Picture of the glowing blue light ring on the Sony SRS XB20 speaker.

How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB20

Show you how to hard reset your Sony SRS XB20 BT speaker to its factory default settings.  hard resetting restores the 20 to default state. Plus, it erases any earlier paired Bluetooth devices from its memory. This stops the speaker from pairing to any nearby Bluetooth devices. Furthermore, you might hard reset the unit to get it ready for sale or re-gifting, or to stop it from pairing wirelessly with devices you no longer wish it to connect with.

How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB20, Step by Step

1. Turn ON the XB20

Press and release the Power button for a half-second or so. Find the Power button as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Power button on the Sony SRS XB20 speaker.
The Sony SRS XB20 speaker Power button.

Find the Power-Pairing button, as we see in the last picture above.

Then, the Power-Pairing button illuminates, as we see next.

Picture of the glowing Power light on the speaker. How to hard Reset Sony SRS XB20.
The Sony SRS XB20 speaker Power lamp glowing.

The speaker may make a two-tone sound as it starts, to announce that it has paired, should it sync to a nearby device. Or it may play no sound at all if it does not.  But whether the unit connects or not though, this hard reset routine works the same way, as follows.





2. Press and Hold the Power and Volume DOWN Buttons Together

Find these buttons as shown next.  They are both on the top button panel, as we point out in the next picture.

Picture of the Volume-DOWN and Power buttons.
The Volume-DOWN and Power buttons.

The XB20 then enters its hard reset program.

Then after about five seconds, the speaker powers OFF, and the Power-Pairing button goes dark, as shown next. So release the buttons now. Note that on the SRS XB20, there is no power-down sound.

Picture of the buttons panel with all lights dark.
The buttons panel, all lamps dark.

3. Check that your Sony SRS XB20 Did Indeed Hard Reset

Next, power on the unit again, as detailed in step 1 above.

Note that after this hard reset, the XB20 comes up in discovery mode. The Pairing Status lamp quickly blinks white to let you know this. But the speaker should not link with any device fresh after a hard reset.

E.g. See this in the next picture.

Picture of the Bluetooth Status light glowing.
The Bluetooth Status lamp glowing.

This is a signal that you may then look for this speaker on a nearby BT device, and pair to it if you so desire.

4. Done with How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB20 !

This routine is now complete. So you may now sell or gift the speaker, or pair it again with your favorite Bluetooth devices.

After a hard reset, the XB20 no longer automatically links with any Bluetooth device. So to restore auto joining, you manually pair it with a device. Then after that, any time that both speaker and that device have Bluetooth turned on, and are in range, pairing would automatically take place once more.

Related Posts to How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB20 

    1. How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB32 Portable Speaker
    2. Hard Resetting the Sony SRS XB01 Personal Speaker
    3. How to Hard Reset the Sony SRS X11 Speaker Cube
    4. How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB23 Wireless Speaker
    5. Hard Resetting the XB41 Sony Speaker

Other Posts About the Sony SRS XB20 

    1. Sony SRS XB20 Battery Life
    2. How to Connect Sony SRS XB20 to Alexa
    3. How to Put Sony SRS XB20 in Pairing Mode
    4. Sony SRS XB20 Buttons Explained, Codes, Functions
    5. How to Pair Sony SRS XB20 Bluetooth Speaker

References for How to Hard Reset Sony SRS XB20

    1. Sony SRS XB20 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker Support Page at Sony.com

Revision History

    • 2021-10-03: First published.