Bose QC 35 II, bluetooth reconnects with every battery announcement

[MAGMAG]

Well headline pretty much says it already.

I run across this problem on multiple devices. If I connect to an Mac Book Pro running Catalina, iPhone X with 13.3.1 and on Windows 10. Each time the battery announcement interrupts the bluetooths and the headphones need to reconnect.

Particular awkward: on MacOS, as soon as the battery announcement has interrupt the connection, the audio comes out of the speakers for a couple of seconds till the headphones reconnected again.

If I use my Apple iPods, I don't have any bluetooth issues.

I did all this following steps:

- Installed Bose Installer

- Clear Bluetooth list by holding the button to the right for xx seconds... (it was cleared).
- Reset headphone by connecting it with USB / turn it of  wait xx seconds / turn on again.

- switch off voice promotes, the beep tone which comes instead of an battery announcement is then interrupting the bluetooth.
- Update Bose driver

- OS and iOS are on the latest driver

This problem appeared with updating to the latest drivers.

Any solution would be helpful at this point.

[Jessie_O]

Hi MAGMAG, Thank you for reaching out to us! 

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you are experiencing with your QC35 II reconnecting after an announcement. This is certainly unusual behavior and I hope we can help resolve it today. 

Thank you for confirming the troubleshooting steps you have already tried, this is a great start! 

When you cleared the pairing list on the headphones, did you also clear the pairing on the source device?

If not, please try this and let me know.

[MAGMAG]

Yes I did this, didn't help.

I also don't think it is an unusual behavior, here are multiple threads with the same issue. I think nobody is really taking care of it on your end. Same issue different customers:

https://community.bose.com/t5/Around-On-Ear-Headphones/Bose-QC-35-II-iOS-Battery-notification/m-p/26...

https://community.bose.com/t5/Around-On-Ear-Headphones/BOSE-QuietComfort-35-II-keeps-disconnecting-c...

https://community.bose.com/t5/Around-On-Ear-Headphones/QC35-II-frequently-voice-prompts-100-battery/...

[Charlotte_G]

Does this only happen when you have multiple devices connected? Is there any pattern of devices where this doesn't happen? For example, the iPhone and your Windows 10 device?

It sounds like the battery announcement is being made because the connection is being repeatedly being lost so it's important to try and work out from which devices it is doing this with?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

[MAGMAG]

Thank you Charlotte for trying to help. It took a while to test everything. Sadly I couldn't find a clear pattern. But here is what I did.

Test One: First I disconnected every device again. On Windows I even deleted all drivers in the device manager. I installed it first on the Windows Computer, no problem here. Then after a couple of days, I added the iPhone also no problem here. Then I added the Mac Book and this worked as well. Between each installation I left a couple of days time to see if it's really ok. I thought I had solved it but a couple of weeks later, again the same issue. I didn't change anything on the driver site or with the connections.

Test Two: So I reinstalled everything again. First on the iphone, it worked, then the Mac it was again ok and third on the windows computer. It all worked for a couple of days...till again the battery announcement appeared and didnt stop. And I am now back at the start, the battery gets announced every half an hour which interrupts the bluetooth which makes the headphone a pain to use.

Conclusion:

1. I think the headphones have in general a problem if there are more than two devices in pairing mode. It states "https://www.bose.com/en_us/support/article/managing-multiple-connected-devices.html" that in theory you can add 8 devices in pairing mode but as soon as I added a third device it went south. Try to keep it with two devices.

2. Mixing Windows and Apple devices causes issues. If possible keep it in the same operating system 3. Bose software is seriously flawed, and at this point I can't recommend their headphones anymore. Crosslink to another thread as a couple of people have the same issue. Hopefully, Bose will start to open up a ticket for it:<a href="https://community.bose.com/t5/Around-On-Ear-Headphones/Bose-QC-35-II-iOS-Battery-notification/m-p/29..." 

[MAGMAG]

Hi Charlotte,

sadly my last post was removed by one of the moderators as 'spam'. Its kinda getting ridiculous. I am am here trying to help you to find a pattern in the software flaw of your product and once I do this, posts my findings, the posts get flagged and disappears.

Again the issue is still there, if you follow the other threads there are more people experiencing the same issue. Whats the solution here?

[Vicky_W]

Hey MAGMAG, 

I apologize if your last post was marked as SPAM. This has now been rectified. 

I note that you mention you can pair with 8 devices. This means that the headphones will remember the last 8 paired devices, but the headphones can only be paired to 2 devices at one time. 

Does this make sense? I think this may be where the issue is?

[MAGMAG]

Hi Vicky,

thank you very much for unmarking the post.

Yes I am aware of this, thank you. As I said, the problem for me appeared again and again after having three devices in pairing list(Windows and Apple), if I just had two it was fine. That's why my conclusion is not to have more then two devices in the paring list and if possible just connect one operating system.

I am aware that you can just pair two devices at once, that's also not the issue of the thread.

[Vicky_W]

Hello MAGMAG,

A member of the admin team will be sending you a private message so that we can raise this with the development team!

[RBenson]

This is *exactly* it! I just got off a conference call using Microsoft Teams on Windows 10, the headset constantly made the notification beep as if something was connecting and disconnecting. In checking the app, the only two things were my iPhone (so the app can control the headphones) and my Windows laptop. Apple and Microsoft, arguing over who should be connected. Thank goodness I wasn't actually being disconnected from my call, otherwise it would be back to my Sennheiser wired headset.

Honestly, a switch to stop all notifications next to "Turn off voice notifications" would cure this real quick.

And just a suggestion on terminology being used. With Bluetooth, "Pairing" means that the devices are affiliated and have the OS's permission to connect. The QC 35 II is capable of having 8 devices paired to it, but only two can be actively switched between.

Edit: And once I put my iPhone in the dock, it seems to have stopped it.