topic Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio) in Portable Audio

WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

offtherecord — Sun, 05 May 2019 14:57:55 GMT

From one day to the next, the left ear stopped working. When connecting the headphones through Bluetooth, the left ear doesn't seem to connect. I tried with a cord which brought the audio back (to both ears), but no noise reduction. Have restarted and upgraded. Any other advice?

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

EdwinaU — Mon, 06 May 2019 15:41:59 GMT

Hi there,

Welcome to the community.

We'll check this and update you as soon as we can. Meanwhile, perhaps one of our members can offer some advice.

Best wishes,

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Vanilla_ — Tue, 07 May 2019 17:48:08 GMT

Hi offtherecord,

That must be annoying! Have you tried to reset it to default settings? You'll find the steps here: https://helpguide.sony.net/mdr/wh1000xm3/v1/en/contents/TP0001703081.html

Let us know if this makes any difference,

Vanilla_

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

lchap1000 — Thu, 09 May 2019 14:38:37 GMT

I am having the same issue. Left ear suddenly doesn't work - but the voice commands come through fine. The reset hasn't worked either. I bought these new, 3 days ago...

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Vanilla_ — Fri, 10 May 2019 14:16:18 GMT

Hello lchap1000,

Sometimes, it could be the device you're connecting the headset to. Have you tried more than one device?

Vanilla_

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

biggityben — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 17:16:00 GMT

On my Mac, I opened up the audio preferences in System Preferences. On 'OUTPUT' I selected my Sony Headphones and for whatever reason the balance was shifted all the way to the right. I put it back in the middle and that did it for me.

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

arnolddaniels — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 20:00:27 GMT

I'm also experiencing this issue. The voice on the left ear is also gone, including when using the optimizer. Using a jack cable temporarily fixes the issue, but it will come back after the headphones are switched off.

This is unrelated to the device, connected to my Android phone, laptop, and iPad. The issue remains.

Resetting the headphones also don't work.

WH-1000XM3 Version 4.1.1

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

pshynin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 20:09:13 GMT

Same happening for me and honestly I am almost gave up fixing this issue.

Nothing worked for me unfortunately.

I tried reseting steps here https://helpguide.sony.net/mdr/wh1000xm3/v1/en/contents/TP0001703081.html

and here https://www.sony.com/electronics/trouble-shooting-oofm... but it did not help !

Sometimes reset worked, until I turn the power off, then the issue appears back !

About to throw 400$ headset in the garbage as I can not return them anymore ((( Ugh.. I should go with Bose 700

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

jomandaman — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 09:21:34 GMT

Same! Must be a random update. Software is so weird.

Thanks for the tip and finding that.

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

NiffRoberts — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:59:59 GMT

Is there a solution to this? I have done the reset etc and its not worked

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

lchap1000 — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 20:16:49 GMT

My solution was to return the headphones and buy a different brand.

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

KazSS123 — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 23:04:54 GMT

Same. Have you figured it out yet?

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Alexherreboudt — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 04:40:07 GMT

Hi,

I have the same issue but with the right ear.

Was there any solution??

Thanks.

Alex

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Alexherreboudt — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 05:29:18 GMT

Hi,

have you ever received any reply on this??

Facing the same issue... Have tried to reset but still does not work on one side... Only bought them like one week ago and now already not working. Very disappointing...

Thanks !

Alex

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Alexherreboudt — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 05:30:14 GMT

Hi,

have you ever received any reply on this??

Facing the same issue... Have tried to reset but still does not work on one side... Only bought them like one week ago and now already not working. Very disappointing...

how can I get support from any of the members?

Thanks !

Alex

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Ragmatras — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 06:41:57 GMT

"On my Mac, I opened up the audio preferences in System Preferences. On 'OUTPUT' I selected my Sony Headphones and for whatever reason the balance was shifted all the way to the right. I put it back in the middle and that did it for me."

Thanks man, made my day, solved the issue for me.

Dont know how this got mixed up in the macbook though. Sometimes also experienece the audio randomly going back the laptop speakers while bluethooth is not disconnecting. Maybe there is some strange Macbook disliking for sony?

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

hisashiq — Wed, 20 May 2020 10:59:18 GMT

The following solved my issue. I'm a software engineer so went on a deep dive to find out why the issue was occurring (for me. I hope this does it for you!).

I had to Force-Enable aptX and AAC Codecs in macOS and it strangely fixed it.

Following this helped me:

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/enable-aptx-aac-bluetooth-audio-codecs-macos/

Hope that helps for you guys!

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

dinoofsg — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:05:36 GMT

Same here having the issue which goes unresolved by sony. I already tried:

- resetting

- upgrading firmware

- checked mac output already shifted to center, Aptx already on by default

- current firmware at 4.5.2

I have also sent set into Sony Singapore to have it checked. Unfortunately set was not bought locally hence Sony wants to charge me SGD$298 for changing out the entire left hand side of headphone (yes the entire LHS of headphone unit ........). And i had thought it would be global warranty since i only bought this recently.

Anyways, i highly suspect this is more of software issue than hardware issue since my 1000mx2 didnt have such issue. mx3 has quite a lot of controls done via the app as compared to mx2. I own a second set 1000mx3 which was bought locally and its still on older firmware and no issue atm (fingers crossed). Overall i am pretty disappointed with sony and this release mx3, to have spent money of which they were not able to pinpoint the issue themselves but instead to offer a changeout of the entire LHS module. 😞 I do hope they can still find out the issue and offer a fix via firmware update soon.

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

thomi111 — Wed, 05 May 2021 11:20:59 GMT

Hi,

Same issue, left ear suddenly doesnt work anymore when turned on, but both working when turned off and connected to the cable.

Tried to connect to other devices and resetting, nothing works.

Kind of annoying that no one has replied with a solution here.

Any other advise than sending them back?

Thanks,

Tom

Re: WH-1000XM3 left ear suddenly not working (noise reduction and audio)

Joe_Dohn — Wed, 05 May 2021 15:11:44 GMT

If you already have the latest software version installed, then you should have it looked at by Sony engineers.