An Oculus blinking red light means that its battery is low.
But some people get stuck here, even though they’ve plugged in the charger.
Possible fixes include:
- Not trying to play until the Oculus is properly charged – this might take hours
- Trying another power outlet if it seems stuck on charge (outside chance)
- Trying another charger or charging cable (make sure it’s compatible)
- Plugging it into a battery pack to bypass a battery that won’t hold charge
- Restarting your Oculus
- Checking for firmware updates and installing any missed updates
- Trying a factory reset
- Contacting support (mixed results here)
Need more details? What works most often? Read on to discover the answers you’re looking for.
We’ll start easy and work our way up to the more advanced fixes you can try.
Oculus Quest 2 Blinking Red Light: The Most Common Fix That Works
If you guessed that plugging in your Oculus Quest and leaving it to charge up is the fix that works most often, you got it in one!
Unfortunately, this means leaving your headset to charge for at least two to three hours.
And during this time, you shouldn’t try to use it. Wait for the light to change color to green.
3 Hours Later… The Oculus Blinking Red Light Han’t Turned Green
Now, things are getting a little bit more complicated. You may be worried that your Oculus battery isn’t holding charge or that the charger isn’t working properly.
Worst of all, you’re starting to wonder if you’ll ever get your Oculus running again.
Relax!
There are a few things you can try before you get super-worried about your hardware.
1. Was Your Headset Set to Auto-Wake? Turn it Off!
Auto-wake can drain your battery faster than it can charge. So, if you’re stuck with a flashing red light on your Oculus Quest, try turning off this feature.
You’ll find the setting in the Device tab under the Power sub-menu.
Just remember that you’ll now have to press the button to wake your device back up when you want to use it.
2. Too Easy? Try a Reboot!
This is always worth a try and it doesn’t take long. A reboot can jolt your Oculus out of a software glitch. Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds.
You should see the Oculus logo as an indication that your Oculus is restarting.
Some people report that a simple reboot was all they needed to get their Oculus from showing a blinking red charge light to the green, all systems go, light.
3. Try Charging Through Your Computer
Try connecting your Oculus directly to your computer to see if it will charge here. But remember that it will charge a little more slowly this way.
If it charges through your computer but not through its power supply, the USB wall adapter or cable could be at fault.
4. If the USB Cable Is To Blame, Switching it Up Could Work
Have you ever left your phone on charge all night only to find your battery all but dead in the morning?
Failing to charge, or charging very slowly, could be the inevitable result of trying to use a damaged USB cable or the wrong type of USB cable.
Simple solution: try another one. Unfortunately, it will take a couple of hours to see whether this solution is working.
5. Is Your Firmware Up to Date?
If your Oculus has been off for some time or has been in sleep mode, it won’t allow automatic software updates even if you already enabled them.
This means that you may have to update your device’s software manually.
If your Oculus is still responding, use your right touch controller to select the Meta icon and access your menu options.
Look for the clock icon on the left-hand side and hover over it. A quick settings option should appear. Select it.
Look at the top right-hand side for the cog wheel settings icon and select the option.
Choose the System option and look for the clock icon in the left-hand menu that offers a software update option. Select it to update your software.
5. After Looking for Physical Damage, You Might Want to Try a Factory Reset
At this point, we’re still hoping that your device isn’t damaged. But although a factory reset can be a good solution, it will wipe out your data.
If you have a backup, that’s not a problem, but restoring your saved data is still extra work for you.
So, before you try a factory reset which restores your device to the state it was in when you first got it, you might want to try checking for physical damage first (details below).
If you decide to try a factory reset, navigate to settings/device and choose the reset option. Then follow the instructions.
Checking For Physical Damage
If your device is damaged, then your Oculus’s blinking red light might be caused by something you’ll need help to fix – or you might need a new Oculus. Neither of these is good news.
However, it could be a simple matter of your charging ports not making proper contact.
Clean them out with compressed air or a soft brush – if you’re in luck, you’ll get your Oculus back to charging properly.
If your battery isn’t charging or isn’t holding what charge it gets, you can check out this possibility by trying an external battery pack.
If everything works fine as soon as you’ve plugged it in, you either have issues with the charger or the battery isn’t holding charge.
If your Oculus 2 blinking red light remains mysterious, take a good look at all ports, cables, and the device itself.
But do remember the option of charging through a laptop, and never assume that your device is damaged unless you already tried restarting it.
Any Port in a Storm: Try Oculus Support
Occulus Support gets mixed reviews. Some people are delighted, probably because Support managed to solve their problem, but a lot of people are less than happy – because they couldn’t.
All the same, it’s worth a try. You might be one of the lucky ones. Be sure to tell them what you already tried to do so that they don’t take you through all the obvious fixes – like “Did you charge your device?”
The Bad News: Oculus Batteries Don’t Last Well
We’re not just talking about how long the battery lasts between charges – although that isn’t very long. 3 hours of battery life is good in this context – though not enough for diehard gamers. That’s why external battery packs are such popular accessories.
Unfortunately, the built-in battery pack doesn’t have a long lifespan – especially if you like to charge up to 100 percent.
Some experts say that you shouldn’t charge it above 80 percent, and even then you can’t expect a lot longer than a year of service.
Replacing that battery isn’t an easy business. And if it dies on you, your Oculus blinking red light shows that your battery is trying to charge – but can’t.
Here’s hoping that the easy fixes work for you! But do be aware that battery lifespan is an issue with Oculus.
Best of luck!
