Soundtouch discontinued - how to continue?
Everything I learned when trying to set up SoundTouch Portable Series II
Regarding the Bose Soundtouch App, the iO… - Apple Community
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Right now I'm owning a soundtouch 10 and I really love that thing. The app works great, it's small, it connects to Spotify.
Since I'd love to have music everywhere in my home I need 2-3 more speakers. Ideally they should be connected over WiFi and run in a synchronous manner.
The problem is, soundtouch is discontinued. I can't really find out if the smart speaker works with soundtouch - is there cross compatibility?
Also there are only two smart speakers: the portable smart speaker which is ugly AF - but that's just my opinion - and the smart speaker 500 which is rather expensive.
Any advices how to continue are really appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I was recently gifted a Bose SoundTouch Portable Series II and had the hardest time setting it up. I scoured through so many forums, reddit posts, and manuals, and hours later finally got it set up. I thought to put all my learnings and resources here, hope this helps!
Official Product Support Page
Even though the instruction says to set it up on a computer, you can actually set up via iOS or macOS via the SoundTouch app. However, the macOS app won’t initially open because the certificate has expired. Go to your System Preferences/Settings, App Store, then in the right panel beneath the “App Store and Identified Developer” there is a “Open Anyway…” button. Click on it to install the app.
The app will ask you to join the Bose wifi network, but it won’t show up until you click on “I can’t find the network.” This will trigger a set up instruction where you have to hold down 2 + Volume Down.
You may have to turn off Private Relay or other VPN in order for it to connect properly. For Private Relay go to Settings, iCloud, then turn off Private Relay (or Pause Until Tomorrow).
After this, the set up process will ask you to enter your home wifi info. If you can get past this screen, the device will have a solid blue Wifi signal. Congrats! You’re halfway there!
But after connecting your device to your home wifi, it will ask you to name the Speaker. This may/will fail. #This is because the firmware is outdated.# You can find the new firmware listed here (as of 2/2023 it is on version 27.0.6)
If you manage to get the speaker connected to your own wifi but just cannot name the speaker, You can also try holding down 4 + Volume Down for 5 seconds and it should download the firmware automatically.
Because this device is only using 802.11b, you may also have to split your wireless network between 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. (You may not have to, but that’s what I did in the middle of trying everything out.) Now that mine is working, it’s connecting exclusively to my 2.4 Ghz network, even though all the other devices I use to control is connected to the 5 Ghz one without issue.
Now, the most handy guide — the hard to find shortcuts:
Hold down 1 + Volume Down: Factory Reset
Hold down 2 + Volume Down: Set up (For connecting device to Wifi for the first time)
Hold down 3 + Volume Down: Disable/Enable Wifi
Hold down 4 + Volume Down: Download & Install latest firmware
Hold down 5 + Volume Down: Display Connectivity Info
Hold down AUX: Restart device (without factory resetting)