How to Pair Sony X 3 to iPhone

An iPhone in front of the Sony SRS X3 Bluetooth speaker.

This post shows how to pair a Sony X 3 wireless BT speaker to an iPhone smart phone. Doing so gives you a bigger, and distinctly better sound when you stream music from the iPhone to speakers like this one.

How to Pair Sony X 3 to iPhone, Step by Step Routine

With the X 3 switched OFF (power button is dark), run through this routine to pair it to your iPhone mobile device. For this demo, the test phone is an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

1. Go to the Home Screen on your Source Device

Firstly, press and release the side button (right edge of the phone) and enter your passcode or Face Id to bring up the Home screen.

2. Find the Settings App

Next, flip through the Home screen pages until you find the Settings app. We found ours on the second page of the Home screen, as we see next.

iPhone -Home- screen showing the -Settings- app.

3. Bring up the Settings App

Thirdly, tap the Settings app icon.

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

iPhone -Settings- page, showing the -Bluetooth- option.

4. Go to the Bluetooth Option to Continue with How to Pair Sony X 3 to iPhone

Tap the Bluetooth item on the Settings page.

Then you get the Bluetooth Settings screen, as we show next.

The iPhone -Bluetooth Settings- page.

Note that our Bluetooth is running here. But since our test Sony X 3 speaker is currently shut OFF (is not in pairing mode), it does not show up in the BT devices list. Also, we don’t see it since we’ve never paired this speaker with this iPhone before.

5. Turn On your Speaker

Turn on the X 3 by pressing its Power-Pairing button. E.g. See this, pointed at by the yellow arrow, in the next picture.

The Power button on the Sony X 3.

The speaker then boots up, and the power lamp comes on, as we see in the next picture.

The green glowing Power light.

Also, the Pairing lamp may blink in some pattern to show that the speaker is ready to respond to a Bluetooth pairing request.

The Pairing light glowing white.

Or it may glow solidly, meaning that the speaker paired with some nearby device upon startup. In either case though, continue on with this routine.

If this lamp flashes, then it’s passively waiting for a Bluetooth connection request to come in. But if it blinks in a fast flashing pattern, then the speaker is broadcasting its connection information over Bluetooth so other devices can find and link it. I.e. The speaker is already in pairing mode in this case.

Moreover, since our test iPhone does not know about the X 3 as we’ve never connected the two together before, this test speaker will not pair with it automatically.

6. Put the X 3 into Discovery Mode

Now, to see this speaker on your iPhone, place it into Bluetooth pairing mode if it’s not in that mode by now. To do that, press the Pairing button.

The Pairing button.

Hold it in until the X 3 emits two high beeps and the Pairing light starts blinking.

7. Find the Speaker on your Phone to Continue with How to Pair Sony X 3 to iPhone

See the screen shot next. We found our speaker, as shown next.

The Sony X 3 showing as discovered on the iPhone Bluetooth page.

8. Pair with the X 3

Tap the listed speaker in the DEVICES list.

The iPhone then pairs with the test speaker here.

I.e. The iPhone’s Bluetooth Settings screen might then change to look something like the following. Note the now-paired Sony X 3 entry, as we point out with the green arrow next.

The X 3 showing as Connected on the iPhone Bluetooth page.