Sonos Roam - Battery drain


Userlevel 3

Hi everyone, 

I received my Sonos Roam yesterday and I am quite concerned by the battery drain on standby mode.

My roam is losing about 10% every hour on standby, which brings us to 10hours but I was expecting 10 hours in playing mode.

Should I be concerned by those stats are it was the expected consumption?

Thank you 🙂!


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hi all. A software update was issued yesterday. I have installed it so let’s see what happens. Does anyone have a link to the info on software updates? does such a thing exist? Would love to know the official view on what was being fixed

The battery “drain” on the roam is not part of this update.   The issue is not actually the battery itself, but the way they designed the product to work in an existing Sonos environment.   The way its designed, if you keep the Roam in standby (sleep mode), it wakes up each and every time you use the Sonos app.  And I use the app constantly throughout the day for OTHER speakers.     That needs to change.

Their should be an option to wake with the App every time, or wake specifically when you want to use the Roam.   The way it is now, I have to charge the Roam every 2 (maybe 3) days -- with only about an hours actual use.   Sure -- I could totally power down the Roam, but then I would have to physically engage with it to turn it back on (not acceptable for a Sonos speaker).

So the best solution -- stop waking EVERY time you use the app.

Apparently there was something for the Roam in this update according to many websites today….e.g. https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/sonos/156883-new-sonos-update-software-features-how-to-get-it

Not sure what to believe now

On my side, it’s over.  The roam is now back at Best Buy.  Having to always to turn off the roam to save the small battery life was not acceptable to me.  And 10 hours of use with the volume at 50% is really not something that we should get from a portable speaker in 2021.  Back to my old Bose Soundlink Mini 2 now.  It’s still performing well and it’s giving me more than 10 hours on a single charge.  Not bad for a 5 years old speaker.  I wanted an Airplay portable speaker, but it won’t be this time.

On my side, it’s over.  The roam is now back at Best Buy.  Having to always to turn off the roam to save the small battery life was not acceptable to me.  And 10 hours of use with the volume at 50% is really not something that we should get from a portable speaker in 2021.  Back to my old Bose Soundlink Mini 2 now.  It’s still performing well and it’s giving me more than 10 hours on a single charge.  Not bad for a 5 years old speaker.  I wanted an Airplay portable speaker, but it won’t be this time.

I can’t believe some of the comments on this post lately. It takes 1 second to press the button and turn it off!! Omg...come on guys...

Userlevel 5
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I think to have a WAKE UP option will be much better but tbh I’m okay with powering it on/off every time before/after the shower.

Usually I just lurk here, but this is maybe the third time I’ve been turned off of a Sonos product after googling for known issues, finding this community, and seeing major problems completely ignored by Sonos.

 

Would it kill y’all to have a mod or dev pop in occasionally and at least make me feel like device-breaking functionality will get addressed eventually?  

Gutted. Everything else is amazing

 

The battery life is so poor.

Ended up buying the expensive charger.

But when its not charging and playing standalone the levels go down so quick.

Hoping an update soon will improve it

My UE Wonderboom 1 left on all day seems to last longer.

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I have the same issue and mine is going back. Lasts a couple of days max on standby due to the fact it keeps waking up.


Those hoping for a fix any time soon should look at the move which has had this issue for over a year and is still not fixed.

Userlevel 2
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Hey, I just received my Roam a few days ago and I seem to be having better luck with battery longevity in standby mode. I’m seeing battery drain of around 1% per hour when in standby. For my purposes, this is perfectly acceptable. I don’t know if my experience is due to my network (no issues with random waking) or if there is just variability in the hardware. Either way I wanted to post my experience because I almost cancelled my order after reading these posts and I thought others would benefit from knowing at least one person is getting better results. 

Userlevel 3
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The Roam is my 11th Sonos speaker (Playbase, 2 Subs, and 7 One SLs) and it’s the only one I’m disappointed in. And it’s all because of the battery because the sound and design are good. Why can I leave my MacBook or iPad sleeping for days or even weeks (and they even do stuff while asleep) and they still have a charge, but the Roam is dead the next day from a full charge if I forget to turn it off after my shower? It’s shockingly bad, like some old Ni-Cad/No-MH device when battery tech was primitive and terrible.

Hi everyone, 

I received my Sonos Roam yesterday and I am quite concerned by the battery drain on standby mode.

My roam is losing about 10% every hour on standby, which brings us to 10hours but I was expecting 10 hours in playing mode.

Should I be concerned by those stats are it was the expected consumption?

Thank you 🙂!

Same. I turned the power off and it still drained. What gives? Disappointing to see no response from Sonos. 

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I’ve had mine a month now and as long as I remember to completely remember to power it off it loses very little battery life.

On my side, it’s over.  The roam is now back at Best Buy.  Having to always to turn off the roam to save the small battery life was not acceptable to me.  And 10 hours of use with the volume at 50% is really not something that we should get from a portable speaker in 2021.  Back to my old Bose Soundlink Mini 2 now.  It’s still performing well and it’s giving me more than 10 hours on a single charge.  Not bad for a 5 years old speaker.  I wanted an Airplay portable speaker, but it won’t be this time.

I can’t believe some of the comments on this post lately. It takes 1 second to press the button and turn it off!! Omg...come on guys...

The issue is that is a solution to a unnecessary problem (see almost any other portable speaker on the market, most coming in much cheaper than the Roam) especially when many feel that the battery life was going to be one of the features of the product and not a drawback. As of right now, it’s a drawback. 

Userlevel 1
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Same issue here. Every day for the last few weeks the battery drains overnight. Is there still no fix?

I like the Roam a lot bit this is unnacceptable.

Userlevel 7

Same issue here. Every day for the last few weeks the battery drains overnight. Is there still no fix?

I like the Roam a lot bit this is unnacceptable.

Have you considered completely shutting off the Roam so the battery doesn’t drain overnight?

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I don't consider that to be a fix.

Userlevel 1
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To the Sonos support team (do they still read these fora?):

 

yesterday 12:00 Roam fully charged and disconnected from the USB cable afterwards. Diag code 617307931

24 hours later: Roam battery down to 12%. Diag code 87688964

Stand-by only. 

 

Just to be sure i submitted another diag this morning at 7:30. Battery down to 32% at that time: Diag code 2057238190

Adding my frustrations with the Roam. Battery drain is fast, but in addition, USB charging is super duper slow. Mine’s been charging for maybe 15 hours and has gone from 12% to 45%.

 

This is unacceptable and a total embarrassment for SONOS.

 

@Corry P you posted two links to technical support earlier in this thread. Both of those links point to support.sonos.com. The two options for contacting support are chat and phone. Chat says that there are agents available, but when actually requesting an agent, the bot says that nobody’s home.

 

That there are this many people with the same issue and only a token attempt to respond is pitiful.

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Adding my frustrations with the Roam. Battery drain is fast, but in addition, USB charging is super duper slow. Mine’s been charging for maybe 15 hours and has gone from 12% to 45%.

 

try a different charger. 

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I chatted with Sonos Support. 2 things:

  1. there is a known issue with Google Assistant and draining battery. They are working on it. For now Sonos recommends to remove GA or completely shut down the Roam until this is fixed.
  2. the IP lease time on my router was 1 hour, meaning the Roam woke up every hour to renew its IP. Sonos recommends to increase the lease time to 1 day. So I did.

Hope this helps.

Seesh...and I thought the fact that my two-day old Roam needs to be recharged after light use and being in sleep mode was just me having problems.

Looks like another bozo move from Sonos, right up there with a) originally trying to kill working-just-fine S1 speakers and b) failing, after all these years to update SMB to protect the networks of users with large libraries.

I don’t know why I keep buying more of this stuff. 

Userlevel 3
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At the very least, can’t we have an option to automatically have the Roam turn itself off after 3 or 10 or X minutes of inactivity? I use it as a shower speaker and when you’re getting out and wet it’s damned hard to remember to do it manually. It’s a real bummer to realize I forgot to turn off a fully charged speaker and have it already dead the next day.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @bn7yuki9 

Adding my frustrations with the Roam. Battery drain is fast, but in addition, USB charging is super duper slow. Mine’s been charging for maybe 15 hours and has gone from 12% to 45%.

 

This is unacceptable and a total embarrassment for SONOS.

 

@Corry Pyou posted two links to technical support earlier in this thread. Both of those links point to support.sonos.com. The two options for contacting support are chat and phone. Chat says that there are agents available, but when actually requesting an agent, the bot says that nobody’s home.

 

That there are this many people with the same issue and only a token attempt to respond is pitiful.

The description of your problem sounds like it may be one of the times we need to fully investigate your Roam to confirm that there is a fault with it - if there is, we’ll gladly replace if for you. While hardware faults are rare, they are not unheard of, and no amount of advice given or followed will make any difference.

The chat saying that there are agents available means agents are currently working and being assigned chat cases. When you opt to join one, you are put in a queue (after going through the help supplied by the Sonos Assistant chatbot) and when an agent finishes with an existing chat, they will then be assigned the first chat in the queue. If you do not wait long enough for the agent to start chatting with you, we will get a transcript of your conversation with the chatbot and we will investigate the situation and email you assistance as soon as we can (generally within a day). For your particular case, however, I recommend a phone call.

While we can give as much help and advice as we can here on the forum, sometimes we just need to you to get in touch directly to move forward. You may think this is something that’s happening a lot because you see a few people posting here, but this forum covers support for 3 continents (plus literally anyone on the planet who speaks English) and we have sold many units. 

Same issue’s. It’s only good if you’re using with a charger plugged in or else it’s waste of money. Stay away. Battery won’t stay more than an hour at max and it will drain automatically even when it’s turned off.

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Same Problem here and I see I am not the only one with this problem as to this and on other forum on the same “SONOS ROAM” this indicated there is QA - quality issues. 

My Battery Drains after 10 use after when it was fully charging the night before.

And Yes, I have fully powered off by holding the power button for 5 seconds as per instruction and no Led’s light were on indicating it was fully switched off. 

I contacted SONOS Tech Support and with no joy with an answer, and the phone conversation got disconnected from their end after I was placed on Hold as he was checking and never returned my call. very puzzled. Hope to reconnect with SONOS support tomorrow and hoping to get a resolution.

Userlevel 1
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Same Problem here and I see I am not the only one with this problem as to this and on other forum on the same “SONOS ROAM” this indicated there is QA - quality issues. 

My Battery Drains after 10 use after when it was fully charging the night before.

And Yes, I have fully powered off by holding the power button for 5 seconds as per instruction and no Led’s light were on indicating it was fully switched off. 

I contacted SONOS Tech Support and with no joy with an answer, and the phone conversation got disconnected from their end after I was placed on Hold as he was checking and never returned my call. very puzzled. Hope to reconnect with SONOS support tomorrow and hoping to get a resolution.

PS: Note: I used the SONOS ROAM “Wireless Charger” (the extra purchase) connected using its supplied lead and its supplied 3 pin power plug to the wall AC powerpoint for the charging.