Why Is My Sonos Flashing White? Answered!

Your Sonos speaker’s light will change colors in different situations. It can flash or stay on. Sonos flashing white light – here’s what it means!

I do tech support for many products including Sonos speakers. The lights on Sonos speakers change color when the speaker is doing different things. For example, a green light that doesn’t flash means your speaker is muted. 

What Does a Flashing White Light Mean?

A flashing white light means that the Sonos is booting up. It means that the speaker hasn’t yet connected to the network. When you setup your new Sonos and it connects to the network, the light will stop flashing and stay white. 

A flashing white light doesn’t mean that anything is wrong. Your Sonos is probably working as intended when you see a flashing white light. It means that your Sonos is connecting to the network, not that your Sonos is having trouble connecting to the network. 

What Do Other Light Colors Mean?

What Does a Solid White Light Mean?

A solid white light means that the Sonos is on and should be working properly. The light staying white is no guarantee that the Sonos is working correctly, but it usually means it is. 

What if There is No Light?

Usually, if there is no light, that means the Sonos is turned off. However, the Sonos might be on even though the light is off if someone changed certain settings.

Using the phone app, you can change many things about the Sonos, including making the light stay off regardless of the speaker’s status. Go into the settings tab on the Sonos app to enable or disable the light. 

What if Your Sonos Won’t Turn On?

If your Sonos won’t turn on, make sure the power cord is connected properly. If the cord isn’t in all the way, it won’t work.

There could also be something wrong with the power outlet you are plugging it into. There might be a blown fuse. Try plugging other devices into the power outlet and try plugging your Sonos into a different power outlet.

If you are using a portable speaker, the Sonos battery might be dead. If you have the charging base with you, put the Sonos in the charging base and it may start right away. 

What Does a Flashing Orange Light Mean?

The orange light means the speaker is trying to establish a connection during setup. The color will change after the Sonos achieves a connection. 

Flashing Orange Very Fast

If your Sonos flashes orange very fast, this means that you are trying to use the playback queue even though there is nothing in the queue. The rapidly flashing orange light will appear after you hit the play button or the pause button with an empty queue. If your queue is empty, get your smartphone out and use the app to find something for the Sonos to play. 

Solid Orange

A solid orange light indicates that either 1) the speaker is overheating or 2) the speaker cannot complete setup. Call customer support if you can’t fix the problem yourself.

Flashing Orange and White

If your light is flashing orange and white, this means your speaker is updating itself. Your Sonos speaker will download and install software updates that can improve performance. 

Flashing Different Colors

If the Sonos flashes Red/White/Orange/Green this means that the speaker is in hardware diagnostic mode. You can leave this mode by pressing any of the play, pause, join, or mute buttons. 

Flashing Red

If you buy a new Sonos and turn it on but don’t set it up within 30 minutes, the light will start flashing red. This indicates that your Sonos is not yet set up and won’t work. You will also see a flashing red light on your Sonos if you reset your Sonos but don’t set it up within 30 minutes. 

Flashing Red and White

Unlike most light colors, a flashing red and white light indicates an error. It means that your Sonos attempted to update, but failed to. 

Sometimes, merely turning your Sonos off and on again is enough to make it update successfully. If you can’t get it to work, contact customer support. 

Flashing Blue Light

If the light is flashing blue, this means that the Sonos is ready to connect to a device with BlueTooth. It means that your Sonos is in BlueTooth pairing mode. 

What if the Light is Solid Blue?

A solid blue light means the Sonos has successfully connected to the BlueTooth device. A blue light can be misleading because it will stay blue if the speaker loses its connection. A blue light does not mean that the Sonos is still connected, only that it was and might still be. 

Solid Green

A solid green light means that your speaker is muted. You can bring the sound back using either the buttons on the speaker or the Sonos app on your smartphone. 

Flashing Green

A flashing green light isn’t anything like a solid green light. It means that the Sonos is partly set up but not yet connected. The speaker is on but is not yet connected to a Sonos system. 

If you have just bought your Sonos, you will see a flashing green light until you set it up for the first time. If you reset your Sonos, you will see a flashing green light until you set it up again. 

Key Takeaways

• A flashing white light means that the Sonos is on but hasn’t connected to the network yet. It means the speaker is booting up and isn’t quite ready to go.
• A solid white light means that the Sonos has connected to the network and is ready to play music.
• The colors usually don’t indicate problems. However, a flashing red and white light means that an update failed.