Ace headphones not charging

I use this PD certified charger purchased from Amazon and that works fine to charge Ace, Move (gen1 & gen2), or a Sonos Roam. In fact it can charge two of those Sonos products at the same time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08CVFMGL1

I also have chosen to use USB-C cables with E-Marker chip, just to help ensure correct voltage. See this link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BG5WNWGF

Folks;

After using my headphones for several days including for 9+ hours straight on an international flight I charged my headphones overnight (still 68% battery after all that use which is impressive) and this morning they are non-functional. I’ve started this discussion with more specific details after an unfruitful chat with Sonos support. I can’t say that high power PD charging is directly related yet but following the breadcrumbs here my headphones are currently useless pending another chat with Sonos to see if there’s anything else I can do to revive them. See: 

As you can perhaps see from my earlier post, I’m using Ace with a high power PD certified charger and although it’s early days, I’ve not encountered any issues so far - I have used the particular charger for Roam & Move products too for quite a long time. My purchase date for the charger was back in 2022 (August), but I’ll see how things go with the Ace. 

Good to know - I’ve used this particular charger with many devices over the past 12+ months without issue. And the Sonos Ace worked great for a few days but appear to have gotten into some weird non-functional state overnight while left on charge. I’m in the chat queue again now to see if Sonos have any other suggestions to get these working again before I start the return/exchange process. I’m a huge fan of Sonos and have multiple products and I know stuff fails… shame I didn’t bring a pair of backup headphones but at $449- I didn’t expect to need to.

I’ve just tried a second PD certified charger from ‘uGreen Group Ltd’ that I had in our camper van and that seems to be working okay with the Ace Headphones too. I purchased this charger in 2021, but its link on Amazon (sadly) no longer exists, but I’ve attached its power-output for its USB-C port for info. See attached.

When I plug it into the Ace, the status LED on the headphones shows as Amber (whilst charging). The LED switches to green when it’s fully charged. At least that’s what I’m seeing here.

My UGreen PD NaN charger won’t charge my Ace but the brick that comes with my Quest 3 does.

I'm experiencing the same problem here. But with Belkin chargers (65W and 40W - both have dual ports. Nothing works). These Belkin chargers are widely available, including the Apple Store. They work for all of my other USB-C devices, except Sonos Ace.

I got Apple (96W and 35W) and Google (30W and 18W) chargers. They're all working.

What's the explanation for this?

Does that charger have a 5v x 3A (15w) power output for its USB-C connection and is it a single port charger, rather than multiple outputs? ..I’m just curious if Ace currently requires that to charge its batteries. It seems to be stated on all the PD chargers that work here with my Ace. 

The Quest 3 charger has 5V x 3A (18W) power output 

How about the UGreen charger power output, the one that doesn’t work for you? Does that output 5v x 3A (15w)?

Not really sure. It looks like it can based on this chart but I haven’t tried it again after finding out that the Quest 3 charger can charge it. But I do remember that I am charging other devices on the Ugreen charger when I plugged in the Ace so maybe it matters. 

I reckon that charger may work with a USB-C connection if nothing else is connected to that charger, but that’s just a guess on my part.

Any response from Sonos on this explanation as to why some chargers work and some don’t?

I’ve not spoken to Sonos Support personally as my own chargers here are working okay with the Ace. If you have an issue with a charger, then it’s perhaps best to make the Sonos Support Staff aware of the make/model etc. the link to contact them is here:

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

I experienced the same issue, just need to make sure to use a PD compatible charger. This could be an issue for travellers if you plan to use chargers on planes. A portable USB storage bank that is PD capable works. While this is the only negative I have. a positive point around charging is that you can charge the headphones while still connected to Bluetooth which is something a lot of other headphones cannot do.

I don't think this is it. My Belkin chargers (65W and 40W) are PD compatible (and with PPS). But they don't work with Ace.

I also cannot charge with Anker (45W). It does charge with my Samsung (25W)

I’m having this issue with my Belkin chargers as well. Interestingly enough I can charge using my dual USB-C 45W from Belkin, both ports work fine, but not the 65W, so it’s not consistent to all Belkin PD with PPS.

I would perhaps try the Bellini 65W charger after each new Ace update. The reason I suggest that is the Sonos Move (gen1) had a similar issue when it was first launched, where some chargers didn’t work and Sonos quickly fixed it with an update. I think Belkin/Anker chargers have been mentioned by others here, so I’m ‘guessing’ Sonos will be able to quickly hone in on the matter and hopefully🤞get it sorted. Maybe report back here, if that does prove to be the case, just to let others know the outcome too.

I only mention it because my one ‘Move’ charger didn’t initially work for me and I never thought to re-try it after each update, but later found out it was working (by accident) and I should perhaps have thought to re-check it, post updates.

That's interesting. Belkin doesn't offer 45W dual charger in my region. We only have 65W and 45W here, and neither works for Ace, unfortunately. Very frustrating. All of my other USB-C devices work with these two chargers.

Is there a solution? All of this concern is making me want to ship my Ace back the minute I received them tomorrow.

Nope. It appears that it's just weirdly incompatible with a lot of chargers. The safest bet is to charge it with a charger that outputs 18W or lower. So all of wall chargers with female USB-A port should be ok.

And as I mentioned earlier, Apple chargers (I've got the 96W one for MacBook Pro, and the 35W dual port one) are working, Google chargers (30W and 18W) are working, and all of power banks I have (various brands) are working.

This does hurt my impression of the product.

Have you installed the latest Ace firmware to see if that perhaps fixes the issue? I am able to charge the headphones with a 100W PD charger and a 36W charger too.

I personally think the Ace is great. It’s Apt-X HD audio and wired ALAC lossless audio is excellent, as is the ANC noise cancelling and aware modes, but my favourite features are the TV Audio Swap with the Sonos Arc soundbar and spatial head-tracking - I’m finding these are awesome features for all TV audio sources. I’ve not encountered charging, or any other, issues.

I updated my Sonos Ace firmware immediately after unboxing it. And I experienced this charger compatibility issue a few days after that.