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Powerbeats 3 blinking white light

Powerbeats3 never achieve "fully charged" status. When plugged into a power source remains at the pulsating red for hours.


Once unplugged and attempting to power on, indicator light flashes white 3 times and pauses briefly before 3 white flashes again. It is never discoverable under bluetooth devices.


Furthermore, if you hold the power button for longer than 10 seconds and release; it will blink red/white/red/white/red/white a brief pause then 3 white flashes.


I've already tried "resetting" the Powerbeats3 by having plugged into a power source and holding down the power and volume down button for longer than 5 seconds on multiple occasions.


I have yet to implement the firmware upgrade but I will be able to in a few hours. I'm almost positive that this updater will indicate that I'm on the latest firmware as I had just picked these up from an Apple store yesterday and I'll be back to square one.


Is there a solution to this or has anyone ran across this exact same issue? What do the flashes mean?

[Re-Titled by Host]

null-OTHER, Powerbeats3

Posted on Dec 8, 2016 1:34 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 7, 2017 1:50 AM

Hi all,


I know the thread is a bit old but I want to share my experience which might help others.


I had the exact same problem with my Powerbeats3 (3 months old and not heavily used). White light blinking three times and then nothing. Tried resetting them (hold down power and volume - button for 10s) and I was getting red/white blinks and then three whites and nothing after that. Very frustrating.


It drove me crazy and I spent a good couple of days online to find a solution. Although nobody really knows what causes this, it looks like it's something to do with the remote and the battery shutting down in the presence of humidity (sweat,water etc). Although in my case the headphones was completely dry when they starting playing up.


What I did was to put the earphones to charge. After 5,6 hours they completely stopped working. They wouldn't turn on and I wasn't getting any light at all.


I left them to charge for more and then one day later it was still the same.


While the beats were charging the light was red/white and then three reds constantly.


BUT two days later,the light went just white and it all went back to normal! I unplugged them and now they respond to all the controls as they used to!


I know it might not work for everyone but I got the idea of charging them for two full days from some other users that tried it successfully.Hope this helps.


Thanks

79 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 7, 2017 1:50 AM in response to romJones

Hi all,


I know the thread is a bit old but I want to share my experience which might help others.


I had the exact same problem with my Powerbeats3 (3 months old and not heavily used). White light blinking three times and then nothing. Tried resetting them (hold down power and volume - button for 10s) and I was getting red/white blinks and then three whites and nothing after that. Very frustrating.


It drove me crazy and I spent a good couple of days online to find a solution. Although nobody really knows what causes this, it looks like it's something to do with the remote and the battery shutting down in the presence of humidity (sweat,water etc). Although in my case the headphones was completely dry when they starting playing up.


What I did was to put the earphones to charge. After 5,6 hours they completely stopped working. They wouldn't turn on and I wasn't getting any light at all.


I left them to charge for more and then one day later it was still the same.


While the beats were charging the light was red/white and then three reds constantly.


BUT two days later,the light went just white and it all went back to normal! I unplugged them and now they respond to all the controls as they used to!


I know it might not work for everyone but I got the idea of charging them for two full days from some other users that tried it successfully.Hope this helps.


Thanks

May 20, 2017 7:55 AM in response to sparker1978

My *third* pair of PB3's just failed last night. The setup is basically the same. PB3's a little over a month old, go to the gym, roughly 20 minutes into my workout they turn off (exit jingle) and trying to turn them on just gives three white lights. I'm assuming they are overheating because if I leave them alone for 20 minutes and try again they will turn on, but a few minutes later they just fail again. Three pairs, EXACT same symptoms.


I'm making yet another GB appt but this is getting silly.

Jun 25, 2017 4:39 PM in response to romJones

It is pathetic that Apple allows this to go on under their roof. They must have known that Beats was a garbage product when they purchased the company. I thought now with the powerbeats3 running the Apple W1 chip, maybe other aspects of the headset were also engineered in the Apple style, but apparently Beats is still total garbage. Over priced and unreliable crap... I replaced one pair already and now will have to replace a second pair for this blink white LED issue. If you are going to remove the headphone jack, your own **** products should be reliable enough to work for more than a month Apple engineers.


pathetic...

Apr 21, 2017 1:41 PM in response to LimJean

Yes, make a Genius Bar appointment or call Apple and they will arrange to have them picked up and returned FedEx. I had to Fedex, as there is no Apple Stire near me. Took all of about 48 hours--appeared they received my box and just switched it out for new ones. I will continue to do this for a year while under the one year warranty, then will go to a brand other than Beats, like the Apple brand.

Jun 1, 2017 4:46 AM in response to S.SubZero

I was having a similar problem. I would get three blinking white lights then nothing after I pressed the power button. Power button - three white lights - nothing. Never got red lights. Turns out the battery was dead? I did the reset, Hooked them up to the charger for about 10min and was able to re-pair to my phone. Simple but something i didnt think of for a little while. Hope this helps some of y'all.

Jun 10, 2017 2:19 PM in response to romJones

This has happened to me 4 times now in less than 6 months, first time the PW3 stopped working so Apple replaced them, second time I spoke with apple support, they told me to reset them but didn´t work so they wanted to replace my PW3 a second time, I waited 30 minutes or so and they started working again, third time it happened I didn´t even bother to contact Apple, I connected them to my Mac, unplugged them and powered them on, it worked, went to the gym and for the 4th time it happened I reset them, waited 30 minutes, shook them a bit and then tried to powered them on and it worked.

I still don´t know what is causing this but this is my second pair and it looks like all of them are failing, asked for a refund but Apple didn´t want to give me the money back.

Have you found a better solution to this? This is an old thread.

Jun 17, 2017 4:41 PM in response to romJones

I was doing my running exercise and then they just turn off and didn't turn back on I tried restarting them again but they won't so I went home and just charge them again but the weird part is that they were at 94% then drop at 86% before I even hit my half way mark of my running exercise so I just went home and starting to charge them if they won't then I'll just call apple

Jul 1, 2017 5:59 PM in response to romJones

So today I figured it out some thing happened with my power beats the three blinks and then I held it down for a while and it went to red and white I turned my iPhone off and the turned it back on went to settings and pushed "turn bluetooth back on" my device showed up and I paired it. My beats 3 still was blinking three time so I started playing music and then I held down the power button on them and they turned right off and now they work fine :)

Jul 9, 2017 10:17 PM in response to Nickfe

Yeah they lose connection due to sweat, because they will run all day if I'm not sweating but as soon as the my get humid/wet exit sound and three white blinks. So I wear a Nike heatband and whipe with towel throughout all workouts though when working out very hard you just can't avoid them losing connection which is ********. Going to buy regular non Bluetooth beats eventually.

Jul 13, 2017 5:33 AM in response to romJones

This is pathetic. I purchased my PB3 yesterday and they are doing this. It sits on the charger with a red light illuminated for about 10 minutes before the light turns off. When I pick up the headset I get a flashing red/white/red/white. I try to turn the headset on, 3 flashing red lights. I expected more from this product, especially since it happens to a lot of people. What a shame apple, what a shame

Powerbeats 3 blinking white light

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