Music/audio over Bluetooth highly unstable

Yoghem 8 months ago

Hi!

Yesterday I received a new FR 265. One of the main reasons for replacing my old watch was because I did not want to bring my phone on runs anymore, but still wanted to listen to music while running. This morning I made my first run with the watch, and was a bit shocked by the instability of the music playback. I was playing music through the Spotify app, (listening on my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones) and there were just constant stutters/interruptions in the audio, both in the music and in the voice guide. I have tried rebooting the watch, rebooting the headphones, reconnecting the headphones and changing the codec settings in the Sony app, all to no avail.

Does anyone know what I can try to do to mitigate this issue? If it was only a bit of stutter I would be able to live with it, but in this state music is simply unlistenable, and I would (sadly) have to consider returning the watch.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Top Replies

Yoghem 8 months ago +2

Update: I've tried a couple more things to narrow down the issue, and I've found the following:

1) There is no difference between using the Spotify app or the native music app.

2) There is no difference…
FlowState 3 months ago in reply to 5801604 +2

9023732 said:
I had the same issue. In your sound connect app you need to select: audio quality and then for stable connection. What this does is switching the Bluetooth decoder from ldac to aac. This is…
pilator 8 months ago +1

I also had similar issues with Sony WH-1000XM4, could not figure out the issue unfortunately. Switched over to Shokz headphones and didn't have any problem after

All Replies

0 b908e738cf7b43c7af75f963e7fcda20 25 days ago in reply to 5085797

Mine (FR265) works now with both the Sony Linkbuds Open (second gen) and the AirPods 4. I found that the original Sony LinkBuds Open did not work with my previous Garmin Vivoactive, but my AirPods 3 did. Go figure.

Bottom line: make sure your watch is updated to the most recent version, or get on the beta.

0 5600179 16 days ago

I just received this watch as a gift. It seems great generally however I’m experiencing these same Bluetooth drop off issues with earbuds that have worked flawlessly on my phone. I went for my first run this morning and experienced constant drop offs for the first 15 minutes, thinking might have to do with being near my home and phone which was previously paired. Will try disconnecting Bluetooth from my phone. If I can’t run without stuttering music I’ll have to return.