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 
!
Wow, thanks all for defining this issue. I’ll follow this thread hoping for a software fix. I sent the companion Qi charger back to Sonos thinking it defective. Ordered another one tho. Maybe it stays in the box. Q tho: does it charge better if stacked on the charger vs on end?
is it fair to say a workaround is to leave the Roam plugged into the USB c cable charger (which admittedly limits portability) but then when you want to take it somewhere it’s just grab (unplug) and go and you have your 10 hours? Rinse and repeat. Takes all the standby drain, Qi on/off, slow charge issues out of the equation.
Final point (repeating others), this is a major letdown by Sonos. I have a $25 BT speaker that holds it charge for weeks. Albeit I turn it off when not using.
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 !
That’s about right. Standby doesn’t really work that well, because if you use the Sonos app for OTHER Sonos speakers you may have, the Roam will come out of standby temporarily. Over time, and if you use your Sonos system a lot, this will further drain your battery. Standby does not really work that well, except in very limited situations. I have asked that they apply a software fix, so that the Roam doesn’t come out of standby every time you use the app - but only if you WANT the Roam to engage. Haven’t heard the status of that though, or even if it is feasible.
Why on earth would you leave your speaker on Standby? Turn the damn thing off or leave it plugged in?
Why on earth would you leave your speaker on Standby? Turn the damn thing off or leave it plugged in?
Because that way I can control the Roam from anywhere in the house, like any other Sonos speaker. (As it sits in my bathroom always). If powered off I have to physically engage with it. Instead of just using Alexa or the app. I shouldn’t have to turn it off to get more than 2 days battery out of it.
Leave it plugged in and unplug when you go outside
The idea of using a product battery all year round is completely ridiculous, not to mention extremely wasteful. The battery will be dead in 8 months
Leave it plugged in and unplug when you go outside
The idea of using a product battery all year round is completely ridiculous, not to mention extremely wasteful. The battery will be dead in 8 months
You are missing the point. 1. It’s on a shelf in the shower. There is no plug there. 2. I don’t take it outside. 3. Sonos said it would last 10 days on standby. 4. Per my experience and many others, it lasts just 2 or 3 days on standby - Even if not using the Roam. 5. The only intended use case for the Roam is NOT just plugging it in at home and relying on battery power ONLY when taking it outside.
Leave it plugged in and unplug when you go outside
The idea of using a product battery all year round is completely ridiculous, not to mention extremely wasteful. The battery will be dead in 8 months
You are missing the point. 1. It’s on a shelf in the shower. There is no plug there. 2. I don’t take it outside. 3. Sonos said it would last 10 days on standby. 4. Per my experience and many others, it lasts just 2 or 3 days on standby - Even if not using the Roam. 5. The only intended use case for the Roam is NOT just plugging it in at home and relying on battery power ONLY when taking it outside.
Exactly. Sonos really owes us an explanation on 10 day advertised standby life since no one has come close to replicating it.
Unfortunately, it’s probably not happening, given the number of apologists both here and in Reddit on the “plug it in or just turn it off” bandwagon.
Meanwhile, Google Assistant is still practically unusable with the Roam. I accept that firmware fixes take time, but radio silence is a bad look.
Isn’t the issue that it keeps connecting and waking up every time you use the app? A software issue rather than a hardware thing
The humidity and temperature of the shower in the bathroom environment also likely affects battery life
I use my roam at home and it’s plugged in, I unplug it when I want to use it in the bath room or outside
+17
So if you want the full multiroom experience leave the Rpoam plugged in. If you only want the experience sometimes or only need bluetooth, you need to turn it off every time. Maybe not what people expect, but that seems to be it?
My Roam loses all battery power in one week when fully off. That is absurd! 10 hours of use? Never!
My Roam loses all battery power in one week when fully off. That is absurd! 10 hours of use? Never!
This is very unlikely. If the Roam is shut off completely, you should only be losing 1%-2% of battery charge per day. You are probably putting the Roam to sleep/standby mode which allows the battery to continue to drain when not in use and for the Roam to wake up anytime you access the Sonos app. Shut off the Roam completely by pressing and holding down the power button for 5 seconds until you hear a chime.
So if you want the full multiroom experience leave the Rpoam plugged in. If you only want the experience sometimes or only need bluetooth, you need to turn it off every time. Maybe not what people expect, but that seems to be it?
Yes, I agree. Annoying for those people (myself included) who felt it would complete their Sonos setup locating in a bathroom. Product info had lead me to conclude I would need to charge once a week, that is not the reality. Using it with a power bank has led to mixed results that I've not been able to draw firm conclusions as yet. I cannot expect my young children to fully power it off and my wife would rather sacrifice the sound quality / functionality for something she can turn on/off quickly.
I'm concerned at what it's recording in my rooms.
I prefer a device I can control, that is turning it on when I demand it.
I'm over recharging it for no reason.
SONOS team...fix it!
I'm concerned at what it's recording in my rooms.
I prefer a device I can control, that is turning it on when I demand it.
I'm over recharging it for no reason.
SONOS team...fix it!
Sonos (I believe) includes the top LED into the mic circuit, so just press it to switch off the mic, then tap it on when required, that’s if you are that concerned by these things.
You cannot ‘over-charge’ it, the Roam will likely have a built in PID controller monitoring it’s charge status. Staff have previously mentioned were fine to leave the speaker on charge, same goes for the ‘Move’ too.
Mine is going fine, and seems to last days/weeks between charges when not used much - but I do have trueplay turned off which turns off the mic. Not sure if that’s related. When I take it somewhere different I just turn trueplay back on for 5 or 10 mins and all good.
So if you want the full multiroom experience leave the Rpoam plugged in. If you only want the experience sometimes or only need bluetooth, you need to turn it off every time. Maybe not what people expect, but that seems to be it?
Yes, I agree. Annoying for those people (myself included) who felt it would complete their Sonos setup locating in a bathroom. Product info had lead me to conclude I would need to charge once a week, that is not the reality. Using it with a power bank has led to mixed results that I've not been able to draw firm conclusions as yet. I cannot expect my young children to fully power it off and my wife would rather sacrifice the sound quality / functionality for something she can turn on/off quickly.
Thinking again about this the solution would be for Sonos to make it easier and quicker to fully power off then back on. Is it possible to achieve with the existing hardware?
Thinking again about this the solution would be for Sonos to make it easier and quicker to fully power off then back on. Is it possible to achieve with the existing hardware?
I don’t find it all that difficult to hold-in the power button for 5 seconds to shut the Roam down and a simple press on the same button quickly brings it back online.
When at Home, I find it easier to leave the Roam sat on a Qi charger and to pick it up ‘charged’ when needed elsewhere. If ‘out and about’ and the Roam is not being used for lengthy periods, perhaps with no access to charging, then I would power it off, but that would probably be quite a rare event in my own use-case.
Thinking again about this the solution would be for Sonos to make it easier and quicker to fully power off then back on. Is it possible to achieve with the existing hardware?
I don’t find it all that difficult to hold-in the power button for 5 seconds to shut the Roam down and a simple press on the same button quickly brings it back online.
When at Home, I find it easier to leave the Roam sat on a Qi charger and to pick it up ‘charged’ when needed elsewhere. If ‘out and about’ and the Roam is not being used for lengthy periods, perhaps with no access to charging, then I would power it off, but that would probably be quite a rare event in my own use-case.
My Roam was bought to replace a DAB radio in the bathroom. My young children struggle with the full power off and my wife would rather have a quicker power off (getting ready in the morning is a dash) over the additional functionality / better sound quality that the Roam brings. I on the other hand am willing and capable of fully powering off but am in the minority in our house.
+12
My Roam was bought to replace a DAB radio in the bathroom. My young children struggle with the full power off and my wife would rather have a quicker power off (getting ready in the morning is a dash) over the additional functionality / better sound quality that the Roam brings. I on the other hand am willing and capable of fully powering off but am in the minority in our house.
Yeah frustration by my family around using the roam was a key factor in returning it. They basically declined to use it after struggling with off/standby and it constantly being dead. Inability to reach close to 10 days standby is ridiculous.
In contrast the cheap Anker Bluetooth speaker the roam was to replace has a massive easy to press on off button and real standby mode. Also only needed to be charged once every few weeks or longer.
But if Sonos improves on some of the issues I will be sure to buy and try again as the sound quality improvement was nice.
Sonos really need to listen to the above. I'm very disappointed with my roams battery life. When you switch something off it mean off and ready for your next use. Not get very frustrated with something you have to charge every time before you use it. Sonos you have the smarts to do this. Get your software people to do some changes and update this before it to late.
Sonos really need to listen to the above. I'm very disappointed with my roams battery life. When you switch something off it mean off and ready for your next use. Not get very frustrated with something you have to charge every time before you use it. Sonos you have the smarts to do this. Get your software people to do some changes and update this before it to late.
If you are truly shutting off the Roam completely, you should only lose 1%-2% battery charge per day… at least that has been my experience with the Roam.
+12
If you are truly shutting off the Roam completely, you should only lose 1%-2% battery charge per day… at least that has been my experience with the Roam.
Lucky you 👍🏾
How’s your experience with standby, are you getting 10 days?
Got my Roam last week but wanted to hold off on replying here till I’d tested a few things and let it stabilize.
As others have said, I see about 1% per hour battery drain in standby. This is overnight, with no use of the Sonos app or other speakers to trigger a full wakeup. This equates to about 4 days of standby time at most, less if using the Roam in that time. Very far from the advertised ‘up to 10 days’. Fully powering off the Roam does reduce battery drain to virtually nothing, but this is annoying due to the mushy power button and excessively long 5 second press time required.
Like many others here I mainly use my Roam in the shower, so powering it off completely means I have to remember to take my phone into the bathroom to select music after I wake it up. To work around this I’ve created a hack script in Home Assistant that starts with a 60 second delay - during which time I go to the bathroom and power on the Roam - then groups the Roam with my bedroom One SL, which I already set playing whatever I want - great user experience...
I also bought it to take on a trip this summer, but I’m a bit concerned that it’s very easy to accidentally leave it in standby mode, and when it’s not in range of a known WiFi network it’ll drain the battery constantly searching for one.
I suggest / request the following app features that I think will mitigate what is a pretty big annoyance in an otherwise good product:
- A power off button in the app, equivalent to a power button hold, so if you accidentally leave it on standby you can turn it off remotely. Bonus for making this API-accessible so Home Assistant / Google Home, etc routines can call it.
- An app-configurable automatic full power-off timer (1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours or something), that would prevent the problems people have had coming to use their Roam and finding it totally dead.
- An option to fully disable WiFi and make it function entirely as a dumb bluetooth speaker, for times when it’s taken out of the home.
All in all I have no regrets about buying the Roam, but as it stands I couldn’t recommend it to less tech savvy friends / relatives,
Great summary of the experience. I was thinking of an app settings option to make a single power button press a choice between putting the Roam to full power off or to standby.
Same here and i did not activate any assitant like google or alexa on it.... :-( really frustrating, ill return the unit
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