Life q35 - Not auto switching between iPhone XR and Macbook Pro M1 14"

[gilsoncav]

I checked this thread and it seems it should work automatically: Life Q35 - How to switch between paired devices - SUPPORT - Soundcore Collective
But the fact is that when i’m with the macbook bluetooth active (but no sound is being played) and go to my iPHone and start some sound it doesn’t work.

I need to turn bluetooth off in my Macbook in order to be able to listen music from my phone.

Any ideas how to fix it?

[The_Professor]

auto switching does work if you pause one then play another.

Check if same bluetooth version of your gadgets, if not then connect oldest first.

[gilsoncav]

Yeah… i’m aware that it needs that any sound is being streamed in order for the switching occur. But even when the macbook has no sound being played, the headphone is hijacked by it.
The iPhone shows that the headphone is connected and shows it as the active output device. But when i hit play… no sound at all in the headphone.

[The_Professor]

I dont know of a simple reliable fix for this.

I wrote up a roundabout workaround with some pros cons.

Try forcing an older version to connect first. Which is older version of your devices? Usually the laptop is older so try to ensure it is connected first.

Multipoint Workaround

I’ve seen some posts about how difficult it can be share a Soundcore product with both a phone and a laptop, e.g. Windows laptop always takes over control even if headphones multipoint connected to phone. There is a workaround which works on all Soundcore products as it does not rely on a particular Soundcore function. So you don’t need multipoint and don’t need multipoint to work. Overview All cellular phones have the ability to forward incoming calls, we use this feature to make incoming c…

[gilsoncav]

It’s not the case. The laptop is a new MacBook Pro 14" M1pro.
The only way is to select another output device in the MacBook.

In the iPhone you can see the Q35 active as the output device:

[The_Professor]

What are their BT versions? Find out and connect whichever is oldest first. But yes in general this is an issue so have to get creative.

I have some Bose headphones which switch seamlessly but they were like 5 times the cost of Soundcore. I have the Q30, I like them more than my Bose, so I use a workaround when I am primarily using laptop and can still get phone calls.

Multipoint Workaround

I’ve seen some posts about how difficult it can be share a Soundcore product with both a phone and a laptop, e.g. Windows laptop always takes over control even if headphones multipoint connected to phone. There is a workaround which works on all Soundcore products as it does not rely on a particular Soundcore function. So you don’t need multipoint and don’t need multipoint to work. Overview All cellular phones have the ability to forward incoming calls, we use this feature to make incoming c…

[gilsoncav]

iPhone XR supports Bluetooth 5.0 as shown here: iPhone XR - Technical Specifications (apple.com)
The Macbook Pro 14"2021 also supports version 5.0: MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) - Technical Specifications (apple.com)

[The_Professor]

Your ask for help hasn’t elicited a solution, shame but at least your post helps others know this lack of multipoint on Q30/Q35 is also applying on MBP.

Crossing fingers for you someone comes along with a fix.

If I were in your situation I’d just go into every setting and tweak them in hope something works. So the cause is your MBP is still keeping an active audio connection going even when not playing. I’d be looking for any audio settings or bluetooth settings which effectively disables keepalive.

Remember if a MBP did now what you wanted, you’d be happy but it would simply cause someone else to complain their Soundcore product turns off all by itself - that is the reason often keepalive is used, but that fights multipoint.

[James1234]

@gilsoncav Did you ever find a solution to this?

I have Soundcore Q45 headphones, an M1 MacBook Pro (2020) and iPhone 11, and experience the same. The headphones remain connected to the Mac even though no audio is playing (in the case right now I am using Pocket Casts on desktop.)

The only soltuion is to change the audio source for Mac, so I can play audio on my iPhone.