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Bluetooth, KS10, Android: goes mono for phone calls

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Edited

Ok, I got my KS10.
I paired it with my Android phone.
When I call a # on my phone I hear the dial tone in both ears/aids.

The content of the call, once connected, streams only into my right hearing aid/ear.
The left ear gets nothing.

When I hang up I get the end of call “tinkle” in both aids/ears.

What do I need to turn on or off so the content of the phone call/media is streamed to both ears/aids?

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I don’t know if there’s a guaranteed, straight forward fix. I’d probably start by unpairing the aids and repairing.

So, the past hour+ I’ve tried unpairing, (removing the entry for my hearing aids on the phone), repairing…all without success.

Here’s what I see (perhaps it helps shed light on what I could be doing wrong):
a) I turn on BT on the Android phone
b) I turn on my KS 10
c) I see L-KS10 Hearing Aid on “Available Bluetooth Devices” on my phone.
[I do **NOT** see a R-KS-10 Hearing Aid. Is that a problem?]
d) I select it.
Phone calls stream to the right ear/aid but not to the left ear/aid.
End of call KS10 “tingles” however are streamed to both ears/aids.

So I download and install Easy Line.
I connect via BT.
I go to “Remote Control”.
It circles forever on “Connecting…” to the Left and Right hearing aids and finally gives up.
“Retry” leads to more futile circling.

Instinct tells me this is a “solved” problem, the KS10 community here must have seen what I’m experiencing before, and I am either doing or not doing something that is causing this issue. I doubt the issues I’m experiencing are novel and never seen before.

Could the KS10 mavens here help me, please?

I am not going to be much help unfortunately, but here is how mine work. These are P90s not KS10s.

I open bluetooth on the phone. I can see available 3 connections- L-LE-, R-LE-HA, and R-Phonak hearing aid. I choose to connect via the R-Phonak-Hearing aid option. The other two are the low energy connections. When I open the app, they connect within 20 seconds. This past weekend when the app stopped working, I had to forget the hearing aids in the bluetooth center AS WELL as in the app directly. Then it would reconnect.

It sounds like it is your phone and the bluetooth version it uses. I was originally using a different phone that only had bt 4.0 or 4.1. The phone would pair with the aids but the app could not recognize them. I switched to a newer phone with bt 4.2 or 5.0 and the phone can now use the low energy connection and connect with the aids. Can you try another phone?

Edited

Bluetooth version on my phone is 4.1.
Could that alone explain why I only see “L-KS10” when I attempt to pair phone and my KS10s?
Are there others in this forum who successfully use KS10 with BT4.1 on Android?
Is BT4.2 is a requirement for KS10? I don’t see that mentioned in the documentation.

I’ve tried several variations to see if my phone would “see” my R-KS10. E.g., turning off the L-KS10, turning on only the R-KS10 while pairing, etc. No dice.

For a moment I thought this might have to do with setting the L as the Master for Bluetooth (thus only the L is visible for pairing and the connection between the Left and Right is -LE, not relevant for pairing). That doesn’t explain why calls stream only into my Right with my Left showing up only for the end of call tingle.

Easy Line Remote: I uninstalled, reinstalled a few times, each time turning my KS10s off and on…
Finally…for reasons beyond me Easy Line registered my Left and Right KS10 and confirmed they were connected. Thrilled at my progress I tried Remote Control. It came up, showed R-KS10 as “Connected”, the wheel spun forever on L-KS10 and then, it ended up with “Retry” on BOTH L- and R-KS10.

This is very frustrating and I’m not inclined to expend more time and effort on this.
Heading over to Costco this morning and if they can’t fix this, I shall order the Philips or Resound.

Bluetooth 4.1 sounds like an older phone. Yes that might explain it. Have you entered your phone model into Phonak’s compatibility tool?

Edited

Bluetooth 4.1 sounds like an older phone. Yes that might explain it.

I did a quick lookup and find: Phonak hearing aids are Bluetooth 4.2 certified.
So, odds are my old phone with BT4.1 is the source of my woes.
Any device that is not 4.2 or later is unlikely to produce the benefits we expect with the KS10.

This is further confirmed by the fact that my iPad, which has BT4.2, synced promptly and well with my KS10 and iTunes media streams into both ears.

Ok, instead of going to Costco I’d head over to my mobile provider and upgrade my phone.

Thank you, MDB and others who helped raise my awareness on the (likely) causes of my woes with the KS10 (which, as far I can tell now, have nothing to do with the KS10).

I visited my mobile provider’s storefront and confirmed an Android phone with later than 4.1 does exactly what others have reported here and KS10 claims: stream to both ears/aids.

I also confirmed if you have BT4.1 the KS10 would only stream to the aid/ear that is NOT the master.

Having bought the KS10, now off to work I go to replace my phone with one that works with it. This is entirely predictable and yet something I did not foresee/anticipate.

Edited

I have used TracFone Wireless for many years. TracFone has been recently bought by Verizon. My reconditioned (looked new to me) Samsung Galaxy phone cost $39 and works perfectly. I only updated the phone to get a version of Android that worked with Easy Line Remote. My kids mostly have Apple products but they are not frugal like myself.
I picked up my first cell phone, a TracFone, from the discount bin at my local Safeway store. It was marked down to half price, about $45, but when I checked out with my Safeway card, the price was $5. I used that LG phone for years before updating to the Samsung Galaxy.

Edited

I am have real problems connecting to my KS10 aids from a Google Pixel 6. This is a relatively new phone but connects to only the Right aid. It will not connect to the Left. The easy line will not connect to the Right aid but attempts to connect to the left but mostly fails to connect at all. Interestingly enough, the work with the phone … that is I can answer calls and hear the caller through both aids.

I also have a Pixel 3 (wonderful phone) that works perfectly with the aids. Because of this guess is that the problem lies with Google. BTW, with the Pixel 3 I end the day with about 40% charge on the aids but with the Pixel 6 I have only 20% charge at days end. I can’t help but wonder if I’m alone in having problems with the Pixel 6 which has 5.2. I have filed a disability complaint with Google.

An update from my end: I junked my old phone with a version that is incompatible with KS10 and Easy Line, I got a new phone with BT versions that are compatible. Calls stream into both ears/aids. Easy Line Remote connects to both aids.

To sum it up: the problem and issues I described in opening this thread were directly related to my old phone and outdated BT version.

This may not help Bob and his issues with KS10 and Pixel 3 or 6. My instinct tells me it is a Google/Pixel issue but beyond that I’m not competent to hazard a guess.

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