Sonoma Not Finding MFI Hearing Aids

[Hallstar]

I have a 2021 MBP M1 Pro with MacOS Sonoma installed.

I have tried everything possible to pair my Signia Stretta UP-R but they don’t show up in Accessibility > Hearing Devices.

I have no issues connecting them to my iPhone 15 Pro (or previous iPhone 14 Pro) or iPad Pro 12.9 (2020)

Has anyone experienced this same issue, or had success in creating a pairing to a MBP M1 Pro?

 

[Mike Boreham]

I don't believe you can pair MFI hearing aids directly with a Mac. People have been asking for this for years but AFAIK still not possible. They have to pair with a phone. I can plug my ReSound Multimic into my mac and it will transmit to my MFI HAs.

EDIT However the words imply that they should do! Can‘t try my MFIA Resound Omnias at present but will do tomorrow.

EDIT 2 Looks like you can according to this article …..with selected M1 Macs and all M2. I have an M2 MBA so should work.

 

[Hallstar]

The capability to pair to Mac was released within MacOS Sonoma, but limited to M1 Pro or Max chipset and all M2 devices.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I don't believe you can pair MFI hearing aids directly with a Mac. People have been asking for this for years but AFAIK still not possible. They have to pair with a phone. I can plug my ReSound Multimic into my mac and it will transmit to my MFI HAs.

EDIT However the words imply that they should do! Can‘t try my MFIA Resound Omnias at present but will do tomorrow.

EDIT 2 Looks like you can according to this article …..with selected M1 Macs and all M2. I have an M2 MBA so should work.

I have successfully paired my MFI HAs to my M2 MBA.

Note they won't connect with the MBA while still connected to my phone. I had to disconnect them from my phone before they would connect to my Mac.

 

[Hallstar]

I believe yours have worked as they are bidirectional, whereas my Signia Stretta UP-R aren’t.

Disappointing really, given that they are MFI and work for iOS devices. Hope a future update will allow for streaming only from MacOS to MFI HA’s!

 

[Mike Boreham]

I believe yours have worked as they are bidirectional, whereas my Signia Stretta UP-R aren’t.

Disappointing really, given that they are MFI and work for iOS devices. Hope a future update will allow for streaming only from MacOS to MFI HA’s!

I don't know what bidirectional means in this context. Not a term I have come across in my many years of MFI HAs. Mine are ReSound Omnias. What I do know is that sometimes getting MFI HAs to pair can be a frustrating experience involving rebooting and fresh batteries. Maybe worth persisting.

 

[Gmouse]

This was my issue, but I also figured out it's an Either/Or problem--you can use your aids Either with iPhone Or with Apple Silicon Mac running Sonoma...but you have to manually switch from one to the other device.

I, and probably many, would need this to be somewhat automatic switching (probably with a prompt to switch over or not) as if I manually switch from iPhone to Mac...I'd probably forget to switch back when I leave the Mac.

Anyone figure how to make that happen, or is this a feature request we all need to write Apple about?

Thanks!

 

[Hallstar]

This was my issue, but I also figured out it's an Either/Or problem--you can use your aids Either with iPhone Or with Apple Silicon Mac running Sonoma...but you have to manually switch from one to the other device.

I, and probably many, would need this to be somewhat automatic switching (probably with a prompt to switch over or not) as if I manually switch from iPhone to Mac...I'd probably forget to switch back when I leave the Mac.

Anyone figure how to make that happen, or is this a feature request we all need to write Apple about?

Thanks!

I’ve tried unpairing my HA’s from iPhone and iPad and pairing to my M1 MBP, but it just won’t recognise them.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I’ve tried unpairing my HA’s from iPhone and iPad and pairing to my M1 MBP, but it just won’t recognise them.

As I said in #2 sounds like your M1 MBP is not one the select models which support MFIHA on Macs. From the Apple link:

Note: Made for iPhone hearing devices can be paired only with select Mac computers with the M1 chip and all Mac computers with the M2 chip

 

[stumblingfalk]

Well, for me it works, kind of. On a M1 PM. Oh heavens I have been waiting and hoping for this.

I got Resound One aids and they will pair, but first pairing must be done with BT turned off on the iPhone.

Sound will stream, and adjustments to tone curve and program switching is possible too. However, not to get too detailed, it is buggy. The audio handoff does not work properly between the devices, there are several serious glitches related to using custom user specififed tone curves and more.

As of Sonoma 14.1 beta 3, this needs more work to work as flawlessy and reliably as one would expect. There are also differences in how this works depending on what brand of aids you got too. Also the firmware revision on the hearing aids plays a part. In some cases likely also the hearing aid control app on the phone.

Its nice to see kind-of support, but I hope they can iron out the bugs and get this working like its clearly intended. I.e. when streaming from the Mac, phone calls, you get the option to switch over somehow. Or when not actively streaming on the phone, and firing up audio on the Mac, it taking control. Stuff like that.

Keeping my fingers crossed. For hearing aid and CI users, reliable direct audio streaming from our computers w/o any dongles and doodas in between is a wet dream 😄🤞🤞

 

[MacAlien]

Here is the list for macOS hearing device: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210386

Note only the the asterisk devices are supported that include bidirectional streaming. The Signia Stretta does not have an asterisk and cannot connect without an intermediary device.

Still pissed Apple said one thing(MFi hearing devices supported) and then added this bidirectional layer to it excluding a lot of the HoH/Deaf community who use all sorts of MFi hearing aids and CIs. Everybody should be emailing Apple over it.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I’m having pretty good results from this with my M1 Max MBP… I can select the hearing aids (Resound Omnia) in Control Center and it streams nicely; “usually” I can then select it in Control Center on iPhone or iPad to get it back over there. Once in a while it won’t want to switch back to iOS requiring me to reboot the hearing aids but not often; in fact I’m not sure I’ve had that trouble since installing iOS/ipadOS 17.0.3.

It certainly beats having the Multi Mic dangling from the headphone jack!

 

[Hallstar]

Still pissed Apple said one thing(MFi hearing devices supported) and then added this bidirectional layer to it excluding a lot of the HoH/Deaf community who use all sorts of MFi hearing aids and CIs. Everybody should be emailing Apple over it.

I completely agree. My HA’s work fine for iOS/iPadOS, so assume they don’t have bi-directional and I therefore don’t need it for MacOS

What is the best way to feedback to Apple?

 

[MacAlien]

I completely agree. My HA’s work fine for iOS/iPadOS, so assume they don’t have bi-directional and I therefore don’t need it for MacOS

What is the best way to feedback to Apple?

Had to look around since I saw something elsewhere about it. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Somebody suggested emailing tcook@apple.com but probably have better luck with accessibility@apple.com

 

[Gmouse]

Running Sonoma 14.0, and I have been trying to pair my Resound Linx 3D aids to the 2023 Mac Studio w/M2 Ultra for about an hour, and no joy. The aids are listed as supported and pairable with any M2 Mac, and I do have the settings to do so...they just never show up when being searched for. Just FYI, I can easily pair and use them with my iPhone 12 Max Pro, and do daily.

I followed the Apple instructions and turned off my iPhone BlueTooth, and tried to pair them to the Mac, but the devices don't show. I then went back to the iPhone and forgot them, and they still don't show (I'm opening and closing the battery cover to reboot the aids each time). Finally I turned off the iPhone, rebooted the aids, and they still don't show, and as a last resort I rebooted the Mac Studio, and rebooted the aids, but...they still don't show.
Any ideas on how to get this to work?
Thanks!!

 

[MacAlien]

Running Sonoma 14.0, and I have been trying to pair my Resound Linx 3D aids to the 2023 Mac Studio w/M2 Ultra for about an hour, and no joy. The aids are listed as supported and pairable with any M2 Mac, and I do have the settings to do so...they just never show up when being searched for. Just FYI, I can easily pair and use them with my iPhone 12 Max Pro, and do daily.

I followed the Apple instructions and turned off my iPhone BlueTooth, and tried to pair them to the Mac, but the devices don't show. I then went back to the iPhone and forgot them, and they still don't show (I'm opening and closing the battery cover to reboot the aids each time). Finally I turned off the iPhone, rebooted the aids, and they still don't show, and as a last resort I rebooted the Mac Studio, and rebooted the aids, but...they still don't show.
Any ideas on how to get this to work?
Thanks!!

They’re not supported. They are supported on iOS and iPadOS. Remember, it has to have an asterisk next it in the list to be supported by macOS Sonoma.

 

[whitby]

I am running Sonoma on a 2020 Intel i9 27” iMac (macOS 14). Apple broke the interface to most Rode microphones, that have Apple MFi certification, on Intel based Macs. The mic worked perfectly under Ventura, so something changed under Sonoma. It is expected to be repaired in 14.1 according to the Rode website, meanwhile the mics are completely unusable. They work fine with Sonoma on Apple Silicon based systems.

 

[MacAlien]

I am running Sonoma on a 2020 Intel i9 27” iMac (macOS 14). Apple broke the interface to most Rode microphones, that have Apple MFi certification, on Intel based Macs. The mic worked perfectly under Ventura, so something changed under Sonoma. It is expected to be repaired in 14.1 according to the Rode website, meanwhile the mics are completely unusable. They work fine with Sonoma on Apple Silicon based systems.

That does not have anything to do with MFi hearing devices and issues of support? 🤷‍♂️

 

[whitby]

That does not have anything to do with MFi hearing devices and issues of support? 🤷‍♂️

It might have something to do with MFi certified interfaces in general so I thought it might be helpful. BTW the issue I described has been fixed in 14.1 just released. Do you still have the issue after the update?

 

[MacAlien]

It might have something to do with MFi certified interfaces in general so I thought it might be helpful. BTW the issue I described has been fixed in 14.1 just released. Do you still have the issue after the update?

Every person with Sonoma that uses Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants has the same problem if their hearing device doesn't support Bidirectional Streaming. Headphones/Earbuds do not fall under the same issue as they generally have simpler mechanisms to connect (and do not generally go through the Accessibility Menu).

 

[lukey351]

Good news regarding MFi support on macOS for existing hearing device/CI users! Got this email back from Apple Accessibility a few weeks after raising some feedback regarding this topic.

Hello Luke,

Thank you for your email. We appreciate your feedback, and are happy to let you know that we are expanding compatibility in macOS Sequoia to include all current MFi Hearing Devices. If you would like to explore this functionality before the full release, you are welcome to participate in our Public Beta program in the coming months.

More information about the program is available here: https://beta.apple.com [beta.apple.com]
To review the list of MFI Hearing Devices, visit this page: https://support.apple.com/106341 [support.apple.com]


Sincerely,
Apple Accessibility

It seems Apple has finally acknowledged this and seen how this is impacting current HA/CI users. Can confirm that after downloading macOS Sequoia Developer Beta 2, it's working with Cochlear N7, however, handoff and device switching is still quite buggy, works better if only paired with one device at a time for now.

 

[Hallstar]

Good news regarding MFi support on macOS for existing hearing device/CI users! Got this email back from Apple Accessibility a few weeks after raising some feedback regarding this topic.



It seems Apple has finally acknowledged this and seen how this is impacting current HA/CI users. Can confirm that after downloading macOS Sequoia Developer Beta 2, it's working with Cochlear N7, however, handoff and device switching is still quite buggy, works better if only paired with one device at a time for now.

This is good news for many! I recently sold my MBP as I wasn’t getting enough use out of it!

The handoff and device switching definitely needs improvement, across MacOS and iOS. Currently it’s terrible!