topic Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right in Portable Audio

Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Thommy — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 13:12:29 GMT

Like the title states, my left earbud randomly started draining extremely fast.

I suspect the 2.0.1 firmware.

I bought these in Denmark on February 17 last year and now they are essentially worthless as I can only use the left earbud for about 40 minutes.

I have since moved countries to Japan, so I don't know what to do about warranty now 😞

I have a attached pictures showing the battery drain using both over about 1 hour.

Sony please respond.

Rif.: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Marino.Manolo — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 13:18:26 GMT

WF-1000XM4: The remaining battery charge varies greatly between the left and right earbuds
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00283656

Rif.: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Thommy — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 14:39:55 GMT

Thank you Marino, I have followed the page and tried resetting and re-initislized but I did nothing unfortunately

Rif.: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

SuperMarioY — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:26:52 GMT

I have had identical symptoms and here is what worked for me.

1. Open Sony Headphones Application

2. System > Initialize Settings > Initialize Headphones to Default State

3. Uninstall Sony Headphones Application

4. Fully charge earbuds and case

5. Install Sony Headphones Application

6. Reconnect earbuds via phone's Blutooth as usual

7. Open Sony Hadphones Application then follow these few steps :

Set the following settings on the Sony | Headphones Connect app, and play any music:

Volume: Middle
CODEC: AAC
DSEE Extreme: OFF
Noise Canceling: ON
Other settings: OFF

It looks like unless you follow those steps something residual is still left behind messing left earbud's battery drainage up so please be sure not to skip anything mentioned above.

My earbuds are now in as good as new state, I hope it works for you to.

Good luck bro.

Rif.: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

tjb370 — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:43:08 GMT

I also have this issue - headphones purchased end 21/early 22 from John Lewis here in UK. Have been fine until recently - I loved them! Sadly I now find that left depletes from 100 to 0 in about 20mins! This happened twice yesterday, so is a new problem - at first I thought it was just my set, then I googled, and discovered it's an ISSUE!.

I tried the suggested solution by @SuperMarioY last night, and this morning the left went from 100 to 35% in 50mins , so marginally better but not as it should be.

A £200 pair of headphones should last more than 2 and a bit years and I'm p*ssed at Sony about this, having always held them in high regard - at one point the majority of my electronics etc were Sony, but not any more and certainly not going forward. My C310 headphones which cost me about £25 are still going strong after a number of years.

Having seen other posts I see that people are sending their headphones into Sony for repair, but being charged silly money to fix a problem that is clearly down to Sony's making - why should we be expected to spend nearly half the cost of a new set of headphones, on a repair? As another poster has said on this thread Solved: Re: WF-1000XM4 Sudden Battery Drain Issue | 2 days... - Sony " should be getting at leaat several years of good usage from these expensive earbuds when handled correctly." They should definitely be offering customers a replacement, rather than costly repair! Appallingly bad customer service.

Rif.: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

SuperMarioY — Fri, 24 May 2024 11:49:45 GMT

Hi there,

I did some further digging around and what is making a huge difference is turning off Speak To Chat feature. I know, it sucks as that to me is one of the more important features but such is life. I can now use them for several hours without recharging. I do hope it helps as for Sony, considering the price this sucks, royally!!

Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

dxt.lab — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 13:56:14 GMT

I am having the same problems! This might be an issue of the software update?

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 15:20:25 GMT

Hey @dxt.lab

Have you tried all the suggested steps from above posts already?

Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Hughmcmahon — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 18:53:06 GMT

I'm having exactly this problem. Ive made no changes to settings, so I suspect a recent software update.

I'm on 2.0.1.

Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Hughmcmahon — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 19:20:38 GMT

should have added that I've tried the reset methods suggested above. No joy.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 13:39:25 GMT

Hey @Hughmcmahon

I think it's to contact Sony support team for this issue

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Hughmcmahon — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 15:00:12 GMT

Thanks. Called Sony support UK but no joy. They have no knowledge of any software issue and because my XM4s are over a year old, the only option is return for repair. Not an economic option.

I'm not convinced this isn't a software problem, though, so I'll explore (or wait for) alternative versions. Love these earphones, so don't want to write them off yet, and they're too expensive to replace without being sure that's the only option.

Regards,

Hugh

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

tjb370 — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 15:54:29 GMT

Hi @Hughmcmahon

Sony are very well aware of the battery drain issue, don't let them tell you otherwise, you only have to read the myriad of posts from the UK and globally, on Reddit and elsewhere - good place to start is here https://tinyurl.com/3w49n7e9 and then search the site!

it's a long read but hopefully there are posts which will help you, the more recent ones are towards the bottom! Certainly helped me, and I didn't even have my proof of purchase, but had registered my buds and had the credit card receipt/statement. Mine were 2years 1month and about 10days old when the battery drain issue started. I had registered them when I purchased them so I think I had extended warranty (2yrs). After a battle with Sony resulting in what they referred to as a "favourable resolution" quote of £134 to replace the buds, I eventually got them to replace them for free! Some folk, as you'll see from the thread above got a similar result but were charged just £34.

Don't give up! Good luck!

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Hughmcmahon — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 20:00:10 GMT

Thanks tjb370, that's helpful. I'm not optimistic but I'll try again.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

SuperMarioY — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:04:27 GMT

I have now reached the stage where left earbud is practically of no use. Sony doesn't want to know, Amazon customer services also doesn't want to know. All because Sony messed up their firmware update refusing to take responsibility. However, timing couldn't be better... I am planning to replace my Pioneer plasma screen with 77' one. I was going for Sony A95L QD OLED but I read excellent reviews of LG G4. Now that Sony ***** me off so royally, which one do you think I will get, any guesses? As for replacement of Sony's earbuds junk, it looks like Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4. Nice to have known you Sony.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

PaulGUden — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:53:08 GMT

I have an equivalent problem with the right ear bud. It goes from 100% to 0% in about 10 minutes making the earbuds effectively useless. I bought them on Amazon.es in May 2022. I have not used them for a while, but took them on holiday only to discover this issue. Has anyone sorted it out successfully with Sony? If so, how? They cost me €189 and this is clearly not an acceptable product if it fails after such a short time.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

SuperMarioY — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:30:14 GMT

To my knowledge there is no fix for it. People have reported that changing the battery works but I will not try that, too much hassle and I just don't want to have anything to do with Sony any more. Did some research and earbuds to give the best sound quality seem to be Senheizer so I will go for that.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 14:37:12 GMT

@PaulGUden, in that case, you should contact the support team directly to help you with that.

Re: Betreff: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

PaulGUden — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 14:56:35 GMT

Thanks. I have since done that. I am a couple of months out of warranty so they say I'll have to pay for a repair. From comments on here and elsewhere, the problem seems to be of Sony's own making so I am disappointed in their response to say the least. It seems like a scam. Ruin the product and then make the customer pay. I'll see what else they have to say, but it may be a more cost-effective in the long run to buy new ear buds from a more customer-friendly brand.

Re: Sony WF 1000XM4 Left Earbud draining 10 times faster than right

jibladzea1975 — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 07:10:24 GMT

I have the same issue with my left earbud the problem started recently. Any sollutions to fix the problem?