Hi, for a few days now my new Fairbuds have been yielding a very disturbing behaviour: Every (circa) 5 minutes they turn themselves off automatically, stopping current playback (if there is one at the moment) and playing the shutdown jingle, no matter if I am cycling or sitting at the desk or lying down. I will then have to turn them on again by keeping the touch area pressed, then they turn on again and automatically reconnect, from which point I have another ~ 5 minutes until this loop repeats.
I am very certain about the duration of this loop, as it happened while I was watching a longer video and it would be actually every 5 minutes that I would have to turn them on and start the playback again.
It happens with both buds, no matter whether I just use one or the two of them. I already tried to resolve this by installing the most recent firmware update and performing a factory reset, so far nothing of success.
I use Android 14 on a Pixel 7 (running GrapheneOS), Fairbuds companion app version 2.0 (versioncode 53), the buds firmware is currently at V56.
I really hope this can be fixed, otherwise it would be a shame to file a claim, given they just arrived last week.
As none of Fairphoneâs current (own) phones are on Android 14 (plus GrapheneOS), this could prove very valuable information for them. And Iâm quite optimistic they might trigger a new shipment to you.
Thatâs a puzzling error, Iâm not sure what could be causing it.
Could you please go to device settings and share which bluetooth codec (AAC or SBC) your device is using? Could you please test with both and tell us if it makes a difference?
Today I did not manage yet to reproduce the fault. For filling out the support form I had to take out the battery from the case. Could it be that this âtriggeredâ something in it? Because otherwise I am not aware of anything else that could have had an effect on the device.
@Smojo When I connect the bud(s) the same menu from your screenshot (from the Android developer options) lets me choose between SBC and AAC. So Iâd assume that at the time when you took the screenshot they were not connected to your phone?
I had the same issue, and it was caused by me disabling the headset-feature (âphone callsâ) for the fairbuds in the bluetooth menu of my smartphone. Did you disable some of these options as well?
@fakusb Interesting finding. In fact before I attempted the factory reset I had chosen the same setting, however I did not set it like this after the reset. Will try now to see if I can reproduce it this way.
After the suggestion of @fakusb I tried a bit with the different options mentioned so far. If I enable the âPhone callsâ option in the device settings, the error does not occur. But if I disable it, the afore-remarked turnoff behaviour happens, no matter if I chose SBC or AAC codec in the developer options. So it seems to me that there is a bug regarding this specific setting.
It happens mostly when Iâm at work and put one bud in and then go somewhere. My guess is that the bud âseesâ the presence of my laptop (they are paired), tries to connect (sometime it works, sometimes not, doesnât matter) and then starts a 5 minutes time-out before shutting down, regardless if itâs connected to my phone and playing music or podcasts.
If I restart the buds while being away, they usually stay on. However, if I restart them when Iâm back in my office (where my laptop is) they tend to turn off every 5 minutes.
To escape from this 5-min-turn-off-cycle, I simply turn off and on my Bluetooth on my Fairphone 5.
From this observation, the problem is probably the first device visible to the buds. If this first device gets out of reach, the buds turn off, even if they are still connected to another device (and even if they are active).
Five minute shutdown while connected to my phone.
I knew this could not be something specific for the buds, as I believe they operate independently from each other (or do they?), so it had to be the phone that instructed them
to shut down. (And safe power?) I shut down every other connected device, and the issue remained.
I had the âphone callsâ slider off. Toggled that and the problem went away.
