About joelirwin

1. Bose provides no way to go backwards in firmware 2. See my other response just made - no way to turn off the Revolve.  The Off is a 'toggle' into bluetooth low energy (ble) state.  So in that state, it can be turned on by the bose connect app, put into party or stereo mode, and SOME bluetooth Windows implementations will turn it on when they are turned on (not all of them).  So OFF is not OFF - its merely a toggle between full BT functionality and reduced functionality in BLE state.  Unless Bose says otherwise (I am not Bose), I believe they current see that behavior as 'by design' and not a bug.  Other Bose devices such as the QC35ii and Soundsport Wired, for example do not emit BLE in OFF state. ... View more

You didn't say what phone you have so I can only speak for my iphone 7+ (or probably iphones in general since I don't think it is any different on the others).  The volume control on the iphone is either for the ringer if there are no active apps on the screen that have a volume feature or volume for the currently active sound playing app - either local sound or streaming sound (which could be just audio or video with audio such as Youtube).  When you pair an external sound playing device to the phone - the volumes of both are linked together.  Changing one will change the other.   Now there should be no reason in my opinion why if you lower either end, it doesn't lower on both at the same time.   The only way on an iphone at least to lower it on the phone or QC35 end and not the other is by unlinking the two.   Bose is going to ask you so it is probably a good idea to start at ground zero - remove all instances of the QC35 on your phone's bluetooth list, reset the list on your QC35 by holden the volume switch to the right for at least 10 seconds and then re-pair and try.     ... View more

Christofer,   Let me add one thing not mentioned by Greg (and I don't work for Bose like he does).   Skype may have something to do with it.  So try running Skype on another platform like your iPhone and see if it does the same thing.  If it does, it has something to do with Skype.  I am tending to guess that Skype will work fine.  If that is the case, it has something to do with the environment on your computer that skype is running in.  I am guessing since no one else here recently has been posting about the same situation, your computer's environment has something to do with it.  And since there are many of us using Windows 7 and 10, it might have something to do with your bluetooth hardware vendor and its associated drivers.  I tried skype on my dell laptop with the intention of seeing what happened after 5 min but on the two calls I tried no one was around.   Have you tried another voip app (assuming you are on windows 8 or 10) such as Whatsapp to see if the behavior is the same? (I am still on windows 7 so I use Skype on my laptop but more often Whatsapp on my iPhone).   Let people know here what your 3rd party vendor bluetooth environment is (whose hardware and whose drivers).   ... View more

I am not having that problem with my Soundsport wireless but I AM having that problem with my Bose Revolve's (I have two and tried both).  The people on the other end say they stop hearing me.  I have not worked this issue myself yet.  My going in assumption to start is that it is not a Bose equipment problem (since it is happening on both my Revolve's).  It could be a firmware issue.  However, as you have noted, you are having the problem on your soundsport and I am not having the problem either on my soundsport or my QC35ii - just both my Revolve's.   So I will pursue the issue with Bose soon, but I am thinking it may have something to do with either my iPhone 7+'s iOS (12.2.1) OR my carrier (AT&T).   ... View more

There is a new bluetooth standard (came out in 2017 I think).  The current Bose devices all support 4.x.  The new one is 5.0.  One would have to assume Bose is working on BT 5 products.  I believe that all the Bose announcements at the annual consumer electronics show in las vegas this week were all car related.  My guess is that CES generally covers porudcts out to the summer.  In the competitive environment Bose is in, they would normally announce and show prototypes if the competition did at CES.  I am no longer a techie :) and so I am not tracking what announced at CES.  My guess is, the odds are low we will see anything coming out for the next 4 to 6 months but who knows? And even if there are BT 5 devices - the other end needs to also support BT 5.  So for example, the iPhone 8 and X will support BT 5, the iPhone 7 can communicate with a BT 5 device but only with BT 4.2 functionality.   ... View more

The revolve has a stereo mini 3.5inch female mini jack on the back.  To use it instead of Bluetooth, you would put the Revolve into "AUX" mode.  Sort of defeats one of the reasons to buy it but certainly doable.  You then have to find a cable that the sound out of your device and has a male 3.5-inch connector on the end for the Revolve.  If your device has a female 3.5inch minijack on it, you can use the supplied Bose cable that came with the revolve.  Otherwise, go on out to ebay and find a cable with the correct ends. ... View more

You need to use a 'splitter' for a wired revolve solution.  You plug the splitter into the stereo mini jack and then you take male to male 3.5 inch miniplug cables and connect them to the female of the splitter and the female on the back of the revolve.  Then put each revolve into AUX mode.   Here's the issue - for almost all the splitters including pretty much anything you can buy in retail at frys and best buy, for example, the sound on both is still the same - mono/combined stereo (equivalent to "party" mode).  You have to purchase a splitter which puts out the left channel on one and the right channel on the other.   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hosa-3-5mm-TRS-Stereo-Male-to-Dual-3-5mm-TS-Female-Breakout-Cable-Black-Red-1-8/322178710404?hash=item4b0358fb84:g:5E4AAOSwNd9Z0VCK:rk:1:pf:0 ... View more

I don't work for bose and can't speak for them.  I am also not qualified (or interested) on discussing the pros and cons of ANC - so I hope when you are discussing with me we can stay away from that topic.   I can tell you I had a QC35i which Bose exchanged for a QC35ii back in Nov.  I have used both of them with ANC on high for two months and have used them on my iPhone 7+ and two different windows machines - a Dell Win 7/32 desktop and a Dell Win 7/32 laptop and I am not experiencing the behaviors with playback you are having.  So I myself would make the assumption that your descriptions are not 'unanomous' (whatever that means... :) ). Though I totally do not doubt your experiences and agree you have had the same thing happen on two consecutive qc35s.  So this is not all that different from my ongoing 'battles' with Dell over its Bluetooth (BT) hardware by Intel that it uses on my laptop which flat out does not work with ANY of my Bose BT devices (QC35ii, 2 Revolves, Soundsport wired, and Soundlink Mini).  Dell changed the hardware with the same result/symptoms. So what does mine experience or perhaps yours tell me/you as to what to do next? You have only one device which could be different from me where there are five.  What I can suggest for the next step is to ask perhaps what is different between mine and his that he does not have the problem of not hearing anything when the music is playing?  So here is what my experience is about that situation - because of I have seen it literally dozens of times and on multiple Bose products.  Its about the computer end, imho.  Both ends need to implement BT 4.x and the only way we can have a flawless communication is if the programming on both ends totally sticks to the standard and they match what they are and need to do in every situation.  And there are two 'parts' to the protocol (which get implemeted on computers as 'services') - HFP (a mono sound for a voice over ip applications such as phone calls, skype, whatsapp, etc.) and A2DS (a stereo music streaming protocol).  Sometimes the HFP device is referred to as a 'headset'.  What I have sometimes noticed is that I don't hear something because both of the devices are 'offline' or sometimes the headset is online but the 'stereo renderer' is offline.  Sometimes I can get the stereo renderer online and finally hear something.  More often than not, I have to uninstall and reinstall stuff.  And in the case of my laptop with Intel BT hardware - nothing seemed to work no matter what I did.  So I had to disable the Intel BT hardware and go with a 3rd party SMK Nano USB Dongle with CSR Stack and now all my devices work (though my revolve's are still having a 'sound' issue). I am no longer trying myself to work these computer BT issues with Bose.  My experience with them has shown that is not their primary market which is imho phones and tablets and not laptops and desktops.  So whether we are in the Windows world or the Mac world, that is only part 2 of a 3 part environment. There is still the 3rd party bluetooth hardware/driver vendor (like Intel) to deal with. Bose has said to me on the phone and here that there just two many combinations of bluetooth vendor solutions with the pcs and laptops and they can't possibly test them all.  So I have given up trying to convince Bose to make any specific firmware changes for my own Dell environment.  Realistically for my situation it was just easier to spend about $12 on ebay to buy a solution that works with my QC35ii than to do any more troubleshooting. So here is what I believe imho are your options: 1. You can sell or otherwise disassociate yourself from the QC35ii and go with a different vendor, though until you successfully test, you wont know if theirs works or has a similar problem 2. You can go with a different BT hardware and driver solution on your computer and disable the old one 3. You can continue to troubleshoot by trying other drivers and uninstalling operating system updates that could be conflicting 4. You can try to get Bose to make changes to the QC35ii firmware which would aid in your own connectivity issues ... View more

I do not work for Bose but based on your limited information, here is how I would troubleshoot if this were happening to me. 1. My going in assumption is that the QC35 is a passive receiving only device.  It receives a signal from the other end and merely plays it through the speakers.  It can not generate on its own what you are hearing.  The only thing it generates are its own status information like 'connected to ...' , etc. 2. The next thing I would check is whether the same audio was coming out of the phone or other computing device is saying the same thing through it's internal speakers which imho would be likely if the QC35 had nothing to do with the cause. 3. If you never hear anything from the other end by itself and only when using the QC35, then the next thing I would check is whether the Bluetooth (BT) communication itself is somehow causing the issue especially if you have a QC35ii (you didn't say which you had) and you were using Google or Alexa with the middle button.  If you are on this step, you shoulld try to figure out which app on the other end is generating that message (since it is not likely internal to the QC35). 4. To focus on whether BT is the cause, hardwire your QC35 to the other end to see if the issue goes away.  If it does not, then it is not a BT issue.  If it does, then it is a BT issue.   If you make it past all 4, you will need to troubleshoot further.  I do not believe it is likely that another QC35 of the same model will likely behave any differently, though it is still possible if you make it  pass all four.  If you do narrow it down to a BT issue, especially if it is not a phone, Bose will probably want you to get rid of all the pairings, reinitialize the QC35 and if it is not a phone, you need to remove all your BT drivers and reinstall them (you may even want to experiment with other versions - newer and older).  BT issues, especially if they are coming from non-mobile devices like Windows or Mac, will not likely be addressed by any specific changes to Bose products since they don't test them.  You would have to make changes to the other end up to an possibly including disabling the bt hardware and getting a different one - like the SMK Nano ($12 app) USB Dongle I am using.   ... View more

I would not say that is a global issue with the QC35 and the iphone 7.  I used to have an qc35i and now a qc35ii and I am in the music business (I am a film composer).  So I have particular sensitivity to sound and volume (and I hope my hearing is still ok.... :) ).  I do not perceive any problems with volume on any of my Bose devices (also have two revolve's, a soundsport wire, and a soundlink mini) EXCEPT my Revolve's when connected via bluetooth to my Windows PCs.  Both through my local music app, Ecoute, and my streaming apps like my Xfinity Video streaming.   So if you can't get the volume up on the QC35ii and the iphone, it may be localized to your specific device and/or it's environment.   ... View more

The device name change is done in the Bose Connect app. ... View more

Connect the QC35 (you didn't say if you have a i or ii) by wire to the device you are listening to and see if the volume is the same.  If they are, try a different device to confirm you may have an issue with the qc35.  If they are not, especially if you are connected to something other than a phone, it may not be your QC35 but the other end and the way it is implementing bluetooth (bt).  I am not having a volume problem with my QC35ii but I am having a volume problem with my Bose revolve speakers as other are here.  The volume is much louder by wire than by bluetooth (even on max on both ends).  I am not sure what the next step should be.  The 'issue' is not with my iphone 7+ (which works fine in BT volume with my Revolve's), but with my two windows PCs.  The problem needs to be fixed on one end or the other or I will have to use wires indefinately which I am not happy about.  The idea of getting the BT vendor on my PC (originally Intel and now SMK dongle) to  change their drivers is highly unlikely.  If I change the other end, that means finding another BT solution that doesn't have a volume problem.  On the Bose end, they would have to take ownership and then make a change to the QC35 firmware which they have not yet owned up on. Your 'issue' on volume may be similar and so changing a Bose product may or may not fix your issue.  Another vendor's solution may work or may not as well. ... View more

I do not work for Bose.  There seem to be two types of skipping and the like here.   1. There are the ones with the phone.  I have recently noticed that situation suddenly happening with my older Soundlink Mini.  But after a few minutes of doing that things play fine.  I have not seen/heard that situation with either of my Revolve's.  Though I am intrigued about troubleshooting without wifi and then with either a low 2.4 Ghz and high 5 Ghz band of my router.  The room I use it has my eliptical in it.  I had not paid any attention to which band my iphone 7+ (which supports both) connected to.  I do know that in that room when I play the xfinity app to watch TV, it sometimes does a lot of buffering when I'm on the faster 5 Ghz band.  There is no repeater in the middle though I have one and sometimes use it.  So that could have been the inteference or the recent twice performed iOs upgrade to 12.1.2 (two unique versions).  Though to be certain, playing from a music app (versus streaming Internet music app) should not have anything to do with wifi.  I used ecoute and thats when I had the interference. 2. Computer bluetooth (BT) is much more finicky in general.  What works and what doesn't has a lot to do with (1) the operating system, (2) the updates to the operating system, (3) the bluetooth hardware, and (4) the bluetooth drivers.  And that is of course all on the other end trying to communicate with the Bose device.  They honestly all do not work in part or in full.  This signal skipping may be a manifestation of that.  Unfortunately (I am not happy about it) - Bose is in the business and market of mobile phones and tablets.  They put little to no emphasis imho testing and supporting Windows and Mac machines and all the various bluetooth manifestations.  They say there just to many combinations to test for.  So when things don't work, we can not depend on Bose to make changes to its firmware when things go wrong.  For example, right now I am having a problem just on my two revolves not putting out a loud enough sound when bluetoothing to either my laptop or desktop (same USB BT Dongle Solution - SMK Nano with CSR Drivers).  They sound perfected loud when hardwired and my other Bose BT devices (Qc35ii and Soundsport Wired) are also pefectly loud.  You would think that Bose should change the firmware to fix it.  But I am not yet convinced they accept the issue and will make a fix.  I might have to look for yet another dongle to solve the issue OR always wire my revolves to the computer with  a stereo splitter. So in your case, you may be running against the wall trying to get your BT hardware to stop the skipping (if it is not the router or Internet) -- especially if it is Intel.  You may need to disable that hardware and find a USB dongle that works for you. ... View more

This is going to be offtopic and I don't work for Bose.  I have many Bose prods (including still using 701s and 201s  :) ) and my soundsports are wired not free as you and they seem to work well during my cardio workouts (I don't jog).  What I really wanted to say was I was in Victoria last Aug (off the celebrity solstace Alaska trip) and the Butchart Gardens are one of the most amazing places I have ever been to.  I am glad we stopped in Victoria.   ... View more

I do not work for Bose but it would seem to me that you have four places of failure:   1. The app playing the music 2. If it is PC or Mac and not a phone, you may be either (a) playing through a 'device' that is designed for phone calls / voice over IP.  On some computers it is called a 'headset'.  These devices play only in Mono and are supposed to play the same thing through both speakers but on some systems, they will play mono only through one speaker like you would hear in your car.  OR (b) your computer may have a music system/settings outside of the playing app which allow you to set the 'balance' (left, center, right) or stereo/mono. 3. There could be an issue with the 3.5-inch stereo mini jack on the other end 4. There could be an issue with the 2.5-inch stereo mini jack in your Bose device   Unless you inadvertantly didn't push in both of your cable ends into the two mini-jacks, you have eliminated the cable but not what it is connecting to.   ... View more

I do not work for Bose. I have a QC35 and I do hear the beeping as well.  But that only happens when I try to make it louder and it is already at max volume.  That is 'expected / designed behavior' and not a problem.  Is that your experience or are you hearing beeping all the time whether you hit + or - ?   I do not believe there is a way to change this behavior. ... View more

I have a soundsport wired like you but have not experienced the problem with my soundsport.  I connect with an iphone 7+ using the AT&T carrier.   I AM having the problem using other Bose devices to talk to people with my Revolve.  There appears to be an issue that the phone keeps switching away from the Revolve and I have to manually switch back to the Revolve two or three times before they hear me.   Bose says (so far) it is not their problem. So like you there are three possible points of 'failure' 1. Your Soundsport 2. Your phone 3. Your carrier   You are going to have to troubleshoot to figure out which is 'likely'.  I would start by pairing your soundsport to a different phone (preferably vendor - if you use Apple, try a Droid or vice versa).  It would also be a good idea to make sure it is a different carrier as well.  If in that situation, you still have the problem, then we can likely say it's your soundsport.   ... View more

I don't work for Bose but here is how I would troubleshoot.   1. It could be either the miniplug connection on one end or the app playing the music.  So try another app.  If it is still happening, its a miniplug issue.  Then you need to plug something else into the miniplug to listen.  If it goes away, it's the QC35 miniplug.  If not, its the other miniplug. 2. If you determine it is not your Qc35ii, then you may still want to check out the QC35ii with the other device's bluetooth (BT).  In other word words 'pair' the two and see if there is still a problem.  It may go away (though you may still have an app or mini plug issue on the other end).  If it does not go away, you will need to troubleshoot with BT further to determine if it is (a) the app, or (b) the bluetooth implementation on your other device or (c) your QC35ii.  So you will need to BT your QC35ii to another music playing device to confirm or eliminate it and you will need to connect another BT hearing device to your playing to device to confirm or eliminate your playing device.   Hope this makes sense. Bose may come up with other ideas once you do some or all of the above. ... View more

If the TV has a wired solution - try it temporarily to see if you have the same issue through the AUX and stereo mini on the back of the Revolve.  This could be the same issue we are experiencing with too a low a volume when using the Revolve via BT with a Windows machine.   ... View more

I am starting to think that this is an Apple ios issue.  I have for months been using my Soundlink Mini (which has been around for years) during my workouts with my iphone.  I have never had a problem with it until yesterday.  For the first minute or so, it experienced the same issue described here and then played OK.  About a week or two back Apple made two upgrades to its operating system, both 12.1.2 (they were different but the numbers did not change).  I am beginning to think 12.1.2 has something to do with this.   ... View more

@timofcourse  I don't work for Bose and my environment is slightly different from yours but I can tell you what works for me.  I have a soundsport wired and win 7/64.  I also have two Revolves, a soundlink mini, and a QC 35ii.  My Intel bt chipset on my Dell was giving me problems with all of them.  My dell desktop didn't have BT at all.  I purchased a SMK Nano USB dongle with the CSR chipset.  I can't tell you if it will work for you, but by disabling my Intel on the laptop and uses the Nano instead, everything worked (including party/stereo mode on the revolves).  There are still some issues such as my Revolve volume/loudness issue but I am generally pretty satisfied with this solution.  Not a high cost investment to try even if it does not work for you.  Not all the dongles will provide the same results.  For example, the Insignia did not work for me either.   https://www.ebay.com/itm/SMK-Nano-Dongle-Bluetooth-v4-0-LE-EDR/223195200447?epid=1300126171&hash=item33f7787bbf:g:lhoAAOSw7SFbsnrv:rk:1:pf:0   ... View more

I don't work for Bose and many in multiple Bose forums have commented on this issue.  I won't go into much detail here since you can read about it elsewhere.  You have discovered that in Bose's bluetooth implementation, they have taken advantage of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).  You can actually use an app on your phone (most of free) to determine whether the Bose device is emitting a BLE signal.  So the BLE implementation by Bose is 'by design' IMHO and not a bug (so far.... :) ).  This allows the device to have a small amount of functionality all the time to do things like get turned on by the Bose Connect app and to go into Party/Stereo mode through the app.  It will also explain why it turns on in response to another device turning on. The good news is that it does not happen with all the Bluetooth implementations.  My Revolve was turning on every time I turned on my laptop when I was using my Intel BT hardware on my Dell.  I have since disabled it and use the SMK Nano BT USB Dongle (about $12 on ebay).  As far as I can tell, the Revolve does not turn itself on anymore when I turn on my laptop. So here is the bottom line as I understand it. You can not turn off the Revolve - ever.  Not in the sense of your understanding off meaning cesation of all power.  The on/off switch on the Revolve does not go from on to off.  Off is not Off.  The on/off switch is merely a 'toggle' between a fully functioning device and a reduced functioning device in BLE mode/state. So here is what I believe are your options: 1. Return or sell the Revolve and get a speaker that does not implement BLE.  Even some Bose devices qualify.  My Bose Sounlink Mini does not support BLE at all (or Bose connect) and my headphones, QC35ii are totally off when off - not in BLE state as far as I know. 2. Change your BT hardware like I did ($12 is not much money to solve this issue) though I can not guarantee you my dongle will solve your issue 3. Un-pair the Revolve when not being used 4. Turn off the Revolve any time you turn on your laptop 5. Keep working with Bose to convince them to change their BT implementation for BLE (though remember, it is not happening on all BT implementations).   ... View more

I'm a windows and not a mac person, but you need to do a bit of troubleshooting.  That way you can tell if its your Revolve or its a BT problem on your Mac.  I have 2 Revolve's btw and I have determined that the Revolve has a general BT volume issue for us on my Dell win7 laptop.  I determined that since the Revolve volume works fine on othe BT systems like my iphone 7+ AND when I wire the Revolve to the stereo minijack on my Dell, the volume also works fine.  Try those two yourself. While it is possible that your revolve firmware is giving you a problem, if you indeed can get itunes working, but not the others (and I use VLC on my Dell, btw), then it appears to me that your problem is likely mac app related or possibly mac OS related but not a Bose issue.  2014 is in the technology world pretty old.  If you have updated your MacOS and your BT subsystem, it may actually be possible that one of the updates conflicts with your Mac apps and the Revolve.  You may want to remove/uninstall things to see if that helps.  Also check to see if you can find other Mac uses here (or elesewhere like in the Apple forum) that have all or part of your symptoms and see what they have or have not done.   ... View more