WH-1000xm3 bluetooth keeps disconnecting

[camonro82]

I bought these in November 2018 and they were working fine until mid january when the bluetooth started suddenly disconnecting for no reason. This began about 20 minutes into listening and would reconnect after about 15-20 seconds then drop again after less than 10 minutes. After three or four times it didn't reconnect so I checked the player, Astell&kern AK70, and it showed that it was still connected. Trying to disconnect didn't work and just hung the player meaning a reboot was necessary. On restarting I was able to reconnect and had another 20 minutes of music before a disconnection again. This time when the automatic reconnect failed i just switched off bluetooth on the player and restarted and reconnected to the xm3s that way. But, there have been times when it has been necessary to switch the headphones off and on to get a connection.

Note, the player is never more than 2 feet away from the headphones when this is happening, the power can be full or low and it makes no difference. 

In order to rule out a problem with the player I have used it with my Bose QC35s (V1) and a pair of JBL in-ears with no issues. I haven't as yet tried the XM3s with another device though.

I had been looking for a solution and possible firmware update but reading the issues with the latest one I have my doubts.

In relation to the threads about the reduction in the efficiency of the noise "cancelling" - this should be noise reduction, not cancelling - whilst it was good to begin with the quality has degraded over the time i have used the headphones. I can hear conversations when no music is playing or during quiet passages, train announcements are intrusive and airline announcements can be heard over music unless i go to ear damaging volumes. I had expected this problem of degradation to have been addressed as i had the same issue with Sony headphones about 10 years ago, less than six months into using them the noise reduction started to decline to a point where it was non-existent (became a moot point as the headband broke and they went in the bin)

Seems that the XM3s aren't the 5 star product that they first appear to be

[EdwinaU]

Hi there,

Thanks for your feedback. There are some troubleshooting tips here that you could try for the disconnecting issue. For information about cold weather behaviour there is an update here.

Best wishes,

Ed

[camonro82]

none of those suggestions have anything to do with my problem and cold weather is an irrelevance when i am in an aeroplane, on a train or a bus/coach.

The simple fact is that when used in a public place there is interference which causes the bluetooth on the headphones to drop, it doesn't happen at home and it doesn't happen in public with my Bose qc25s or my JBL in ears suggesting that there may be a fault with the bluetooth on the Sonys.

[simmiH]

Mine drops connection for no apparent reason. Won't reconnect, when I "forget" the connection to restore anew it constantly fails. I can try for 30 minutes and no connection - Headphones won't go into a pairing mode no matter what I do.

Then if I try 12 hours later my phone see the headphones and I can connect. very frustrating and I'm almost at the return to Sony stage. 

Sony, contact me if you have a fix for this, all updates have been installed as they get sent through. 

[camonro82]

There is no fix, after much discussion by email with Sony i took my set back to the shop and after sending it to Sony to check out I got a new headset. 

Take the unit back to where you bought it and get a replacement.

[Barrylaver1947]

I changed my M3's and the new ones dropout the same, mine are now going to the Sony service centre for hopefully a fix, i will be interested to see what they say they have to do to sort this out, it's a shame because the sound you get from these is amazing! 

[camonro82]

my first set went back to the service centre who authorised a replacement; the replacement set have the same problem but correspondence with sony on the second occasion was a waste of time as they repeatedly refused to accept it is a manufacturing problem and blame compatibility problems with the device.

[experiowill]

I also have this problem. I can't use these headphones for video calls as they keep disconnecting. Can Sony acknowledge this issue?

[drumgiant]

This happens with my iphone XR as well.  Incredibly frustrating.  Definitely an issue with the headphones.

[AareRS · Accepted solution]

I see this post still don't have solution and because of that I want to share my solution.

I also bought WH-1000xm3 for using in station PC (Win 10). With the headphones I also bought Harma Universal Bluetooth USB-adapter V4.0 which works with Windows universal drivers.

I got same behavior patterns, poor reconnecting after switching off headphones (about 30sec) or even connect only manually 2-3 times from Bluetooth software, self disconnecting after 10 or 15 min of using.

I made decision and bought different Bluetooth adapter, Asus USB-BT400 V4.0. This adapter using own drivers and not Microsoft universal drivers.

Now all problems are gone and also re-connection time 1-2 sec.

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