Soundlink Mini 2 Update
Nadal Braymiller
I'm having the same problem a lot of people are having all of a sudden, I've had the Bose Soundlink mini for almost a year now, and had it paired just fine with my iPhone 5s. Just recently all of a sudden it wouldn't hold the Bluetooth connection, either it was spotty or it would just disconnect. After multiple attempts to reconnect, I reset the iPhone, reset the Bose mini speaker with no luck I took the Bose speaker back to the Bose Outlet, and they gave me a brand new Bose Soundlink mini unopened. I came home, got it all set up, and it's doing it again. Now I do have other Bluetooth devices working just fine, but the Bose is all of a sudden after months of flawless performance won't stay connected.
I would like to point out that the Bose Soundlink Mini II speaker has an auto-off feature that is enabled by default. It will shut off after 30 minutes if it believes it is not in use (however, sometimes it shuts off as you are actively using it). You can disable the auto-off feature by pressing the bluetooth and [+] buttons simultaneously for a few seconds.
I know of no reason for you not to update your iPhone to iOS 8.0.2 as it is always a good idea to stay on current software if your device is up to it, and your's certainly is. My iPhone 6 with iOS 8.0.2 works fine with my Bose Soundlink Mini. Having trouble with Bluetooth is not an unknown occurrence between any two devices, but I believe in your situation you have little to loose in trying an iOS Update. What makes no sense at this point is returning the Bose Soundlink Mini again.
Thanks for your response. There is a very good reason for me not to update to the later version of iOS8; corporate security, enough said here. On the other point, it still doesn't make sense for the device(s) to not be connected when they were for almost year without any problems, nothing changed, including no update to the OS as you recommend. The people at the Bose store seem to understand my issue and resolved it immediately by giving me a new speaker, no questions asked. I agree, taking back a new speaker serves no real purpose unless there is something going on that Bose employees know and just didn't say.
The new speaker is doing the same thing, so this is confusing me. I've never had a problem with Bluetooth with my devices until now, and I've had lots of them. Just as I'm typing this message, the speaker was playing from my playlist and just lost connection and is trying to reconnect. It could be something with Bose, but I have my doubts and think it's something with the 5s. Again thanks for your reply.
Just a follow-up, my Pebble watch is now behaving like the Bose sound link mini, it won't hold the Bluetooth connection. It appears this is happening to quite a few people, see Macrumors.com. What I've done so far is, reset both the devices, the speaker and the watch, reset the phone, deleted devices and reinstalled them, checked settings, and I still have no connection. My iPad has the 8.02 update, my phone is still on iOS7; neither device connecting with Bluetooth devices. This all started recently in the last week. Anyone else experiencing this, or have a suggestion that I haven't tried yet?
Same exact thing happened to me. I got to thinking and remembered I used my iPad to play some stuff. I made the iPad "Forget this device" on the Bose this morning and it's worked fine playing and staying connected with my iPhone 5s so far.
I'm coming a little bit late to this party, but hopefully this will help someone. I went to the Bose troubleshooting link and found this attachment. I took the steps recommended (hold the mute button down for 10 seconds and then press the power button to reset the machine). Worked like a charm. Here is the link to the pdf: _us/web/troubleshooting_soundlink_mob ile_pairing_connecting/page.html
I love my Bose Soundlink Mini 2. But, I faced a quite few issues with the device. But all were fixed by reading through the User Manual a bit. To help others, I actually made a video, to show some troubleshooting tips for the Bose Soundlink Mini 2. Checkout the video, if your speaker is not turning ON / not charging / bluetooth not getting connected:
Bluetooth audio is used in more an more products now. I'm usually not a fan because it's just another layer of compression and equally another area to fail and use battery life. I can't imagine taking my Sennheiser HD650 headphones and then using them with a Bluetooth codec (I suppose aptX lossless would be OK). That said, there are undoubtedly many many uses where it comes into it's own and where the sheer flexibility and portability start to easily outweigh the loss in audio quality.Released in July 2013, the Bose Soundlink Mini is not a new product but it is still a current product and is still pushed and marketed well in stores through display stands and promotional material. Bose clearly want people to take notice of their portable bluetooth audio range.It is, however, a new product for me. So, what's it like? Overall, so far so good but I realise that's of little use if you're considering purchasing this device. Firstly let's start off with the positives and negatives.Positives:
- First and foremost is sound quality. For the size, I was amazed. The fullness of the sound from a unit this size is incredible. The sound can fill a room with ease. More on that to follow.
- Extremely good build quality. Feels solid and well made in every way with a fully metal surround and metal front and back speaker grill.
- Design is a matter of taste but it looks simple, sleek, mature, elegant and appears to be a quality product. No garish colours here.
- Compact. Surely that's what you want if you are buying something like this. The bigger it gets, the more you move into needing a different category of product in my view. I like this because a can chuck it in my overnight bag easily.
- It's not trying to be too much. It's a device to connect via Bluetooth or 3.5mm line level auxillary and play music. That's it. I love the 'focus on what you're good at' approach. Features can be nice but also start to muddy what a product is about and nine times out of ten, rarely or never get used.
- Comes with a charging cradle which improves the portability and ease of charging.
- Battery life is very good considering the size of the unit (which physically limits the battery mAh capacity) and the sound output this can provide.
- Reliable and easy to use. No bluetooth pin numbers or problems connecting. If you have it paired with your phone and have a song playing on your phone speaker, hit the power button and it's connected and playing on the Soundlink Mini within about 5-10 seconds. Easy.
- Equalization. The EQ on the Bose device might not be to everyone's taste. The gain on the EQ seems to be the sub 120Hz bass and the 8kHz and higher top end. It may lack clarity in the mid-range for some. It reminds me of the 1980's when people used to set their 5 band graphic equalisers in a pretty pattern starting high on the left, dropping in the middle and back up on the right.
- No aptX support. The device does not support the latest Bluetooth audio codec. This could be seen as a negative but the reality is that this is not a device for audiophile use. It's a convenient and portable music source that beats the hell out of most flatscreen TV's and is better than putting your iPhone in a glass. You're quite simply not going to notice the difference.
- Price. As with anything from Bose, you pay for the name but you also get what you pay for. This is arguably a little overpriced for some. Current standard UK price at time of writing is 169.99.
- Directional Sound. Where you position this device has quite an impact on the treble response. This is true for any speaker but you really do see a drop in the sweet treble when the device is off angle to your ears. My advice would be to place this as close to ear level as you can and avoid placing it centrally so no-one in a room will be behind it.
- Bluetooth Range. This is not really a fault of the product but it does impact the usefulness of the product as BT radio is at its very core. It would be lovely if Bluetooth had a better RF range but it's stuck there in the 2.4gHz short range band along with many other devices. If I position a laptop around different parts of the house I can see a total of 62 wireless networks. The frequency may not be the same but it's a heck of a lot of noise and clutter on the band.