Picture of the Volume UP and Play-Pause buttons on the JBL Pulse 3 speaker.

JBL Pulse 3 Hard Reset Instructions

These JBL Pulse 3 hard reset instructions show you how to roll back this Bluetooth speaker to its default factory settings and state. It deletes any earlier paired Bluetooth devices from memory. Clearing these stops the Pulse 3 from linking to any nearby Bluetooth devices by itself after hard reset. Also, you might do this to get the Pulse 3 ready for sale or re gifting, or to stop it from pairing with devices you no longer would like it to pair with.

JBL Pulse 3 Hard Reset Instructions, Step by Step

1. Switch on the JBL Pulse 3

Press and hold the Power button until it lights up.

Picture of the Power button on the speaker back. JBL Pulse 3 Hard Reset.
The Power button on the speaker back.

Find the Power button, as shown in the last picture above.

Then, this button starts glowing along with the battery power remaining scale, as shown next.

Picture of the glowing Power light.
The Power lamp glowing.

In our scenario here, since we’ve paired the speaker with BT devices since the last hard reset, it does not enter pairing mode. We can deduce that from the Pairing Status button being dark, rather than flashing.

Picture of the dark Pairing Status light on a running JBL Pulse 3 speaker.
Here the speaker is running, but has a dark Pairing Status lamp.

2. Wait for the Boot Up Sound

The Pulse 3 JBL speaker makes an ascending electric guitar strum sound as it boots. When this plays, the speaker is then ready for use.





3. Press the Volume UP and Play-Pause Buttons Together

See the next picture to find the Play-Pause and Volume UP buttons.

Picture of the Volume UP and Play-Pause buttons on the JBL Pulse 3 speaker.
The JBL Pulse 3 speaker Volume UP and Play-Pause buttons.

The speaker then runs its hard reset routine, as shown in the next picture. Note that all lamps light up for a couple seconds as the process executes.

Then after a short pause, the JBL Pulse 3 switches off. All the lights darken, and it makes the power-OFF guitar sound.

Picture of the dark lights on the powered OFF speaker.
The speaker powered OFF with all lamps dark.

4. Check that your JBL Pulse 3 Did Indeed Hard Reset

Next, turn on the Pulse 3 again, as mentioned in step 1 above.  I.e. Press and release the Power button.

Now this time, after hard reset, our speaker comes up in BT pairing mode, as shown next. Note that the Power button blinks white  to denote this, as shown in the next picture. When it flashes or is dark, the speaker is not currently synced. indeed, we expect it not to pair to anything after a hard reset.

Picture of the glowing Pairing Status light on the JBL Pulse 3 speaker.
The JBL Pulse 3 speaker Pairing Status lamp glowing.

A hard reset also reverts the selected color lightshow pattern back to default… a sort of rising horizontal color bar pattern.

5. Done with JBL Pulse 3 Hard Reset !

The hard reset is now complete. You may now box up the unit for sale, or pair it again with your favorite Bluetooth devices. The Pulse will no longer automatically sync with any previously linked source BT device. So to restore auto pairing, manually link the Pulse 3 with a device. Then after that, any time that both speaker and that very device have Bluetooth turned on and are in range of one another, pairing will again automatically occur.

Other Posts About the JBL Pulse 3

    1. Firmware Update Instructions for the JBL Pulse 3 Bluetooth Speaker
    2. JBL Pulse 3 Battery Indicator
    3. How to Connect JBL Pulse 3 to iPhone
    4. How to Pair JBL Pulse 3 Speaker
    5. JBL Pulse 3 Charging Time

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    4. JBL Xtreme Hard Reset Instructions
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References for JBL Pulse 3 Hard Reset

    1. JBL Pulse 3 Bluetooth Speaker Official Product Page at JBL.com

Revision History

    • 2021-10-06: First published.