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Jabra denies support for Elite 85t Bluetooth earbuds on computers

• unixhero 4y ago
  I bought them and then stopped using them. They're junk. Why? There's always something, some reason why they're not ready to go when I need them such as when someone calls. .
• Animats 4y ago
  Search for "false advertising lawyer". This is a good case for a class action. Provable misrepresentation, deep pocket company. You may not get much out of it, but you can apply some pain to Jabra.
• jdavis703 4y ago
  I don’t trust Bluetooth for video conferencing. Having everything hard-wired is much more reliable. It’s why work from home video conferences are janky in a way that in-office VCs weren’t. If you can get a dedicated microphone or webcam and combine it with wired headphones or speakers.
  • johnwalkr 4y ago
    There's probably a lot of people that have worked from home for the last couple of years without even realizing their bluetooth mic sounds terrible. It's also hard to find bluetooth headsets with mics that work in wired mode.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• Hakashiro 4y ago
  This is a blatant abuse and they should be sued and shut down. This is beyond unacceptable. There is no reason to do this kind of thing.
  • ip26 4y ago
    So if you sell a bluetooth device, it is legally required to work properly with every other bluetooth device on earth? I don’t see how that will fly. The obvious reason for doing this kind of thing is their target market & 99.9% of sales are to people using them with phones, so Jabra has no business reason to spend money providing customer support for PC interoperability.
    • AshamedCaptain 4y ago
      > So if you sell a bluetooth device, it is legally required to work properly with every other bluetooth device on earth? It actually is. If you use either the Bluetooth patents or trademarks (e.g. logos and names), not only you must pass a certification that ensures this, you must also "maintain a level of quality that meets or exceeds industry standards", and this evidently doesn't.
      • HKH2 4y ago
        Well, I've never got any non-Apple phones/computers to work with Apple phones/computers using Bluetooth.
        • dijit 4y ago
          Extremely bold claim there. I definitely use my macbook with non-apple hardware. From headphones to laptops to android phones. My first Macbook used to pair with a Nokia E72 to get internet via the GSM modem, I used it every day on the train. Two weeks ago I connected an old Oneplus One via bluetooth to my macbook (2020 mbp) to get some old photos from its internal memory. What doesn't work? EDIT: actually, I'm not sure I ever connected a laptop to a macbook, but I have a linux laptop so I can try it if you want.
• vorpalhex 4y ago
  This is a lesson in not buying from sketchy companies unfortunately. They don't, as far as I am seeing, advertise PC compatibility. So you are out of luck there. Return them if you can and buy something better.
  • scrose 4y ago
    They also don’t advertise supporting phones…
  • thriftwy 4y ago
    Jabra is an old, well-known brand.
    • Nullabillity 4y ago
      Well-known to be the bane of meetings in offices everywhere. Why anyone would buy their garbage is beyond me, not that that excuses how they treat their marks^Wcustomers.
      • tootie 4y ago
        We exclusively used Jabra speakerphones at my last few offices and I have a few at home. They work very well and I've never seen them have a single problem.
        • Godel_unicode 4y ago
          Same. They also regularly win recommendations from a variety of review sites.
      • Ekaros 4y ago
        Now question really should be all they better or worse than the alternatives? Haven't used their product overly much, but never truly had issues.
    • bastardoperator 4y ago
      It's a brand I would expect my 70 year old mom to buy because she remembers it from 15 years ago.
• AshamedCaptain 4y ago
  I'd hope they lose the Bluetooth label and certification for this kind of crap, but we know nothing will happen.
  • x0x0 4y ago
    Come on; bluetooth is in year ~20 of public alpha test. No certification would mean a thing besides, "Bluetooth: it could work!"
    • hyperdimension 4y ago
      That's a pretty good slogan. I vote for a duel between Bluetooth and USB-C marketers as to who can use it. EDIT: the idea of tunneling USB-C ports over Bluetooth (like the wireless USB standard that I never quite saw take off) just occurred to me while writing this comment. What fresh hell.
  • g051051 4y ago
    You'd have to prove that they're the ones with the faulty Bluetooth implementation, not the PC hardware, drivers, or OS.
    • AshamedCaptain 4y ago
      Not when they're the ones claiming they don't want to interoperate with stuff that does have Bluetooth certification (e.g. Apple hardware).
      • smoldesu 4y ago
        Who exactly certifies MacOS (or any OS) for Bluetooth compliance?
        • userbinator 4y ago
          It's usually not about the OS but the BT controller (hardware) itself.
• x0x0 4y ago
  I bet your credit card or merchant will provide a refund. Which is too bad because the only thing I don't like about my Jabra 65t s after probably 1k hours of use is they don't get quiet enough, but :shrug:.
  • JadeNB 4y ago
    > I bet your credit card or merchant will provide a refund. After 2 months? I guess it depends on the merchant, but I think my credit card requires that I dispute a charge within 30 days.
• samanbb 4y ago
  My Jabra Elite 85h over-ear headphones suffer from the same issue. These are Wirecutter's suggested Bluetooth headphones, which is why I bought them. I wonder if they still would be if it was widely known that these headphones are not meant to be used with computers.
  • kurthr 4y ago
    Yeah, this is sketchy behavior for a premium brand. They really seem to need you to run their mobile app. It's hard to tell from their advertising that it covers more than iPhones... although it does say it works with Google Assistant. The only info I found about supporting other laptops (it mentions phones, tablets, and mobile devices?) was in their help faqs: https://www.jabra.com/supportpages/jabra-elite-85t/100-99190000-02/faq/Can-I-connect-my-Jabra-Bluetooth-device-with-a-computer-or-softphone https://www.jabra.com/supportpages/jabra-elite-85t/100-99190... Which basically says it won't fully function... but it might work with MS teams? I wonder what data they're collecting with the mobile app, whether it's being monetized to support development, or simply that they don't care about a fairly common use case.
    • tootie 4y ago
      That's different than OP was implying. They're saying that a lot of the playback and volume controls may not work as expected, not that you won't be able to hear and speak.
  • donmcronald 4y ago
    > These are Wirecutter's suggested Bluetooth headphones I stopped trusting Wirecutter a long time ago when they "recommended" powerline adapters that sucked. After buying some and doing my own testing I realized the whole product category sucks unless you're super desperate with no other options. Of course instead of saying that Wirecutter happily gives the best piece of garbage 8 or 9 stars. That's the problem with affiliate marketing blogs like Wirecutter. They'll happily do relative rankings of pure crap if it means you'll buy something for them to get the affiliate revenue. We need a new generation of review sites and reviewers.
• avihaybar 4y ago
  Had the same issue with my 75t Elite on OSX with Slack Huddles. It seems like the root cause was the "Enable automatic gain control", or something along those lines. It was super annoying, as they kept muting me mid-sentence, but since turning this option I haven't faced this issue anymore.
  • wawawiwa 4y ago
    (OP) That's what on the Reddit post indeed, but unfortunately this option isn't available everywhere, and it doesn't always work :/
• aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
  What does it even mean they don’t support “computers”? Bluetooth doesn’t distinguish between computers and mobile phones.
• jahewson 4y ago
  Website says requires Bluetooth 5.1 but macOS only supports Bluetooth 5, right?
  • AshamedCaptain 4y ago
    And yet I'm quit sure this is just yet another Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP device, rather than something running LE Audio which would require BT 5.0.
• exikyut 4y ago
  So then install Android-x86 on your laptop. Use it for a bit, verify the mic fails. Call them up and tell them that you're performing a hardware compatibility evaluation to the same standard of due-diligence that would be used ahead-of-time in any competent enterprise-scale hardware accessory rollout - and that a prerequisite step in this process is to validate candidate accessories on Android in unusual environments, to exhaustively verify interoperability considering the known variability of the Bluetooth landscape (on both sides of any given connection). "But that's a computer." "Yes, running Android, an OS explicitly supported by logos on your packaging, specific instructions in the user manual and support in the official app." "Using this hardware on a computer is not supported." "Your official product communications clearly convey that you unilaterally support Android regardless of device type. The type of Android device I am using here is an x86 laptop, precisely to facilitate wide-range compatibility testing, and to catch potential compatibility issues early on. I'm interested in using this hardware, but after only 20 minutes of testing I've found I experience dropouts while using the officially supported app and running on an officially supported operating system." I would be very interested to know how the conversation would continue... Sadly this would be one of those Weird Thing In Instruction Manual-generating events ("why does this say it's not compatible with Android on PC???") but it might work. (And if the person on the other end of the phone is mostly listening for keywords and they actually think you might be doing some sort of enterprise rollout (*cough* and want to buy a lot more hardware *cough*)... they might suddenly be very interested...)
  • evan_ 4y ago
    This fails at the “call them up” step. Nobody you get on the phone is going to understand or care about any of this.
    • exikyut 4y ago
      They might, best-case-scenario, just be listening for keywords, and actually think I want to do a rollout. It's kind of sad one has to think this way, and I wouldn't push things to the point of actively deceiving, but what if something like the above worked? I admittedly don't care about any of it either. My goal would be to introduce chinks in the armor in the arguments presented and try and carry that as far as possible in the hope a solution presents itself. The idea in the GP popped into my head as one entirely-throwaway potential solution to that bigger-picture problem. It's quite possible a different approach may work better.
• mywacaday 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing this, I have the 75t which I use for mobile and work. I love them and would rbuy again in a heartbeat but this kind of nonsense is unacceptable.
  • wawawiwa 4y ago
    (OP) same here :'(
• bitL 4y ago
  My Jabra Evolve2 65 started dropping mic under Windows randomly as well... Maybe it's the same chip and the same problem as in 85t?
  • woodson 4y ago
    Do you use the included usb dongle?
    • bitL 4y ago
      No, didn't even notice there was one.
• swores 4y ago
  I've just initiated a within-30-days return for a full refund of my new Jabra Evolve2 75 headset. It comes with a USB dongle so they definitely won't be claiming it doesn't support PC use, but I don't trust a company that makes such scammy claims and I've tweeted them to say just that. Ah well, I thought I was enjoying my third Jabra product and it turns out I won't touch them with a barge pole again, unless and until they publicly retract and apologise for this behaviour. Anyone have recommendations for a good on-ear headset for (mostly) work calls?
  • theptip 4y ago
    Bose QC 35 headphones work reasonably well, good noise cancelling, good enough mic for calls. I hear the Sony NC headsets getting better reviews in the last couple years on at least their NC functionality.
    • gomox 4y ago
      Headsets without a boom microphone only work in the quietest of environments, the Bose is not really a suitable replacement for the Jabra model mentioned above.
    • Closi 4y ago
      I’ve found the mics in QC35 don’t work in an office btw (and I have to be careful at home) - they sometimes pick up people talking quietly at the other side of the room and amplify them because it thinks you are just speaking quietly in my experience (when really you aren’t saying anything). I think it’s to do with how they volume adjust the mics dynamically or something. I use my QC35s all the time but switch to a jabra wired headset for calls as got lots of complaints with the QC35s and kept being told to go on mute.
• benchaney 4y ago
  I'm currently struggling to find usable bluetooth earbuds. One pair that I found comes flying out of my ears when I moved my head at all. Another is dangerously loud even on the lowest volume setting. The third came with a nonstandard (and therefore essentially useless) charger. It really seems like the entire market is flooded with garbage.
  • Bud 4y ago
    There's a reason Apple has sold over 300 million pairs of AirPods, even though they are expensive.
  • sto_hristo 4y ago
    Have you tried Sony WF-1000XM4? I currently have them and have had 0 issues with them so far. Bluetooth connectivity is great and i regularly switch them between a linux laptop (used for meetings, slight media) and android phone (calls, music).
    • benchaney 4y ago
      Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely look into them.
      • smoldesu 4y ago
        +1 for the Sony XMs, doubly so if you're on a Linux machine. These things "just work" as well as the Bluetooth adapter you have on the other side. Connection is easier than literally any other Bluetooth peripherals I've used.
        • vladvasiliu 4y ago
          How's the mic on those? I have the WH-XM3s and boy do they suck. I've never managed to get good audio from their mic, be it on Linux, macOS, or iOS. I bought them for listening to music, so I don't really mind, and for this they are absolutely great, even on Linux. Never had any issues with them and didn't have to jump through any hoops.
• smoldesu 4y ago
  I own the 75ts, they work excellent on Linux. None of my wireless headphones work all that well on Mac, come to think of it...
  • aendruk 4y ago
    The Elite 85t has also been working well for me. mSBC, PipeWire 0.3, Linux 5.17, Intel AX200
• buildingsramen 4y ago
  I have the same issue with Elite 75t. It seems to be the result of the microphone volume adaptively creeping downwards. When it gets too low, Jabra auto-mutes. You can bump the volume up to the midpoint in your audio settings and it will take about another month to re-occur. Sorry this isn't a better solution.
• tga 4y ago
  What is a good alternative for a USB/Bluetooth office/WFH headset with a noise canceling _microphone_ (no background voices/noise), especially one that would also work on Linux? Jabra Elite2 40 for example looked almost perfect, but was almost unusable on Linux/without their custom software.
  • Bilal_io 4y ago
    I was going to recommend the Sony WH-1000XM4 (which are more expensive). But I wanted to Google Linux support first and I ran into this discussion on Reddit [0], it sounds like the issue is not with the headphones (any BT headphones you choose) but with Pulse Audio. https://www.reddit.com/r/sony/comments/jght5s/sony_wh1000xm4_only_partially_working_with_ubuntu/g9st0gg?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/sony/comments/jght5s/sony_wh1000xm4...
    • Godel_unicode 4y ago
      A problem with Linux support for Bluetooth audio? Say it isn't so! I don't understand why people are surprised that using Bluetooth devices on Linux frequently requires "their custom software". This is why.
      • smoldesu 4y ago
        On the flip side, Linux audio supports things that MacOS and Windows do not. Do you have 990kbps LDAC running on your desktop? Probably not if you aren't on Android or Linux. With PipeWire, I feel pretty comfortable saying Linux has Mac and Windows beat with wireless audio compatibility. Yes, Pulseaudio/ALSA and Jack kinda suck. That's a pretty dead horse to beat when you consider the offerings on... other platforms.
        • Godel_unicode 4y ago
          Of course I do, I wanted to be sure for myself that the difference is inaudible on Windows like it is on Android. I bought an adapter which supports it and confirmed it was transmitting it, then did my a/b/x testing. It sounds like you agree with me, the default Linux support for Bluetooth audio is bad and requires custom workarounds to fix. That's exactly what I said.
• Aissen 4y ago
  There's always the slight possibility that this might be a bug in the macOS Monterey bluetooth stack ? Hardware interoperability is quite complicated, but the device did work with the previous version of macOS (presumably the one Jabra had to test before shipping).
  • tyrfing 4y ago
    Indeed. There are 100s of complaints on Reddit about Bluetooth devices being broken on Monterey, including Apple peripherals: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/search?q=monterey+bluetooth&restrict_sr=on https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/search?q=monterey+bluetooth&r...
• dwighttk 4y ago
  Why is this submission 2x as wide as the comments? (I’m on mobile Safari)
  • dwighttk 4y ago
    Ahh. It’s that url isn’t it?
• gotrythis 4y ago
  I have the Elite 85h, and it has the same problem, as well as about a dozen other problems when you connect it to a computer. Same response. But the sales letter for the product makes it clear that they do support computers. My last email to Jabra was ignored: The message that computers are not supported devices on the Jabra Elite 85h was a very upsetting response to receive, so I didn't respond for quite a while. It's quite frustrating to hear that expensive bluetooth headphones designed to connect to 8 devices are not meant to work with computers. If that were the case, I would expect the Jabra site to say that computers are not supported in BIG letters, as I imagine a lot of people, like me, would expect their computer to be one of those 8 devices. However, this statement about computers not being supported cannot be true. On the Jabra site for this product, it says: "no need to plug your headphones into your computer." It also has a picture of the product beside a Macbook. I've included screen shots of the product page that show these two points that clearly indicate computers are supported. I've heard this issue of the Elite 85h not being compatible with computers before from Jabra support, but it seems so implausible that Jabra would make bluetooth headphones that don't support computers, and equally implausible that they would mislead people into buying them on their site by suggesting that computers are supported if they are not. I'm still hoping to get solutions to all the problems I'm having connecting my Jabra Elite 85h to my MacBook Air. Currently it's unusable and I'm going to have to buy another headset to replace them, which is much more wasteful than I would like.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  • jjeaff 4y ago
    I use my Jabra headphones to connect to all 8 of my cell phones. I'm sure that is the use case they were built for.
    • Titan2189 4y ago
      Aaand now you're on the watch list
    • birdyrooster 4y ago
• tlholaday 4y ago
  Is this section of Jabra's FAQ new? https://www.jabra.com/supportpages/jabra-elite-85t/100-99190000-02/faq/b0e77e3a-d177-43d4-a4ca-cb07b7582640 https://www.jabra.com/supportpages/jabra-elite-85t/100-99190...
• techSupport123 4y ago
  this is a"feature" added to the OS in Monterey that applies to bluetooth headsets - it will auto-mute you when input volume drops to zero, and, AFAIK, many video conferencing clients (zoom, google meets, etc) use this feature to help deal with background noise. - Zoom instructions to disable dynamic input volume - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/432445/bluetooth-headphones-mute-themselves-randomly https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/432445/bluetooth-h... - google meet instructions (when run via Chrome) - there's a flag you can add when starting Chrome, --force-fieldtrials='WebRTC-Audio-AgcMinMicLevelExperiment/Enabled-20' , that will fix the issue. For ease of use, create an AppleScript file, convert it to a shortcut, and launch Chrome from it. edit - formatting
  • orev 4y ago
    No, this happens on Windows too, and it’s not related to auto mute or anything like that. The audio stream just drops for a second, like if there was interference or buffer issue.
• stevewodil 4y ago
  I have a eerily similar problem with my Galaxy Buds+ on my macbook. 15-20 minutes into a Zoom call and suddenly my audio doesn't work and neither does the mic, I have to ditch the headphones and use the laptop mic + speakers. Going to guess it's a macOS bug given that other headphones are showing the same behavior
• dgacmu 4y ago
  There's a good answer below about how to disable this feature in Chrome. An alternative to starting it with the experiment flag is to use the "Disable Automatic Gain Control" Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-automatic-gain-co/clpapnmmlmecieknddelobgikompchkk/related https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-automatic-... I've been using it for a while with an 85h and it at least removes _that_ part of the failure. The stupid things keep rebooting themselves randomly while I'm on calls, however - I will never buy another Jabra product again. (there was a discussion about this a while ago on reddit where folks identified these workarounds): https://www.reddit.com/r/Jabra/comments/qikzif/elite_85h_spontaneously_muting_on_new_macbook_pro/hpg1hp4/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Jabra/comments/qikzif/elite_85h_spo...
• Master_Odin 4y ago
  I've the same headphones, and the two problems I've had with them were: 1. Mic auto-muting during meetings. The fix here was to disable automatic mic gain or whatever 2. Headphones not always properly playing music from my phone when also being connected (but not used) to my laptop. Fix was to turn off Bluetooth on my laptop. In both cases, it seems to be purely an issue with macOS and Apple software, as I've never had a single issue when using windows or my Android phone. For the second issue when I researched it, the conclusion was that apple just regularly does poorly with BT devices connected to multiple sources as why would you use something other than your apple product?
• darkr 4y ago
  Surely anything that supports bluetooth is by consequence "a computer"?
• grishka 4y ago
  And then people keep asking me why I have trust issues with wireless tech. A 3.5mm jack just works, with everything, every time, all the time, regardless of any outside factors.
  • jpollock 4y ago
    Tell that to my linux desktop which keeps losing track of the 3.5mm jack audio output. I keep having to reset it and fiddle with it every reboot.
    • grishka 4y ago
      • encryptluks2 4y ago
        Audio has worked great on Linux for a while. Pulse Audio improved a lot, and now Pipewire, pretty much everything just works.
        • grishka 4y ago
          As you can see from the parent comment, pretty much everything just works, except when sometimes it doesn't :D
        • pjerem 4y ago
          To be fair, I’m at a point where my audio works better on my personal Linux setup than on my high end Windows Dell laptop at work. Which is the exact opposite as my situation 10-15 years ago. That’s how much Windows transformed itself into a pile of shit during the last decade.
          • worik 4y ago
            I have the same experience Linux <-> MacOS, compared to twenty five years ago Part of it is that Linux got better, part of it Apple got worse. Very odd
• throwawayboise 4y ago
  Reason #329 that I don't buy Bluetooth stuff. The OP's description above sounds like a good day using Bluetooth, in my experience.
• syntaxing 4y ago
  I own the Evolve2 65 and had issues at first but a firmware update on the app fixed a ton of issues. Been going strong using the Bluetooth directly on my MacBook running Monterey. I would not use the included dongle if possible. It’s UC adapter is absolutely terrible on macOS.
• symlinkk 4y ago
  This kind of shit is why I just went with AirPods Max.
• rincebrain 4y ago
  Yeah, I got burned by this "philosophy" when I found their Elite 85h full headphones wouldn't play with anything but a very specific subset of my devices (my Android phone, amusingly, not among them) and tried to complain. They do sell a dongle to make this work, and more generally I have heard you can use things like the Creative BT-W2/W3 to make Bluetooth devices that don't play well with whatever chipset/driver mess you have play well - because they just show up to the OS as a generic soundcard and don't mention the word Bluetooth to anything the OS can see, and their implementation, unlike many software/hardware vendors', _works_ robustly. But I have not personally tried it, yet. (I'm still using the 85h for some things because the set of {USB-C charging, good noise cancelling, does not break with strange bugs in a week} headphones is much smaller than you might hope, but not for more general use.)
  • peatmoss 4y ago
    Creative BT-W3: I have one and it works exactly as it says on the tin. The only slightly annoying thing is that, once a headset is paired to the dongle, it is like The Highlander. There can be only one. It will snatch the connection to your headset before anything else can. The remedy is to unplug the device from USB and then connect your headset device elsewhere. A great feature is the light which will tell you what codec you’re connected with. An even greater feature is to press the button on the dongle and switch the codec. AptX-LL (low latency) is really nice for video games or videos generally. AptX-HD is acceptable for music if you’re not wed to lossless.
• mtVessel 4y ago
  That's such shit. Companies that pull nonsense like this shouldn't be allowed to market their products. If you're in the US, try contacting the FTC. I have the Elite 85t and it works fine with my Android phone and both my Dell Win 10 machines, so it may be a Mac issue. No excuse for their shitty behavior, but I'd research Mac-specific BT fixes. Or it could be an issue with the button functionality. Try disabling button actions for calls in Sound+.
• stiltzkin 4y ago
  Bought them after reading good reviews on r/audiophile and r/jabra and after some use they have this bug of one of the headset lowers the volume without fix. Last time i buy from them.
• TheChaplain 4y ago
  It could be that Jabra isn't the actual manufacturer of the headphones and it's just a rebrand and the actual manufacturer doesn't give a crap to resolve the issues.
• mleonhard 4y ago
  When I receive a call, my Bose SoundSport headphones randomly ring at max volume, with audible clipping. This happens when the iOS ring volume slider is set to the middle and hearing protection is enabled at 75dB. The sound is shockingly loud, especially when listening to an audio book at low volume. There was a multi-year megathread about it on the Bose forums before the company removed the forums entirely. I chatted with five different Bose Support staff and they all refused to file a bug report. They are happy to send me a third pair with the same problem. How can we get companies to respect their users?
  • nyanpasu64 4y ago
    Ouch. I'm not sure if this fixes your problem, but on Android I like to enable developer options and disable absolute volume to decouple the phone and speaker/headphone volumes, so I can use the device itself to turn down the peak volume (and hopefully noise floor) no matter how loud of a sound the phone tries to output. This might help ringtones, but probably not sounds generated by the headphones. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be exposed by Apple for iPhones.
  • newsclues 4y ago
    • mleonhard 4y ago
      Violence and crime are unacceptable strategies for citizens of democracies. Please delete your comment.
      • pksebben 4y ago
        Whilst I agree with your sentiment regarding violence, I think that what's identified as crime in this case is not necessarily just. It should be criminal to sell faulty equipment and do nothing to fix it, but it isn't. Ergo, the system of law has already failed to reflect what should be appropriate behavior. IMO these companies have already torn up their version of the social contract, so I'm not terribly worried if a frustrated customer takes their website down for a day or two or takes some other nonviolent form of corrective action. I won't do it, but I wouldn't be clamoring to shut down anyone who did.
• userbinator 4y ago
  Tell them that Bluetooth is Bluetooth and all implementations should interoperate. Or that's how it should be, and although there's plenty of stories about it not working with specific combinations of devices, "on computers" is such a ridiculously vague excuse. After updating Macos to Monterey On the other hand, if I were you, I would suspect that first and go after Apple before blaming Jabra. (Maybe the latter knows that Apple broke something in its BT implementation, and this is their excuse?) Perhaps someone with this same environment and knowledge of (or is willing to learn) the BT specs/details can try debugging the problem and determine the ultimate cause and possibly come up with a fix. I'd love to read such an article and I suspect many others on HN would too. (I use BT devices very rarely --- and so far all the ones I did use, seemed to work OK; even the generic Chinese ones with the infamous voice prompts.)
  • layer8 4y ago
    > Bluetooth is Bluetooth and all implementations should interoperate Just like USB-C is USB-C I guess. ;)
    • userbinator 4y ago
      I'm not aware of any features of BT which are tied to the host being "a computer" or not, however.
      • layer8 4y ago
        Yeah, but that’s a less clear argument to make than “everything Bluetooth should always be interoperable”. Since Bluetooth isn’t universally interoperable (e.g. depending on the supported Bluetooth profiles), it’s not a priori clear that “doesn’t work with PC audio” may not be a reasonable technical restriction. Of course we know it isn’t in this case, but it’s not as simple as “it says ‘Bluetooth’ so it should work”.
    • Gigachad 4y ago
      USB3 is USB3, usb-c is only a connector. If a device advertised being compatible with USB3 you'd expect all of USB3 to work and it always has in my experience. Alt modes and thunderbolt are something else which is usually advertised. If a laptop advertised thunderbolt and didn't have that, you'd be right to complain.
• tims33 4y ago
  To be fair, the Mac bluetooth stack is a dumpster fire. Not sure that works as an excuse given that everyone else's headphones seem to work on Mac.
• woodson 4y ago
  Have you tried it with the Jabra Link USB dongle? Yeah it’s pricy if it’s not included (it was with my Evolve2 65), but while using it I never had any issues, as the computer sees it as a USB soundcard (which works pretty well on Win/Linux/Macos). Unfortunately, I never had any luck with any Bluetooth audio device of any manufacturer on computers (as opposed to phones/tablets).
• krick 4y ago
  Honestly, I don't care about the problem itself that much. I mean, I'm used to constant problems with pretty much all audio-devices on my linux laptop (even when they work fine on Windows, which seriously makes me angry — when it was supposed to be the fucking year of linux on desktop?), my Elite 65t's are no better nor worse, I did use them on the laptop a couple of times and they worked somehow. But the response is infuriating. I wouldn't really expect anything else from something like Xiaomi, but Jabra? Don't they care about their reputation at all? I mean, they could at least pretend they care. Refunding a single customer is cheap as fuck, even if he is not really in the right. Well, I don't know, but I suspect this thread may already cost them more than fucking $150 or whatever it is Jabra Elite 85t costs now. However, to be completely honest, I'm not sure what my next wireless earbuds manufacturer should be. I bought 65t's a long time ago (obviously), and I'm pretty sure nothing could really compete back then, all things considered. I don't know about now.
• thetinguy 4y ago
  Complain to the ftc and your local attorney general.
• msrpotus 4y ago
  I recently had a problem with one of my Jabra earbuds dying. They claimed it was no longer under warranty (even though their website promised a year or two under warranty and it had been only about 8 months). I eventually just gave up and got new earbuds. It pretty much destroyed my view of the company.
• elchief 4y ago
  I'm on my third pair of elite active 75ts. Love em, but they're a little delicate. Good warranty support tho. They work ok, but not great, on my Asus ubuntu laptop
• throwaway2214 4y ago
  today i bought 9$ wired 3.5mm jack headphones (noname) better than 90$ sony and 300$ bose everything is a scam
• luka-birsa 4y ago
  I just want to stress that while Jabras statement sucks, you really should be reaching out to Apple. Have the same issue on my MBP with Sennheiser Pxa550. With Monterey I actually had to install a plug-in for Chrome that keeps my volume at max during meet calls. List of my issues: - audio doesn't work - audio doesn't switch from call mode to HiFi mode - if I have a call running, it will not switch or work via my headphones - audio balance switches to right headphone .... I tried every recepie and thread I found online. Nothing. Apple sucks. Funny thing tho, I actually have a pair of Jabra 75t. And they seem more stable than Pxa550. Again - direct hate towards Apple. I'm guessing all works with Apple headphones, as they sprinkle that secret sauce in their drivers that nobody else has access to.
  • bayindirh 4y ago
    I think computer BT announces many more features, and they weed out problematic BT implementations much better. I'm running an old Philips SHB3075 with my MacBook Air M1, and it has no problems whatsoever. The connection takes a bit longer compared to my iPhone, but I think it's negotiating a lot of things over the air during that connection. I've attended half day long meetings, and join 2 meetings on average over zoom and Skype. Nothing shifts, nothing drops. So, BT is a complicated protocol with a lot of baggage and layers, and proper debugging is much better than finger pointing. Jabra can update the firmware on the device, but they're lazy or there's something wrong with hardware. I own a 45 (previously called Stealth), and the family got 5-6 software updates over the years.
• brudgers 4y ago
  After updating Macos to Monterey That sounds like a breaking change to MacOS by Apple. Apple has strong financial incentives to have its headphones be the preferred option across its product lines. Considering that Jabra is getting the blame here, Apple has little financial disincentive against breaking changes to its software. Good luck.
• w0m 4y ago
  Honestly; Jabra should be responsive; but i put significant blame on Apple. For whatever reason they seem to have little issue breaking third party devices. Pre-pandemic; i had a nice usb-hub I used at work. No issues for years on my maxed 2017 rMBR. Paperweight when I finally made it back to the office (though working fine on other machines). Same with a number of misc usb-c hubs/adapters I used fine until an OSX update. Seriously annoying.
• runningnerd 4y ago
  I have Jabra elite 75t I can most of the times use them with my Linux laptop. BUT ... If I want to use only one at the time, it's only possible to use the right one. If using them the whole day and re-charging one at the time or if I'd like to use the left one while driving so I can hear the family that don't work. When I bought them it was promised it would be fixed with a software update, but no. https://mobile.twitter.com/we_are_jabra/status/1244383330302226432?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/we_are_jabra/status/1244383330302...