Bose SoundLink Mini Won't Play Music

Introduction

So your SoundLink Mini is shy and doesn’t seem to play music even though it says it is paired with your device? Here are the most common causes for this issue, ordered from easiest to diagnose to most difficult to find. If your speaker won’t pair at all, try the Bose SoundLink Mini Won't Pair page instead.

Causes

The Volume is Turned Down or Muted

The simplest reason you might not hear music from your SoundLink mini is that it is muted or the volume is turned all the way down. While playing something on your device, press the mute button on the speaker to mute/unmute it. The indicator light above the mute button will blink repeatedly while the speaker is muted.

If you’re simply dealing with a volume issue, you can turn up the volume on the speaker by pressing the “+” button. Be sure to try raising the volume on the connected device as well, as if the volume is completely turned down on either device, you won’t be able to hear anything from the speaker.

Software Glitch

Sometimes the SoundLink Mini can get into a state where it needs to be reset. The oldest tech support tool in the book is “turn it off and back on again,” so let’s do just that. To reset the SoundLink Mini, follow these three steps:

Plug the speaker in.
Press and hold the mute button for 10 seconds until the LEDs on the top of the speaker flashes.
Let go of the mute button. Press the power button to turn the speaker back on.

After resetting the speaker, try playing music with the speaker again. Some users have reported that resetting their SoundLink Mini makes it forget any Bluetooth connections it has, meaning that you might have to re-pair your device.

Connection Glitch

Sometimes Bluetooth audio issues can be resolved by forcing your device to forget about a speaker and then redoing the pairing process. The procedure for this depends on your system, so take a look at the page linked below for your specific device:

Bluetooth Hardware Issue

If your SoundLink Mini still refuses to play nice, it might be time to get serious. Two possible hardware issues that might cause the speaker to not play music are a bad Bluetooth chip and a bad connection to the speaker drivers. You can check to see if the problem is indeed limited to the Bluetooth by plugging your device into the SoundLink Mini with an aux audio cable. Plug your device directly into the top port on the side of the speaker and press the “AUX” button to switch to direct input mode. If you can hear music now, the issue is isolated to Bluetooth itself.

You can follow this disassembly guide to get deeper into the speaker and look on the circuit board for obvious signs of damage (blackened/burnt sections, cracks in the board, corrosion, etc).