Between soundbars and speakers, the former is the essential option if you are looking for simplicity and ease of installing your TV. They may not be as immersive as surround speakers, but they’re usually enough for watching your favorite series or playing casual games. The best part is that soundbars are generally plug-and-play devices, and as soon as you connect one to your TV, you should be good to go.
But that doesn’t mean they’re completely free of quirks. From time to time, you might encounter unusual behavior that will leave you perplexed, including a flashing light. Flashing lights on a soundbar can mean many different things. To help you identify the exact meaning, we have collected some of the most common reasons behind this behavior.
Just a warning, though, this article is not an exhaustive list of all the possibilities why your soundbar light is flashing. Rather, this is a general guideline for what flashes might mean for different brands. For simplicity’s sake, we’ve separated the reasons into two broad categories: normal operating status lights and error lights.
Normal operating status indicators
The light on your soundbar may begin flashing during normal operation to indicate the status of the device. For most popular soundbars, this flashing light is often related to Bluetooth. The LED indicator flashes blue on Sonos, Sony, Sennheiser and LG soundbars, for example, when Bluetooth pairing is active. Meanwhile, some Samsung soundbars flash different colors during Bluetooth pairing, then change to flashing cyan once the connection is established. On Bose models, a blue light flashes when the device is ready to pair and a white light flashes when it connects to a Bluetooth device.
Besides Bluetooth pairing, there are other potential reasons why your soundbar is flashing:
- Power on: A flashing LED on your soundbar may simply mean that it is powered on. The Sonos and Sony models flash a white light when you turn them on, while LG flashes a red light.
- Software update: If you have updated the firmware on your soundbar, the device may display a flashing light. On Sonos, the LED alternates between orange and white; Sony switches between blue and white; and Sennheiser just flashes yellow.
- Reset in progress: Resets may also cause your soundbar’s LED to blink. On some Samsung models, you will see white, cyan, and red flashes. On Sony it’s blue and white flashes, and on Sonos it’s orange and white. Meanwhile, the Sennheiser soundbars simply flash orange.
- Soundbar muted: Your soundbar sometimes flashes a light when muted. This is the case for LG models, which flash yellow, and Sony models, which flash white.
There are several other cases where your soundbar will display a flashing light. A Sonos soundbar, for example, may flash red, white, orange, and green when hardware diagnostic mode is active. The LEDs on Bose soundbars, on the other hand, flash when you receive a notification.
Error LEDs
If your soundbar experiences a problem, it will display a flashing LED indicator to let you know. Often this is related to a problem with a connected device or with Wi-Fi. On Sony soundbars, an LED flashes when they are not connected to the subwoofer. Your soundbar may be in the wrong location, so try moving the two devices closer together or switching to your router’s 2.4 gigahertz or 5 gigahertz band to make a better connection. Bose soundbars flash orange when there is a source error. Check your Bose app for more information. Similarly, on TCL soundbars, the indicator starts flashing when it fails to detect a signal from the current input. Change the input and verify that your connected device is turned on and sending audio.
Meanwhile, Bose and Sennheiser soundbars emit a flashing light when disconnected from Wi-Fi. You will notice red flashes on Bose and yellow flashes on Sennheiser. To resolve this issue, restart your soundbar and router and verify that your Internet connection is working before trying to connect the device to Wi-Fi again.
A failed software update can also cause your soundbar’s LED light to flash. On Sonos, a flashing red and white light will appear. A quick fix to this problem is to restart the soundbar and try again. On Samsung, the soundbar will flash red three times if it cannot find an update file. It will also flash cyan three times if the update file is not a higher version than the one already installed. In these cases, download the update file from Samsung again and try again. Unknown errors can also cause your soundbar LED to flash. You will see a flashing red light on your Sony soundbar and a flashing orange and white light on your Sonos soundbars. For this, it is best to contact customer support.
