How to Reboot and Reset a Sonos One

Learn when to use a hard and soft reset

By
Ruben Circelli
Ruben Circelli
Ruben Circelli
Editor
  • University of Massachusetts, Boston
Ruben Circelli has been a freelance technology writer and editor since 2014. His work has appeared on dozens of sites, including Komando.com, Twinfinite, and TheGamer.
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Updated on December 16, 2021
Reviewed by
Ryan Perian
Ryan Perian headshot
Reviewed by Ryan Perian
  • Western Governors University
Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.
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What to Know

  • To reboot or soft reset your Sonos One, unplug its power cord, wait 10 seconds, and reconnect the power. Give it a minute to restart.
  • To factory reset or hard reset your Sonos One, unplug its power cord and press and hold Play/Pause while reconnecting the power.
  • Continue holding Play/Pause until the light flashes orange and white and then turns green. Then, your Sonos is ready for setup.

This article explains how to reboot, or soft reset, and factory reset, or hard reset, your Sonos One speaker.

Other Sonos devices are rebooted and reset similarly, but the exact process, depending on your specific device, may differ from product to product, so these steps are only guaranteed to work on the Sonos One.

While both soft and hard resetting take almost no time at all, one is more permanent than the other. Soft resetting your Sonos One won't make any lasting changes and can resolve temporary issues. Hard resetting your Sonos One may resolve more lasting issues but will require you to set up the device from scratch again.

How to Soft Reset Your Sonos One

Soft resetting, or rebooting, your Sonos One is easy, and takes little more than 10 seconds.

  1. Unplug your Sonos One's power cable.

  2. Wait 10 full seconds.

  3. Reconnect the power cable to the Sonos One and give the device approximately a minute to boot back up.

    Once restarted, your Sonos One should continue to work as you set it up with no further work needed.

How to Hard Reset Your Sonos One

Sometimes, a Sonos speaker can have trouble connecting or acting as expected. In these situations, sometimes a hard reset is warranted.

Though you will have to set up your Sonos One again after you hard reset the device, the hard reset itself barely takes more time than a soft reset.

  1. Unplug your Sonos One from power.

  2. Hold down the Join button while simultaneously reconnecting the Sonos to power.

  3. Continue holding the Join button until the Sonos One's LED begins flashing orange and white.

  4. Once flashing, you can let go of the Join button. Wait for the Sonos to stop flashing orange and white and instead flash green to indicate the reset is done and your device is ready for setup.

Troubleshooting Problems With the Sonos One

If you're trying to reset your Sonos One because of a problem you have with the device, Sonos does recommend a soft reset to get your Sonos to reappear in the Sonos app if it disappears.

If you're unable to connect to Sonos at all, Sonos' support page has a list of things you can try to fix your problem, which doesn't include a hard reset.

However, Sonos warns against hard resetting their devices simply because all information on the device will be erased. The device can be set up again, though, so as long as you know what you're doing, there is not any danger in hard resetting a Sonos.

FAQ
  • How do I reset a Sonos Play 1?

    The Sonos Play:1 compact wireless speaker has been discontinued. However, if you have one of these devices, the procedure for resetting or rebooting is the same as for the Sonos One device, as described above.

  • How do I reset a Sonos Connect?

    You'd reset and reboot a Sonos Connect speaker the same way you'd reset or reboot a Sonos One device, as described above.

  • How do I reset the Sonos controller?

    Open the iOS or Android Sonos app on your mobile device, then tap Settings (gear icon) > App Preferences. Scroll to the bottom and tap Reset Controller. On a Mac or Windows PC, open the Sonos application and select the Help drop-down menu, then click Reset Controller. After you've performed this reset, reopen the app and set up a new Sonos device or reconnect to your existing device.

  • How do you reset a Sonos soundbar?

    To perform a factory reset on a Sonos soundbar, known as a Sonos Playbar, unplug the device and press the Play/Pause button until you see the light flash amber and white. Release the button when it flashes green. Since this process wipes out all your settings, Sonos recommends troubleshooting connection issues before factory resetting your Playbar.

  • Why is my Sonos speaker not connecting?

    If you see the message "Unable to connect to Sonos" on the Sonos app, there are a few things to check. If you've recently updated to iOS 14, go to Settings > Privacy > Local Network and make sure you've enabled access for Sonos. Make sure your Sonos is powered on, plugged in, and connected to the right Wi-Fi network. Also, try resetting your router. If you're still having problems, try shutting down your VPN connection, and see if this solves the issue. If you have a wired connection, make sure the Ethernet cable is plugged in properly; if possible, test out another Ethernet cable. If nothing is solving your problem, contact Sonos for help.

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