#Technology

Bluetooth troubleshooting tips to share with your clients

Any of your clients having troubles pairing their Bluetooth hearing aids to their smartphone? These 5 ‘fixes’ can help your clients troubleshoot in the comfort of their own home.

“I have a very love-hate relationship with Bluetooth… because when it works, it’s amazing, and when it doesn’t, you want to rip your hair out.”*

– Chris Harrison, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Melon University

We don’t want you to lose any hair, so we have compiled a list of the top 5 tips to share with your clients for Bluetooth troubles.

Sometimes it might seem difficult to troubleshoot, however these 5 “fixes” resolve almost any Bluetooth issue you come across.

The first thing you want to do with any electronic device that isn’t ‘playing nice’ is to turn it off and back on – that’s true for smartphones too! First shut down all open apps, make sure the OS is up to date and then restart the phone. It seems basic, but this fixes most Bluetooth issues.
If the reboot didn’t fix it, remove the connections and pair again. If using the app, delete that as well. Make sure all hearing aid connections are removed from the Bluetooth menu on the phone, and then pair to the app again, and then the phone for streaming.
Still having trouble? Let’s make sure the issue is with Bluetooth. Turn off Bluetooth – does the issue still happen? Test to see if it happens through the speaker on the phone, or when holding the phone up to the ear. If something happens when the phone is not connected, your problem is with the hearing aids, it isn’t the Bluetooth connection.
If you have found the issue only happens when Bluetooth is on and the aids are connected, it is usually related to specific phone settings. Let’s look at the phone settings to see if that is where the problem is.
Last, but not least – if you still have an issue with sound quality, change the bandwidth. This can be changed either in the MyPhonak app or the Target software – the aids will be set to either Fixed or Adaptive bandwidth, change it to the opposite. You do need to reboot the phone to apply this change.

There you have it – hair-saving, stress-reducing fixes for any Bluetooth woe!

In an effort to more fully support hearing care professionals with Bluetooth, we have recently added updated resources and some great videos on our website to walk you through the most common issues and troubleshooting. Go to www.phonak.com/support and check them out!

* Thorbecke, C. (July 10, 2022). CNN Business. Why Bluetooth remains an ‘unusually painful’ technology after two decades. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/10/tech/bluetooth-technology-headache/index.html.