Fenix 5 Plus will BREAK Skullcandy earbuds

The Skullcandy Method Wireless earbuds have been my favorite pair of wireless earbuds for a couple of years now.

Around the same time I purchased a Fenix 5 Plus, the first pair suddenly broke - no sound out of the right earbud.
I chalked it up to almost two years of daily use and abuse. Looking back, it stopped working during my first run with my Fenix 5 Plus.

I have now gone through THREE new pairs of earbuds, all three of which have STOPPED WORKING after pairing with the Fenix 5 Plus.

Second pair suddenly just stopped working after a run with the Fenix 5 plus. Nothing, would not turn on or anything - except when plugged in to the PC (which is when they are NOT supposed to be able to be turned on). I figured it was a defective pair, bad luck, whatever.

Third pair, worked fine initially paired to my phone, then after a run with the Fenix 5, suddenly had nasty buzz/static in the right earbud EVEN WHEN TURNED OFF.

The fourth and last replacement arrived last Friday. I used it all weekend, Monday and Tuesday without pairing to my watch, just paired to my phone. Worked just fine.

Today, I decided to try pairing to my phone. Worked OK for about 10 minutes. Then...nothing. AGAIN. Same problem as the second pair.

Once is meh, it happens, twice might be a coincidence, three might be bad luck...but four? No way this is a coincidence, there's something wrong with the Skullcandy earbuds, they do NOT play nicely with the Fenix 5 Plus watch. If you buy them and pair to your watch, they will FRY YOUR EARBUDS. AVOID.
I don't know why or how, and it's a damn shame because otherwise these were by far my favorite earbuds.

I have been in constant contact with Skullcandy support, and all they say is that, based on what I'm telling them, regarding the second and fourth pair, it sounds like I am 'inadvertently putting the earbuds in programming mode' - of course, they can't tell me how I would 'accidentally' do that, nor can they explain how to get it out of programming mode, nor can they explain how I managed to not 'accidentally' put them in programming mode for the first two years I owned my first pair before purchasing the Fenix 5 Plus, and they can't explain what happened to the first or third pair.

TL;DR: Fenix 5 Plus watches will FRY your Skullcandy Method Wireless earbuds. DO NOT PAIR THEM if you have them.

0 bjoern.schulte over 7 years ago

Wow - crazy. Honestly I cannot imagine who a simple bluetooth source could kill a bluetooth recipient. Did you call Garmin on that?

0 HarryOnline over 7 years ago

I did not have any problems with this headset and my Fenix 5plus.

0 ic3cold over 7 years ago

Very interesting. I bought the Method when I got them watch and did a run with them (grabbed them since DCRainmaker commented on them). Loved it. But when I went a couple of days later to do a ride they would not turn on. Seemed the power was dead. So plugged into the wall got the blinking light and left it for a bit. Came back and same issue. i was able to put them on while charging and could here the voice prompt saying it was turning on, and then it would turn off right away. Sent them back figuring the battery was toast but curious to hear your issue.

0 ic3cold over 7 years ago

PS I did read about the programming mode issue for other Skullcandy devices. I found it while looking to resolve the issue. So skullcandy does seem to have this issue but curious how the watch might be triggering it.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

You probably mistakenly put your headphones into pairing mode, most likely not the watches fault. Try holding both volume buttons together, that should reset Bluetooth on them. My Fexin 5 Plus has worked flawlessly.

0 Artivis over 7 years ago

Horrifying story, but I still do not think that the watch is the cause of the problems, in my opinion the problem lies rather on the Skullcandy's side. Maybe consider buying different headphones. Imho the 'true wireless' type of buds are much more comfortable during running then anything that has dangling cables or other elements lying on your neck or shoulders.

0 surista over 7 years ago

Let me clarify: I 100% believe this is a Skullcandy issue, NOT a Garmin issue.

ic3cold's issue is *exactly* what I encountered with earbuds 2 and 4.

> You probably mistakenly put your headphones into pairing mode

russglerum, I'm not sure what you mean. Of course we're going to put them in pairing mode to connect to a device.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Paired my SkullCandy Method to my Fenix 5X Plus and ran 5K. Ran flawlessly, no drops - which is more than I can say for my Bose SoundSport, which are on the approved list. Anyway, I got one more use out of the pair and they died. Thought that was a bit odd since I only used them for about 2 hours. So I put them on the charger. Next day the wouldn't power on. Sent them back and assumed that was a fluke.

Replacement pair - took them out of the box and paired them with Fenix. Seems to work fine. Put it on the charger overnight. Next morning they were dead and would not power on. They will power on if you leave them plugged in, which obviously, is not going to work.

SkullCandy says I should wait 24 hours and plug them in to a PC for 10 minutes... We'll see.

0 surista over 6 years ago

CBSalad, that's exactly what Skullcandy told me as well. It didn't work - on any of the Skullcandy Method earbuds that were fried by connecting to Garmin.

I've come across this, other people in this thread have come across this, numerous people in Amazon reviews have noticed this. Yet Skullcandy Support continues to blatantly lie, 'we've never heard of your experience before. You probably mistakenly put it in programming mode'.

Just to be clear - I don't think this is a Garmin problem, I think it's a problem with Skullcandy. Others have had no issues (DC Rainmaker doesn't seem to have any issues). But the issue is there.