WH-1000xm2 Auto Shutoff is Terrible.

[curious_dan]

I recently purchased a WH1000xm2, thinking of it as an investment for continuing education. As a college student, the noise cancelling has been great for busy cafes and libraries with deep thrumming AC systems. For the most part, the headphones are more than satisfactory for creating a bubble of focus in a variety of circumstances.

That said, I have a huge gripe about one 'feature' (bug?) of the headsets.

The headphones shut off completely after five minutes if no bluetooth or physical cable connection is established. This makes a lot of sense coming from the perspective of preserving battery life: nobody wants to accidentally drain the headphones when they weren't using it.

However, it's hugely dysfunctional to users like me who might want the noise-cancelling feature more than the music-playing feature. I have to either pull out a clunky cable unconnected on one end, or connect to my phone via bluetooth and let the connection needlessly drain my phone battery. The 30 hour headphone battery is very impressive. Unfortunately, my poor phone will not last standby for 30 hours with bluetooth on. On certain days, the bluetooth connection has been the biggest source of battery drain on my phone.

I feel like it doesn't have to be this way.

One of the great features about this headset is the programmability. Certain settings can be changed on via the app, and from what I can tell, the onboard memory on the headphones will store that information even when disconnected from the phone. So why not create a setting for auto-shutoff? Let the user assume the level of potential battery waste. Glaringly, a certain manufacturer of quiet and comfortable noise cancelling headphones has a very similar feature to the one described above for their newest cans.^

From what I can gather, this problem was unsolvable on the MDR 1000x, because it had no smartphone connection ability. This model does, and it seems almost silly to not include this feature. I mean, if Sony can accommodate the (literally) dozens of people who need their music to be produced from an outdoor stage at their back right, why can’t Sony accommodate countless students like me who want some silence no strings (physical or bluetoothy) attached?

This isn't a deal-breaker. But I feel like it is an option that many people would appreciate, and would add so much more value to the product.

^Bose QC35's have auto-off timer options in the app, configurable to 5m, 20m, 40m, 1h, 3h, or never.

[Owen_G]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for getting in touch, and taking the time to write. We'll pass your feedback on to our Development Team, and we'll be back in touch with any response we receive from them.

Owen

[timdonovanuk]

Just to give an opposite view on this - I'd very much like the headphones to switch off after a while, regardless of cable/bluetooth connection. Although the battery life is impressive, it's kind of annoying setting the headphones down, coming back 12 hours later and they're still switched on...

My previous sennheiser bluetooth and noise cancelling headphones would detect when no audio was recieved for a while and then auto power down.

These headphones can even detect when they're in use from movement (I think? As it detects sitting still/walking/running) so I don't see why if they're literally sat there for 12 hours they would not auto power off

Thanks.

[AnyaEra]

From Sony help page: Using noise cancellation without playing music

Did you know that the noise cancellation (NC) function can be used without playing back music?
It can be a handy feature to block out background sounds in noisy places such as a train or a plane.

However, your headphones will go to [Auto Power Mode] if no music is played back after 5 mins. avoid this, you can use the bundled stereo cable that was provided when purchasing your product.
Keep it connected to a playback device such as a mobile phone or an MP3 Player without actually playing music. 
This will prevent the headphones going into [Auto Power Mode].

[Tilman0]

I abolutely support Dan´s suggestion.  I bought the WH-1000xm2 mainly because of the ANC-system, which I want to use without music from time to time.

If I really have to use acable therefore, and if I have to take this cable with me in the plane and everywhere ... then I will return the headphone and buy another system.

[JBIndy]

Users should be able to use the NC without music.  In a loud office sometimes you just need quiet, not music.  This should be a setting in the app that each user can decide...auto-shut off after 5 minutes or x minutes, 1 hour or x hours, never, etc.  I would use it for something like 1 hour so I could use NC without music but then not drain the batter if I set them down and walk away.

[andyp1ndy]

Me too. I just bought it as an upgrade over my old pair of quietcomfort 3. It's turning out to be a mistake since I was expecting the noise cancelling to work without bluethooth and without the audio cable connected - as one would expect when they need some snooze on an airplane. That's practically why I use noise cancelling headphones, mainly for getting quietness on airplaines. It's unfortunate that that this premium priced headphone has such an unfortunate limitation.

As for those who like the auto shut-off, Sony could have added a simple feature for that, auto shut-off = on, and auto shut-off = off. Both parties would be happy.

I may have to return them and get the first Quietcomfort 35 - they've got a mechanical switch, so no funny business.

[Newbee72]

Both features should go into the configuration and the app. 

- NC use without connection and therefore auto off to be configurable (time setting (min) or unlimited)

- Auto off when no sigal recieved , even when connected to a device (BT or cable)

[Knusperbear]

I am literally angry about the auto turn off bug. I bought the headphones ONLY for the noise cancelling feature and not at all for music. Please include the feature in the software.

[adama0087]

Hi there,

Sony. You really need to fix this. As indicated most users require a stand alone ANC feature. Having the auto-shutdown feature after 5 minutes based on non blue tooth connectivity is a major flaw. The are many use cases that require ANC activation only, without ANY other device connected.

The solutions suggested here are entirely feasible. Either have a setting for auto-shutdown to be off or on.

Regards.