topic Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led in Portable Audio

WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

junoder — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 22:11:13 GMT

Why does the WH-1000XM3 start blinking the very bright blue led when pausing music on a double tap on the right headphone? When you restart playing, it still blinks 6 times. When doing this in a dark room, the light is blinding. Why would I want 6 blinks to confirm I restarted playing?

What I would like is no light at all when triggering simple controls like play/pause, skip, volume. I don't even have eyes at the back of my head so why would it need to blink? It only blinds others and lits the room with no purpose. Is there no option to disable that?

(I already hear the user interaction confirmation in my ear. I'm not deaf, I wouldn't use headphones if I was. Why is the visual confirmation sent to others in the room?)

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 18:48:57 GMT

Hi there,

Hopefully a community member can help.

Best wishes,

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

The_Black_Rose — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 17:56:27 GMT

Hi Junoder

I've had a look into the Help Guide of the product. I believe this is just part of the design. You can find more information here:https://helpguide.sony.net/mdr/wh1000xm3/v1/en/contents/TP0001703110.html?search=blue

Also, I am not sure if this can be turned off, yet, I'll try passing on this feedback to Sony.

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

DirtMerchants — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 21:11:21 GMT

I second this annoying bright blue light feature on the headphones. I bought headphones for two purposes: travel and listening to things in bed while my wife tries to sleep. I love every aspect of these except for the pointless blue led light. In a dark plane and especially in my dark bedroom, the blue light flashes and illuminates the entire room! It seems to never stop! Seriously, my wife has woken up screaming at me to turn them off. Now it is to the point where I don't want to wear them in bed, and now I'm also mindful of them when flying as it flashes the entire cabin area around my seat. The brightness is ridiculous and is completely distracting to the user and everyone around them.

There needs to be an option to disable the blue light on this model. There are many, many comments online about people disliking this aspects of otherwise solid headphones. Please advise on a fix!!

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

junoder — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:08:00 GMT

DirtMerchants is exactly right. Now after two weeks of using, the blue led is flashing quite erratically. It doesn't make any sense. Also, the led doesn't really show if the headphones are on or off. If I need to make sure, I still need to press the button, at which time it's easy to get the status with audio only. So the information value for the light is quite low.

Ideal solution (I hope this gets fixed in a future update): in the Headphones app I could dim the light to 1/100 intensity compared to current and turn it off completely (saving settings on the headphones).

Disappointing solution: I put black stage tape on the led.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

DirtMerchants — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 21:45:37 GMT

Questionable solution: take a small nail punch and bust the blue LED.

Which brings up the question: If I were to disable/break/puncture/destroy the LED by tapping a small nail or thumbtack into it, would it have a negative impact on any of the operational aspects of the headphones?

Yes, Sony, I hate that ridiculously bright LED so badly that I'm willing to risk destroying the headphones.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

AndrewBtto — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:57:37 GMT

+1 same problem. Pretty disappointing this was raised in August 2019 and not addressed by the December 2019 firmware update. Sony, we don't want nor need any flashing blue lights on either earbuds to indicate that it is on, that it is paused, or for any other reason. This is the most idiotic excuse for User Experience I've ever seen from you guys. I thought you were supposed to understand headphone users?

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

kejones89 — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 22:46:35 GMT

I'm looking at getting these for nighttime use but the moment I saw on a review video that there's a flashing light it rules out these headphones. Is there not an option in the settings via an app or something?! Nots.

I had some cheap rip off Bluetooth headphones that cost about $10, and the flashing light drove me and my wife mad. So can't pay an extra $150 to be back there.

Buying in a few days time, at the moment it's another brand that's popping the post, simply because of a pointless flashing led!

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

Twaller781 — Mon, 25 May 2020 23:22:24 GMT

Is there still no solution for this. This light is so annoying when listening at night and irritates me and anyone in the room trying to sleep. Why would you want a flashing light on a device you are not looking at. You have to wonder who designs this kind of thing. One solution. Black marker!! Job done . .. Sony seriously sort it out.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

RottenFoxBreath — Tue, 26 May 2020 00:13:12 GMT

Factory reset them.

Power and Ambient button for 7 seconds, and the led flashes 4 times.

Mine don't flash at all like that.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

Soundsfamiliah — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 20:23:03 GMT

Solved: After switching to Automatic Power Off to 'Off when headphones are taken off' in the system tab, the lights don't blink anymore.

your welcome

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

DirtMerchants — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 03:59:12 GMT

So in the most recent system tab, Version 7.4.0, there isn't an option to automatically turn off headphones when taken off your head. The only options are based on time, if to turn off after a certain amount of time. So it's either No, or Yes. If yes, it allows you to set to automatically turn off after 5min, 30mins, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours.

So, the blue light continues to blink no matter if set to automatically turn off or not.

This problem remains unresolved.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

HannahEd01 — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 14:42:26 GMT

Hi DirtMerchants, this model doesn't support auto turn off when you take the headphones off your head. And you can't disable the indicator. Therefore, this is not a fault.

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

DirtMerchants — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 01:46:25 GMT

HannahEd01, don't believe anyone ever said it was a fault. Everyone seems to agree, however, that this is simply poor design by Sony.

As such, most of the discussion has centered around trying to disable the annoying blue light.

Taking the suggestion of someone here, I simply busted the light by hammering a small nail into the bulb.

Guess what? No more annoying blue light!!

Re: WH-1000XM3, how to disable the bright blue led

Joe_Dohn — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 13:46:48 GMT

Other than smashing the light bulb as DirtMerchants mentioned, there's no way to disable it.

The best we could do is provide feedback to the Sony support reps so in the future there are no lights, or they can be turned off on demand somehow.