Bose QC35 keeps turning on

[bookkeeper]

My Bose QC35s keep turning on randomly. Issue here is that while on a call, my iPhone will connect to the QC35s when they randomly turn on.

Called Bose, they know its an issue, and the solution they offered was to not use bluetooth, which would make the wireless headphones pointless. Other alternative given to me was to pay $269 for a replacement, as my headphones are a few months out of warranty.

Anyone else have a similar issue/know of a fix?

[bookkeeper]

Mine's also a few months out of warranty. Keeps turning on randomly, called Bose and basically was told to not use the wireless function.

Super annoying, Bose please get better customer service and please fix from what I can tell is a pretty widespread issue. These are $349 headphones, step up your game.

[qqss88]

I have the same issue too. I got mine from amazon around 2 years ago. It is power switch issue and there are about 100 cases like this on amaon having the similar issue. I think Bose should step up and do something about it.

[ES9803]

I ran an experiment using the latest information about setting the Standby Timer to 5 minutes.   I determined that if you set the Standby Timer to 5 Minutes the headphones will in fact turn off after 5 minutes.  HOWEVER, and this is important, if you leave the device bluetooth set to ON, then if another few minutes go by, the headphones will turn back on again.   To test this again, I both set the Standby Timer to 5 minutes AND turned off the bluetooth on both my iPhone and iPad.  Now the headphones stay off as long as the bluetooth on my devices stay off.    I am in the process of doing a second test to confirm that the Bose turn back on if the iPhone bluetooth is ON.  After the turn off, I turned the bluetooth on 10 minutes ago and the Bose have not yet turned back on.  This is a very MANUAL old school way to working around this digital age problem.  Will update this thread later with the further test results.

My next test after that will be to see if UNPAIRING the device from the Bose has the same effect (my theory is that it does).  If it works, the benefit of doing the UNPAIRING trick that way would be that I could leave my bluetooth for my phone on and use the phone with other bluetooth devices and only connect to the Bose when I want to use them specifically.  For either method, I have got to believe that this is a software issue with the Bose that should be fixable.

[db0x0]

Problem with your theory is many, many of us had this issue come up long before ever doing any software updates. Mine were factory firmware for 14 months before it started happening without ever having done any updates to anything. Only ever updated once I found my way here looking for solutions.

There's 100's of posts on this issue, and Bose has stopped replying to most of them. There isnt going to be a fix. They will just wait out the in-circulation procuct lifespan of the QC35 gen 1's and move on. Eventually nobody will have them anymore and problem solved by attrition.

[ES9803]

Fair enough - they may not fix it.  I am just saying 2 things:  1) it should be fixable and 2) there actually is a work around.  This is only valuable to people who want to keep using these things until the truly break.  If that is not you, then by all means chuck the Bose in the bin.

[bookkeeper]

Yeah I just found a whole bunch of compliants as well. Can't believe so many people have voiced this issue without Bose coming up with a solution for us. Definitely not spending another penny on Bose products until they get this fixed.

[rjsphd]

hmmm. What are the ANC issues with the QC35ii?

[Kivi-Kingas]

The following process has completely fixed the problem on my headphones. In a nutshell, you are opening up the headphones, taking the power switch out and pushing the prongs on the switch slightly outward so they make full contact with the circuit board. Another user later posted some pictures of the process here.

You will need one small Philips screwdriver for the screws and also a small flat-head screwdriver or some other small, thin tool.

• Take the earpad off the right-ear headphone.
• Lift up the cloth cover and locate the 3 small, Philips-head screws there.
• Unscrew each screw.
• Remove the outer cover on the headphone.
• Take the plastic button off the power switch.
• The switch sits in a little case with the metal lid encasing it. Now remove this metal lid. This was the trickiest part. Might want to keep one finger lightly resting on the case to stop it and the spring from flying off.
• Now that the switch is out, use a tool to gently push the prongs on the switch back, so that they stick out a bit further. The prongs are very thin so be careful when bending.
• Then put the switch and spring back in the case and pop the metal top back on, and test the headphones to make sure they don't turn on by themselves still. If the problem persists, try pushing the prongs just a bit further.
• Once it is fixed then just put everything back the way it was.

[ivrrn]

Echoing other posts that my QC35s (purchased in October of 2017, manufactured in May of 2017) have started to turn themselves back on despite the switch being "off". 

I've tried everything including disconnecting all bluetooth devices, still turns back on.

Odd thing is this didn't start happening while using or shortly after using the QC35s. They were on a stand on my desk, not having been used today at all, and suddenly turned on.

Now if I turn them on and use them, then turn the switch back to off I hear the three note powering off sound followed shortly by the three note powering on sound.