How to Pair Sony XE 300 to iPhone

An iPhone in front of the Sony SRS XE300 Bluetooth speaker.

This post shows how to pair a Sony XE 300 portable wireless tower speaker to an iPhone smart phone. Doing so gives you a bigger, and notably better sound when you stream music from the iPhone to speakers like this one.

How to Pair Sony XE 300 to iPhone, Step by Step

With the XE 300 switched OFF (power button is dark), run through this routine to connect it to your iPhone mobile device..

1. Go to the iPhone Home Screen

Firstly, press and release the side button (right edge of the phone), swipe up from the bottom or hit the Home button, and enter your passcode or Face Id to launch 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 this 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 XE 300 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 XE 300 is currently shut OFF (is not in Bluetooth 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 the Speaker

Turn on the XE 300 by pressing its Power button. E.g. See this, pointed at by the green arrow, in the next picture.

The Power button on the Sony XE 300.

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

The green glowing Power lamp.

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

The blue glowing Bluetooth Pairing light on the Sony XE 300.

If this lamp flashes evenly, then it’s passively waiting for a wireless connection request to come in. But if it blinks in pulse-pulse-pause, pulse-pulse-pause pattern, then the speaker is broadcasting its discoverable 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 this speaker since we’ve never paired the two together before, this test speaker will not link with it automatically.

6. Put the XE 300 into Pairing Mode

Now, to see this speaker on your iPhone, place it into BT 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 XE 300 announces, “Bluetooth pairing,” in a female’s voice, and also, the Bluetooth Pairing lamp starts its pulsing blue in the groups of two.

7. Find the Speaker on your Phone to Continue with How to Pair Sony XE 300 to iPhone

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

The iPhone Bluetooth Settings page, showing a Sony XE 300 as Discovered.

8. Pair with the XE 300

Tap the listed speaker in the DEVICES list.

The iPhone then pairs with the test speaker here, and the speaker plays a ding-dong sound and the female voice announces, “Bluetooth connected.”

I.e. The iPhone’s Bluetooth Settings screen might then change to look something like the following. Note the now-paired Sony XE 300 entry, as we point out with the green arrow next.

The iPhone Bluetooth Settings page, showing a Sony XE 300 as Connected.