Ace headphones not charging

Hi guys,

Just like many of you, I couldn't charge my Sonos Ace with an Anker charger, nor with 3 other fast chargers. I tried factory reset and all the methods suggested here. However, I could charge it by connecting it to my Huawei laptop. So I assumed that the issue comes from the Watts power of the chargers, there must be some maximum that the headphones don't support. I got a conventional low power charger with USB type C output and they are charging normally now.

I would have liked to know this sooner because I ordered chargers with type C input from Amazon since the headphones only come with a cable.

I hope this can be useful to you.

Same issue here. Ace will not charge with a 100w Anker power brick. It did charge with an apple 20w power brick. 2 Factory resets did not help with the Anker.

I’m assuming the Ace has a MAXIMUM amp charging limit? If so, what is it?

Also, during the factory reset, my headphones made a popping noise both times I did the reset, anyone else experience that?

This is an awesome sounding product, hope the bugs get sorted out soon!

I believe Sonos and many others on here are missing something. It is clear that there is an issue with Anker and the Sonos Ace’s but it doesn’t seem to be a voltage/amperage issue. I have an Anker 737 24k power bank that supports up to 140w PD, and an Anker 717 charger that supports up to 140w PD. Both of these charge the Aces no problem. 2 other Anker chargers at lower wattage but still plenty do not work. The Anker 737 100W and Anker 735 65W. They both do not work via USB C but will charge with a USB-A to USB-C adapter. To further complicate things all the chargers support the exact same voltage and amperage ranges up to their max watts so it doesn’t seem like an incompatibility that can be predicted. If I had to guess the PD negotiating of the Sonos Aces is very specific and therefore only works on a narrow range that chargers might not exactly match. With USB-A it is a preset 5V for all so does not require any negotiation between devices.

After spending hours online and then on a call with Sonos support I was told that I should buy other brand of chargers because my chargers are faulty. No, if the charger supports your 15w minimum and works with any and all other devices, including the Sonos Move then it’s the Sonos Ace’s that need to be replaced. Needless to say I’ll be returning these headphones as soon as possible 

Thank you for your input - you've just helped me make a decision. I too have been troubleshooting with my variety of Anker chargers to narrow down the issue and it's all over the place

The newly released 167w Anker Car Charger works on A but not C. My Anker 747 works on A but not C. My Anker 713 does not work because it's only C. The Anker power outlet (A9234) works on A but not C.

Initially, I thought that the Anker or Sonos implementation of the Power Delivery protocol causes the issue (since A does not typically support PD). But your findings seem to discredit that hypothesis. If I had to wager a guess, it might have something to do with Anker's proprietary IQ feature that performs the handshake and decides which fast charging protocol to use.

I was on the fence about keeping them because I had hope that Sonos would fix the issue. But with your feedback that Customer Support is telling people that their chargers are faulty it's clear that they have no intention to do anything about it.

I will be returning mine today and I suggest that everyone else with this problem do the same. Remember the golden rules that I unfortunately forgot:

1. Never preorder.

2. Never buy the first iteration of a new product.

3. Never buy a product based on promises of future updates and/or fixes.

So I ended up here as I was having much the same issues as I assumed I could just use my Comsol 100W brick to power the headphones as they are USB C like everything else I own….

This particular power supply brick has 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A and as you can see the maximum rate it can output on USB-A is 12V/1.5A, which from my experiment correlates to these headphones finding their zen in charging rates under 12W.

The typical cable I’ve used to charge almost everything with on this combo was my trusty MacBook Air M1 USB-C lead, which has worked with 95% of my gear. Not the Sonos Ace in the Comsol adapter.

Once I had read a few of these posts, I pulled out all of my USB-C and USB-A > C leads to stuff about.

First stop was a USB-C I got in a portable monitor pack, which was quite thick and solid connector wise...no go on the Comsol brick, worked on my Rato Lithium power pack, also worked on my Bauhn power bank.

Additionally I have an Inseego modem which uses a switch mode plug that outputs USB-A and has a USB-A > C lead which worked just fine.

Once I had tested a number of combinations between 2 power packs/banks and 2 sets of switch mode adapters, I have come to the conclusion that on some select USB-C charging devices it has issues with negotiating a charge rate and doesn’t behave so doesn’t charge. When forced to a limit of 12v - 1.5a the headphones seemingly behave first time around.

I can also use the MacBook USB-C lead on any of the USB-C ports of devices that output at the 12v - 1.5a limit and it works just fine.

The headphones are charging happily now on the Inseego cable connected to the original Comsol adapter I always use, so I will now just need to remember I need to lug that along with me.

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.