How to Reset Skullcandy Headphones

On most Skullcandy over-ear models, hold the power button for 10 to 15 seconds with the headphones switched off until you hear a confirmation or see the light change. On earbuds, put both buds in the case, close the lid for ten seconds and reopen, and if that fails hold the case button for around 15 seconds. Then delete the headphones from your phone as well, or the reset will appear not to have worked.

That last step is skipped constantly and it is the reason most resets seem to fail.

Try the lighter steps first

A full reset clears your pairings and settings, so it is worth ruling out the easy causes.

Charge for 30 minutes. A deeply discharged battery will not respond to a button press at all and may show no charging light for several minutes. This accounts for most headphones that appear dead or unresponsive.

Power cycle. Switch off, wait ten seconds, switch on.

For earbuds, reseat them. Put both buds in the case, close the lid for ten seconds and reopen. This re establishes the link between the two buds and fixes one silent bud more often than anything else.

Clean the charging contacts. The metal contacts on the buds and inside the case collect skin oils and pocket debris, which prevents charging while everything looks normal. A dry cotton bud clears them.

Forget the headphones on your phone and pair again. A stale pairing on the phone side produces the same symptoms as a fault in the headphones.

Resetting over-ear models

With the headphones switched off, press and hold the power button for 10 to 15 seconds. Keep holding past the point where they would normally power on. Release when you hear a confirmation prompt or the light flashes.

Some models use a longer hold of around 10 seconds to clear the pairing list specifically, which is a lighter operation that keeps other settings. If your model announces something about clearing devices, that is what happened.

Where the button does nothing at all, connect the headphones to a charger for a few seconds first, which wakes a locked up unit.

Resetting earbuds

Put both buds in the charging case and confirm they are seated on the contacts, which the charging lights confirm.

With the lid open, hold the button on the case for around 15 seconds until the light flashes, usually red and blue or a color change depending on the model.

On models without a case button, hold the touch surface or button on both buds simultaneously for around 15 seconds.

Close the lid, wait ten seconds, and reopen. The buds should now be in pairing mode with the light flashing.

If only one bud responds, that bud may not be charging. Clean its contacts and the corresponding well in the case, then try again.

The step everyone misses

After any reset, go to Bluetooth settings on every device that has ever paired with the headphones and remove them from the list.

The reason matters. A reset makes the headphones discard their stored pairing credentials. A phone still holding the old pairing keeps trying to reconnect using credentials that no longer exist, which fails silently and looks exactly like a reset that did not work.

Do this on your phone, your tablet, your laptop and anything else. Then pair the first device from scratch.

If you skip it and pairing still seems broken, this is almost certainly why.

What to do after

Pair one device at a time rather than several at once.

Turn Bluetooth off on every other device while pairing, since a competing device claiming the headphones is the most common reason pairing fails.

Expect to reconfigure anything you had customised, since settings live in the headphones rather than in an app.

Check for a firmware update if your model supports one, since connection reliability improves in updates and a reset does not apply them.

Our guide on turning on Skullcandy headphones covers the hold times by model, which vary more than they should.

When a reset will not help

A reset is not a repair, and several symptoms point elsewhere.

No power at all after 30 minutes on charge, on more than one cable and adapter, means the battery or charging circuit has failed.

One side permanently silent after cleaning the mesh and reseating in the case usually means a driver or battery fault in that bud. Our guide on fixing headphones that work on one side covers the diagnosis.

Battery life that has collapsed after two to three years of daily charging is normal capacity decline rather than a fault, and no reset restores it.

Physical damage to a hinge, a headband or a cable is a repair or replacement matter.

Frequently asked questions

How do I reset Skullcandy headphones?

On over-ear models, hold the power button for 10 to 15 seconds with the headphones switched off, past the point where they would power on, until you hear a confirmation. On earbuds, put both buds in the case, open the lid and hold the case button for around 15 seconds until the light flashes. Then remove the headphones from your phone’s Bluetooth list.

Why did my reset not fix the pairing problem?

Almost always because the phone was not cleared as well. A reset makes the headphones discard their stored credentials, and a device still holding the old pairing keeps trying to reconnect with them, which fails silently. Remove the headphones from the Bluetooth list on every device that has paired with them, then pair from scratch.

How do I reset just one Skullcandy earbud?

You cannot reset one independently, and you usually do not need to. Put both buds in the case, close the lid for ten seconds and reopen, which re establishes the link between them and fixes a single silent bud more often than anything else. If one bud never charges, clean its contacts and the case well before assuming a fault.

Will resetting delete my settings?

Yes. A full reset clears the pairing list and returns settings to their defaults, so you will pair every device again and reconfigure anything you had customised. Some models offer a lighter option that clears only the stored devices, usually a shorter hold, and that is worth trying first for connection problems.