WF-1000XM4 Battery Drain Issue

[PureFlaws]

Hello, for the last year I've been using Sony's WF-1000XM4 Earphones, and during warranty period had almost no complaints to product. But last month or two - coin flipped. Earphones started overheating, for no reason. Due to overheat battery lifetime decreased several times. If usually I had 5-8 hours of playback time, but now - right earphone ~40min, left ~ 60-70min (time may very).

Factory resetting or any troubleshooting process didn't help.

I've tried to contact Sony Ukrainian call centre, or service centre, but didn't get any constructive response. Every proof I shared was ignored. Every link I've sent was denied.

Sadly seems that on Sony Ukraine's opinion warranty period = product life span

Service centre says they would not help because headphones are out of warranty, although this problem is not on my hands, just a defective batch.

Don't know why, but still have last hope for some miracle, such as out of warranty replacement, or something like that.

Anyone got any ideas what should I do, to save earphones and money spent?

[WyrdRaven]

I have exactly the same issue, the left bud will now only last about 45-50 minutes, with the right continuing to work normally. My pair were bought in Feb 2022 so not too happy that £200 headphones will need replacing after just over 2 years. Apparently the issue revolves around Sony making a mess of the batteries that were sourced for these headphones. This link explains the issue in good detail: imgur.com/ASPZwiL

[begrous64]

Thanks - yes, I saw that.

I spoke to Sony customer services and got the anticipated ‘computer says
no’ responses as mine are 5mths out of warranty. They did some
troubleshooting on the phone - things I’d already done like factory resets
and concluded by sending me a PDF asking me to send them to Sony for
repair, all at my own expense, of course.

As the buds are effectively unfit for purpose now, I may as well send them
and see what they come back with. When they ask me to pay more than I paid
for the headphones to repair them, I will then kick off and see where that
gets me.

I have to say, I am not confident that any of this will help me avoid
having to spend another £200+ on new headphones and consign these to the
bin. What this experience has done is put me off buying Sony again,
whatever the reviews etc. say. As a known issue, they should have recalled
them and offered replacements, not gaslit their own customers. It’s
appalling!

[WyrdRaven]

Will be interested to hear what happens if you send them in, and how much they charge you. It should be a free replacement as this is on Sony. They put substandard batteries in what seems to be a random number of units, and then fried them with a firmware update (without testing it against those batteries), which is just incompetence. 

[dietervonkhan]

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Based in the UK. I bought the earbuds as soon as they were released in summer 2021. The issue first occurred to me I. December 2022 (6 months post warranty) I kicked up a fuss and eventually got them replaced for free. It then occurred to the replacements in June 2024. So the replacements had a shelf life of around 18 months. Tried my luck and pestered Sony and the eventually relented and replaced them again. In short it's well worth pestering them. Escalate to the CRO (customer relations office) team and don't take no for an answer.

[begrous64]

Thanks - do you have an email address for the CRO?

If this is indeed a known issue to Sony, then not issuing a product recall, having wilfully distributed a firmware update that fried customer’s products, then gaslighting the affected customers into paying for repairs themselves is pretty disingenuous/fraudulent.

[dietervonkhan]

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Yep, it's not great. They'll relent if you pester them enough but are happy to let others who don't know throw their money away.

Email address is cro.en@eu.sony.com

[begrous64]

Thank you

[RichDP]

Hi @SatoruGojo,

Thanks for your post, which I've only just seen, after wrestling with the same battery drain hassles on my WFM4s as others on this thread.

• I tried Resetting - no change.
• I then Initialised - and was initially optimistic, as the battery levels in each earbud suddenly jumped up vs their previous status, when I re-paired with my phone, and linked again to the Sound Connect app.

However (a) the L bud still won't charge to 100% (the R one now does); and (b) the L bud still drains faster than a bucket with a hole in it.

My f/w version is up-to-date at 2.1.0.

Any other tips from your side, please?

[begrous64]

I confess my solution has been to consign them to my bedside drawer, buy a pair of Apple AirPods Pro, and tell anyone that asks not to trust Sony products. I don’t think I could buy their products again after this experience. 

[RichDP]

Thanks @begrous64!

I'm less negative overall. I've used WFXM5s (that were stolen 😔) and now have LinkBuds S (which I love and are my usual model). I've also used and loved many Sony overhead headphones over the years.

For me, this WFXM4 battery issue is a pain in the a** like for everyone else, but above all I find it totally weird and want to understand it!

I recall the WH-1000XM3s once had an issue with use in cold weather - specifically, leaving a warm interior and moving to a cold outside place, which made them go haywire. But that was fixed with a firmware update; there was no lasting detriment to the hardware.

Unlike this WFMX4 conundrum 🤔