Soundsport Free left side issue during call

[Rajiv]

Hi Tony,

I just got my SSF from Canada, having paid CAD 250 for these  premium buds, I was excited to start using them. But as many users have mentioned the left bud just refuses to connect, even though while connecting there are beeps in both but the moment music is played the left goes silent. Though I primarily bought these for fitness and for music, it really is dumb that calls are only routed to the right ear. I have cheap $30 Chinese TWS buds which route calls to both ears and neither bud drops connection while playing music.

After reading a ton of online reviews I decided to go for the SSF, but now regret the decision due to regular connection drop of the left bud. I use these paired to my Galaxy Watch during fitness while not carrying the phone on person. And its a hassle just getting both buds working together, the buds need to be first connected to the Bose Connect App on phone, with the music playing at first there's no audio in the left year, toggling between the Galaxy Watch and then back to my One Plus 3 does connect both buds and then finally the connection can be shifted to the Galaxy Watch successfully, most of the time.

But imagine, in this day and age going through this rigmarole to connect to bluetooth headphones!!! This is just not acceptable. I too have a few other Bose products but this has been a terrible disappointment. Living in India I am now unable to even think about returning these as and replacements from the Bose service centers would have similar results as mentioned by various users on this forum.

And before you put forth any suggestiogs/ procedures, let me tell you, I have tried everyting mentioned in this forum without success. These are premium range buds and rather than putting out the same suggestions to everyone, I strongly feel Bose should come out with a practical and acceptable solution else face the wrath of ardent yet dissapointed Bose fans.

[Yellowjacket]

Rajiv, I've had the left bud drop music only twice in six months, and the cure was to push the button on that left bud. I don't know the blue tooth protocol on the Galazy Watch or if it uses a similar protocol to a phone connection (as opposed to the blue tooth music connection on my Pixel phone, my LG phone before that, and my LG Nexus is 5phone before that).

That you apparently have three transmitters & receivers in the mix (Galaxy Watch, One Plus 3, and Bose) is outside my experience, though I'd be surprised if someone hasn't figured out your issue at least with music.

Yes, there are many cheap buds out there that don't drop the left ear for calls, to say nothing of the hassles you are experiencing. So, why do you think the Bose buds don't do phone calls in the left ear bud? As I've said before, there were probably trade-offs to be made.

If I had to guess, it's in the chips that were available for top quality sound. I bought other buds to get around the one-ear issue back when it bothered me. While I could hear a phone call in both ears (not stereo), music played on the best of them sounded terrible compared to the Bose.

[Rajiv]

Yellowjacket, your 3 device statement does not make sense as I've had the same problem of left bud dropping out even with just one device transmitting to the SSF with the other device's bluetooth off.

Also my reference to cheap chinese buds was to highlight that technology is available to be incorporated and has nothing to do with high quality audio chips. Bose could easily integrate this in to their chips, case or three in point is Apple Air buds, Sennehiser Momentum TWS and even the Beats buds, music sounds pretty good in all 3. All of these work flawlessly with both my Galaxy Watch and One Plus 3, even with bluetooth active on all 3 devices simultaneously.

This is a serious flaw in SSF design and Bose needs to address this issue fast!

[Yellowjacket]

Then I misunderstood your statement about your watch, your phone and your buds. As I said, it's happened to me a couple of times, it was easily fixed by toggling the left ear bud. It would appear your problem is more complex. I don't have an answer, but am not sure it's a design flaw since I've not heard of it before.

I've not tried the three buds you mention, but have tried Sonys and the top line of Jabra, I think. Quality was not nearly as good, at least via my LG. I don't know if there are different compatibilities in top-of-the-line phones. I've not heard quality  music in any ear bud nearly as good as the quality of music as played in my SSFs.

 But I think that's moot: I don't think Bose designs their own chips, and don't know if they have access to the chips in the others you mention. We can speculate all day long, but my thrust continues to be that speculation without more facts is either whining or pointless.

I don't agree that Bose needs to address the left ear issue "fast," but do believe that if there was an easy fix, Bose would have implemented it. We can be certain they are aware of the unhappiness expressed this forum. I think Bose does need to address the issue of customers not knowing that calls (and apparently videos) are not heard in both ears.

Okay, I'm crawling back under my rock. This has become repetitive. Again.

[Community_Admin]

Hello all, 

As advised by Shiloh_C, the SoundSport Free Wireless Headphones utilize a master/puppet design so the signal flow is as follows: your phone will transmit a BT signal to the right earbud (master) which will then transmit that data to the left earbud (puppet).  The audio while on a phone call is intended to only play through the right side.

This is not a fault of the product, it is not possible to produce audio in both wireless earbuds during a call due to latency concerns. 

In line with our community guidelines, we have decided to lock this thread as an answer to this question has been provided.

Kind regards, 

Community Admin

[Bernardomn]

Hi. I have a pair of Bose Sound Sport free. The left side doesn’t work during calls. I have read in the forums that this is the way these headphones were designed (which is really frustrating). Is there any hope for this issue to be solved with a software update in the future? Or should I resign?

[Vigupta]

I just my wireless head phone. During my phone call only  right ear bud works  and there is no soind from left. Please help

[Zoe_C]

Hello Vigupta, 

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community!

Only the right earbud will produce audio during a phone call. This is normal due to the technology used to broadcast audio from the right bud to the left bud, known as True Wireless Stereo (TWS). This is also the case with most other wireless earbud brands that use TWS.

This is not a fault of the product, it is not possible to produce audio in both wireless earbuds during a call due to latency concerns.

I hope this helps, should you need anything else then please get in touch.

Kindest regards, 

Zoe  C

[Fantastic]

I had purchased bose truly wireless earbuds and I am not really satisfied with it. When listening to music then sound quality is very clear but on calls left earbud does not work, even during the calls it catches so much background noises and call quality is also poor.

[Vicky_W]

Hello Fantastic,

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the Bose Community. 

As stated previously in this post, the SoundSport Free call audio will only come from the right bud. This is because, in the SoundSport Free headphones, the signal path runs from the source device to the right earbud which then sends it to the left earbud. If audio was played to both buds during a call, there would be an audio delay. 

I would suggest trying the steps below to improve call audio: 

• Go to btu.bose.com on a computer and update your headphones software.
• Try resetting your headphones. To do this place the earbuds into the charging case, plug the charging case into a wall outlet using a USB charger and wait 5 seconds, unplug the USB cord from the charging case and wait 1 minute. After that remove the earbuds from the case and try again. 
• Clearing the Bluetooth list. To do this press and hold the Bluetooth button for 10 seconds, until you hear “Bluetooth device list cleared.”
• Delete your headphones from the Bose Connect app and from the Bluetooth list on your mobile device and then repair them. 

If you are still having issues with the call audio after this, please can you try the headphones with another phone and see if it is the same? 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Kind Regards, 

Vicky W