Sony WH-1000XM5 mic stopped working after update to 22H2

I've been dealing with this issue for over a year. I tried using a Bluetooth adapter as someone suggested, but it only worked temporarily. Today, I finally resolved the issue, and I hope it lasts. What prompted me to try for the fifth time was that I couldn't remove my headphones from the Bluetooth devices list (I kept getting a "Failed to remove" message), neither from Bluetooth settings nor from the Device Manager. Here are the steps I took:

1. Open Device Manager as an administrator.
2. Go to View -> Show hidden devices. This revealed a lot of new devices, recognizable by their greyed-out icons.
3. I focused on Audio inputs and outputs and Bluetooth.
4. I deleted all the hidden devices for my Bluetooth peripherals (mouse, keyboard, headphones) as well as all hidden Bluetooth devices. This included a couple of headphone devices, the Bluetooth adapter I had used before, and a few LE Generic Attribute Services. I deleted all of them.
5. Reboot the PC.
6. It turned out that Sony had released a new version of the Headphones application and an update for the headphones, so I updated both. The update was large and took some time.
7. I deleted the PC device from the headphones app and paired the headphones again with the PC, and it finally worked. My headphones are now connected for both voice and music.

I believe that the Bluetooth driver was probably fixed during this process. The last version of Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth that worked for me was 22.200.0.2, and now it is 23.50.0.2. However, since I tried many different things to fix this issue, there was a mess with the drivers. Deleting all of them and reconnecting the headphones probably cleaned everything up.

This is a cool workaround but essentially Microsoft should fix this since it happens after updating to Win11 22H2.

After trying almost every solution that can be found on the internet to fix this issue, I managed to get it working by doing the following:

1. Connect your WH-1000XM5 with you Windows laptop through bluetooth
2. Go to "Device Manager" --> "Audio inputs and outputs"

2.1 Here you will see 3 entries for the WH-1000XM5. You need to disable 2 out of the 3.

2.2 Disable the entry that has "Hands-Free" in the name by right clicking on it and then select "disable device
2.3 Do the same for the entry that contains the "location = on WH-1000XM5 Hands-Free AG". You can see this by double clicking on the entry and checking the location info.

3. Once these 2 are disabled, I downloaded a app called "FX sound". (here Boost Volume and Sound Quality on Your PC - FxSound). This steamlines your audio input and output through this app.
4. Once the app is installed, it will run all the input and output audio through this app. Feel free to turn the sound options/presets off if you want by clicking the big "turn off" button in the middle. I'm only using it to streamline the audio input/outputs.

That's it, now when I join a Teams call, I see a brief error that my headset/input/output device doesn't work (like it usually did) but then the app seems to do it's magic and my mic + sounds from the headset works perfectly and the error message disappears almost instantly.

I've been testing this now for 2 days (with 2 other colleagues who had the same issue, they have a WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM3) and it also works for them.

Goodluck!

Hi Jéferson.

Sorry to know that none of the steps fixed the issue so far.

Have you tried downloading and updating the Bluetooth and Audio driver directly from your PC Manufacturer's website?

Let's try to Delete the recent update causing the issue.

Click Start menu

Select the Settings icon (gear icon).

Click on "Windows Update" in the left-hand menu.

Click on "Advanced options" at the bottom of the Windows Update screen.

Under the "Update history" section, click on "Uninstall updates."

Select the update you want to uninstall from the list and click on the "Uninstall" button.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation process.

Thank you!

Hi Jéferson,

My name is Merlina, I am an Independent Advisor. I'm Sorry to know that you're having this issue. I'll do my best to help you.

It is a possibility that the update to Windows 11 22H2 has caused conflicts between the Bluetooth driver or software, resulting in the microphone issue with the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones.

Please try the below steps to fix this issue:

1. Run Audio Troubleshooter

Select Start > Settings > System > Sound > Troubleshoot common sound problems and select Output devices or Input devices.

2. Update audio drivers

>Press "Windows key + X" and select "Device Manager."

>Expand the "Sound, video and game controllers" section

>Right-click on the audio device.

>Select "Update driver" and follow the on-screen instructions to update the driver.

3. Re-pair the headphones

>Press "Windows key + I."

>Select "Devices"

>click on "Bluetooth & other devices."

>Find the Sony headphones in the list of paired devices and click on "Remove device."

>Pair the headphones again by following the instructions in the "Add a device" wizard.

4. Restore the previous Bluetooth driver version

>Open Start

>Search and click Device Manager

>Expand the category with the Bluetooth driver to roll back

>Right-click the adapter and select the Properties option.

>Click the Driver tab.

>Click the “Roll Back Driver” button.

Let me know the result, I will send further steps if needed.

Thank you.