Sony WH-1000XM3 Muting in the Cold

[bugzy3188]

Is there a way to turn off gesture control on the 1000XM3s? It barely works in optimal conditions and when standing outisde in cold weather they will consistently register swipes (even though nothing has touched the headphones), either turning volume up/down or skipping tracks and after about 1 minute they will mute as if I am holding my hand over the right ear. Any suggestions?

[IamNic]

Has anyone tried to keep the headphones paired to the phone and then literally stick them into the freezer and wait until they act up?

I mean if the metal of the freezers door doesn't completly block the bluetooth connection, that should be an easy test to perform and collect data.

- Nic

[johane73]

I have the same issue here in Sweden.

The headphones are great indoors, but if I go outside when its <5c they start playing up.

I have had Siri activated, volume turned down etc 

Turning them off and on again solves the problem, but its not a good solution.

I would really like to see this sorted or I will have to return them as I bought them primarily for the commute to work and the temperature here in Sweden is quite often below 5c.

[Colincec]

I recent received these 1000XM3 headphones less than a week ago on Jan 8th and we just experienced our first snow of the season so I had to shovel the snow and wanted to use my new headphones. I started to experience the sound cutting off, songs skipping and other problems, at first I thought it was my iPhone bumping around in my pocket (of course this was never a issue before but trying to solve a problem) so I placed it in my truck and I still had the same issue. I had a hoodie on which seemed to make the issue worse but still had problems when I removed the hoodie. Maybe there is an issue with the cold and fabric in contact with the controls. Then I saw these similar stories which let me know that others were having the same issues.

[adrian_vg]

Same here. Walking from the train station to work, a fifteen minute walk results in the Google Assistant getting triggered for no apparent reason after a few minutes. It pauses Spotify playing for a few seconds and it's all quiet while the Assistant is listening, then continues playing.

At first I thought the battery was dying because of the sub-zero temperatures.
Day after I had the same thing happening, but didn't think much about it.

When I was close to my workplace about tn minutes later the XM3 went totally haywire with frantic beeping and the volume going way down by itself - no hands! 

Tried restarting the headset, per other support suggestions, but the on-off button didn't respond at all...

The noise cancelling still worked though, I had a quiet bubble while walking the last bit to work.

After a few minutes in room temperature, the XM3 came back to life as if nothing had happened.

I believe this is a clear indicator that the XM3 doesn't cope with Scandinavian temperatures at all, not even mild winters around 0 centigrades.

Please Sony, I spent a rather significant amount of money to get the best noise cancelling headset system out there, only to realize it doesn't do outside environments. Give us a fix for this ASAP!

[arnolfini]

I do find that turning the headphones off and on again seems to work
(although it's appalling that you should have to do this on a high-end,
expensive product like this), but I too often have the issue where the
power button stops responding so I *can't* turn the headphones off.

I was actually having a lot of issues with it yesterday, so did some
experimenting. I found that a quick tap of the power button, which gives
you the battery status, seemed to reactivate the power button allowing you
to turn them off. If that doesn't work (and it doesn't always), then try
putting your hand over the right earcup for a moment to turn the listen in
function on and off - that may also reactivate the power button and allow
you to reset.

It still blows my mind that after spending all this money on these
headphones, users are basically having to hack the things in order to make
them functional.

[arnolfini]

I'm not sure what sticking them in a freezer would accomplish? Everyone on
this thread knows what is happening and has experienced the same problems
on multiple occasions (personally, I have to reset my headphones at least
twice a day thanks to the cold weather on my commute).

All putting them in a freezer would do is recreate a known, very well
documented issue in a slightly different environment. Or am I missing
something?

[dimsumdeals]

Good luck everyone. I finally returned my xm3s to the store today as these headphones are basically unusable for me as I walk from the train station to my workplace for 10 mins outside here in Toronto. I don't want to deal these issues anymore and hope Sony does something, As much as I love the headphones, being unusable and paying a premium price is just not worth it.

[K1ng_Bread]

I'm thinking about doing the same thing, still have 2 days to bring them back. Hurts me to do it because they sound so good but the cold issue is really annoying, even after you reboot the headphones.

[gabby131]

There's a software update when I checked the Sony headphones app (v 4.1).  I have not tested yet as I'm quite on a busy schedule today.  Check it out and see if this has something to do with the 1000xm3.

[adrian_vg]

It's updates for better something or other with Amazon Alexa.

Edit: My mistake, it's a headphone update as well!