Roam Stereo Pair issues


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I got my Roam pair today and they sound great.  However I have had a lot of issues keeping them synced as a stereo pair - when I had them outside one of them would keep switching off, and when I turned it back on, it would show as a separate speaker. 

 

Later I took them in and plugged them in, did not see the turning off issue while they were charging.  When I manually switched one off and then on again, it lost the pair again though, and I had to manually repair them. 

 

Anyone else seeing this?  Any ideas?


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I can see in this thread that is expected:

However it is a suuuuper bad experience.

Next issue I’m having is - I can’t actually pair them in stereo now!  I get “There was a problem adding your stereo pair.  Check the network connection and make sure your products are powered on”.  Can play to both of them separately.  I tried doing a factory reset on both, same issue.  Any ideas?

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Aaaand I rebooted my Sonos Boost and it’s working again.  Oh Sonos :(

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I got my Roam pair today and they sound great.  However I have had a lot of issues keeping them synced as a stereo pair - when I had them outside one of them would keep switching off, and when I turned it back on, it would show as a separate speaker. 

 

Later I took them in and plugged them in, did not see the turning off issue while they were charging.  When I manually switched one off and then on again, it lost the pair again though, and I had to manually repair them. 

 

Anyone else seeing this?  Any ideas?

I haven’t tested them outside but I have the same reset pairing issue if I put them to sleep or switch off. They would show as a separate speaker and I have to pair them again. I’d assume these issues will be resolved in an upcoming system update as it’s only just been release.

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I am having the same problem keeping two Roams paired in stereo. 

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Yeah, plus one for the crazy pairing. It seems to be a consistent and replicable issue for me and a friend. I’d suggest it seems therefore it’s a firmware issue.

I’ve got 20 days to return my roams, really need a message from SONOS recognising the problem and reassuring that a fix will come at some point. I suspect we won’t hear and I’ll end up sending them back to be on the safe side, which seems silly.

 

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I was losing pairing overnight.  I finally figured out the cause was the Bluetooth link I set up with the first speaker was breaking the pair when I powered up the laptop in the morning.  I removed the Bluetooth pairing from my laptop and the roam stereopair bond is now continuing uninterrupted.

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Bluetooth isn’t the issue for me, I lose pairing when one speaker goes offline. When it comes back, both speakers appear as individual devices. It’s replicable across my pair and a friends, so I suspect this affects multiple devices if not all.

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Bluetooth isn’t the issue for me, I lose pairing when one speaker goes offline. When it comes back, both speakers appear as individual devices. It’s replicable across my pair and a friends, so I suspect this affects multiple devices if not all.

This might be behaviour by design.  I grabbed a speaker to take into the shower this morning and I just turned off the other one so it wouldn’t play loudly in another room.  One speaker in the shower was more than enough for me.  But I had to re-pair the speakers again later when I wanted to use them as Wi-Fi stereo again.  Re-pairing the speakers is going faster all the time. 

It would be nice if there was a way to get the controller app to remember this pairing and just have a single click way to re-pair using the same Left and Right designation.

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Yes, agree, it seems to be by design. It’s replicable so consistently and you can see the logic behind the decision the firmware makes. It also gives me hope that it can be improved easily. They’re pretty cool speakers otherwise.

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Same problem here (need to recreate the pair every morning after I turn them off for the night).
It’ll be good to know from Sonos if it’s normal behaviour or a bug (or a bug turned into a behaviour !!)) and improve the way it works to avoid us the frustration of having to pair the roams every day !

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Same problem here! My pair of Roams will not stay in a stereo pair configuration over wifi but will drop out of the pair constantly. Or, even more annoying, the app will indicate they are paired, but one of the speakers doesn’t produce sound. So you have to unpair them and the again create a pair to be able to use them both. This is in a small room (my home office) with a great wifi signal because there is a router in this room. 

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Putting trueplay off seems to help here. Does anyone else have the same experience?

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.. Or, even more annoying, the app will indicate they are paired, but one of the speakers doesn’t produce sound. So you have to unpair them and the again create a pair to be able to use them both. This is in a small room (my home office) with a great wifi signal because there is a router in this room. 

Interesting. I just had the same thing happen to me for the first time yesterday. The Roams are just a few feet away from the WiFi access point. I had to re-pair them. 

I’ve got the same issue, but in addition to losing the pairing when one of both speakers goes to sleep, I’ve had issues even when both are on but have switched from a non-Roam source back to the Roams.  This is by far the the least seamless experience of my 8+ years of owning 9 Sonos products.  Incredibly frustrsting!

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Same problem. Sold my Bose revolve for a pair of roams as I am invested in the Sonos system. The stereo pairing problems are a travesty. I have to repair after putting them to sleep every time. Shouldn’t be this difficult. Fix it Sonos!

I am having the same issue. On top of that, the paring is extremely difficult. Sometimes the pairing/on offbutton seems not to react as well.

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Same issue, total PITA

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Same problem here! My pair of Roams will not stay in a stereo pair configuration over wifi but will drop out of the pair constantly. Or, even more annoying, the app will indicate they are paired, but one of the speakers doesn’t produce sound. So you have to unpair them and the again create a pair to be able to use them both. This is in a small room (my home office) with a great wifi signal because there is a router in this room. 

 

This happens to me constantly - and the crazy thing is volume control will work on the speaker not playing (affecting the other speaker that IS working), same with other controls, just no sound.  Need to re-pair to get it to work.  Half the time the re-pairing doesn’t work and it shows broken stuff in the app and need to start again.

 

Also I tried these today at an outside birthday party and one would constantly lose the pairing and I’d have to re-pair.  I assume it’s a wi-fi issue (even though they were only 30 feet max from the closest router) and then when they get connection again they don’t re-pair. 

 

Am assuming/hoping this will be fixed in a future update, but woof.  Not a great first experience.  I spend so much time messaging with them to make them work properly every time I want to listen to music outside, whereas my old UE speakers just worked.

 

Anyone heard anything more from support?

Yes, agree, it seems to be by design. It’s replicable so consistently and you can see the logic behind the decision the firmware makes. It also gives me hope that it can be improved easily. They’re pretty cool speakers otherwise.

I was hoping that they would work like the Move.  Sometimes, when moving the Move, I accidentally press the power button but it doesn’t affect the stereo pair.  The sound on the Roam is great but it’s disappointing that powering off one of the Roams would mean that you have to re-pair, etc.

 

I’m experiencing the same issue. Just bought a pair last weekend. Thought they would be perfect since I’m depending on a solar set for my electricity, and these speakers only use a very small amount of electricity. Since I turn of my power every night I have to reconnect every morning. Very annoying and something I didn’t experience with my Play 1’s. 

Ugh.  Super frustrating.  I have the exact same issues.  I have 2 Roams in my kitchen and want stereo sound. (Speakers are 10 feet apart I never move them) Nope, inevitably sound will come out of one speaker after a while. 

 I have created the pair 20 + times, done a factory reset.  Firmware is up to date. 

I have an other room set up with a beam , ones, and a sub and that always works perfectly but can’t get reliable stereo sound out of my brand new and pricey Roams.  
 Come on on Sonos!!  You need to do better  ! 

 

Yes i Have the same issue, every morning the stereo pair disappears, and the devices are plugged in and I never turn them off, it’s really quite annoying. It doesn't happen with any other devices (the sonos ones for example)

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I have exactly the same extremely annoying problem. So far it seems I have to reestablish the stereo pairing just about every single time I use the Sonos Roam speakers.
I was able to get ahold of the Sonus customer support. The Sonos technical support person I talked with said the issue with the Roam portable speakers losing their stereo pairing is a known issue. He said that it would be noted on my open ticket but it was not clear if they plan to address this issue or not.


I found that If the Sonos Roams get separated from another the stereo pairing is broken, if they are put in standby the stereo pairing is broken, if they switch from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth or back again the stereo pairing is broken and if they hear the Alexa wake word and respond the stereo pairing is broken . It makes them very awkward to use and I can think of at least three different ways that This could be fixed.
Basically the SONOS technician said this is a known problem and to be expected for a portable speaker.  The Sonos play ones are essentially the same except they have an external AC power supply yet they don’t Have these problems with the stereo pairing being broken If they’re moved, unplugged, or any other condition.  I would put the roams at only a 2 out of 5 because of this annoying problem.  


Another thing I’ve noticed is that the play time of 12 hours is only true if you don’t forget to turn the speakers to standby mode when you’re not using them otherwise they gradually drain down to zero. And of course if you put them in standby mode the stereo pairing is broken.

 


 

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I too found the same issue and very disappointed since I intended to mostly use a pair in stereo! I absolutely love the quality and features of the Roam for my use, but as written in the prior post, “I was able to get ahold of the Sonus customer support. The Sonos technical support person I talked with said the issue with the Roam portable speakers losing their stereo pairing is a known issue. He said that it would be noted on my open ticket but it was not clear if they plan to address this issue or not.”, I also contacted customer service and got the exact same response.  I didn’t feel confident (even after it was acknowledged they are aware of this widely-known issue/complaint) that they are going to do anything to make it better.  At least there was no sense of any commitment.  As such, I may have to join the group of folks returning the second unit since I don’t need two, except for the purpose of stereo pairing, and having to set up every time I want to play music is a real pain in the (well you know) and not for me.  (Not to mention each time I do that, my Alexa notification of the unit joining the Alexa skill is annoying).  Sure wish it could have turned out better, but not giving up hope for the next few weeks while I remain within the return period.

My use case is two Roams in the bathroom, one plugged in and the other on a Sonos charging base so I can pick it up and take it into the shower, then put it back on the base afterward, so both are left always on.

I had the same issues as above when one Roam was allowed to go into standby, or if one was taken away from the other as I did when I got them and was trying them out - which I sort of understand and can definitely live with.

I soon discovered that leaving both powered on and on charge so they don’t go into standby solved the issue - until the past week or so. Now the stereo pair breaks after around an hour of the speakers not playing even when they are both left untouched and powered up, just like they have been for the weeks since I got them on launch day. It’s nothing to do with Bluetooth, using Alexa or any other of the theories above as it happens when the bathroom is unoccupied and the speakers are not touch or interacted with in any way.

I have zero interest in a portable Sonos speaker - I just wanted a waterproof one so I could take it in the shower with me to listen to audiobooks without having to have the volume up loud enough for neighbours to hear through the open window, and bought a pair so I can hear the book when I move out of the shower, and so it sounds better when my wife uses it for music.

The behaviour of losing stereo pair when on standby was a bad enough experience (I couldn’t leave one speaker in the shower except when charging as I had planned to do), but regressing to breaking the pair regardless of what I do pretty much has me regretting buying the Roams - and that as a happy Sonos user of over eight years with 13 other Sonos products.

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