Harmann Kardon Onyx Studio 5 Speaker issue

I have just met this issue, and I do following steps this, it works for me, hope it will help you.

1. Reset the Onyx Studio 5 by holding down the bluetooth symbol and the + until it turns off.
2. On your Macbook, go to bluetooth and forget the Onyx Studio 5.
3. Turn on the Onyx Studio 5 by holding power button and have the Macbook search for the onyx studio and connect again.

If it works for you, please comment or click helpful for other people to see this solution. Thanks

Credit: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7588243

Hello,

I copied a reply I found on another site that worked for me, hopefully this works for you too!

"Reset the Onyx studio by holding down the bluetooth symbol and the + until it turns off. On your IPad, go to bluetooth and forget the onyx studio. Turn on the onyx studio and have the Ipad search for the onyx studio and select. That worked for me and I hope it helps you!"

I have the exact same problem but sometimes the speaker gets paired and I need to volume up or down by pressing +/- button on the speaker because can't control volume on MBP 13 (2018). I contacted both Apple and Harman and they pointed the finger at each other. My understanding is, since the speaker works fine with all other devices and operating systems, Mojave 10.14.3 must be having issues. This requires Apple's developers to take a closer investigation and come up with a solution on next Mojave update.

I opened a support request with Harmon and they said its a MAC OS compatibility issue not theirs. Basically they wont help at all. They prob dont have the correct commands in their firmware and are too lazy to fix.

Hi. I have found a solution to this problem and I succeeded after testing it. Simply open up your System Preferences, select General, look for a setting called Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices and make sure it’s un-checked. :)

I have a MacBook Pro, early 2015 and an HK Onyx Studio 5. I'm currently using macOS Big Sur, Version 11 Beta. However, I have not been able to properly Bluetooth connect the HK with the two prior versions of macOS. After reading a couple of replies I performed the following steps that fixed the issue for my Mac. Now I'm able to play on my HK and control the volume.

1. Systems Preferences => General Tab, unchecked "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"
2. Reset the HK Onyx to its factory settings by (1) Power On (2) Simultaneously pressing the Bluetooth and + button, the device will make a sound and power off.
3. Power on the HK and pair with your Mac.

Yesterday what I tried was:

• Turn off handoff
• delete remmembered onyx5 in your bluetooth setting
• pair and reconnect to onyx5

Then it just worked. But honestly I don't want to turn off handoff for that. I will go with some bluetooth receiver and 3.5mm cable solution.

Hi this method worked for me :-) I think it will be useful to solve this problem.

_Using Terminal

1. Open Terminal
2. Type sudo rm -R /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
3. Enter.
4. Type in your password.
5. Enter.
6. Restart your Mac.
7. Go to System preferences > Bluetooth.
8. Turn Bluetooth On.
9. Now try to pair your devices.

Using Finder

1. Open Finder.
2. Click Go.
3. Click Go to Folder.
4. Type in: /Library/Preferences
5. Click Go.
6. Find the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file.
7. Move the plist file to the Trash.
8. Click Go > Go to Folder
9. Type in: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost
10. Click Go.
11. This time find com.apple.Bluetooth.XXX.plist file (this will be made up of some random letters) and move it to the Trash.
12. Now restart your Mac - it will automatically generate new Bluetooth plist files the next time you turn Bluetooth off and on again.

5. Re-configure and reset

This is the last port of call. You can easily reset all your Bluetooth devices from the menu bar.

1. Press shift + Option/Alt at the same time as you click Bluetooth in menu bar.
2. Click on Debug > Remove all devices.
3. Open the menu again and click Debug > Reset the Bluetooth module.
4. Now try and re-pair your Bluetooth devices.

Hi all,

I have read the 6 pages of posts on this issue which to my understanding may be separated in 2 parts:

• Those for whom it is impossible to get a pairing between their Apple device and the HK Onyx 5 Studio speaker. To my understanding the people concerned and the devices are:
  • Vokain: Mc Book Pro 15’’ 2017, Bluetooth version = 4.2
  • Chris Hates: Mc Book Pro 13’ Early 2015, Bluetooth version 4.0
  • EclipsEsp: Mc Book Pro 2014, Bluetooth version = 4.0
  • Mc Book Pro late 2013, en Bluetooth 4.0
  • Maverick-F18: Mc Book Pro 17’’ 2011, Bluetooth version = 2.1+EDR
  • Myself: iPhone 6S+ 2014 & iPad Air WiFi Only 2013 & Tapered Edge" Aluminum iMac 21.5-Inch "Core i5" 2.7 (Late 2013)  are all in native Bluetooth version = 4.0 (there was an upgrade to partially compliant 4.2 on iOS and on iMac but it does not help)

The HK Onyx 5 Bluetooth version is 4.2;

So I guess the Apple devices in native 4.0 version simply do not have the right protocol versions to exchange with HK Onyx 5.

Apparently, even the Apple upgrade to a partially compliant 4.2 Bluetooth version does not help. Having Apple and HK discussing together might help figure out where is the problem (Following are the protocoles used by HK Onyx 5 : A2DP 1.3; AVRCP 1.6, but also on Onyx 4 actually, so I guess HK has not changed anything in their code for years; I have unfortunately not found the protocol versions for Apple devices)

• Second part of the problem, the Apple devices may establish a pairing with the HK Onyx 5 but do not work properly (sound control, disconnection, etc...): true for
  • Matukash: Mc Book Pro 15’’ 2018, Bluetooth version = 5.0
  • Tejasmademe: Macbook Pro 2019, Bluetooth version = 5.0
  • Silent_MonkMc:  Book Pro 13’’ 2018, Bluetooth version = 5.0
  • galuh11: McBook Air Late 2018: Bluetooth version =  4.2
  • EclipseEsp: iPhone 8 plus, Bluetooth version = 5.0
  • Derek AM: iPhone 7,  Bluetooth version = 4.2 and iPad Air2 en Bluetooth 4.2

As you can see, in those cases, the Bluetooth version between the Apple devices and the HK Onyx 5 are compatible. So the origin of the issue is elsewhere. But where ???

At last, my iPhone X (September 2017), uses Bluetooth version 5.0 and works perfectly well with the HK Onyx 5 studio: pairing immediately, sound control is perfect.

I am unfortunately not able to bring a solution, just a synthesis of the issues, hoping it will Apple to take that long lasting issue into consideration.

I have 2 mac-book pros mid15, one with Catalina, one with Mojave OSs. Both has this issue.

Onyx Studio 5

Based on this reply of neo192 i managed to make it works several times by following the next steps:

On Onyx:

1. Hold the Bluetooth button down until there’s an erratic sound (thanks to neo192)
2. Shutdown Onyx

On Macbook:

1. Turn BT Off
2. Turn BT On

On Onyx:

Start it by pressing the power button

On Macbook:

Connect BT to Onyx

And it works

Bought Onyx 5 yesterday ! iPhone, iPad and iPod connected with success but, same issue mentioned in this thread with my MacBook Pro.

The problem is Apple didn't even reply on this thread, we have been facing this same issue over half a year!

Yes. Sorry to hear that. That seems to be the problem. Not working on Apple laptop or iMacs. Can everyone please put pressure on Apple on this issue. Together we are strong! 🙌

Lol. I think before I speak. Do you? Some of us have been trying to get this tech issue resolved for 1-2 yrs now. If you have solutions rather than criticism please share.

I left clicked the volume button at the top right of my screen, and changed the output device to the speaker and it worked. Hope that helps someone.