IFE Bluetooth Volume
 

Has anyone found the volume to be extremely low when pairing Bluetooth? Wired is fine. I'm using a Sony WF-1000XM5. Does anyone know of a workaround? At least with my earbuds, it seems volume is controlled from the source only and there isn't anything I can set on my earbuds to increase it's native volume.


I wonder how many times I assumed Ch9 wasn't available when the volume was just to low (probably zero)

I know the Bluetooth has worked at least once for me so maybe certain aircraft doesn't have this issue

Had similar problem with my wireless earbuds last weekend. Once even could not get sound at all. Resolved when I ended and restarted the film. And, yes, AFAIK the only volume control is onscreen.

I noticed the low volume issue, too, but I chalked it up to using AirPod Pro and not a proper pair of headphones.

I had another Bluetooth-related quirk, probably because I used earbuds. I didn't pause the TV show or Bluetooth connection before I went to the bathroom. I kept hearing the audio as I walked a few rows (maybe five or six rows), before the Bluetooth connection likely disconnected. When I got back to my seat, I didn't regain my Bluetooth connection. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting my AirPod Pro, and, despite it saying I successfully reconnected each time, I could not hear any audio.

I eventually gave up and asked a flight attendant for a pair of the freebie headsets. It's most definitely user error or an odd edge case, but I wonder now if I could've successfully reconnected to another seatback and heard the audio fine then.

I have the same issues with several earbuds I have tried, but the Beats Fit Pro has come out better than others.

I have the same earbuds. I think the volume is okay if you independently turn up both the earbuds and the volume controller on the screen all the way. What I have found is that the controller on the screen keeps either muting itself or reducing the volume to near zero without any intervention on my part. It usually sticks after raising the volume to 100% the third or fourth time. The problem I have is getting the system to pair with the earbuds. Sometimes the system says it has paired the earbuds, but has not. Sometimes it does pair but then drops and needs to be paired again. It is frustrating. I have written about this to UA every time it happens, but I have not seen any improvement. As a backup, I have a small blue tooth transmitter I got on Amazon that plugs into the earphone jack and pairs with my earbuds almost immediately. That setup has enough volume to blow the earbuds right out of your ears! My experience is that the blue tooth works better on the A321neo and worse on the refurbished 737s.

No problem using Bose headphones, can control volume on-screen or on headphones.

I stumbled across this reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairli...ght_bluetooth/) yesterday - one of the comments is from a flight attendant, who said they have the ability on some aircraft to adjust the baseline volume for your particular seat if it's too low:

I have mostly given up on the Bluetooth connectivity. The first few times with my AirPods 4, it worked flawlessly. Since then, I've had various volume issues, sometimes things changing after a PA announcement is made or the quality disintegrating over a session. I've mostly given up and just now pull my wired EarPods out of my electronics bag.

Oddly enough I had this problem with my Bose headphones a few years ago, but lately its been a non-issue.

How do you raise the volume on the earbud? I thought the volume controller on the IFE screen was the only place?

I can raise volume on the phone when paired to my phone but I assume that only affects the volume the phone is sending to the earbud.

Interesting, I might give that a try

Yeah, that's what normally happens, but somehow it does not work for me when using the screen. I can double tap the right earbud repeatedly to what should be max volume but then look at the volume on the screen and it is still near zero. Then I push the volume control all the way up on the screen and it usually works. If I don't tap the earbuds to max first, there is little to no volume even if the screen shows full volume. What is weird is that the right earbud single taps still pause and restart the video. I have a blue tooth adapter for my Bose QC headphones that does exactly the same thing by design. The volume control on the headphone blue tooth receiver works independently from the volume control of the source device. This seems to be what is happening here at least some of the time. Probably not by design. And it may be device specific.

Ah I forgot about the touch controls. I'll try that.
I disabled most of them on my Sony's because I always accidentally touched them.

I haven't had volume issues, but I do have audio sync issues where the audio is off by a second. A lot of times, I'm just listening while looking down at my laptop, but it is slightly bothersome when watching. Anyone else experiencing this? I've used various Samsung earbuds.