How to troubleshoot Snapchat Spectacles

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction

This guide will help you on how to troubleshoot Snapchat Spectacles

2. Resolution

First-Generation Spectacles (Black, Coral, Teal) are one-size-fits-most.

If their Spectacles feel a little loose, try tightening the screws. They’ll need a very fine slotted or flathead screwdriver (anywhere between 1.5mm - 2.0mm). They can find these in most glasses repair kits or general hardware store

3. Charging

Spectacles can be charged by plugging in the included charging cable, or by placing Spectacles in their charging case. Whether you use the case or the cable, you should feel the cable magnetically snap into place, and see Spectacles’ LED ring turn on.

We recommend charging your Spectacles or Charging Case by plugging the included Charging Cable into a UL-certified USB wall charger.

Remove the plastic tab covering the button and charging connectors. Spectacles may not charge if this tab is still on.

Your Spectacles should take about 90 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. Charge Spectacles only using the charging cable provided — and don’t use your Spectacles while you’re charging them.

To check your Spectacles’ battery level, double tap the left side of the frame (the button side). The LED ring on the front of Spectacles will illuminate to the percentage that the Spectacles are charged.

You can also check your battery level in Snapchat:

1. Swipe up to Memories.
2. Tap on the 'STORIES' tab to see the battery level.
3. Spectacles must be paired and nearby to be connected and display the battery level.

Once the battery has reached 100%, your Charging Case will stop charging your Spectacles automatically — there’s no need to remove them from their Case

Don’t attempt to remove or replace the battery because you may damage the battery, which could cause overheating, fire, and injury. This product has been designed for safe removal of the batteries at end-of-life by a waste treatment facility. The product should be recycled or disposed of separately from household waste according to your local environmental laws and guidelines 

4. LED Messages

If your inner LED is blinking red, something's up.

When this happens, check the outer LEDs. The LED ring on Specs may show a variety of light patterns for specific status errors and other messages:

• Low Battery

• If you see a single bottom LED flash 3 times, then your battery is getting low. Recharge as soon as you can.
• Remove the plastic covering the charging connectors (located where the temples fold up).

• Storage Full

• If you see five LEDs flash 3 times, then your Spectacles’ storage is full. Import Snaps to your device by opening Memories and making sure Spectacles are nearby.

• Low Temperature / High Temperature

• If you see two LEDs flash 3 times, then your Spectacles are either too hot or too cold. Bring Spectacles back to a more neutral temperature environment to continue taking Snaps.

• Software Update

• If you see three rotating LEDs with progress, then hang tight. Spectacles are updating. This may take a few minutes to complete.

5. Storage

The storage may run out of space on your Specs if you don’t import Snaps regularly.

Specs can hold about 200 Snaps.

Here’s how to tell if you’re running low on storage space:

• The inner LED will blink red
• Five outer LEDs will flash three times

6. Backing Up

Snaps taken with Spectacles import to Memories in Snapchat, and are sorted into Day Stories based on when they were taken. Once in Memories, Snaps can begin to back up to Snapchat once your phone is connected to Wi-Fi.

If you happen to be out of range from a Wi-Fi network, you can enable Smart Backup. Smart Backup lets Memories back up using your cellular data under certain conditions

By default, Spectacles won’t clear a Snap from its storage until that Snap is imported and backed up to Memories.

If your Spectacles are running low on storage space, try importing all your available Snaps to Memories. To do this: open Snapchat, swipe up to Memories and tap on the 🔁 button to start importing.

While Memories are backing up, be sure not to log out of Snapchat, log in through another device, or uninstall Snapchat. Doing so could cause you to lose any Snaps you haven’t backed up yet!

Deleting Snaps or Stories from Memories will remove them completely. Be careful what you delete, since there’s no way to recover Snaps once they’ve been deleted

7. Software Update

Every so often, there might be an update to improve performance, fix bugs, and add other improvements to Spectacles 

Here’s how to check for updates:

1. Swipe up to Memories.
2. Tap on the Spectacles icon over the top-right corner.
3. Tap on ‘Manage’ under the ‘My Spectacles’ menu.
4. Tap on ‘Check For Updates’ under the ‘Updates’ menu.

Spectacles won’t be able to update if they’re less than 70% charged. You can check your battery level in Snapchat Settings > Spectacles. Update times may vary depending on your Wi-Fi or Mobile Data network speeds

8. Power Cycle

A restart should initiate a power cycle, which may wake them up.

This does not delete any Snaps stored on your Specs or unpair them from your device.

Here's how to restart your Spectacles:

1. Press and hold the button on Specs for 60 seconds. We recommend using a timer for this step.
2. During the soft reset, you may see the outer LEDs blink once, followed by 1 bottom LED staying illuminated for 5 seconds, and then finally a spinning animation initiate.
3. Once the 60 seconds has expired, please release the button.

Once the spinning animation is completed, the LED ring should flash once