Bluetooth headphones problem

Hi, I'm using my fenix 5x plus with mp3 music and Bluetooth headphones. The thing is that sometimes there are small interruptions of the music I guess due to a bad connection. It's quite annoying. I've tried with two brands of headphones (not high quality headphones, I must say) and the problem is the same. Has anybody the same problem? I'd like to discard a Fenix problem before buying a better quality headphones.
thanks

Top Replies

seilogramp over 6 years ago +2 verified

What model of headphones are you using? Many headphones receive signals to the the right earpiece. Therefore, if you wear your watch on your left wrist, you may experience frequent dropouts. The quality…
Former Member over 5 years ago +2

This is also an issue for me...Here are some important data points:

1) I have 3 pairs of headphones I've used with this watch

2) I also use the same 3 pairs of headphones with my phone without issues…
TrippyZ over 6 years ago +1

It is not the distance - it is the water filled balloon (aka head) between the earphone and the watch when it is on your left wrist.

All Replies

0 lbh_srsen over 5 years ago

ok, so tested today with newest beta and 4.18 version of ANT/BT/BLE driver. Unfortunately my Jabra elite sport is still suffering with dropouts. I would say it was like 15 dropouts during one hour activity, rather coming in random groups than is some equal distribution over time. 4.18 ANT/BLE/BT driver was found as buggy, so I'm about to downgrade back to 3.60 and wait if some future update solves this problem. I have no problems with headphone disconnecting from watch or so, just during playback and activity there are short silence blocks - dropouts. In the discussion above was mentioned that beta 6.58 worked well - is it possible to find somewhere the ANT/BLE/BT file from that distribution for fenix 5 plus?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

This is also an issue for me...Here are some important data points:

1) I have 3 pairs of headphones I've used with this watch

2) I also use the same 3 pairs of headphones with my phone without issues of where my phone is, ie: in either hand, backpack or 20 feet away in the house...

3) I didn't use to have drops in the quality of connection and I don't recall what software update this occured with or if that's what the actual cause is.

CONCLUSION: Something has changed...Its either the software or a deterioration of the bluetooth parts sending out the signal.....I'm thinking that some tweak was made in software revisions to try to improve battery life and they dialed down the power being dedicated to the bluetooth.....

0 lbh_srsen over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Hello,

after some time I took my Jabra Elite sport for longer run yesterday. I have VERY GOOD NEWS! Running now 9.1 firmware on watch I had stable music performance over whole my 16km run. Thx GARMIN for finally fixing this annoying dropout issue! (not sure if 9.0 already or 9.1 now did the magic, didn't test it with for a while).

Jan

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to lbh_srsen

I've been working with their tech support & shs asked if this update helped....For me it did not

0 lbh_srsen over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

hmm.... I would give it a try with unpairing and fresh pairing of watch and earbuds. if this doesn't help, then there was probably more issues causing dropouts with specific brands of earbuds and while my problem looks solved now, your might not be.

0 4397878 over 4 years ago

It’s definitely all to do with what side you wear it on but I would think with as much as this thing costs that wouldn’t be an issue. My apple and Fitbit watches before this one never had that issue. I’ve tried 3 sets of headphones, latest are apple pro EarPods and they skip all the time depending on where the watch is. Did anyone find out if the fenix 6 has these same issues?

0 RunR over 4 years ago in reply to 4397878

Are you really sure that this is an issue of the watch? With my Taotronics headphones I can leave the watch in one room and move in the house - connection still works o.k. (with a few dropouts) in the third room with 2 doors in between. During running there are absolutely no issues, no dropouts and good sound quality (only MP3, no Spotify or Amazon).

0 Eugenio over 4 years ago

Hello everyone, this is happening to me also. I have tried 4 different headphones (all working well in other devices) and it is impossible listening music properly. From Garmin they told me that I should try the headphones they have tested to get assistance but, to be honest, I don't want to to expent 100-200 eur in a headphones that most probably they won't work neither (I have read that some user still have problems with them).

Today I will try to change may watch to my right hand as I have seen that this have worked to some users but I have do no have big hopes..

This is my first Garmin and I am very dissapointed..

Rgrds

0 kenhaug over 4 years ago

My observations, just in case this helps.

I have concluded that my noice/interference problems are caused by the headphones and not the Garmin watch.

I use Jabra elite 75. If my Jabra's are connected to *both* my phone (iPhone) and watch before my run starts, I have to disconnect from the phone before heading out. If I do not disconnect from other devices, the Jabra's will keep trying to reconnect whilst I am running, and this is causing various random disconnects and interference. Specially if I run close to busy roads, I experience lots of interference from what I assume are cars with active Bluetooth devices.

If my headphones only connect to the Garmin before I head out, I have no interference at all. Coincidence?

0 4397878 over 4 years ago in reply to Eugenio

Hello, I tried all the headphones basically and found JBL Mini work best. They have their Bluetooth hub on the left side of the ear so the connection is closer if you wear the watch on your left arm like I do. They work great and are very light weight and come in the mini and normal size.