6 Ways to Prevent Hearing Aid Bluetooth Issues

6 Ways to Prevent Hearing Aid Bluetooth Issues
Dr. Rachael Cook, audiologist at Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona, talks about ways to prevent issues with your hearing aid Bluetooth.

Oticon consumer hotline: [phone]
Phonak consumer hotline: [phone]
ReSound consumer hotline: [phone]
Starkey consumer hotline: [phone]
Signia consumer hotline: [phone]
Widex consumer hotline: [phone]

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:36 Hearing Aid Firmware
02:00 Phone Software Updates
02:40 Restarting Your Phone
03:28 Closing Out Open Apps
04:54 Forgetting Unused Bluetooth Pairings
05:23 Keeping Your Phone On You
06:55 Summary

[CTripodi]

Informative video, this should help people who aren't tech savvy. Bluetooth should have zero issues connecting and reconnecting to your phone when pertaining to high-cost hearing aids, no excuses. My Beats ear buds have no problem connecting to my phone all the time every time and it costs thousands less than my hearing aids. Yet my high dollar Oticon hearing aids do, especially when it comes to LE Audio. Android, Google, Samsung, and the hearing aid companies have to come up with a full proof solution. It's frustrating getting a phone call and neither one of us can hear each other. Listening to music and the signals just drops and having to repeatedly reboot the hearing aids to connect to the phone. Bluetooth has been around for a very long time now; it seems that connection problems would be a thing of the past.

[bevintx]

I can’t help but laugh at myself 🙂. I watched this video yesterday and was very pleased that Bluetooth on my iPad had been very steady of late. Then last night, all of a sudden sound stopped streaming through one of my HAs. After a lot of fiddling around, I ended up rebooting, which didn’t help. It was only corrected after if disconnected my HAs and then reconnected them. It happened again this morning, but this time just a reboot corrected the problem. So much for thinking that it wasn’t going to happen to me!

[Brightsparks]

It's a very challenging tech area as all forms of wireless connectivity between devices rely on a mix of hardware, software, apps and firmware to work correctly. I chose my Phonak Lumity 90's in part because of the use of Bluetooth Classic and the ability to pair up to 8 devices and have two simulataneous connections. I use the L90's across Android and Apple devices throughout the day and they function well about 90+% of the time. I still need to fully restart, either the phone, or the L90's of both sometimes when the communication is lost and auto reconnect does not work. I'm tech savy and it drives me nuts, so I am sure there are many customers and audiologists that get equally frustrated. I can only imagine the challenges of trying to sort BT connectivity issues via remote care with a non tech savy customer

[franksylvester]

You have been a great help. Thank you.

[joemeetze]

This was very helpful, thank you enjoy all your videos 😊❤

[anderslagerqvist]

I'd like to add that when in large open spaces and you have the phone in the pocket it might have some difficulties.
Bluetooth radio usually connect through radio bouncing on the environment (not through your body, as they try to be energy efficient).
In such a case, simply picking up your phone from your pocket may greatly improve the connection as that can provide direct connection.

[lauramaeda]

Great information. I love my Bluetooth. Currently trying to decide on upgrading my phone to get a couple of additional features. There’s one physical feature that is missing on the latest iPhone version and the last version of the iPhone is not that much newer than my current iPhone. Support system on the app works well and my audiologist, Scot Frink, has Saturday classes every few months where the app and accessories are reviewed.

[PWS]

My hearing aids work perfectly with the Bluetooth in all but one situation. When I go out for a walk and choose to listen to music from my phone, the sound will drop one ear or another depending upon which direction I look. When I look both ways to cross a street, the side away from my view will cease, then return as I look that direction but of course loose the other ear. I will try some of the tips in the video to see if it helps. Thanks

[pareshraheja]

Referring to the 6th option. There is a wierd issue on my dad's widex hearing aid. He had no iasues of disconnection when he went out of the range of the bluetooth b/w phone and HA. But ever since there was a green line issue on this phone, we sent it to OEM for replacement. Did a hard reset on the phone and the issue of not connecting again when he goes out of bluetooth range has become very prominent. Extremely frustrating as did all actions from 1 to 5.

Phone is S21 Fe and HA is Widex Maginify

[waynekosters]

I disagree with your statement that 'if your hearing are not connecting to your Bluetooth HA devices that I have used are not as robust as BT headphones. Better testing and device error logging by the HA manufacturers could minimize the need for the steps presented in this video.

[Jetboat]

Before I watch this video, I will make a prediction that the "voice isolation" feature for iOS and droid are not mentioned. Huge advance in bluetooth anything! Love the video and intel from Dr Cliff and crew. NOW, let's see if I am wrong.

[per]

I bought a new iPad Air in 2021, the Bluetooth connection did not work on one of the hearing unit.
It was a long way to solve. Tried warranty by the iPad supplier who ran the iPad a whole day with headphones connected without any issues.
Next contacted Apple without any luck for days.
The problem was the software/firmware on the iPad.
Lucky enough, some 10 days later, Apple had an official standard update that fixed the problem.
The hearing aid Bluetooth is not the same as the commercial Bluetooth.
Happened also on my iPhone on another occasion so be aware of such issues.
Strange that it takes so much effort and time to find the problem like this if it happens.
Could be the brand of hearing aid, who knows?

[sancarloscyclist]

Hi, I have a unique problem. I bought a new android tablet and I am able to pair my phonak lumity hearing aids to bluetooth and can stream music to my hearing aids without problems. I am also able to pair my haring aids to the myphonak android app. The problem is that whenever I try to connect to the app, the screen freezes for awhile and then reports an error saying that it cannot connect. Do you have any idea of what is going on and what is the fix? I thank you for your help.

[ftincyclist]

My Oticon 1 intent will pair with my Samsung Cell phone. But with only pair but not connect with my Samsung Galaxy TAB S9+ 5G Tablet.. I have tried everything.. I can control the hearing aids using the companion APP . But the hearing aids will NOT stream music or video like it does with my phone.. I even turn my phone off and reset BT setting on my tablet. What am I doing wrong.
OH my Oticon Connectclip pairs and I can stream that way But I should not have to use the clip to stream. Any one PLEASE HELP

[SalimKanji-nz]

I lost my phone set. The newer phone paired with the hearingaids. I cannot connect the BLUTOoTH feature to my aids
I cannot connect to phone calls, nor to any youtube sounds.
Please somebody please help

How can I disconnect from a lost phone?

[djhttt]

Pretty good video for the average person. You’re incorrect about only closing one iPhone app at a time. A user can close as many as their fingers can touch on multiple app screen view. Give it a try. 5:19 5:19

[lisalu]

All good suggestions, but none of those had made any difference in the crummy BT connectivity with my new EXPENSIVE ($5000!) hearing aids. They stream music fine so long as my iPhone is right in front of me. But try to put it in my pocket while I'm exercising, or even hold it down by my side, and the connection craps out. Gonna return them and use my excellent $200 AirPods Pro 2 instead.

[sameskr]

As a former Apple mobile device service technician, you should not force quit apps daily, let alone multiple times a day. It takes more resources to startup an app than to wake it. Most apps are put into a full hibernation mode and draw no resources. The reboot is as likely to introduce a faulty compute into the system as anything.

[KahluaU]

Do “made for iPhone” aids use a different/ more efficient Bluetooth connection

[billgerhardt]

Any info on Motorola's inability to stream to Signia hearing aids? They connect to app control but will not stream from phone