Motorola S9 headphones

Ok, here we go. I spent about 3 hours on this issue and sacrificed some functionality on my headphones to solve the low volume music problem.
Clearly some people have had success with less drastic measures so I would suggest trying the following steps in order before dismantling the unit.

1. Attempt to dry out the headphones in case moisture is the culprit.
2. Call Motorola. If you are still covered under their 1 year warranty, make it their problem. You get a new set and all is gravy (at least until the new ones poop out). Repeat as necessary.
3. Attempt a reset of the headset. This was mention in solution 8 and could well work for you.
4. Try to override the volume up (explained in solution 6)
5. If none of this works, try the steps outlined in solution 10. In my experience, there was gluey goop everywhere! This might be affecting the connections and causing the low volume.
6. If none of this works (as was my case), proceed to disassemble the headset in the following manner...

I found that after disassembling, and creating a manual connection between the contacts for the volume + button, the volume would still remain at minimum. Therefore, I believe that instead of the moisture killing the volume + switch, the volume - contacts have corroded in the closed position. This solution will remove the ability to use the volume - button. But, you will still maintain you ability to make and answer calls with the phone button if it is currently operational.

1. Slowly peel back the red silicone covering over the back of the headset near the power switch. Note: the flap covering the mini USB plug will release once the casing has been opened.
2. Reveal the four #0 phillips screws on the inside surface of the headset body. Remove them and set aside.
3. Using your nail, or a flat blunt object (like a butter knife), pry open the casing starting near the mini USB port.
4. Once it all is opened up into two casing pieces and exposing the circuit board, find the 6 pin JST connector for the left side of the headset. The colors are coded as follows: black for ground, orange for volume -, red for phone button, yellow (almost gold) for volume +, and the last two (I believe they were green and blue) are for the speaker.
5. Cut the orange wire (if black is pin 1, orange would be pin 2). This will prevent minimum volume problems in the future.
6. Power on the device without touching any open contacts on the circuit board.
7. Connect the S9 to your phone or whatever you play music through.
8. While the music is playing, use a strand of electrical wire or similar conductive material to briefly make contact between the black and yellow terminals on the back of the JST connector. This will replicate the volume + button allowing you to adjust the volume up. I set my volume to about 80-90%. If you set it too high, you will have to make brief contact between the black and orange wire to adjust the volume down.
9. Close the headset casing and replace the screws.
10. Glue the red silicone padding down.

Wrote this will jammin' to Chant a Psalm by Steel Pulse. Good luck bitches...

I had the same problem (FRUSTRATING TO SAY THE LEAST).

I READ ALL THE POSTINGS AND SORT OF COMBINED THE STEPS:

NOTE:BEFORE TRYING THIS, MAKE SURE THE BATTERY ON BOTH DEVICES ARE FULLY CHARGED.

1- DELETED DEVICE FROM THE PHONE.

2-RE-PAIR (re-conect) S9 WITH THE DEVICE
-MAKE SURE THE PHONE SHOWS A FULL SIGNAL-

3-PRESS AND HOLD PHONE CONTROL (MIDDLE LEFT SIDE) WHILE PRESSING AND HOLDING FORWARD TRACK (TOP RIGHT SIDE).

THE VOLUME STARTED INCREASING TO THE MAX.

4-CONTROL VOLUME FROM THE PHONE!!!!!!!

GOOD LUCK.

The controls of my s9 also stopped working. Following this conversation I decided to explore a bit further. I opened the buttons and found out that the very glue that holds the plastic films (that acts as a bridge over the switches) was the one preventing the switch and the bridge from making contact, so the glue is actually what gets "displaced" when wet. I tried to clean the contacts and both of the extremes switches worked okay, but I could never get the middle switch (call button) to work, it uses a disc (that gives it that pop mechanism) in between the plastic films which is very hard to realign. I gave up and now have called Moto.

I tried the solutions posted and none seemed to work. I ended up contacting motorola on this issue and this is what was said "Regarding your concern, we are sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having with your Motorola Bluetooth Headset. Please follow the steps below in order to reset the earpiece:

- Turn the Bluetooth Headset on
- Connect it to the charger
- Disconnect it after 5 seconds
- Reset is done.

You may also try to delete the Bluetooth connection from your cellular phone and set up the headset again in order to resolve this issue."
I hope this helps anyone out there. It helped with mine 1 time but unfortunately the volume messed up again and it still doesn't work. Good Luck.

I have gone through 4 pairs of these. I still think they are the best bluetooth headset for working out - when the volume works. 3 of my 4 pairs had the volume up control simply stop working (down always keeps working fine) - this is usually accompanied by an intermittent beeping as if the headphones are switching to phone mode. After reading several posts - and trying various fixes (blowdrying, pulling the rubber off and trying to adjust the plastic etc...) I stumbled on the same fix as posted in Solution 7. If I press the right middle button to switch the headset over to phone mode the volume up "+" button is re-engaged. I am then able to adjust the volume up in phone mode. Then I just switch back to music mode. Then I leave the headphones at full volume and only adjust my ipod.

Ok I just read through about 5 hours of advise on whats wrong with the S9 volume up and other controlls. I finally decided to take mine apart. I removed the rubber cover on the (+ phone -- ) side. THan i used a sharpm knife to seperate the two sheets of plastic with the contact trace on it. The first thing i noticed was that the glue had melted and had smeared all over the contact patches, and everywhere else. I took some electronic contact cleaner and a few Q-tips and gently removed all the glue from the contact points. I only left a trace of glue around the edge. It is important to clean the underside of the top piece of plastic film with the black dot in the middle and small lines each end. Do not remove the bottom piece of plastic film ! , just clean it of the glue residue. Once clean place the plastic strip back ontop of the other. It only fits one way, and even without the glue it will stay in place. IT fits snugly toward the + side. Replace the rubber cover and it should now work. I am listening to mine as i type this. If you have problems with the other side, do the same cleaning you did for the volume side. Good Luck and good listning !

Geort: what i did was switch from stereo ( listening music ) to phone mode and listen to my voice mail and volume went up then i could go up and down then switch back to music player and it worked im listening as im writing this possible solution,  if u have any ??? plz email me [email protected] i hope i can help

In solution 9 This is close to what I did but instead of the phone button on the left I used the play button on the left and the top button ont the left above the play button and it worked now I just us the iPhone volume lol I'm not touching the one on the earpiece agean lol thanks I hope this helps someone else :)

S9martyr i wanted to thank you for your tutorial.
i succesfully opened my s9 and got it to the max volume setting.
the volume + and - dont work anymore on my headset but as you said at least i can use it again( it was expensive after all)
i am so glad i wanted to tell you people that it actually works
bye

Let me start with i have an Audiovox 6900 Smart phone. I use the S9 to listen to music and books only. The S9 sucks for phone calls. I use a Jawbone blue tooth for phone calls and it rocks. The problem seems to be with the phone software. The 2 devices do not play well together. This is the fix i have used

I have had the same problem with my headset. the up volume and the pause and the up track and the answer call button would not work. Down volume and the down track worked fine. I tried the fixes posted here. None worked. I figure it is some sort of software issue with the phone. When i would pair the headset with another phone or player the S9 it worked fine. So I deleted the headset from my phone and my other blue tooth headset. then reset the phone. i thought this would take care of it. Unfourtnalty this did not work. The only way i could get it to pair with the phone and work like it is suppose to is to let the S9 go completely dead then recharge and then pair with the phone. But when i link the jawbone i get the same button not working issue. the only work around i have found is to use the controls on the phone and not the ones on the headset. Not perfect but it works. Hope this helps.

Hi MikeW787,
I got the same response when I contacted Motorola... I had to contact them twice before they had me return them for a replacement. I sent them the defective item, the replacement arrived very quickly. From what I can tell, this is a known issue and occurs often... hopefully you will get a replacement that works for a long time.
Daniel

This is not a solution. Neither were #2 and #3. I pulled the rubber buttons back to find that the plastic file was intact and had not "slipped" to any other position. In other words, there was nothing requiring realignment. What I am going to do is to set the side with the removed buttons (volume controls) under a light source with the hopes that if there's any moisture inside/under the film that it soon evaporate due to the heat from the light source. If it works, then I'll repost with my results. Otherwise, this didn't work either.

Hey guys i was having this problem so i thought i'd try to mess with them and i got it to work :D

Anyway
First remove the rubber buttons and you will see the senor board with a plastic film on it. Take the film on and re align were it is supposed to go.

Hope it works for you it just did for me and i'm very happy

Hey guys i was having this problem so i thought i'd try to mess with them and i got it to work :D

Anyway
First remove the rubber buttons and you will see the senor board with a plastic film on it. Take the film on and re align were it is supposed to go.

Hope it works for you it just did for me and i'm very happy

I've gotten a second pair right now, and I hope not to experience the saem problem for a while. It could be that sweat gets into the contacts and that jams them or makes them defunct.