How to Replace Battery Sony WF-1000XM4 WF1000XM4 XM4 Wireless Earbuds | Install | Remove | Repair

[CentralSound]

How to replace and upgrade battery on Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Earbuds

[Altirix_]

needs to be a class action to make sony pay for these earbuds after they pushed a firmware that essentially destroyed peoples batteries.

[josephjmcdowall]

Thank you for this video. I did send my earphones back to Sony for repair out of warranty. I knew I would have to pay but I was shocked by their estimate of £137 for the repair. I told them this does not make financial sense, so I refused but it still cost me £20 to get my earphones back. I have now repaired the faulty earphone and it worked, thanks to this video. And, I'll change the battery in the other one as well.

[JesseS]

There is no need to remove any connectors. It is best not to, as many people will break the little ribbon cable. The other thing to be careful of is when prying up the circuit boards from the battery, be careful of the little sprung metal tab that contacts the battery, I've heard many people accidentally breaking this part.

Once you separate the headphone casing, use a small plastic pry tool to slowly lift the circuit boards off of the battery. If you do it carefully the glue will lift and stay with the circuit boards.

Then use a tooth pick or other small plastic tool to pry up under the battery, it takes a little bit of prying to get it out, but it shouldn't be difficult. It has glue under it as well.

Once that is out, put in the new battery and push it down into the slot firmly. Then put the circuit boards back onto the battery. You can use a little bit of heat and squeeze it firmly together and it should stick.

TEST IT BEFORE YOU GLUE THE HOUSING BACK TOGETHER. Use a B7000 clear glue, have a paper towel and an alcohol wipe handy. Put a tiny bead around the housing (don't worry if you make a little bit of a mess) and squeeze it together. Whilst still keeping it squeezed together, run a paper towel around the outside to clean up excess glue, and then run back over it in a back and forth motion with an alcohol wipe. Then let it sit and dry for at least an hour (preferably overnight) before using it.

I just changed the battery in both of mine. Heating it up with my wife's hair dryer took longer than the actual operation.

[sonboogie]

Holy crap thx for this. I thought my Sonys were finished. Full charge was draining in under 30 mins. You've earned my business.👍

[theamarothman]

Changed mine literally 4 hours ago. Followed the tutorial meticulously, then, there was no sound. Got me choked up a bit. Turns out I just need to put the ear bud in the charging case for a few second, and the sound came back! It's good as new! Now I'm just letting the glue curing overnight, and should be ready to use tomorrow! Thanks man for this tutorial!

[jimmylie]

this video is a life saver, i spent 2 hours trying to pry it open, almost gave up and found this video. thank you 🙌

[gastondonoso]

I’m so grateful to this video tutorial! I ordered the batteries and did the installation as instructed! I couldn’t be happier with the result! My ear buds are better than new! Thanks Central Sound!

[Hrupix]

the idea with clamps did work perfektly easy. I did heat it up to 100°C, since you didn't mentioned the temperature

[Agent_Cormac]

Ha, I love this! I gave up on these earbuds 2 years ago after the left earbud stopped working. For context, it was my second pair, first had the same issue but I was fortunate enough to get a full refund.

In my attempts at self repair, I managed to pry open the left earbud but I didn’t investigate any further so as not to cause any damage.

Now I come across your video, I realised the issue was the with the boards! They were no longer connected, must have come loose through daily use! Now reconnected and back to life…

Great to have them working again, thanks for the tip 😎🙏🏾

[fatb]

Awesome video - without this video guide I could have easily damaged the contact to the battery under the main board or torn the small ribbon connector!

Took me about 30 minutes total for both ear buds with testing to make sure all the connections were intact. I did leave the buds out of the case for 24 hours to discharge the old batteries just to be safe.

One key technique in this video is using the small clamp to gently squeeze the case and open the case seam. I would not have done that myself because I would have been concerned about cracking the case. But the case is far more flexible than it appears.

I used a small hair dryer that worked great. Even my small Chandler heat gun would have been overkill.

The only issue I had was when a little ball of the old adhesive prevented the battery from connecting with the battery contact under the main board. Once I got that removed, everything worked great in the left-hand ear bud.

I carefully loosened the small ribbon cable from the adhesive with a small Ifixit plastic lever (aka "spudger) once I warmed that adhesive up bit. I did not have to remove the small ribbon connector, and I was able to use a very small electronics screwdriver to pry the battery out and the new battery slid into place no problem as long as the adhesive is warm.

I used T-7000 adhesive that I located on Amazon on the case and that worked great. It comes in black and clear. Black was the OEM glue used in my white XM4 buds. The tube of T-7000 had a very fine applicator tip that was ideal for applying a fine line of adhesive inside the case. I had no adhesive cleanup outside of the bud cases.

I dry fit the cases to make sure the buds worked then used the T-7000 adhesive, put a few small rubber bands around them for a few hours.

Then I put the buds in the power case and carefully in my ears one last time make sure everything worked, and it did. I used the renovated buds at the gym the next day and they worked flawlessly! Cool and informative video - Thanks!!!

[Hrathen]

Thanks for this, I managed to successfully replace the battery. The hardest part was disconnecting and reconnecting that tiny ribbon cable.

I see a ton of people complaining about the right earbud.

[MrBoz]

These have been in my drawer for over a year. Already warranty replaced due to right bud dying in minutes. Glad to find this, ordered batteries and am going re-animate these awesome sounding buds. It is such a shame Sony dropped the ball on this version, they were so expensive. I already bought another pair but will be glad to see if this works.

[citizenshay]

Thanks so much, Central Sound! I followed most of your directions but did what @JesseS420 said about not removing the ribbon connector. I removed the batteries without having to fuss with the ribbon connector, thankfully. To open each case, I used a regular hair dryer to heat up the adhesive while holding the part that goes into your ear canal. The first battery took me about 5 min. and the second went a lot faster since I knew what I was doing. Just take your time and don't be in a hurry. As the video mentioned, I also recommend using a plastic pry tool to help with a few of the steps, but I imagine a guitar pick or something similar would work.

[stan_de]

I don't write comments too often, but here is a MUST!
Thank you for this super tutorial, and especially for the hint with the clamper to open them up. Opening them could be the most difficult part for me and you easen my life. Respect!!!

[MrOrthoclase]

Well shot video with excellent lighting. Thank you. Just replaced both of my batteries. The right would only last 30m with a 'full' charge and multi-meter showed 3.2v. But once that was done, the left couldn't keep up with the right anymore, it discharged before the left got to 40%. So I replaced that one too. I referred to this video both time to see the ribbon cable depth inside the port as well as where good 'pry' points were for the battery to avoid sensitive electronics. Thank you so much.

[EusebioResende]

Just got the battery and will try to replace it today.
One thing I will do before applying the adhesive on the housing is to test it just to make sure it works.
Will post here how it went.

[spip]

Thank you. No experience in this kind of work and knocked it out in about 30 minutes thanks to your video. I appreciate your hard work. Got my gear from Central Sound!

[wedemeyerr]

Thank you sooo much! Just finished the process 🙌! The hardest part was definitely to open the earphone!!!
Greetings from germany 🇩🇪

[MegaDudette]

Thanks a lot. Managed to replace the batteries just now. Had a lot of problems with unplugging the flex cable so decided to do it without unplugging it. It IS possible, but I kind of had to slide the battery out of there.
In the process I folded one of the battery connector tabs all the way back, and while bending it back it broke off. Just fixed it by grabbing a tiny piece of aluminium foil and folding it into a little rectangle.
Put that onto the broken off connector and just put everything together as normal. That seems to have done the trick. Hope this helps someone