Sony XM5 sometimes connected but not working

After I connect my Sony XM5 using ToothFairy sometimes the headphones takes quite some time to connect and the connect/disconnect tone is played a few times (I think ToothFairy is trying to troubleshoot them) but then often they seem to be connected and show up as input/output in all the right places (Teams, Sound preferences etc) but they absolutely do not work for either input or output. Power cycling them does not solve this. The only way is to go to the Bluetooth settings and disconnect and reconnect them from there.

Thanks for the report. We’ve not heard of this happening before. It would help if you could send in a diagnostic report so that we can look into what’s happening here.

Thanks, I sent it by message.

Thanks. ToothFairy is reconnecting the device because when it tried to set the sound output to the WH-1000XM5 that device was not showing up in macOS’s list of available devices.

You could try quitting ToothFairy and entering this Terminal command:

defaults write com.robinlu.mac.Tooth-Fairy EnableAudioOutput NO

This will tell it not to try to fix the sound output. This will at least prevent the extra disconnections/connections. It’s possible that macOS will eventually recognize the device as a valid output target automatically.

But is this a real fix for the headphones basically being unusable until toggled from MacOS’s Bluetooth settings? I get no I/O from them until I do that. What’s the underlying reason for this issue I’m seeing?

This is just a guess at something that might help. I have no idea why you’re seeing what you’re seeing. Nobody else has ever reported that. The way ToothFairy toggles the connection is the same as what the Bluetooth settings do, according to Apple.

Is there any way I can help you debug it so that it might be addressed? I can’t be the only one facing the issue, I hope!

Did you try the defaults write command that I sent?