Sony WH-1000XM3 Muting in the Cold

[bugzy3188]

Is there a way to turn off gesture control on the 1000XM3s? It barely works in optimal conditions and when standing outisde in cold weather they will consistently register swipes (even though nothing has touched the headphones), either turning volume up/down or skipping tracks and after about 1 minute they will mute as if I am holding my hand over the right ear. Any suggestions?

[K1ng_Bread]

Same here, -30 in Montreal and windy and the headphones are innoperable while outside.

[arnolfini]

In fairness -37 is pretty extreme. Even the QC35s are only listed as being
good down to -20.

[K1ng_Bread]

I had no issues whatsoever with my XM2s at those temperatures, plus I'm pretty sure that the Bose don't have the issue since they use buttons instead of a touch panel. 

[Dmoney21]

I'm not expecting Sony to QA them for -37 but at least address the issue at hand for customers that are in cold climates. Turning them on and off does not work as stated various times by support. Even as a "temporary" solution which is hardly one at all. And the argument that these were designed to be used indoors is of course unrealistic. Especially for 450 headphones. I love the product and it's performance, which is why I use them everywhere EXCEPT for this one issue.

[NeverwinterMoon]

We got to record low temperatures this winter here in Tallinn, Estonia. I went out with my headphones to -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) in the morning and now it’s -15 Celsius. Absolutely no problems, no sensor controls acting out: no track skipping, no beeping, nothing.

[pepite_]

But please do not leave us hanging, are you talking of the Sony xm3? Have you made the recent update?
cheers lucky one 

[NeverwinterMoon]

Excuse me, but the topic is “Sony WH-1000XM3 Muting in the Cold”. Why would I be talking about anything else? Also, I have stock software/firmware. No updates were made so far. 

[pepite_]

Yes sure that is indeed what I thought but I had wondered why would anyone with a prefectly functional XM3 lurk in such a thread? --> maybe he is not talking about the XM3 then, as some people have been mentioning how their previous XM2 fared in the cold. Or maybe he just updated the firmware and now it works magics. But no, nothing exciting for us unlucky ones. Cheers

[NeverwinterMoon]

Yes sure that is indeed what I thought but I had wondered why would anyone with a prefectly functional XM3 lurk in such a thread? --> maybe he is not talking about the XM3 then, as some people have been mentioning how their previous XM2 fared in the cold. Or maybe he just updated the firmware and now it works magics. But no, nothing exciting for us unlucky ones. Cheers

Fair enough. It makes sense to explain how I ended up here. My WH-1000XM3 purchase was on the spur of the moment thing. I read one review, went to the store, tried them on and was so blown away, I knew I wanted them. After that, I just started reading what other people are thinking of the headphones and somehow ended up here.

I think it makes sense to talk about the positive experience in this thread to show the potential buyer that not all of the WH-1000XM3 headphones are misbehaving in 0 Celsius and below temperatures, thus I decided to post my findings. My post from today was not the first I made in this thread - before I wrote about my experience in temperatures from 0 to -5 Celsius. I had no problems then. And today it was absolutely freezing at -20 Celsius, but the headphones were still working perfectly fine.

[K1ng_Bread]

One of the lucky ones! I just saw that  the headphones are now back on Amazon (canada) after being out of stock for a while, maybe they changed something in the new batch? If so, I want an exchange Sony!