One pair,
Mac and iPhone

Which models support multipoint

Pair the headphones with both devices first: each one has to be paired separately, in pairing mode. The pairing guide has the button for each model; on the iPhone, pairing is in Settings → Bluetooth.

Apple's automatic switching between a Mac and an iPhone is a feature of AirPods and some Beats, tied to your Apple Account. Sony headphones don't use it; they use their own multipoint instead.

Set up the WH-1000XM4 or WH-1000XM5

1. Pair the headphones with your iPhone and with your Mac.
2. Turn on Connect to 2 devices simultaneously in Sony | Sound Connect on your phone. On the Mac, Open Sound Connect shows the same setting as Connect to 2 Devices Simultaneously on the Wearing page (⌘4) under Connectivity.
3. The headphones reconnect once to apply the change. Then connect them to the other device too.

The WH-1000XM4 has one trade-off: while two-device connections are on, it can't use LDAC and falls back to AAC or SBC. That only matters with an Android phone. A Mac and an iPhone use AAC or SBC anyway, so with them you lose nothing.

WH-1000XM6

Turn on the two-device setting in Sony | Sound Connect, then connect the WH-1000XM6 to both. If your headphones report the setting to the Mac, Open Sound Connect shows it under Wearing → Connectivity as well.

WH-1000XX

The WH-1000XX needs no setting: pair it with both devices and connect both. Sony | Sound Connect can also set it to keep playing from the previous source when another device starts.

How playback moves between the two

With both connected, the headphones play from one device at a time. In practice:

• Pause on the device that's playing, then press play on the other.
• On the WH-1000XM6, starting playback on the second device makes it take over.
• If playback seems to jump by itself, check what the other device just started playing.

On newer headphones that report it, such as the WH-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM6, Open Sound Connect can choose and lock the playing device, on the Wearing page under Connectivity and in the menu bar:

• Playback device shows which device is playing and lets you move playback to another connected one.
• Pin to this Mac keeps playback on the Mac while both stay connected, so the iPhone can't take it over. Unpin lets the headphones switch by themselves again.
• The device list marks each paired device as Connected · playing, Connected or Paired.

Playback can't be moved during a phone call; the app tells you so. The WH-1000XM4 and older models don't offer playback switching, so they use the pause-and-play method.

Switch by hand (MDR-1000X, WH-1000XM2, WH-1000XM3)

These models connect for music to one device at a time. Sony's "multipoint" on them means music from one device and calls from another, not two music sources. To move from the iPhone to the Mac:

1. On the iPhone, open Settings → Bluetooth, tap the info button next to the headphones and tap Disconnect.
2. On the Mac, open Control Center → Bluetooth and click the headphones.

To go back, disconnect them on the Mac in Control Center → Bluetooth and tap them on the iPhone. The same works on any model with two-device connections turned off.

When Open Sound Connect is running and you choose Connect (⌘K), the app also asks macOS to connect the headphones, which can pull them over from the iPhone.

Settings follow the headphones

Noise canceling, the equalizer and other settings live in the headphones, so a change made on the Mac is what the iPhone gets too, and the other way round. See how EQ settings carry over. If the headphones keep jumping to the wrong device, Sony headphones keep disconnecting has more checks.