JBL speakers are becoming one of the leading brands of audio products on the market today. From their wireless headphones to their portable speakers, few manufacturers can compete with some of their more premiere products.
Unfortunately, even a brand as synonymous with quality as JBL has its fair share of issues when it comes to technical issues and product glitches.
One of the most complex problems people on the internet have struggled to fix is the JBL’s inability to turn on and its often-permanent standby mode.
To save you the trouble of having to replace your speaker or even sell it at a discounted price, we are going to take a look at every possible solution out there to remedy this monotonous issue.
We are going to cover how to make sure the speaker powers on, and how to take the speaker out of that all too familiar standby mode consumers have grown to hate.
Universal Fixes For Speaker Issues
It is really important that you give these solutions a shot before trying the ones below.
These fixes typically work for most issues you will face with JBL speakers and should be attempted before you try any of the solutions below (if at all possible).
Update Firmware
- Get the JBL Portable/JBL Connect Mobile App on your preferred mobile device.
- Find your JBL speaker on the mobile app via connecting the two.
- Once the app recognizes your speaker, there will be a cog icon on the bottom center. If it has a red dot, there is a firmware update your speaker needs to get.
- Download the firmware update.
Reset The Speaker
Do not worry about losing firmware updates with a factory reset as they should remain intact regardless.
For the sake of eliminating any possible confusion and more dead-end google searches on your part, I will be going over every JBL speaker at the time of this article and its reset instructions.
JBL Xtreme/JBL Flip – Push down on both the Volume + button and the Resume button. Hold both down until the product turns off.
JBL Link – Hold down the Mute toggle until the device shuts off, and you have reset the device.
JBL Charge – Grip the Volume + Button and the Bluetooth toggle until the buttons’ surrounding lights flash. Once this is done, you will need to manually shut off the speaker to complete the reset process.
JBL Clip – Press down on the Power button and the Play button for a long period of time. When the reset is complete the device will power down, letting you know that it did reset correctly.
How to Turn on a Stubborn JBL Speaker
This problem can feel like a rock in your throat with many consumers fearing that their expensive JBL product has become a visually appealing brick. Thankfully, this is not always the case and can be fixed with a bit of research.
The first thing you should do is check to make sure that the battery still has a charge. Considering the prolonged battery life of newer speakers it can be quite easy to forget that it has been a few days since you plugged in your trusty JBL speaker.
If your product is in fact charged then it may be time for you to check for defective parts in your charging cable, outlet port, or even the internals of your product. Before you start dissecting your speaker like a middle school science project, make sure it isn’t the charging cable or USB outlet. If you discover that it is one of the two or even the battery itself, depending on the product you will be able to find a replacement quite easily.
You should also check the warranty itself to see if you can get the entire speaker replaced entirely. If your charging cable is on the fritz then you shouldn’t need a new speaker, but if there is a defective part inside the speaker – you deserve a working product. It should also be noted that over time your battery will inevitably fade into retirement age and as the months stack up – the battery life goes down.
JBL Speaker Stuck In Standby Mode
The standby mode of JBL speakers works as a way to preserve the battery and determine whether or not the speaker is being used actively as has slipped into a state of prolonged inactivity. Although this is an incredibly useful tool that most consumers appreciate, it can begin to get very annoying and tedious when the speakers auto-shutoff every twenty or so minutes while you are trying to watch a movie or go through a preferred playlist.
While this problem does have some straightforward solutions depending on which product you own – several consumers have found this issue to be borderline unfixable on their own personal devices.
Most JBL products have a menu interface that can be found on the speaker itself, if so you are in luck! I have seen a number of menu solutions of how to manually force your speaker out of standby mode and will be listing all possibilities below.
These are not step-by-step solutions but individual fixes on their own.
- Press down on the Power button for ten seconds or until the device completely turns off.
- Hold down both the Volume + button and the Power button until the device fully shuts off.
- Hold down the Bluetooth button and the Power button concurrently for around fifteen seconds.
While it might feel like the easiest solution for this problem is to simply disable standby mode – several JBL products have not given this option to the consumer to the collective groan of many JBL enthusiasts. Some more creative consumers have recommended keeping the product on a low volume for as long as you need it to work, though I can hardly recommend this as a genuine fix.
For more JBL speaker troubleshooting, see:
- How to fix a JBL speaker that won’t turn off
- How to fix a JBL speaker that keeps disconnecting
- How to connect multiple JBL speakers
Conclusion
If you have tried all the solutions above and found no permanent fix then it may be time to start looking for that warranty. As high quality as several JBL speakers are, unfortunately, they come with their fair share of design oversights like any speaker brand.
The next time you come into issues with your JBL speakers, try to remember the advice found in this article to help guide you past any possible problems!
