About joelirwin

@Hector_BWith all due respect, all you did was kick the ball down the street as they say.  You, and I and others have well documented that there are issues with Win7, win10, and the Mac that will prevent the revolve and other Bose devices from playing properly. From the picture here we already can say the following: 1. Never connect to any Bose device that starts with the "LE-" in its name.  Wait for one to show up for the revolve without the LE 2. Bluetooth on laptops and desktops in particular will show up with multiple device names since there are two Bluetooth (BT) profiles - A2DP (stereo streaming used for playing music) and HFP (hands free protocol used for voice over IP applications such as Skype).  HFP conversations sound just like a phone conversation you here in your car - in low quality mono and often on one speaker.  Do NOT use HFP to play music. 3. Once the devices are connected you also need to start the various 'services' that support that device,  Otherwise, the device will show up but nothing will play. If you can not get the A2DP device to show up at all or it shows up disabled/grayed out, then there is a problem.  I had this problem on my Dell Precision M4800 laptop last Fall.  Sometimes, uninstalling the BT drivers on the Dell and reinitializing the Revolve to factory settings work.  Sometimes you need to update the BT drivers (from the vendor site and NOT from the Dell site - for example my mini-WIFI/BT card in my Dell comes from Intel).  Sometimes you need to install an older version of the BT drivers or uninstall up to 2 years of Windows updates.  Even if other BT devices work, we still can't 'blame' the problem on the Revolve firmware since BT is a two way communication and Bose as done here, will put the blame on Microsoft, Dell or the BT vendor (in my case Intel). What I do know from a year of experience here, is that Bose will not take ownership of these issues since they claim there are too many permutations to test with.  So my Dell may exhibit a slightly different problem than your Dell. So if none of the above works as was the case for me last November and with all the vendors pointed to the other ones, I was left with two options:   1. Disable the onboard BT hardware totally and go with a third party BT USB Dongle - I purchased the SMK Nano Dongle with CSR drivers (about $15 on ebay).  Everything worked fine for me with the SMK whereas I couldn't get a single Bose to get discovered when trying to pair with the Intel BT hardware. 2. Reinstall windows to see if that solved the problem.  That I was unwilling to do as I had well over 50 applications to reinstall - would have taken me over a week full time.  Luckily for me I backup and image of my C drive (also have a D drive) at least twice a year.  So I restored my C drive to June 30, 2018 and everything started working again.  Apparantly some driver update, or windows update or even an application installation or update made some changes to some file or registry entry that caused the problem.  I have never/yet figured out what it was but now my laptop works again. @Hector_B  - my frustration with the moderators is simple - y'all passed the buck and merely stated "this seems to be an issue with Window 10" and referred them to other vendor forum which will likely be totally useless.  With all due respect, I just spent 10 minutes trying to bail you out with suggesting some things to try.  Why is it, you can't do the same thing and provide help? ... View more

Guys and Gals - once the moderators here 'pass on' the issues and suggestions to the "Bose Engineers" they are out of the loop.  They will NOT get any feedback on what goes into the next firmware version until it is released and even then as we can see here, not all the changes are documented when the version comes out.  For example, on the most recent release in early March, Bose makes no mention of any ANC changes and even claims that ANC was not impacted though customers here have begged to differ.   So the bottom line for me/the takeaway is that it really makes no difference if a issue or problem is recent or has been discussed here for over a year.  Its the same thing.  The moderators pass things up but there is absolutely no feedback loop.  We WILL be kept in the dark and have to wait for a firmware release and do our own testing to determine what was changed.  That is and will continue to be the Bose approach - I personally don't see that changing any time soon. ... View more

>This is so frustrating as the problem hasn't been solved yet   1. Bose has not taken ownership of this through any statements here.  They continue to claim the most recent firmware version had no impact on ANC 2. Even if they did, they would not tell us they did and we would not know anything until the next firmware update and we as customers tested the ANC for changes 3. Firmware changes don't happen very often for established/'stable' products.  They just upgraded the firmware in the beginning of March.  I am guessing we won't see another change for some number of months - perhaps sometime this summer. 4. There is no going backwards with firmware upgrades and Bose has no current intention of changing that.   ... View more

He guys - we can all take guesses as non-Bose people but as has been stated here multiple times:   1. Bose moderators here are Bose employees and are probably imho under non-disclosures.  Even if they knew, they will not state anything whatsover here on unannounced products 2. Bose moderators have a boiler plate which will see time and time again 3. In all likelihood, support people especially the moderators here will say absolutely nothing until the product or firmware has been officially released.  It may also be possible they are kept out of the loop and in actuality don't know or find out anything until they are asked to make a 'pinned post' on new products or firmware. ... View more

@Tippett003I do not work for Bose, but here are two things I can 'guess' on. 1. Bose recently (beginning of March) changed the QC35ii with a model which supports AR (Augmented Reality).  So I would personally be suprised if anything else replaces it in the near future.  My personal 'guess' is that a whole line of Bose products will be announced and become available in the July to Sept timeframe so that they are purchasable for the holiday season. 2. One thing for sure is that all new Bose BT products will support BT 5.x and they will come up with ways to support the added and changed functionality (as most new smart devices have been supporting BT 5.x for over a year now).  You can read up more on BT at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth#Bluetooth_5 So as has always been the case with technology devices, if you can wait to say the Fall, you will have more Bose choices. ... View more

I do not work for Bose but see no one has responded to you.  That 'could' be the case because people reading it may not really understand the issues you are experience.  For example, I did not understand what you meant by "... sometimes it has a very little cut on the music...".  I am not sure what 'cut' means.  Also, when you tried to resume paused music, was there a paused app on your phone or did it abort the playing because it was paused too long.  What we need to understand here is whether the issue was just with Spotify and iTunes and was the issue always with locally stored and not streamed music. Like you I had a QC35i and now a QC35ii.  I locally store my music and play it through the "Ecoute" app and have not myself experienced the situations you describe for your Qc35ii. As far as you final comment, "So unless Bose doesn't release an update in the very few coming days I will not have another option but to return them ".  As a customer myself I think you should be aware of two important things: 1. You need to troubleshoot your situation with Bose and for them to do anything impacting firmware, they have to be able to replicate your situation and agree that the issue you are having can impact not just you but a much larger portion of the QC35ii users. 2. Making changes to the firmware and integrating and testing it with other firmware changes take time - often a few months.  I am by no means a prognaticator, but it would seem to me that Bose updates firmware no more than once or twice a year typically once a product has been out a while.  I would expect that the next firmware update my not happen to much later this year. ... View more

1. I have posted this in other threads but it also is so relevant here as well.  In Bose's discussion/argument for supporting only the latest version and not providing the ability to reinstall a previous version, they claim among other things, that the older version may have bugs and it makes it harder for Bose to support.  What they fail to point out is that if you upgrade from version A to B, you were already on A - all that is being asked is to go back to where you started.  While it may be true that the trend for vendors is to support a single version, there is still the concept that Microsoft, for example supports called, a "Restore Point" or "System Restore" .  Effectively it functions as an installation 'undo'.  No one is asking Bose to do more than they already do.  We are not asking them to provide an installation of a previous firmware version to just anyone.  What we are asking is to save for a short period of time (say a day or something like that) the current fimware during a firmware update.  That way if the customer wants to go back to what they had, i.e., a 'firmware restore", they can do so.  Doing so does not require any different support stance from Bose.  All that is happening is we go back from B to A and "A" is where we started. Bose were already supporting us with "A". 2. You said: "I just wish there was a way to actually speak to Bose and be heard" - Google and get the main number for Bose HQ in Framingham, Mass.  Not the support number.  Then ask to be connected to the Customer Service Manager.  For privacy I will not include the phone number or his name here but will say the last name starts with "R".  He is a caring person.  He listened to me twice. ... View more

@jjjustice  If you have a QC35i and the light stays on all the time, you are part of a larger group of people with similar issues/observations and this problem has been going on for one to two years.  Bose engineers starting to look into this issue last Fall and we are still waiting for an official response/position.  Meanwhile, the customers here months ago have tested themselves and have determine the problem is associated with the shifting of the contacts in the on/off switch.  This is a hardware issue and has NO workaround.  Again the symptom is you turn off the QC35 and the light comes back on even with the switch in Off.   There really are only two options (other than your selling / giving it away or keeping it charging all the time when not in use): 1. There is a very long 60+ page post here which including instructions and pictures on how to fix it yourself.  Everyone that has done so, has said the problem has gone away. https://community.bose.com/t5/Around-On-Ear-Headphones/QC-35-I-is-Turning-On-By-Itself/td-p/106140 2. You call Bose and explain you are part of this group (troubleshooting is useless but you may have to do it anyway to satisfy them).  regardless of whether you are in or out of warantee you say you are entitled to a free exchange.  They will offer an exchange for a rediculous price.  REFUSE.  Keep asking.  If you get nowhere.  Call back.  Escalate to a supervisor.  Keep being PERSISTANT.  You will eventually get someone who will give you the free exchange.  There are some countries such as Austrailia and Germany to name a few that will not budge.  Ask for a US based support supervisor.  If they refuse, Google the main phone number (not the support number) at Bose HQ in Framingham, MA and then ask for the Bose Customer Service Manager. Againm be PERSISTENT.  Everyone here doing so, was able to get the free exchange.  This has nothing to do with you.  It is  Bose factory generated hardware malfunction/defect - at least to those who have done independent testing here.   ... View more

@Andy_B  I am honestly a bit confused or perhaps you are constrained on what you say.  Your response and often the response of the other moderators here suggest that the issue customers here bring up about the hiss and the ANC is not an issue that was introduced by the firmware upgrade to 4.3.6.  You response here, for example suggests that it is rather a problem with initialization or perhaps the ear cushions, lossing fitting - any number of things that you/Bose feel is associated with the customer.  In other words, you suggest that what has happened to this customer TWICE and the many others over the last few months since the firmware release is not anything that Bose is responsible for introducing but rather must be user/customers created.   I have a QC35ii  (AE) and I also noticed and posted here myself soon after the firmware release that I also heard the hiss and change in the what I heard with ANC on HIGH. Now the group here is obviously not statistically significant and those that come here are obviously those that have issues or problems so the group opinion is obviously 'skewed'.  But what concerns me is that you say 'this is unusual performance' and 'resolve any issues that you're currently experiencing'. Well: 1. This is NOT unusual performance - it is EXPECTED performance once the customer upgrades to 4.3.6.  Those that check in here (and I personally agree based on my own QC35ii) feel that the firmware caused some changes in what is heard. 2. Customers can't resolve the issues since the 'issues' is in the firmware AND you do not allow the customer to regress back to the previous version of the firmware that they just upgraded.  They're only option if they have it is to exchange the QC35ii for another and hope it has the older firmware 3. Bose continues to claim that the upgrade to 4.3.6 had no impact on ANC. 4. If Bose continues to feel the performance is 'unusual' and that it's a customer issue, then Bose does NOT take ownership and they will be no modifications in future firmware to address the 'issue'. So are the moderators or Bose in general willing to take 'ownership' and observe that the firmware upgraded to 4.3.6 has factored into the observations that ANC has been impacted?   ... View more

I do not work for Bose.  Your final comments suggests what the problem is.  You have a computer with a different BT vendor which works with the same QC30 that does not work on the H-P.  Thing is, there is no simple way to determine exactly what is intefering with the adding of device - could be a windows update specific to the work machine, or the BT driver or some other totally unrelated application that blocks the communication by change the contents of a BT related file or registry entry. About all you can do is the process of elimination: 1. Uninstall Windows updates back up to two years, though I will admit it is possible that uninstalling may not leave you with exactly the same thing so you may also want to consider going back with restoration points. 2. Totally remove the BT hardware with all the drivers and reinstall with older versions going back one at a time for up to 2 years. 3. Remove/uninstall any application on the business computer that is not on the home computer   As you are an administrator you know that if it works on one and not the other, the troubleshooting approach is to make the different one look the same and if it works, add things back one at a time until it stops working and you'll find the culprit. In my case I had a Dell Precision M4800 with Win 7/64 that couldn't discover anything (I have 5 Bose BT devices).  I tried all of the above and nothing helped.  So for that machine, I image the C drive twice a year (has Windows and the mission critical apps).  So I reloaded the image from June 30, 2018 and everything started to work.  So something happened between June and November last year that made it not work.  I reinstalled and updated all the apps and windows and it still worked.  So I have not done any additional troubleshooting but something happened during those 5 months to break the BT and I am not yet sure what worked. If all else fails, use Windows to totally disabled the BT hardware and purchase a BT USB Dongle.  During those 5 months I went with the SMK Nano USB Dongle with CSR drivers (about $15 US on eBay).  It worked fine with everything. ... View more

@Joe91504  I don't work for Bose, but since it worked last night, there has got to be something that happened. 1. Does the QC35ii work with the wire plugged into a 3.5mm jack 2. Have you hit the "+" on the right side a gazilion times to up the volume 3. When it didn't work on the iPhone, could you pair it and then did you check the device in the Bluetooth menu to see if the status was "connected"?  In other words is the problem the pairing or that there was no sound after it was connected? 4. When you tried a non-Apple phone, was the problem the pairing or lack of sound after the pairing. 5. Have you tried another playing app on your iphone to ensure the problem is not the app.  I have a QC35ii and often play music in my iPhone (not streamed on the Internet) using "Ecoute". If nothing seems to work it is likely a hardware problem and I would get the Qc35ii exchanged. ... View more

@Vicky_W  I am not sure you fully understand what some customers are saying.  They are NOT asking to put on some random earlier version of the firmware that could introduce some bugs and problems.  They are asking for Bose to allow them to try a newer firmware version and if unhappy want to have a way to go back to exactly what they had before they upgraded.  That effectively would constitute an 'installation undo'.  You don't even need a remote site to accomplish this.  Merely save the complete firmware on the local installing device before the installation.  Then allow the user to reinstall it if they are not happy.  You say, "it is no longer industry standard".... well "Undo" is an industry standard.  Again the user is merely asking to be back on the version they were on before the update - a version that you were already supporting for their Bose product. You also say about upgrading to the latest firmware: "... this should help to fix your issues".  In fact, for these people doing so actually created the issues.  That is why they want to go back - they liked the sound with ANC better with the version they had before the upgrade. ... View more

@issamelmansoriLike you, I personally don't agree with the logic and explanation of why they won't provide you essentially an 'installation undo'.  You didn't start with B and suddenly want A.... you started with A, went to B and want to go back to what you started with. Unfortunately, Bose is quite adament about no longer offering a way to go back under any circumstance.  I also am skeptical (though it may someday be possible) that there will be a third party site which SAFELY allows you to reinstall older firmware.  Even if safe, I would question long term viability of that site since the firmware is copyrighted by Bose and they could sue (assuming the site is in a country they could do so). Anyhow, for now you are really only left with the following options: 1. Live with the firmware you upgraded 2. Return the QC35 to where you purchased it and repurchase hoping to get a unit with the older firmware version 3. Find someone selling a QC35 on ebay/amazon etc. with the older firmware and sell yours 4. Just sell your QC35 and go with a different product/vendor.   ... View more

@Jocchemm  I would be personally suprised if they 'pre-announce' any firmware features.  Since I have lurked on multiple Bose boards from last year on, this has never occurred.  In fact, I personally believe that the Bose support people who respond here have no idea of what will be in the next firmware version until it gets released and they post the release.  And even then, what gets shared is only a 'subset' of what was added, removed, and/or changed. ... View more

@mortepa  One thig is certain in my mind.  From this point on, all announced and delivered Bose wireless products will be based on the Bluetooth 5.x standard.  I also believe that Bose will market these products most directly for the smart phone (mobile) and tablet market with little to no emphasis on functionality to benefit pcs, macs, or laptops.  I'm 'assuming' their products will roll out mid to end summer to be available for the end of the year holiday market. ... View more

Here are some data points though my environment is/could be different from yours:   1. I have an iPhone 7+ (and keep iOS up to date).  I do not recollect ever seeing/hearing independent volume controls on ANY of my Bose devices including the Mini II (I also have two Revolves, Soundsport Wired, and a QC35ii).  What I mean is they have always been linked - a change in the volume in my phone app (I use "Ecoute" to play music files on my phone) will also change the volume on the device and vice versa.  Perhaps there has been a recent change on the Android OS to match iOS???? 2. I have a Dell Precision M4800 laptop.  Now I still use Win 7/64 and not Win10.  I play my music files (MP3s) on my laptop still with Winamp.  I just tried a few files and verified that the volumes are INDEPENDENT.  That means I can change the volume on either Winamp or the Mini II without changing the volume of the other.  So it could be something different between my Win 7/64 and your Win10.   P.S. - Nothing changes quickly with Bose :)  They will ask you to remove and reinitialize everything as the first troubleshooting step.  Then if you are still having a problem, you have to convince them its a 'problem' (versus the functionality could be 'by design').  Then they will say that since users like me are not experiencing the problem, it must have something to do with Windows 10 and boot the ball to Microsoft.  I am personally very skeptical that Bose will do anything.  And it's highly likely another Mini II will exhibit the same behavior.  So even in the best case scenario if they agreed to do something, they would have to in-house create a scenario where they can duplicate your scenario and then the engineers would need to make firmware changes and integrate and test it into the next release (or the one after it). So what I am trying to say in a non-scarcastic way as possible is that it is a long uphill battle anytime there is a behavior on a windows or macintosh machine we feel is not working properly with ANY Bose device.  I have not in the last 6 months I have been lurking here seen Bose take ownership on any of these - they always boot to Microsoft, Apple or the PC Vendor (Like Dell).  If you can somehow get Bose to take ownership and fix, it would likely be months if not 2020 before you saw a fixed firmware release. ... View more

I don't work for Bose and one of my connecting devices is a Dell Precision M4800.  Now I don't know if the XPS uses the same integrated wifi/BT "minicard" as the Precision - from Intel.  Thing is, I had problems for months and I tried everything.  My assumption was at that time, to get things to work (as none of the 'troubleshooting' steps worked), I had to assume the problem was on the Dell end.  The issue was, Bose passed the buck.  They told me the problem was with the other vendors.  They also told me that there was no realistic way for them to do testing since there were too many permutations on the other end (between PC/Mac vendors, the OSs, and the BT card vendors).  Microsoft said no because other BT headsets work fine with PCs, and Dell would not help by getting Intel involved.  If you haven't yet tried what I did here is what else I tried: (1) updated the BT drivers from the Intel site, (2) uninstalled and then tried install thre previous three versions of the Intel drivers (again - got them from Intel and not the Dell site), (3) uninstalled up to 2 years of Windows updates.   (BTW -  on Dell machines (Win 7 or 10), you need to start/connect to the the services that are installed with the QC35ii - one is the 'headset' (used for voice over ip - VOIP - calls from applications like Skype) and the other is what you use to play music from either the laptop or online streaming (sometimes referred to as A2DS).  You can leave the former disconnected if all you care about as music.  My problem is either I could start the A2DS service or the device remained 'grayed out'. Turned out after a couple of months, I decided to restore my laptop to the disc image backup from June 30, 2018.  Then suddenly, everything started working again.  So it seemed to me that something got changed betweem June 30 and Nov-ish that made the communication stop working.  Could have been a windows update or any of the many applications I installed or updated in that period.  I never really did find out what made it stop working.  But in the last two months - all is fine.  I just turned on my QC35ii, it connected to my M4800 and played on laptop MP3's both through Winamp and VLC with no problem (in stereo). The only other option I tried during those months when it did not work was to use the control panel to totally disable the Intel device and I purchased on eBay (about $15) a SMK Nano USB BT Dongle with CSR drivers which worked perfectly fine with all my Bose devices during those months.   ... View more

@Don C  AZ started shipping a month or two ago.  Last time I checked a few weeks back (at the Apple store, for example) - they were selling both AR and AZ.  In fact, most sales people don't have a clue that there is a difference.  As far as you go, the product you currently have, AE, will not currently nor in the future support AR (as Bose people have said here some number of times).  If you want AR, you need to return your AE and try to get an AZ.  Keep in mind though as you are reading in this thread, that some believe there are ANC issues with AZ and not the AE. ... View more