Harmann Kardon Onyx Studio 5 Speaker issue

Hi guys, I recently got an Onyx studio 5, got the same issue as you had. I found a soluton here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradmoon/2017/07/13/this-trick-may-solve-your-mac-bluetooth-connectivity-issues/#2327073c5196 .

Basically you need to turn off hand off on your mac. It just works for me.

This is definitely a bug from Apple! @Apple, you guys never did well for bluetooth, but this time it's not your "bluetooth team" issue, you can create a bug for "hand off" team! Just do it!

Thanks so much for posting! It’s really appreciated. Not an option for me. I would like to hear from APPLE. Concrete solution pls. Options? We pay good money for products that does not work properly (Bluetooth). And Harmon Kardon Onyx speakers are top of of the line. At minimum Apple, a credit AND a solution. No one has yet responded from APPLE on this. Unacceptable. The amount of time we have all spent trying to figuring out this sync issue only to find it’s an Apple malfunction.

Thanks for info. We need to ask ourselves some major questions. Why is the Bluetooth working perfectly on our iPhones, and not other devices. If it’s because they want us constantly on our phones for personal

information & marketing. Apple-Google-FB-Twitter.

Understood. It’s very frustrating. And to think so many of us have wasted so much energy and time trying to figure out the problem. I get the feeling, our issue with Bluetooth is simply not a concern for Apple. They seem to just want us at ease on our iPhones for their reasons (ie. marketing, tracking our behaviour, data collecting). Google could not work as well without Apple, is my point. Says a lot about the company. We are past the “cool” aspect of having of having these devices. I care about corporate integrity.

Not sure if this question has been solved yet but your HK can connect to multiple devices at once. If you've connected to your iPhone my guess is it will prioritize the iPhone over the laptop. What seems to work is to disconnect all bluetooth devices from the HK except the laptop. Hope this helps. :)

I had the same issue before, but just this morning when I updated my MBA 2018 to macOS Catalina then all the problems were gone. While writing this, I am enjoying my Onyx 5 and just adjusted the volume through my MBA 2018. Indeed...after long await. Thanks Apple for the fix.

Doesn't work for me.

I've updated to Catalina, removed all bluetooth devices, reset bluetooth module, and connected again.

Now speaker connects, and doesn't disconnects by itself every time - that's good. But it won't play any sound most of the time. Sometimes it occasionally plays sound from my apple music app, however it won't play anything else (like youtube or soundcloud). When I connecting to the speaker, playback just stops and nothing else is happen. If I click play button again it's all goes like regular but no sound from the speaker, nor laptop internal speakers.

So its behaviour still highly inconsistent (in other words it doesn't work properly).

I'm tired and deeply disappointed.

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. :)

Exactly the same issue here. I have multiple apple products Macbook Pro 2015, iMac 2015 and Macbook Pro 2018 which all behave exactly the same way. I am running Catalina OS now on all of them and the issue remains. My iPhone X is not working properly with the speaker either and exhibits similar issues. For the record Onyx Studio 2 works perfectly without any issues.

Apple please look into this issue. I have pending support ticker with Harman Kardon which was sent to India support.... my guess this is not going to go anywhere. I cannot believe that two big players can't get their products to work together using Bluetooth standard.

Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices seems to work so to my surprise this might in fact be Apple bug. Why would you want to hand off blue tooth connection between devices?

Apple please fix this issue.

I've been in touch with Harman Kardon (Sweden) recently and their support team blames it on Apples bluetooth protocol. I told them that I had an Onyx 3 up until a few days ago which worked just fine - so I don't really buy that argument. If the Onyx 3 protocol works, how come they can't make the Onyx 5 work?

They also wrote, which upsets me, that the speaker is made for phone/tablet use and not for computers. Seriously, who makes a speaker in 2019 that's not compatible with laptops?!

I'm directing my attention to Apple and I hope that there's something you can do for me and the rest of the people in this thread.

Think both have their stakes. Can imagine HK does it because of energy management as they struggle to achieve playtime under battery use ( though it might run plugged in but the logic is general). That Apple bluetooth protocol is not the best at all, we know from use WiFi and Bluetooth in parallel - always issues.

Just thinking of buying a bluetooth dongle for the 3.5 inch plug for the HK speaker and pair this with my iMac.

This proposal above with resetting the speaker is as mentioned above not a proper solution - you have to do it any time again..

Bluetooth dongle is not a bad idea, but aren't they powered by their own built-in battery? It would suck having to unplug it from the speaker and recharge it. Do you by any chance have a dongle to recommend?

I used one from Logitech with permanent power supply. At least, this one is reliable ;).

Also did not found out the logic, when the HK speaker disconnect, sometimes very wired.

For me, searching songs on YouTube is a permanent activity. So one switch off criteria is the time between two songs,

if they are not played immediately after each other with an interruption of maybe one minute, bluetooth connection brake..

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I sold my Onyx 5 and bought a Onyx 4 that work A LOT better, at least with my Macbook. Not sure what the difference is in bluetooth but I'm not experiencing the problems with my Onyx 5.