As of 2019, JBL has shipped over 100 million portable speakers across the globe and the worldwide demand does not seem to be slowing. Highly praised for their sleek design and high-quality materials, several resilient devices have become the standard for other brands to follow.
This does not mean that the speakers are perfect – several JBL owners have complained about an inability to turn their products off. If this rings a familiar bell, you stumbled onto the right webpage.
While the issue can seem impossible to resolve, it actually isn’t as formidable as it appears. If you want a solution to your problem regardless of your model, keep reading!
We will be going over simple fixes like resetting your speaker or draining the battery, while also discussing less common fixes like disabling Service mode. If you find that your Flip, Charge, Xtreme, or otherwise is still refusing to power down by the end of this brief read, it might be time to dust off the warranty.
How to Turn Off Your JBL Speaker
Most JBL products offer something that is commonly referred to as “service mode” which makes it so that the buttons on the speaker’s menu do not function properly. They can also simply need a reset to go back to functioning normally.
There are a number of different ways to solve an unresponsive power button – regardless of your device.
Exit Service Mode
If other buttons on your speaker’s menu work – you can skip this step completely. Service mode affects the entirety of the product’s menu, not just the power button. If you cannot use any of the buttons of your JBL device, keep reading.
Most JBL products come with a feature that is known as Service mode, which essentially renders the buttons useless, including the power switch. Because of how commonly people accidentally trigger this feature, it is a good idea to turn Service mode off before going to more drastic solutions.
Service mode can vary depending on the model but typically is triggered by pressing both the BlueTooth and Play Button. Should you want to avoid this problem in the future, try not to heavy hand the speaker too much.
With that said, typically speaking you will have to hold down these buttons for a number of seconds – so accidentally enabling this mode is fairly unlikely. With that being said, even if you do trigger Service mode – it’s not a hard fix by any means, simply a tedious one.
To exit out of service mode, you are going to need to connect the device to its respective charger. This is the aggravating part of Service mode – you can’t get out of it without a power cable and electricity for a good portion of products. After that, it comes down to what type of device you are using.
For JBL Flip & Charge models – Press down on both the Play/Pause and BlueTooth buttons for no less than fifteen seconds.
For JBL Xtremes – Press down on both the Volume Up and Connect buttons for no less than fifteen seconds.
While this will solve the issue for a good portion of folks, there are some JBL products that do not offer a service mode. So for the unfortunate folks that still remain powered on, let’s take a look at another wide net solution.
Reset The Device
If you can’t get your speaker to turn itself off, sometimes you have to be a bit forceful with it. Before you flick it in the dual passive radiators, let’s try a less damaging solution.
A hard reset can solve issues across the entirety of your local electronics store, and portable speakers are no exception.
This does change depending on which product you are using – though we will cover each individual model in the list below. Bear in mind that we are doing a factory reset, so your device’s personal customization will be returned to its default, out-of-the-box settings. (Thankfully, not much information is stored on these portable speakers, so you needn’t worry about factory resetting the product).
For JBL Flip models – Press down on the BlueTooth and Volume Up buttons until the product completely shuts off.
For JBL Xtreme models – Press down on the Play and Volume Up buttons until the product completely shuts off.
For JBL Charge Models – Press down on the BlueTooth and Volume Up buttons until the device’s circular LED flashes.
For JBL Clip Models – Press down on the Power and Play buttons until the product completely shuts off. This can take up to half a minute.
For JBL Go Models – Press down on the BlueTooth and Volume Down buttons until the product completely shuts off.
For JBL Link Models – Press down on the Mute button until the product completely shuts off. This can take anywhere from 15 – 30 seconds.
For JBL Partybox Models – Press down on the Play and Volume Up buttons until the product completely shuts off.
After your device has powered down (if it has) you can turn it back on and the problem should resolve itself. Test the device to see if it will power down after the reset has been completed. If it refuses to power down, let’s take a look at another possible fix.
Drain The Battery
If you ever wanted an excuse to blare Iron Maiden as loud as your device will allow, we have some pretty good news in store for you. If your device is not responding to exiting service mode or acquiescing to hard resets then the last solution is to let the product die and see if a fresh charge will fix the issue.
This can be accomplished by letting the speaker continue its glitchy protest until the battery dies or by letting the local neighborhood know just how loudly you enjoy listening to Hall & Oates. It doesn’t matter how you choose to run out the time on your device’s internal clock, so long as you do it!
Once you drain the juice on your JBL speaker, plug it into a power source and let it fully charge itself.
After it has been fully charged, try to power on the device and see if the issue has been resolved. If it hasn’t, it is probably time to start seeing about getting the product looked at by a professional or replaced entirely. Before we do that, let’s take one last look at how clean our JBL product is.
Clean The Buttons
This is more than likely not the reason for most people’s devices not responding to their menu commands but is worth the old college try for the poor few still looking for a fix to this troubling power glitch.
The are two schools of thought here; the device is not able to recognize your inputs because the button is lodged, or a buildup of sediment has made the button unusable.
Whatever the case, careful cleaning can alleviate the issue. You can attempt to clean this with a non-abrasive cloth or wipe and toothpick — just be careful not to damage the device or lodge a splinter into the crevices of your JBL speaker.
You can also try to unlodge the button by tapping it furiously until it dislodges itself. Some of the braver consumers can try to disassemble the product and check the contact pins and clean out the buttons – though this may further damage the device if you do not know what you are doing.
If you can’t clear out the buttons from the exterior or feel that they are likely not the cause for concern, it may be better to leave the internal cleaning to professionals.
What To Do If Your Speaker Isn’t Fixed
If you have exhausted all three fixes and your device still refuses to even switch off then it is time to take a more severe approach. This doesn’t mean you need to write a letter to your local legislator – but it may prove helpful to submit a case request to JBL support should your product fall under its warranty period.
For the majority of portable speakers, JBL offers a one-year warranty though it may be worth checking, regardless.
If you do want to fill out a request, JBL offers a form page on their website where you can input your information. This process is relatively painless and straightforward with a typical response time of under two days.
You will first receive an e-mail giving you further information about your order including your address, product serial pin, and a copy of your receipt of purchase. Following that, a JBL employee will reach out to you to offer more insight once the order request has been reviewed.
If you live close to a repair shop you can send it to a local business or look for a digital solution via the internet. This decision comes down more to how expensive your product is, as something like the Partybox 1000 is going to be expensive to replace. Shop around for a cheaper local repair store and see which offers the quickest and most cost-effective solution to this annoying issue.
If you find that the juice is not worth the squeeze as you have a fairly cheap or obsolete JBL device, it may be time to consider upgrading to one of the newer models. JBL has been releasing an incredible lineup of cutting-edge products that are becoming poster boys for the portable speaker industry. If you find JBL too expensive, there are several alternative brands that offer equally appealing speakers for very competitive prices (the Sony XB33 comes to mind).
Whatever you decide to go with, make sure you try to exhaust all the solutions before giving up and throwing in the hypothetical towel. It can feel frustrating going through some fairly rudimentary solutions when each fix doesn’t solve the problem – but it is less aggravating than tossing out a non-broken device.
For more JBL speaker troubleshooting, see:
- How to fix a JBL speaker that won’t turn on, or is stuck in standby mode
- How to fix a JBL speaker that keeps disconnecting
- How to connect multiple JBL speakers
Conclusion
If you have gone through the listed fixes and still can’t seem to resolve this annoying problem, it may be time to start looking at possibly replacing the device. For the majority of those reading this, however, your product should be running smoothly! If this problem occurs again, utilize the steps in this article to turn it off again.
JBL products have garnered a reputation for quality at competitive prices, though they fall victim to bugs and errors as easily as any other tech product today. Thankfully, unlike the issues in our day-to-day, trying to get your device to power off is quite simple!
