Ability to Add Sonos Roam to Multiple Sonos WiFi Systems?


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.


101 replies

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.

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.  

 

You should be able to setup the Roam and Move to multiple different WiFi networks.  If I remember correctly, they store 7 different SSID and passwords.  That said, I’m not exactly sure how that’s done and don’t see any support documents on it.

The original question was different wanting Roam and Move to be able to belong to multiple Sonos systems, not WiFi networks.

Userlevel 2
Badge

You should be able to setup the Roam and Move to multiple different WiFi networks.  If I remember correctly, they store 7 different SSID and passwords.  That said, I’m not exactly sure how that’s done and don’t see any support documents on it.

The original question was different wanting Roam and Move to be able to belong to multiple Sonos systems, not WiFi networks.

I’ve actually got a Beam mounted in the trailer which I should have mentioned.  I’ve tried the instructions here but couldn’t get it to work and had to reset my Move to make it work.  Perhaps I was doing something wrong or it doesn’t work with the Move.  For me, if I could get those instructions to work, I’d be happy.  In fact personally I’d rather have some control over it than have the switching done automatically.  

Userlevel 3

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @GottSeattle 

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.

 

The Roam can and will connect to multiple WiFi networks - so you can connect it to WiFi while out-and-about.. What this thread is about, and what the Roam won’t do, is be part of multiple Sonos systems ie. jump seamlessly from one Sonos system on one network to another Sonos system on another network. This would require a factory reset. A workaround would be to create the second system starting with the Roam which had already been set up on the first. This is not recommended (especially if you make use of Voice Assistants) or supported, but would work. This way, the two systems would see themselves as being of the same Sonos “household” and the Roam would not need to be reset to be able to switch between being part of each.

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.

 

This is not the same as the original request.  You should have no problem connecting your Roam to your laptop via bluetooth.  If you want to connect your laptop and Roam via WiFi, it has to be a WiFi network that allows peer to peer connection, which isn’t typical for hotel WiFi.    I have been able to configure a Move to use WiFi away from my home, however I needed one phone to setup a hotspot, an a second phone to use connect to that network, and use the Sonos app to set the Move on the new network.  Once done, the Move will remember and connect to the new hotspot network.

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.

 

WiFi networks and Sonos systems are not the same thing.  You can bring your Roam or Move to a new WiFi network and use the voice assistant.  You just can’t have it join a different Sonos system than what is was originally setup under (in order to group with the speakers in that Sonos system) without doing a reset and starting over.

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

Badge

While Roam is in Bluetooth mode, it will remain associated with the remainder of your Sonos framework as long as it's still inside scope of your Wi-Fi organization. This implies that while your Roam is playing Bluetooth sound, you can bunch it with other Sonos items in a similar framework.

Badge

You can't have it join an alternate Sonos framework than what is was initially arrangement under  without doing a reset and beginning once again. ***

 

***Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

Userlevel 2

So is it possible to connect a roam to 2 networks in 1 house, I have a WiFi network in the house say called one and another for outside that covers my deck and garden called two, the roam is setup and working indoors but when I take it outside it looses the connection to the WiFi called one how to I then connect it to the outside connection called two?

Also when I then bring it back into the house would it automatically connect back to WiFi connection called one based on signal strength?

Thanks for any help/advice.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Dazzman 

It completely depends on how your network is configured, and what it consists of.

  • If by “another network” you simply mean another Wireless Access Point that connects to your main router, then there shouldn’t be an issue that can’t be fixed by changing settings, if any.
  • If you mean literally another network, as in you have a second router that is not configured in Bridge/AP mode, and creates a separate subnet, then your controller will have to be on the same subnet, and any speakers that are not on that subnet will not be visible in the app. Bridge/AP mode would resolve this.
  • If you mean you have a WiFi booster/extender or Powerline, these aren’t supported but may work, depending on the model/brand.

To connect the Roam to network 2, just take it and the controller out of range of network 1, connect the controller to network 2, and when the Sonos app says it can’t connect, tap Fix It and opt to update WiFi settings.

When the Roam is out of range of network 2, it will connect to whatever network it can find that it knows the password for. To hurry it along, turn it off by holding the power button for 5 seconds until you hear a second chime, then turn it back on when you’re back inside.

After a future update, Roam will roam properly between Access Points with identical credentials, connecting to the strongest signal at all times, rather than waiting for the current one to be unusable as it does now.

Userlevel 2

Great advice it worked first time and I’m now able to use the roam both in and outside of the house. I just had to connect to the outside network and then add the roam to it by using Manage Networks and then selecting it and putting in the password for the outside network.

Thanks.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Dazzman 

Great to hear, and thanks for letting us know it worked!

Glad to be of help!

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. 

Just incredible that it doesn’t do this!  

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

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. 


I think this is quite the most brilliant thing I have seen posted here in a long time. Can’t wait to try this with my Roam (from A) when I next travel with it to my location B.

On an iPhone or Mac laptop this can only be done by renaming the device to give the desired SSID(?)

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.

The Roam should definitely be able to join another Sonos Household as a guest speaker. I just brought it to my girlfriends house and had to do a factory reset. 

My buddy also has a roam on his boat and it was quite silly that we couldn’t pair them on his wifi network when we went out for a sail. You are hurting your sales of this product. How can I recommend to friends when they don’t come together like Voltron. Huge network effect your are missing out on that is hurting your stock price.

 

Reply