How to Make Sony XB20 Discoverable

The Sony SRS XB20 speaker Power button.

To pair your SRS XB20 Sony Extra Bass speaker with a Bluetooth device for the first time, or to refresh stale linkage data in that device, you need to understand how to start up discovery mode on this unit. Now in discovery mode, the speaker digitally announces its name and connection data over Bluetooth, so that nearby devices can find and join with it. Then once connected, the source device can stream audio to the speaker, which apparently is something that so many like to do. So in this post, we show you how to make the Sony XB20 discoverable, to let you link it with phones, tablets, computers, and smart speakers.

How to Make Sony XB20 Discoverable, Step by Step Guide

1. Turn On the XB20

Firstly, turn on the speaker by rapidly pressing and releasing its Power-Pairing button.

E.g. See this button, pointed out by the arrow, in the next picture.

The Sony XB20 Power button.

The speaker then starts up.

The Sony XB20 Power lamp glowing.

Now if the speaker has never connected with a device since its last reset, then it automatically makes itself discoverable. But if it has paired with a phone or other mobile device since the last reset, then you must manually put it in discovery mode now, in order to pair it with a new device now.

2. Press and Hold the Power-Pairing Button for Two to Three Seconds

Secondly, to do that, you press and hold in the Power-Pairing button. E.g. See the location of this button in the last picture.

Hold the button in until the speaker plays a rising sequence of beep tones and announces “Bluetooth pairing…” in a female voice. So at this point, the unit is now discoverable by other BT devices.

Note also that putting the speaker in discovery mode does not clear its prior stored connections. This mode just allows you to connect to and add new devices to its memory, but does not remove any.

Now if the speaker is misbehaving and will not go into discovery mode, you can try resetting it and see if that solves the problem.

3. Done with How to Make Sony XB20 Discoverable

The iPadOS Bluetooth Settings page, showing the Sony XB20 as Discovered.

Finally, while the Bluetooth Status lamp is fast flashing ON and OFF, you should see the XB20 on any in-range cell phone, computer, tablet, or smart speaker assistant, that is within several feet of it, as we see in the last picture. The speaker appears as “SRS-XB20” there.