Your Sonos Ace dropping its Bluetooth connection mid-song or losing audio sync during a movie is usually caused by a handshake issue inside the Sonos app rather than bad hardware. The 2024 app redesign introduced a lot of connection chaos right out of the gate, so the fix often lives in software settings, not the headphones themselves.
Start inside the Sonos app
The Sonos app acts as the command center for the Ace, and if it can't detect the headphones, no feature works properly. Force close the app completely, reopen it, and check that the Ace show as connected under the System tab.
If the app shows them as disconnected or unavailable, tap the device card and wait for it to re-establish the link. I've seen this single step fix dropped connections more often than any other method.
Turn off multipoint for a clean test
The Sonos Ace can stay paired to your phone and your TV soundbar at the same time. That hands-off switching is convenient, but it also doubles the chance of a handshake failure on either end.
Open the Sonos app, tap the Settings gear, scroll to your Ace, and toggle Bluetooth multipoint off. Stick to one connection for a while and see if the dropouts disappear. If they do, you can choose which device matters more and keep the other one disconnected manually.
Switch out of TV Audio Swap mode
TV Audio Swap is one of the Headphones' best features, but it only works with a Sonos Arc, Beam Gen 2, or Ray soundbar. If your Ace is hunting for a soundbar and can't find one, it'll keep pausing and resuming the Bluetooth link to try to reconnect.
Open the Sonos app and manually switch the headphones back to Bluetooth mode. This clears the search loop and restores a stable pairing to your phone.
Update the firmware through the Sonos app
Sonos has shipped several firmware updates that improve Bluetooth stability since the Ace launched. Charge the headphones to full, open the Sonos app, go to Settings > System > Product Updates, and install whatever is waiting.
The headphones need to stay powered on and within range of your phone during the update. It takes about 10 minutes.
Reset the Sonos Ace the right way
If software fixes aren't sticking, a full reset clears out corrupted internal memory that causes connection loops. The only official reset method is to hold the Power/Bluetooth button while plugging a USB-C cable into the headphones.
Keep holding the button for about 15 seconds until the indicator LED flashes white, then release. The Ace will power up fresh, and you can re-pair it from scratch.
Forget the Bluetooth pairing and start over
A corrupted saved pairing record on your phone can cause dropouts that no amount of resetting will fix. Go to your phone's Bluetooth settings, find Sonos Ace, and choose Forget or Unpair.
Power the headphones back on by holding the Power/Bluetooth button for about three seconds until they enter pairing mode. Select them again in your phone's Bluetooth menu and let the Sonos app guide the fresh setup.
Charge to 100% before judging stability
Low battery voltage directly affects Bluetooth transmission power. If the Ace is below 20%, the radio output drops to save energy and the connection becomes unreliable.
Plug the headphones into a standard USB-C charger for about an hour until they hit full charge. Test the connection before assuming there is a deeper issue.
Move away from Wi-Fi interference
Bluetooth lives on the 2.4 GHz band alongside most home Wi-Fi networks, and that gets crowded fast. Walk into a different room well away from your router and any smart home devices.
If the connection stabilizes, the dropouts were just interference. Moving your router to 5 GHz mode or simply sitting closer to it usually solves the problem for good.
Try wired USB-C audio as a diagnostic
If Bluetooth keeps falling off but you need the headphones working right now, plug in the included USB-C cable. The Ace supports lossless audio over a wired USB-C connection (firmware 1.2 or later), and that bypasses Bluetooth entirely.
If wired audio plays without any stuttering, the problem is your phone's Bluetooth stack or the radio environment, not the headphones themselves. That points you back to the app-based fixes on your source device.