QC35 Terrible Bluetooth Connection with MacBook Pro

[Yeldarbsemaj]

I've tried every solution the interwebs can find - this is just plain unacceptable for a $350 pair of headphones. It connects wonderfully with iPhone 5, iPhone 8Plus, and IMac. No matter what I do the MacBook Pro connection is always poor with many sound quality/stuttering issues. I've used the Bluetooth Explorer app to change the settings, I've deleted the preference file, I've removed all connected devices so that the headphones are ONLY connected to the MacBook Pro with no other profiles saved. That's everything I've found on this forum and on the web. What's the deal? This is BOSE? You're supposed to be the best, that's why I spent so much money on them. 

If anyone knows of ANY solution - I don't care if I've tried it before, I'll try it again....

I should be clear that I absolutely love the headphones and the ANC - they're amazing. BUT THEY WON'T function as designed for a laptop?? If I use them as wired headphones they're perfect - switch to bluetooth and they're worse than the pair of throw-away bluetooth earbuds from Five Below. How does this kind of issue (which is obviously not isolated to ME) get through you're QA Testing department? Did no one try to pair them with a MacBook Pro Mid 2012? 

Please help me out. This is so frustrating.

[Tony_G]

Hi Yeldarbsemaj,

Thanks for posting. I am sorry to hear about that. I see how frustrating that can be. Could I ask a few questions to try and assist? 

• Have you tried to pair another Bluetooth device to your MacBook if possible?
• I was able to find this page, that talks about resetting your Bluetooth hardware module. I would recommend checking that out.

Please let me know if that helps.

Regards,

Tony G - Community Support

[BoseQC35AreStuttering]

I have exactly the same problem since upgrading to the latest firmware (2.5.3). The connection to my MacBookPro 2017 is so awful i'm thinking about just selling these as i can't return them anymore. Is there any way to downgrade the firmware to one that was working? 

[Tony_G]

Hi BoseQC35,

Thanks for posting. Could I ask a few questions to assist?

• Are you experiencing the stuttering issue only when paired with your  MacBook?
• What troubleshooting have you already tried?

Please come back and let us know.

Regards,

Tony G - Community Support

[BoseQC35AreStuttering]

Hello Tony G,

yes, the issue exists only with the MacBook. Listening on a phone works fine, though i think i have noticed that the range i can go away from the phone has decreased significantly with the latest firmware update. 

I have already tried to 

- reboot the Mac (of course)

- reboot the QC35 as described in another thread

- re-pair the QC35 and the MacbookPro

- made the QC35 the only bluetooth device connected / active (i.e. disconnected bluetooth mouse and keyboard)

- deleted the bluetooth.plist of MacOS and re-paired the QC35 afterwards

- reset PRAM/NVRAM

The issue did not go away. It was perfectly fine before the latest firmware update. 

[Tony_G]

Hi all,

Thanks for responding. Could I ask, has your MacBooks been updated recently? If so, have you noticed the issue since then? 

Sorry for the question, just trying to gather as much information as possible.

Regards,

Tony G

[BoseQC35AreStuttering]

Hello TonyG,

the MacbookPro in question is running the latest MacOS Mojave 10.14.1. 

The timing of this issue does not coincide with the update of the Mac to Mojave. 

[Tony_G]

Hi Bose Qc35

Thanks for the additonal information. I was able to find this article that might be of assistance

macOS 10.14 Mojave problems: how to fix them

A section covers BlueTooth problems

Bluetooth doesn't work in macOS Mojave

Some people have been experiencing a problem where Bluetooth devices are having issues with Mac running macOS Mojave.

To fix this issue try opening up Finder and then click on 'Go' in the top menu, then 'Go to Folder...'.  Type in '/Library/Preferences'. 

From there, you should see a file called 'com.apple.Bluetooth.plist '. Select and delete the file (or move it to another folder for safe keeping), then restart your Mac and try connecting your Bluetooth device again.

Let us know if that helps,

Tony G

[BoseQC35AreStuttering]

Hello TonyG,

as i already wrote above, i have already tried that (delete bluetooth plist) and it did not help with the issue. Also, i already wrote that the occurence of this issue is NOT correlated with the update of the Mac to Mojave. 

The issue is present since the exact moment of updating the firmware of the QC35 to 2.5.3.

It would be nice if you (Bose) could provide a way to roll back the headphones to a firmware that was working or provide another update that fixes the issue at hand. 

[Dmog]

You might all be looking at the wrong issue, potentially. I think the Mojave update does have something to do with the issue.

My Bose bluetooth speaker was working just fine until 2 weeks ago when I updated to the first Mojave OS iteration. Then my connection with the speaker became problematic. Today I updated to the newest iteration of Mojave, and I lost ALL connectivity to my Macbook. The Macbook would say it was connected, but my speaker lights clearly indicated there was no connection. I managed to resolve it by doing the steps mentioned previously which included the Bluetooth debugging, Bluetooth Factory Reset, and unpairing of all BT items from my computer. THEN, I had to manually release the BT pairing that my speaker had set up on its end. Then I introduced the Macbook and the speaker to each other again, and they are working fine now.

From my googling, I can see other Bose connectivity issues arising from Mojave, so it might be worth a look. Unpairing and repairing from you Mac is not enough, you need to erase the pairing from your BT device as well. Good luck!