How to Check Charge on JBL Charge 5

The battery level meter gauge showing a full charge on the JBL Charge 5 Speaker.

The JBL Charge 5 has a battery indicator in its front lower area. This displays battery status. Whether it’s draining or charging. So it displays charging progress. Or it shows how full the battery is at a given time while charging. It also tells you how much “juice” the battery has left as the battery discharges. So reading this meter is a decent way how to check charge on JBL Charge 5. Details follow.

How to Check Charge on JBL Charge 5: How to Read the Meter

1. The Battery Meter is Entirely Dark

When you power down the Charge 5 with no charger connected, no lamps light up, as we see next. This bar is also dark when a charger IS working but the battery is already full. The battery indicator is just to the left of where the USB-C charging cable plugs into the speaker.

The dark JBL Charge 5 battery indicator.

2. The Meter Shows Battery Recharging Progress

There are five tiny LED lamps inside the speaker, that illuminate the battery indicator bar in various degrees. These light in succession as the speaker charging fills the battery. The Charge 5 is charging when you see part of the bar blinking white. When the battery is nearly dead, the bottom edge of the bar blinks white while charging. Then as charging continues, more of the bar lights up, and the flashing end of the bar moves upward.

Note though, that you may see the bottom most part of the indicator blink red. This does not mean that charging is proceeding. Instead, it means that the speaker battery is critically low and that you should recharge the speaker immediately.

The flashing red battery indicator.

It only flashes red like this when the battery is nearly dead and AC power is not present. But when you do that, this red flashing light changes to blinking white. Remember though, that this light never flashes red while charging.

3. When All Lamps Light Up Solid, Charging is Complete

As speaker charging continues, more of the LEDs on the battery indicator light up solid. That is, the flashing LED moves further up, until reaching the topmost area of the bar.

Battery charging is complete when all but the very last little segment of the indicator lights solid. That last part continues to blink for several minutes. Again, you know that charging is occurring if one of the battery charge level lamps is flashing white.

Note that during the charge cycle, part of the indicator is dark (top most portion). This lets you know about how much more the battery must charge before reaching fullness.

The battery recharge cycle finishes when the entire battery status gauge goes dark, as we see above. Thus, the battery is no longer charging when all lamps are OFF. Even with the AC charger still connected, no part of the indicator glows when the battery is full.

The Meter Is Also a Battery Charge Remaining Meter

When unplugged from the charger, what was the battery charging indicator becomes the battery charge left indicator. The more lights lit, the fuller the battery. The fewer glowing lamps, the less speaker run time left. These lamps show battery status briefly just after you power up the Charge 5. They also show this whenever you tap the volume buttons. To save power, these lamps go dark after some seconds. So to see the charge remaining indication again, just punch the volume UP or DOWN button.

The battery indicator showing a full charge on the JBL Charge 5.

The last picture shows the speaker powered ON, with the entire battery indicator aglow. This means that the battery is between eighty and one hundred percent full.

How to Check Charge on JBL Charge 5: Read It in the Portable App

If you run the JBL Portable app, you can see the speaker’s battery indicator there too. Just pair it with this device and start the app.

The JBL Portable app icon on iPadOS.

Then, once the app detects the speaker, it displays the speaker’s home page as we see next.

The JBL Charge 5 battery meter as displayed in the Portable app on an iPad Air.

The indicator we point out with the dark blue arrow. It shows how full the battery in the speaker is. The more of that bar that is green in color, the fuller the battery.