case the issue lies more in that element than the actual Roam.

If use a different 2.1a charger (as support told me to do) plugged straight into the Roam it’ll come back to life and charge. 

I’m not sure if the Qi is getting it’s self in a pickle and de-activating its self somehow maybe, and then the Roam is slowly running out of charge, and because it takes so long to charge it means it looks dead everytime I pick it up. 

I’m running one more experiment and then I’ll get a new charger from Sonos as a starter 

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.)

Today I had the exact same issue and holding the power switch for 12 or 13 secs worked for me too. Thanks for sharing!

Badge

Hi!

I have exact the same issue. Did not start what ever I did. Just kept pushing the power button for 60 seconds ever hour and suddenly it just started. 

Now it works until power off, either automatic or manual. After that it does not start. Unless I do a 12 second long press of the power button. 

After that It will work until power off again. 

Cant get factory reset to work. (Play/pause and powerbutton). No lights will come on. 

@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.👍

Badge

@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.

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…

 

Badge

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…

 

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. 

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.👍

Thanks this thread really helped. I had tried the 14 second reset while plugged in and it did not work. I then tried it while unplugged after reading this thread and hey presto it started to work. Mine was also on 100% charge as soon as it showed in the app after starting again. Thanks all