Why Is Sonos Move Flashing Red?

These days, most electronic devices have LED indicator lights built into them. Manufacturers do this so that owners can know what their devices are doing. But these lights sure can be confusing when you do not know what they are meant to signify. What does a solid white light mean? How about alternating blue and white blinking lights? It is hard to know for sure unless you do a little bit of research.

Why Is Sonos Move Flashing Red?

LED lights on the Sonos Move can flash red or alternate between red and white. A flashing red light on the Sonos Move means that the speaker has powered on but was unable to connect to the Sonos Controller App within the first half an hour. 

Alternating white and red blinking LED lights indicate that the Move has failed to properly partition during the course of an update. You will need to restart the speaker and try once more.

That is what I had to do when I bought my first Sonos Move. I was so excited to start using my new speaker, but I quickly realized how little I knew about the LED indicator lights and what each one signifies. 

So, I started digging around online to familiarize myself with the LED indicator light meanings on the Sonos Move. I decided to download the user manual from Sonos so that I would have a copy I could not simply misplace.

Red is one of the colors that you might see show up on your device. This light will either be flashing just red or alternating between red and white. 

Neither of these light patterns indicates that anything is seriously wrong with the speaker, but it does mean that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Let me explain what those issues can be.

What do the lights on the Sonos Move mean?

The LED lights on the Sonos Move are there to relay messages about how the speaker is performing. These lights can be solid, flashing, or alternating between the colors white, red, green, blue, and orange. 

Every combination of lights means something different. Here are the different combinations you might see and what they indicate:

1. Solid blue: the Move is connected to a Bluetooth device.
2. Solid white: the speaker is on and functioning properly.
3. Solid green: the Move is muted or set to a volume of zero.
4. Solid orange: the Move is in warning mode and needs to be unplugged since it could be overheating.
5. No light: the Sonos Move is not powered on.
6. Flashing orange: Playback has failed to start.
7. Flashing red: the Sonos Move is powered on but, in the first 30 minutes, could not connect to the Sonos Controller app.
8. Flashing green: Move is powered on and ready to be set up.
9. Flashing white: Move is booting up after getting some wall power.
10. Alternating orange and white: Something has become faulty. Sonos Move might need to be reset to factory settings or at least rebooted.
11. Alternating red and white: The Move hasn’t partitioned correctly during an update and needs to be restarted.
12. Alternating green and white: The Move has not yet been registered to a Sonos user account.

Suggested Article: Sonos Roam keeps disconnecting!

A Flashing Red Light

A flashing red light indicates that the Sonos Move is indeed powered on. However, within the first 30 minutes of being on, it hasn’t been able to connect to the Sonos Controller app you have downloaded onto your smartphone. 

You should check your app to ensure that it is fully installed onto your phone. If your phone is overloaded with apps and files that consume data, the Controller app could have been offloaded to create space. You’ll want to check and see if this is indeed the case.

An Alternating Red and White Light

If you see alternating red and white blinking lights on your Sonos, the Sonos Move has failed to partition during an update. 

You will have to restart your speaker and try letting the update run again to see if everything runs without error a second time around.

Why is there a blinking light code?

Thankfully, once you own a Sonos speaker and learn the light codes, you will find that they are the same on all other Sonos speakers.

When you see a blinking light code, something has gone wrong with the device. Solid lights mean that a certain process has been performed without a problem.

Green, red, or yellow flashing lights typically mean that something has gone wrong and has left the system potentially in jeopardy. If you see a yellow light, you need to address the issue immediately, often by having to shut the speaker down.

How do you turn this light off?

Not everyone cares to see flashing lights on a speaker. If you have the Sonos Controller app installed on your phone, you can opt to put the speaker into stealth mode, which will stop the LED indicator lights from showing up. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open up the app.
2. Go to the navigation bar in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Tap on Room Settings.
5. Select the correct room and toggle the White Indicator Light option.

Now, the LED indicator lights should be completely off. I don’t really recommend doing this since certain light patterns can be important. However, this is a good temporary solution to the lights acting as an annoyance.

What does it mean if there is a blinking light on the Sonos Move?

Problems often arise when you least expect it. If the lights are blinking, the speaker is trying to get your attention.

Something has gone wrong. You will need to defer to the light codes to figure out exactly what has happened and how you should address the issue at hand.

Closing Thoughts

If you have tried solving the problem and the light is still flashing red, you should contact Sonos customer support. 

There is likely some disruption between the speaker and the app you downloaded onto your phone, and a customer service rep can go more in-depth with troubleshooting this problem with you in a step-by-step manner.