How Can I Troubleshoot Bluetooth® Issues with My Patients' Hearing Aids?

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Answer

You’re not alone in feeling like we, as hearing care providers, are Bluetooth technicians! If your patients’ hearing aids are Made-For-All, they utilize Bluetooth Classic for bilateral streaming of phone calls and audio. Bluetooth Classic is a future-proof protocol that billions of devices have relied upon for decades. These hearing aids pair to external devices (iPhone and Android smartphones, flip phones, tablets, computers, etc.) via the Bluetooth menu on the device. On that menu, you’ll see whichever aid you designated as the Bluetooth Side in the Target software (this is also the side used for own voice pickup). This means that pairing is the same process as with anything else using Bluetooth, such as a car, a Bluetooth headset, or an external speaker.  

Troubleshooting Bluetooth Classic

If you’re looking for troubleshooting steps, here are some great starting points:

1. Be curious and ask yourself these questions: What are they experiencing? When does it happen? Did it just start happening? If so, what changed? Are the issues occurring during phone calls AND streaming? All of these answers will help you understand where to focus.
2. Power the phone all the way off and restart. It’s simple, but can reset things and is a good first step.
3. Check for updates for the hearing instrument(s), phone OS, and application.
4. Isolate the occurrence. Pair the hearing aids to another phone and test and/or pair a different set of hearing aids to the patient’s phone. This exercise can help differentiate if the issue originates with the phone or the hearing aids.
5. Change the bandwidth, which refers to how Bluetooth devices communicate. Phonak devices support both adaptive and fixed bandwidth. This is done in Target or in the myPhonak application’s “Bluetooth phone call” section of the My Hearing Aids menu.
6. Delete and re-pair the hearing aids. Select “forget device” in the app and in the phone’s general Bluetooth settings, then re-pair. 
7. Discuss notifications with your patient. If their key clicks, haptics, and non-essential notifications are bothersome, turn them off in the phone settings.

Phonak offers top-rated solutions for your patients

Benefits of a Phonak solution include top-rated streamed sound quality. And because streamed signals are part of our multi-base automatic (AutoSense OS) streaming, you have the flexibility to individually customize speech-weighted streamed signals (like podcasts or television), music-weighted streamed signals, and Bluetooth phone calls. This mean you can truly meet the audibility needs and preferences of your patients to give them the very best sound quality regardless of the situation. 

We’re here to help! Contact your Phonak representative for assistance with Bluetooth technology. Additional troubleshooting information, compatibility checker, and helpful videos are available in our Bluetooth Troubleshooting Guide or by visiting phonak.com/product-support. Our Consumer Line (1-800-679-4871) can also be a help for your patients, if they’re not in your office with you.