How to Pair JBL Charge 3 with iOS Devices

JBL Charge 3 portable wireless speaker. Showing the front right end view. The Bluetooth speaker is powered on and paired.

This post shows JBL Charge 3 how to pair with iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad line of Apple phones and tablets.

How to Pair JBL Charge 3 with iOS Devices, Step by Step

First, with your JBL Charge 3 powered off (power button is dark), run through this routine to pair it to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch iOS mobile device. We’re using an iPad Air tablet in this demo.

1. Find your Way to the Home Screen on your iOS Device

Press the Home button to uncover the mobile iOS device’s Home screen.

2. Find the Settings App

We found ours on the second page of the iOS home screen on our iPad Air running iOS 11.3.1, as shown next.

iOS Home screen showing the Settings app.

3. Bring up the Settings App

Next, tap the Settings app icon.

The iOS device then displays the first page of its settings, as shown in the next step.

4. Go to Bluetooth Settings

Our Bluetooth settings screen displays as follows. Note that our Bluetooth is enabled here. But since JBL Charge 3 speaker is currently powered OFF, it does not show up in the Bluetooth devices list. Also, we don’t see it since we’ve never paired our Charge 3 with the iPad Air before. See this as shown in this list of previously paired Bluetooth devices, shown next.

The previously paired Bluetooth devices list. Note that there’s no JBL Charge 3 here.

5. Turn On your JBL Charge 3

Then turn on the JBL Charge 3 by quickly pressing its Power button. See this pointed at by the green arrow in the next picture.

The JBL Charge 3 powered OFF. Showing the dark -Power- button.

The speaker then powers up.

But since our iPad does not know about this speaker, the Charge 3 will not pair with it automatically. The light that comes on in the power switch denotes this not-paired state by glowing solid white, as shown next.

The glowing white power button.

6. Put your JBL Charge 3 into Discovery Mode

Now, to see your speaker on your iOS device, place it into Bluetooth discovery (pairing) mode. To do that, press and release the Bluetooth button, as we show in the next picture.

The -Bluetooth-button.

When you press the Bluetooth Discovery Mode button, the speaker makes a repeating single pluck guitar note sound several times. Also, the power button changes from a solid white glow to flashing blue. See this next.

The JBL Charge 3 in paring mode, with the -Power- button flashing blue.

7. Find your JBL Charge 3 on your iOS Device

See the screen shot next. We found our speaker, as pointed at by the blue arrow, as we show next.

The Bluetooth settings screen, showing the JBL Charge 3 as discovered but not yet paired.

8. Pair with your JBL Charge 3

Then tap the listed speaker in the Other Devices section of the Bluetooth devices list, shown above.

Your iOS device then pairs with the Charge 3 (“JBL Charge 3” in this demo). The iOS device’s Bluetooth Settings screen then changes to look something like the following.

The JBL Charge 3 paired with our iOS device.

Note that the JBL Charge 3 now shows as connected, as pointed at by the Blue arrows in the last picture.

9. Done !

Finally, we have now successfully paired our JBL Charge 3 portable speaker with our iPad iOS device. This procedure also works when pairing with Apple iPhone and iPod devices, although the screen faces may differ slightly on the iPhone.

1. How to Pair JBL Flip 2 Bluetooth Speaker with iOS Devices, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
2. How to Pair Sony Bluetooth Speaker with iPhone

References for How to Pair JBL Charge 3 with iOS

1. JBL Charge 3 Product Page at harmanaudio.com

Revision History

- 2022-12-02: Updated links.
- 2020-04-21: Added tags.
- 2019-04-12: Removed ad code. Tweaked key phrase targeting. Shortened post URL.
- 2018-07-10: First published.

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