How to Reset a Bose Soundbar 600, From Restart to Factory Reset

Learning how to reset a Bose Soundbar 600 starts with the right buttons: hold Volume down and Play/Pause on the remote for 5 seconds to restore its factory settings, or unplug it for 30 seconds for a simple restart.

Steps written for the 700 or 900 call for Power and Skip forward, and the 600’s remote has no Skip forward button, so those guides leave you hunting for a key that isn’t there.

Pick the smaller move whenever it fits and you keep your setup, which matters because the full reset takes the bar off your Wi-Fi network.

Below are Bose’s steps for both, what the light bar shows, what you set up again and the fixes for a bar that won’t power on or join Wi-Fi.

The restart comes first, since it needs nothing but the power cord and a 30-second wait.

How to Reset a Bose Soundbar 600, Step by Step

Both moves come from the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 owner’s guide. The restart is a fix in its troubleshooting table, and the factory reset has its own section on page 53.

To restart it:

1. Unplug the power cords for the soundbar and any bass module or surround speakers.
2. Wait 30 seconds.
3. Plug them firmly back into a live outlet; the bar powers on by itself and starts on the TV source.

To restore its factory settings:

1. On the remote, press and hold Volume down and Play/Pause together for 5 seconds.
2. Let go when the light bar pulses white twice and fades to black, and the soundbar reboots.
3. Wait for the light bar to glow solid amber, which means the reset is complete.
4. Open the Bose app on your phone and add the soundbar to your network again.

The 600’s guide calls it the Bose app, where the 700 and 900 guides say Bose Music.

Does a 30-Second Unplug Reset the 600?

That unplug in the first list is the fix the 600’s guide repeats most often. Yes, in Bose’s sense of the word: its reset help page for the Smart Soundbar 700 calls the 30-second power cycle a reset that corrects minor processor errors, and it says settings aren’t lost unless it notes otherwise.

The 600’s guide prescribes the same unplug for five symptoms: no power, intermittent or no audio, no link to a bass module or surround speakers, sound from the TV speaker and no Wi-Fi connection.

Its symptom table never prescribes the factory reset at all. So treat the restart as a test, and if the fault survives, try the narrower fixes below before you wipe anything.

What Does a Factory Reset Clear on the Bose 600?

The wipe is the bigger step, and the guide sums up its reach in one line. It clears every source, volume and network setting and puts the soundbar back on its default settings.

The 700 and 900 guides add ADAPTiQ room calibration to that list, but the 600’s guide has no ADAPTiQ step, and its box list has no calibration headset. So there’s no calibration to rerun afterward.

Default settings reach further than they sound, though: the bass, treble, center, height and surround levels in the app’s Settings menu are the soundbar’s own settings, so note them first, or rebuild them from the 600’s settings, slider by slider.

A wall-mounted bar needs one more step: hold Mute for 5 seconds until a tone sounds and the light bar pulses white twice. The guide treats that wall adjustment as a change from the default audio settings, which are what the reset brings back.

The guide doesn’t say whether the reset clears the Bluetooth list of up to eight devices. If the bar is leaving your home, clear it yourself by holding the Bluetooth button for 10 seconds.

Should You Take Alexa and Your Bose Account Off the 600 First?

Those settings live on the bar, but your accounts don’t, and the 600’s guide goes quiet there. Its reset section says nothing about removing the bar from them, but Bose’s reset help page for the Smart Soundbar 700 makes removing the bar from your Bose account the first step of a factory reset, so do it first while the app can still reach the bar.

With Alexa set up, the 700 page starts earlier: deregister the bar in the Alexa app under Devices, then Echo & Alexa, remove any Bose entries under Login with Amazon, and remove Alexa in the Bose app. With Google Assistant, remove the assistant in the Bose app, then remove the bar from your account.

Bose’s help site also lists a “Resetting your product” article for the Smart Soundbar 600, so check it for your bar’s current steps. Afterward, set Alexa up again from the app’s Settings menu, since the guide says the soundbar must be set up and on your Wi-Fi network through the Bose app for Alexa to respond.

What Does the Light Bar Show During a 600 Reset?

Once the accounts are handled, the strip of light on the bar’s front is the only progress report you get. During a factory reset it pulses white twice and fades to black, the bar reboots, and solid amber means the reset is done, which the guide’s status table lists as Wi-Fi setup in progress and Bose’s 700 help page calls setup mode.

Two white pulses don’t prove a reset, though, because other holds on the 600’s remote flash them too:

So the reboot and the steady amber are the proof. If you saw the pulses but no amber, you may have held Mute and Bluetooth, which switches Wi-Fi off, and the same hold switches it back on.

Amber alone isn’t proof either, since the Mute and Bose app hold turns the light amber too. Once setup starts, pulsing white means the bar is connecting to Wi-Fi, and sliding white means an update.

Solid red is an error for Bose customer service. For any amber pattern this table doesn’t cover, check why a Bose soundbar’s light turns orange before you reset over it.

Is There a Reset Button on the Bose Smart Soundbar 600?

Every hold in that table starts on the remote. No: the guide puts just two buttons on top of the soundbar, Action and Microphone off, which it lists as the voice assistant controls.

Watch the second button of the pair, too: Play/Pause with Volume up for 5 seconds starts a different routine, the guide’s way to view software license disclosures over a USB cable, so make sure it’s Volume down.

The 600’s remote has eight buttons and no Skip forward: skipping a track is a double press of Play/Pause, which is why the 700’s instructions have nowhere to go.

Can You Reset a Bose 600 Without the Remote?

That missing reset button makes a lost remote the real snag. You can restart the 600 without it, since that’s only the power cord, but the guide’s one factory reset is the Volume down and Play/Pause hold on the remote.

A TV remote doesn’t fill the gap. The guide says HDMI eARC or ARC lets your TV remote control the bar’s power, volume and mute, which leaves out Play/Pause.

If the remote is there but ignoring you, the guide’s fixes are a fresh CR2032 or DL2032 3-volt lithium battery, staying within 20 feet and clearing anything between the remote and the bar.

The battery cover turns counterclockwise with a coin, and the new battery goes in flat side up. If the remote is gone for good, the guide sends replacement parts through Bose customer service, and the other ways to work the bar without it keep it usable meanwhile.

When Should You Try Recovery Mode Instead?

Those two buttons on top of the bar have one more job. Use recovery mode when you suspect the software and the bar still knows your Wi-Fi: Bose’s recovery mode help page for the Smart Soundbar 700 says it installs the latest update, and warns against it after a factory reset, which removes the stored Wi-Fi details it needs.

The 600’s guide doesn’t cover recovery mode, but Bose’s help site lists a 600 version of that page. Compare it before you start, because these steps are the 700’s:

1. Make sure your Wi-Fi network is working, then unplug the bar for 30 seconds and plug it back in.
2. As soon as the light bar lights up, begin within 10 seconds.
3. Tap Action, then Microphone off, then Action, then Microphone off, about a second apart.
4. Watch for the light bar to blink green.

The update signals that follow match the 600 guide’s, often for around 20 minutes. When the light bar goes dark, turn the bar on and add it in the Bose app; if the green blink never comes, Bose says to start over and keep alternating the two buttons for 30 seconds.

A red light at that stage means the bar needs service.

What Should You Try When the 600 Won’t Turn On?

A bar that won’t light at all can’t start recovery mode, so power comes first. The guide’s list for a soundbar that doesn’t power on has three steps: try a different outlet, press Power on the remote, then unplug the bar and any bass module or surround speakers for 30 seconds and plug them back in firmly.

A dark bar isn’t always off. The 600 drops into network standby after 20 minutes without audio, a button press or a voice request, and Power, a source button, Play/Pause or audio from your phone wakes it.

The guide adds that Alexa still answers while the bar is powered off, so if you set Alexa up and it replies, the bar has power. Bose’s won’t-turn-on help page for the 700 adds two checks: a wall switch that controls the outlet, and a power strip worth bypassing.

What If the Bose App Can’t Find the 600?

Once the bar has power, the network is the next place a setup stalls. Put your phone and the soundbar on the same Wi-Fi network first, and on the same band if your router runs both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, since the guide lists both for a soundbar that won’t connect.

If that fails, the guide moves on to restarting the phone and router, resetting the router, the 30-second unplug and reinstalling the app. On a different network, if the app doesn’t prompt you, add the soundbar from the app’s main screen.

Bose’s help page on an app that doesn’t detect a 700 adds phone permissions: Bluetooth on an iPhone or iPad, plus location and local network access for the app. It reaches a factory restore only at step 14 of 20, and Bose’s help site lists a 600 version of that page.

When Is a Factory Reset the Wrong Fix?

That step 14 of 20 is a fair measure of where a wipe belongs: late. It’s the wrong first move whenever the guide gives the problem a narrower fix, and these four come straight from its pages:

• A new router or Wi-Fi password: hold Mute and the Bose app button until the light bar glows amber, choose Bose Smart Soundbar 600 in your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, then finish in the Bose app.
• A phone that won’t pair over Bluetooth: clear the bar’s device list, delete the bar from the phone’s Bluetooth list and connect again.
• Alexa going quiet: check that the Microphone off light isn’t glowing red, then remove Alexa in the Bose app and add it again.
• Sound from the TV speaker: use the TV’s HDMI eARC or ARC port, not a standard HDMI port, turn on CEC in the TV’s menu and check the Advanced CEC setting in the app.

The Wi-Fi hold saves the most work, since it’s how the guide reconnects a 600 to a changed network without a factory reset, and the app side of a Wi-Fi change walks through the rest.

How Does the 600’s Reset Compare With the 700 and 900?

Those button pairs are the 600’s own, and they’re where advice written for another Bose bar goes wrong. The Bose Smart Soundbar owner’s guide and the Soundbar 550’s give the 600’s exact hold, while the Smart Soundbar 700’s owner’s guide and the 900’s use Power and Skip forward for 5 seconds.

All five guides end the reset with two white pulses, a reboot and solid amber, and all five clear source, volume and network settings, plus ADAPTiQ on the 700 and 900.

The Wi-Fi shortcut splits along the same line: Mute and the Bose app button on the 600, Smart Soundbar and 550, but TV and Skip backward on the 700 and 900.

For the 700 itself, the Bose Soundbar 700’s reset has that bar’s account and remote steps in full. Other Bose bars are in Burton Acoustix’s Bose reset guide, bar by bar.

The Bottom Line

So for a 600, the order is short: unplug it first, try recovery mode if the software seems stuck, and save the Volume down and Play/Pause hold for last, once Alexa and your Bose account are off the bar.

The descriptions come from Bose’s owner’s guides and help articles.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Bose Soundbar 600 factory reset take?

The button hold takes 5 seconds. The guide gives no time for the reboot that follows, only that the light bar glows solid amber when the reset is complete.

Can you factory reset a Bose 600 from the Bose app?

Not in the owner’s guide’s steps. Its factory reset is the remote hold, and the app comes in afterward, when you add the soundbar back to your network.

Why is the white light moving left to right on my Bose 600?

The guide’s status table says white light sliding from left to right means the soundbar is updating, and right to left means it’s downloading an update. The bar updates automatically once it’s set up in the Bose app and on your Wi-Fi network.