Connect Sony headphones
to your Mac

Connect them in macOS

These steps are the same on a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini or any other Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or later.

1. Put the headphones in pairing mode (the button for each model is below). Keep them within a meter or so of the Mac.
2. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Bluetooth in the sidebar. Make sure Bluetooth is on.
3. Wait for your headphones to appear under Nearby Devices. They show their model name, for example WH-1000XM4; the WH-1000XX may appear as 1000X The Collexion.
4. Hold the pointer over the name and click Connect. If the Mac asks for a passkey, type 0000.
5. When the headphones move to My Devices and say Connected, they're paired.

Pairing mode ends after about five minutes. If the headphones don't appear in time, turn them off and start again.

After the first pairing, you don't need System Settings to reconnect: open Control Center, click Bluetooth and click the headphones' name. Sony headphones remember up to eight devices; when you pair a ninth, the oldest is forgotten.

Put your model in pairing mode

The first time you turn on new headphones (or after a factory reset), they go into pairing mode by themselves. To pair them with a Mac when they already know another device, such as your phone, use the steps for your model.

WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XX (1000X The Collexion)

These two have a separate Bluetooth button. Hold it for about 5 seconds until the indicator flashes. The WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XX don't use the power button for pairing, which is the most common reason pairing "doesn't start" on them.

WH-1000XM5

Start with the headphones switched off and hold the power button for about 5 seconds, a little shorter than on older models. See the WH-1000XM5 page for the controls Open Sound Connect shows for it.

WH-1000XM4, WH-1000XM3, WH-1000XM2 and MDR-1000X

Start with the headphones switched off and hold the power button for about 7 seconds. On the WH-1000XM3 the indicator then flashes blue twice, repeatedly; on the MDR-1000X it flashes blue and red. The WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM2 work the same way. The MDR-1000X also starts pairing on its very first use when you hold power for about 2 seconds.

Sony's Mac instructions list macOS 10.10 or later for the WH-1000XM4, 10.13 for the WH-1000XM3, 10.15 for the WH-1000XM5, 11 for the WH-1000XM6 and 12 for the WH-1000XX, so any recent Mac is fine. They still say System Preferences, which macOS now calls System Settings.

Choose the headphones as the sound output

macOS usually switches the sound to Bluetooth headphones as soon as they connect. If sound still comes from the Mac's speakers:

1. Open System Settings → Sound and choose the headphones under Output.
2. Or click Control Center, then Sound, and pick the headphones from the list.

The headphones also have a microphone, which macOS can use for calls. If you'd rather keep music quality high during meetings, choose the Mac's built-in microphone under System Settings → Sound → Input; why calls sound worse over Bluetooth explains the trade-off. If something else goes wrong, see Sony headphones not connecting or connected but no sound.

Using them with your phone too

The WH-1000XM4, WH-1000XM5, WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XX can stay connected to your Mac and your phone at the same time; older models switch between them. Sony headphones with a Mac and an iPhone has the setup for each model.

What Open Sound Connect adds

Pairing gives you audio. macOS has no screen for the headphones' own settings, such as noise canceling, ambient sound, the equalizer or Speak-to-Chat; Sony's app for those, Sony | Sound Connect, runs only on phones.

Open Sound Connect adds those controls to your Mac. It uses the pairing you just made, so there's nothing to pair again:

1. Open the app and choose Allow when macOS asks for Bluetooth access (why it needs it).
2. With the headphones connected, the app connects to them by itself. If it doesn't, choose Connect or press ⌘K.
3. Use My Device (⌘1) for noise canceling and ambient sound, Sound (⌘2) for the equalizer, and the menu bar for quick changes.

Each model shows only the controls it supports; the headphone pages list them. If music plays but the app shows no headphones, see connected but not detected.

Still stuck? Email support@clevermechanisms.dev with your headphone model, your Open Sound Connect and macOS versions, and what happened.