Ability to Add Sonos Roam to Multiple Sonos WiFi Systems?

J
Userlevel 4

Is it possible to add a Sonos Roam to multiple Sonos WiFi systems?

I recently purchased a Roam and took it with me on a road trip. My in-laws have a Sonos system and I wanted to add my Roam to their system so I could get all of the benefits of using Roam over WiFi instead of Bluetooth. 

However, the only way I could get the Roam to connect to their system was to reset it to factory and set up the Roam as a new speaker in their Sonos system. When I came home I had to repeat the process by resetting to factory and adding it back to my Sonos system.

The feature I’d love to see is the ability to add a Roam to a second Sonos system over WiFi without having to remove it from an existing Sonos system. Ideally, after initial setup, the switch between Sonos systems would be done automatically based upon the connected WiFi network.

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101 replies

G
Userlevel 3

How is this not the number one feature? It’s called ‘roam’. The PM on this one messed up big time. 

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Even I am going to +1 this feature request (doesn’t happen often).

Ordered my first Roam today and will be using it on multiple Sonos households in different countries and a factory reset seems excessive. It has the largest flash configuration of any Sonos device to date, so should able to store more than one set of Household data.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
G
Userlevel 3

Hi @j_roc 

Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for your feedback!

I’ll tag this post as a feature request and it will reach the relevant team for consideration.

This is a P0 feature. How did this thing ship without it? No one is ‘roaming’ around their house with this thing. It’s small. It goes with you on trips. Wow. 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @GottSeattle 

The Roam is designed to be added to your Sonos system and work with it just like another Sonos speaker - and then use Bluetooth individually while away from the home system. It was not designed to jump from one system to another without need for reconfiguration - this is systemic to how Sonos Households operate.
However, it is not outside the realms of possibility that we may be able to add a feature whereby a Roam could jump from one Sonos system (Household) to another which is why I have tagged this thread as a feature request. 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @j_roc 

Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for your feedback!

I’ll tag this post as a feature request and it will reach the relevant team for consideration.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C
Userlevel 1

It is very disappointing that this is not a feature of both the roam and the move.   It’s seems like being able to move from one system to another should be built into a mobile system like this.  I probably would not buy another one until it’s added.  Would really like Sonos to consider it. 

P
Userlevel 2
Badge

I’ll second the request.  We have a camper with its own wifi, which we use with our Move, and of course will do the same with our new Roam.  It’s a real pain to add them to the trailer’s wifi when camping and then back to the house again.  

 

P

Just incredible that it doesn’t do this!  

K

I'd like this feature too.  I've got a couple of houses and Sonos systems in both. I'd like to be able to join my roam to both when I'm traveling

J

The problems with this thread start with the title.  If only it made sense.  If only the OP had used either:

  1. Ability to connect Sonos Roam to multiple WiFi networks

OR

  1. Ability to add Sonos Roam to multiple Sonos systems

Instead, these two totally different concepts were conflated. 

The answer to 1 is ‘you can already do this”

The brief answer to 2 is:

“The concept of the Sonos system, with its unique identifier, is fundamental to Sonos’ design.  A system at any one time will comprise a particular set of speakers, playlists, favourites, settings, music services, voice services, music library, whether it is S1 or S2, firmware version number, and much more besides.  Moving a speaker between two different systems (without a reset) would have to somehow work out how to resolve any conflicts between these elements.  And then resolve them again when the speaker is moved back.

The reset allows the speaker that is being moved to adopt all the features of the system to which is now attached”.

The posters on this thread who claim this feature would be easy to implement, or should clearly have been included from outset, are merely demonstrating their lack of understanding of the Sonos system.  Factory resetting the speaker and adding it to the existing system each time takes about a minute and ensures no conflicts or inconsistencies.  So I would say the answer to question 2 is “You can already do this simply and quickly, and in a way that ensures that there are no unpredictable changes to any of your Sonos systems”.

 

 

 

M

First feature request - I would love this. Have a ski house; have forced my whole family to get Sonos systems; not being able to connect when away somewhat defeats the purpose.

Just_Bob
Badge

I have a similar interest. At home, I have four speakers (3 Play:1 and Sonos 1 and my Roam) that I play using a computer-based music library (118 GB). I maintain copies of that music library on two laptops and my car via thumbnail USB drives. I’d hoped to use my Roam with my laptop when on the road at hotels over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. When I launch my phone or laptop app away from home, it can’t find my system (which makes sense) and wants to set up my new router/IP. Can I set up a second instance of the App on either device to use the laptop-based library when I’m traveling? I could forgo connecting my Roam to my Home system if I had to.

G
Userlevel 3

Hi @GottSeattle 

The Roam is designed to be added to your Sonos system and work with it just like another Sonos speaker - and then use Bluetooth individually while away from the home system. It was not designed to jump from one system to another without need for reconfiguration - this is systemic to how Sonos Households operate.
However, it is not outside the realms of possibility that we may be able to add a feature whereby a Roam could jump from one Sonos system (Household) to another which is why I have tagged this thread as a feature request. 

So then you can’t use voice assist on the run...just saying. Should easily swap between wifi networks. Not a hard thing to design and deploy.

Ken_Griffiths

Tomorrow a sonos event is supposed to happens.

It leaked today but it was kinda known that it’s supposed to be new Roam colours waouh.

Maybe, idk it would be nice to not give money top the marketing department but the software and hardware department ?

I’m pretty convinced 100% that tomorrow the Roam will still not be able to roam between my installation.

What a shitty name for a product, I'm moving from three different system every month, I have to spend 10 minute reseting each roam for the new system overtime I get in.

The Wife and I each move our Roams, between ‘Home’, ‘Holiday Home’ WiFi and we take them with us whilst travelling around the UK - never had to reset them and they auto-switch between the various WiFi networks at the different locations. In fact are you aware that the Roam supports up-to 16 different WiFi connections/locations?

It’s perhaps how you are going about these things that is making it difficult for yourself - you simply need to carry the original Sonos ‘Household’ with you on a mobile device and then you only ever need to set things up once-only on the speaker at each different location (without doing a factory reset) and the Roam will happily auto-switch itself and immediately work when you next arrive at each destination.

The answers are all here on the forum, if you can just take the time to read them, instead of complaining about something you are misunderstanding about the Sonos ecosystem and how it actually works.

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Airgetlam

Unfortunately, “the image can not be loaded”….

 

Bruce
J

Sonos Roam and Move can:

1 Play anywhere via Bluetooth 

2. Play as a single wifi speaker on multiple networks with no reset.

3. Play as part of a Sonos system in multiple locations if set up as a single system (household ID), with no reset required.

4. Become part of multiple different Sonos systems, becoming fully integrated into each system for the time its there, allowing grouping for example. This requires a 2 minute factory reset of the portable speaker ONLY. 

And you think the Roam and Move don't live up to their names?

V

Yep, thanks melvimbe, this is was a good workaround for me and probably everyone with two locations.

1. Set up the Roam regularly at home (location A) 

2. Go to location B and take your Roam and your phone or laptop with you. Create a Hotspot at B that has the same SSID and Password as the WIFI in A. Your Roam will connect automatically. 

3. Connect your Sonos devices from B to the Sonos system of your Roam (so they're all connected to your Hotspot) 

4. Still at B, add manually, through the Sonos app, the native WIFI of B to the settings of all devices, including your Roam.

5. You now have one singe Sonos system for location A and B together and you could bring any device from B to A and it would work right away. However, A and B are not linked over the internet and will feel like they're separate. 

melvimbe

@Ken_Griffiths, @John B, @Corry P 

While I agree that adding a network or resetting/adding to another system are alternatives, @lifely makes some great points.

  • Manage Networks is limited. You can not group speakers via the Sonos App from two different systems, even if on the same network.  Side note: you can use Airplay 2 to do this, but not everyone has iPhones and even if you do, managing the Airplay 2 group volume is a bit painful and has other challenges.  I mention this only because I didn’t see this alternative in other responses (maybe I missed it).  I’ve personally done it this way and prefer the reset/add method so I can use the Sonos app to manage the group.

 

 

It’s probably been brought up in this thread already, but it’s important to realize that the data for your Sonos system are stored on the speakers themselves, not your phone.  The name of your rooms, the streaming services you have access to, the voice assistant accounts….all on the speaker. 

So for example, say you have speaker 1 from system A setup with Apple muisc and Amazon voice.  Your friend has his speaker 2 with system B setup with Spotify and Google voice.    What do you expect to happen if you were trying to play speaker 1 and 2 together?  They don’t have any shared services (even if they did, likely different accounts).   This is why you would need to reset one of the speakers and have it join the other system, so they have all the same accounts.

Airplay works entirely different.  The music you’re playing comes from the phone itself.  That’s obviously an advantage for your scenario, but it also means you’re relying on the capabilities of your phone, and music will shut off the moment your phone goes off network.

 

 

 

  • Resetting and adding devices on another system is an alternative, and one I use frequently when I take my Moves/Roams to parties with other Sonos households.  That said, it simply shouldn’t be necessary.  Not to mention that either I have to have the host’s account email/password or the host has to do the ‘add’ part from their Sonos App.

 

Yes, because it requires access to the music and voice services that your host owns and has access to.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the option to share systems?  I understand there could be device name conflicts so would propose it work like this:

  1. There is a System Name option in the Sonos App (under Settings > System). Set that as “Ken” and “Lifely” respectively
  2. Go to your friend Liflely’s house with your Sonos devices, let’s say a pair of Roams
  3. Join Lifely’s WiFi network
  4. Power on your Sonos devices
  5. Bring up Sonos App and select “Share system with Lifely”.  Sonos already recognizes when a Sonos system is available on a WiFi network and prompts you to connect to that system.  So perhaps it is a choice “Connect to or share system with Lifely” and you select “Share”

 

Again, your only thinking of the network connectivity, not the actual services these two networks have access to.  This would only sort of work if the temporary guest speakers went into a dumb speaker mode of sorts where they can’t player their own music services, they can only be grouped with host speakers and play whatever those speakers are playing.  Just doesn’t seem like this would be practical.

 

  1. Sonos App prompts Lifely to accept request and Lifely does.  I’m not sure this step is even necessary. I can see a use case where you take your Moves/Roams on a trip to an AirBNB or VRBO that has a Sonos system and you want to share your devices temporarily with that host.  Perhaps the host can elect to “Always allow sharing requests” via a setting
  2. Lifely can now see your connected Sonos devices, all appended with the System Name “ (Ken)”.  So if you both have a pair of Roams named Sonos Roam and Sonos Roam 2, the device list will look like:
    • Sonos Roam
    • Sonos Roam 2
    • Sonos Roam (Ken)
    • Sonos Roam 2 (Ken)
  3. Devices from Ken’s system that are not present/connected would ideally be hidden or alternatively shown ‘offline’

 

  Devices that are not present wouldn’t be known to the other speakers or your phone, so they would not even be shown as hidden.

 

  1. When Ken goes home, the devices automatically connect to Ken’s system
  2. When Ken goes back to Lifely’s house, steps 1-6 are no longer necessary.  Any Sonos devices Ken brings just automatically show up on Lifely’s system, appended with “ (Ken)”

What I really like about this solution:

  • I don’t need to know the remote host’s account/password.  Once I share my system, I’m connected to the remote system and can manage groups, but the host retains ‘system’ control over everything.

 

 

I’m sure the music services the two of you are paying for would love this sharing arraingement you’ve got setup.

 

  • It allows you to choose your path.  If you’re going to a host that doesn’t have a Sonos system, use Manage Networks.  If you’re going to a host that does have a Sonos system, use Share System.
  • Set it and forget it.  No more resetting/adding.  Just bring your devices and share your system once and then it is done.

Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but is this possible?  If not, why? If so, what is the best way to get this feature request up the chain (if not already)?  In my opinion, this is a game changer for Sonos as the ecosystem gets larger and more people want to easily share their Sonos products.

 

I can’t imagine there are a ton of people out there that one to bring their speakers with them to their friends house to be honest.

 

Danny
S
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

I think the ‘sharing’ of accounts etc. is pushing it and could also get confusing - hence some of the ‘What do you expect to happen when….?’ questions.

However, also lots of the reasons being given for some of the requests are because of how it works ‘now’.  The point of a Request is to change the way it works now - and who knows how much of a ‘fundamental’ change they may necessitate from the way it works now, other than Sonos?

I totally understand that all settings etc’ are part of the speakers’ storage etc. - but I quite like the idea of a speaker being able to be temporarily added as a Guest to another system.  All of its settings are kept segregated and inaccessible to the system being added to - the speaker can ‘simply’ be added to and controlled by, the ‘new’ (friends/family) system in ‘Guest’ mode - even given a name.  It’s a dumb speaker that can be used as such - no access to the credentials or services from its ‘home’ system.

Once it’s back at home everything is back to normal and no need to reset it again and add everything back again (in the case of it being a sole device).

J

Please can you advise if and when this feature will be added to Roam?

J

Thanks Ken, that all makes sense.

My problem with step 3 in the process set out by @VonAlphaBisZulu is that it sticks Sonos speakers from two different Sonos systems together without factory resetting one set of speakers.  I think that will only work reliably if the two systems in fact already have the same HHID, which will only be true if one system was originally ‘seeded’ using a speaker from the other system.

melvimbe

@melvimbe

Good point on the voice assistant.  That is also a negative for resetting and re-adding the speaker.  You have to configure all of that again.

 

 

That was not my point at all.  The point is that if you and your friend have different voice accounts.  His service can’t control your speakers, and yours can’t control his.  And it’s not as simple as “we’ll we just won’t use that” because Amazon would have write their programs on how to handle that situation.  Google too. Conflicts like that can’t just be ignored.

 

Regarding the music services, I believe that is a system/account setting.  I’m not prompted to set up a music service for each speaker I add, only the voice assistant. 

 

Music and voice service accounts are both stored at the account level. The difference is that you need to enable voice on the specific speakers, although voice can control music playback on all the speakers in your system.  But again, these credentials are stored on your speakers, not on your phone or in the cloud.

 

I use Spotify and when I’ve added speakers to a friend’s system, works seamlessly.  I can’t speak for the other music services.  In the model I’m proposing, the host would just have additional speakers to use in a group where the host is controlling the music.  In that sense, they would become ‘dumb’ speakers in a group.  If this is the limitation, but am able to share my speakers without having to reset, worth it IMO.

 

 

Turning smart speakers into temporary dumb speakers, which sound simply on the surface, is actually rather complicated.  It’s not impossible, but a rather big change that would impact Sonos code as well as 3rd party code that integrates with Sonos.

 

Other manufacturers (Bose, UE, etc.) market their ‘party mode’ feature. It may not be something you’d use, but it does drive sales.  In the case of Sonos, it just creates frustration.

UE makes bluetooth speakers, not WiFi.  Bose still makes WiFi speakers as well as bluetooth.  Are you saying that you can take your Bose WiFi speakers to a friends house and have them play in sync with other WiFi speakers without doing a reset?

Danny
Ken_Griffiths

I am dumbfounded and disappointed to discover that the Sonos Roam does everything but roam between different wifi networks!

The names ‘Roam’ and ‘Move’ are highly misleading and should at least contain a note* (*only via Bluetooth, not between wifi networks).

This almost merits a class action.

I think you would lose, as I for one, have this working. The ‘Roam’ will store up-to 16 separate WiFi network SSID’s and will auto-switch between them when one WiFi is out of range and another is in range. 

Just add the SSID’s to the Roam via the Sonos App network settings as per the example shown in the attached image and then try roaming between the networks with the Roam. You will see it works straight away as you move between the stored locations.

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Ken_Griffiths

Also, just to add to the above, when at the same location, I have seen my Roam, called ‘MotorRoam’ switch from one WiFi band 5Ghz over to the 2.4Ghz band too, as I step away from the premises/WiFi network - In my case, it switched around the 60ft+ distance to the nearest access point. That’s approximate, and may of course vary by make/model of router/AP and the local operating environment.

FWIW, I grabbed a screenshot of it working on both bands to show it had switched (attached). Note too that the Roam also switched ‘Access Points’.

1 Attachment
M
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

@Ken_Griffiths, @John B, @Corry P 

While I agree that adding a network or resetting/adding to another system are alternatives, @lifely makes some great points.

  • Manage Networks is limited. You can not group speakers via the Sonos App from two different systems, even if on the same network.  Side note: you can use Airplay 2 to do this, but not everyone has iPhones and even if you do, managing the Airplay 2 group volume is a bit painful and has other challenges.  I mention this only because I didn’t see this alternative in other responses (maybe I missed it).  I’ve personally done it this way and prefer the reset/add method so I can use the Sonos app to manage the group.
  • Resetting and adding devices on another system is an alternative, and one I use frequently when I take my Moves/Roams to parties with other Sonos households.  That said, it simply shouldn’t be necessary.  Not to mention that either I have to have the host’s account email/password or the host has to do the ‘add’ part from their Sonos App.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the option to share systems?  I understand there could be device name conflicts so would propose it work like this:

  1. There is a System Name option in the Sonos App (under Settings > System). Set that as “Ken” and “Lifely” respectively
  2. Go to your friend Liflely’s house with your Sonos devices, let’s say a pair of Roams
  3. Join Lifely’s WiFi network
  4. Power on your Sonos devices
  5. Bring up Sonos App and select “Share system with Lifely”.  Sonos already recognizes when a Sonos system is available on a WiFi network and prompts you to connect to that system.  So perhaps it is a choice “Connect to or share system with Lifely” and you select “Share”
  6. Sonos App prompts Lifely to accept request and Lifely does.  I’m not sure this step is even necessary. I can see a use case where you take your Moves/Roams on a trip to an AirBNB or VRBO that has a Sonos system and you want to share your devices temporarily with that host.  Perhaps the host can elect to “Always allow sharing requests” via a setting
  7. Lifely can now see your connected Sonos devices, all appended with the System Name “ (Ken)”.  So if you both have a pair of Roams named Sonos Roam and Sonos Roam 2, the device list will look like:
    • Sonos Roam
    • Sonos Roam 2
    • Sonos Roam (Ken)
    • Sonos Roam 2 (Ken)
  8. Devices from Ken’s system that are not present/connected would ideally be hidden or alternatively shown ‘offline’
  9. When Ken goes home, the devices automatically connect to Ken’s system
  10. When Ken goes back to Lifely’s house, steps 1-6 are no longer necessary.  Any Sonos devices Ken brings just automatically show up on Lifely’s system, appended with “ (Ken)”

What I really like about this solution:

  • I don’t need to know the remote host’s account/password.  Once I share my system, I’m connected to the remote system and can manage groups, but the host retains ‘system’ control over everything.
  • It allows you to choose your path.  If you’re going to a host that doesn’t have a Sonos system, use Manage Networks.  If you’re going to a host that does have a Sonos system, use Share System.
  • Set it and forget it.  No more resetting/adding.  Just bring your devices and share your system once and then it is done.

Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but is this possible?  If not, why? If so, what is the best way to get this feature request up the chain (if not already)?  In my opinion, this is a game changer for Sonos as the ecosystem gets larger and more people want to easily share their Sonos products.

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