Sony WH-1000XM3 Muting in the Cold

[bugzy3188]

Is there a way to turn off gesture control on the 1000XM3s? It barely works in optimal conditions and when standing outisde in cold weather they will consistently register swipes (even though nothing has touched the headphones), either turning volume up/down or skipping tracks and after about 1 minute they will mute as if I am holding my hand over the right ear. Any suggestions?

[K1ng_Bread]

Same issue here in Canada, sold my XM2's which were perfect in cold weather for these and now I get all the problems mentionned in this thread when it gets around minus 5 degrees, plus the touchpad (which I use, a lot) isn't as responsive has the old leather one. Really dissapointed, still have 10 days to return them, might ask for a refund and try to get a pair of XM2's or go to Bose.

The WH-1000XM3 model is designed to function optimally between the temperatures of 0°C and 40°C.  Although it can and will function beyond this temperature range, performance may be impaired. One way this can manifest itself is by reacting inconsistently to sudden and significant temperature changes from warm (e.g. a heated room) to very cold (e.g. outdoors in winter below 0°C). 

And this is bull*****, like you guys never thought about the billion of people living in cold and warm countries. Those are ANC headphones, made to use outside and between and in commutes. 

[Wieder11]

urgh this is so frustrating!  I live in alaska and love these headphones but this issue absolutely kills these headphones for me...  which is a bummer cause I had to set money aside for awhile just to purchase these $350 headphones... please fix this or make a work around

[anon114]

received my pair yesterday, tried them outside today, between 0 and -5ºC temperatures and in 30 minutes they self-activated twice the 'cup hold' gesture that lowers music volume and boosts the ambient sound with no way of fixing it, except powering them off and on. wish i knew about this before purchasing them.

this is unacceptable. i will return them.

[Airbus350XWB]

Returned my defective pair for a refund and bought the Bose QC 35 instead. Sony's headphones are slightly(only slightly) better all around but I use my headphones outside so much that Bose wins the battle for me. All the best guys!

[NeverwinterMoon]

Just bought mine today. Tested out outside with -1 - 0 Celsius in Tallinn, Estonia (the air is pretty moist here and it’s almost always windy) - walked around about 25 minutes and had zero issues. 

Update January 9, 2019

Turned on and started listening to the headphones in my warm apartment, went outside to -4 Celsius and got all the way my office without having any issues with sensor controls. 

Update January 16, 2019

Been using the headphones outside on daily basis for a bit over a week now with temperatures ranging from 0 to -5 Celsius. Not a single problem. 

[Leeknlau]

Those of you experiencing the problems and who got the headphones recently (or during the temperature drops): was it a problem that developed over time or did the pair start to malfunction right out of the box?

[K1ng_Bread]

Out of the box for me, first time I went from my car to the office at -10 celsius.

[pepite_]

The issues started to appear as soon as the temperature dropped below 5-10 degree celsius. The headphones were one week old or so at that time.

[Septrillian]

I can confirm the cold weather behavior for the XM3's I own and use while commuting into Chicago with, the touch controls are affected by the cold weather quite badly within about 12 - 15 mins around and below freezing but can be less time, turning the unit off and on can fix it but can glitch soon after in some situations. I don't think a firmware fix could solve the issue unless touch controls can be disabled, I am normally wearing gloves which means I am not using the controls anyway.

[virbalo]

Used my XM3's today in +6 Celsius and they went haywire. Really irritates me that they try to blame it on "specified use temprature" when everyone is clearly using them in tempratures between 0 and 40celsius, and not sticking their head in a freezer. The fact that Sony publicly says that you just have to "turn them off and on" is like a giant middle finger to the costumers. Clearly this is a issue that they had not foreseen, and now they do not want to take a big economical loss by admitting to the problem and taking action. Also, I have a feeling that this issue cannot be fixed by a software update, because if that was the case i think it would already have been announced.

Here is Sony's public statement about the issue if you have not seen it:

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00206130