I own a Sony WH1000 Mk3. Like (apparently) many others, I have wondered how to get the thing to charge. Liker so many of us, I wondered why, very often, the charging light would go on for what? 10? 15? seconds, and then turn off.
After suspecting cables, power supplies, and eventually things like ambient temperature and the moon phase, I figured out that
it will consistently charge if you power it on before you put the charging cable in.
My wife has a Sony WH1000 Mk4 which doesn’t have this issue, and as far as I’ve heard, neither does the Mk5 (I don’t know about the Mk6, or the Mk1 of MK2, or any other models).
Bit I digress. Finding that out was a great relief.
Until I retired, a year before writing this. At home, I listen to music from a stereo set consisting of a bunch of Sony ES gear, an Akai open reel recorder, and a media center that feeds its digital output into a very decent DA converter, from where the analog signal goes into my amp. I prefer to listen using loudspeakers, but if I listen with headphones, I use a set of Philips Fidelio cans which, quite frankly, are an order of magnitude better than the Sony. When I worked, I used the Sony daily, because trying to write code in a noisy environment wasn’t my cup of tea, and the noise cancellation of these Sonys is the stuff of legends. But after being retired, I hung it in my study and didn’t look at it anymore for a year or so.
Which caused the battery to be completely depleted.
Which I only found out when someone said how much nicer it was to use the vacuum cleaner with a set of noice-cancelling headphone.
You see, if the battery hasn’t got any juice left, it is impossible to power the thing up.
But you need to power it up to charge it.
Which you can’t.
And you cannot power it up if there is a charging cable connected — as soon as you plug the USB cable in, it powers off, and the power button is then unusable.
Long story short:
I stuck the charging cable in (which makes the charging light come on for 15 seconds or so), and then, when the light went off, I briefly pressed both buttons on the left head shell, which does a soft reset. This then makes the charging light go on again, for the same 15 seconds or so. I kept soft-resetting it for something like 5 minutes total, hoping that it would at least charge the device enough for me to to be able to unplug the charging cable and power it up with the power button — and that is exactly what happened!
So then I was able to power it up, I plugged in the charging cable, and it completed its charging cycle without a problem! Finally I can vacuum in peace and quiet again! 😁
If this helps one person, it was worth the time needed to type this post. If that person is you, please let me know in the comments!