Sony WF-1000XM3 Battery Replacement

It looks like the original battery was the A2 and Varta is now providing the A3 and A4 references: https://www.varta-ag.com/en/industry/pro...

I am thinking to look for the A4 since it may provide additional capacity

CP1254 A3 : 66 mAh

CP1254 A4 : 77 mAh

Very good tutorial!

But I couldn't find any A3, I think they are not sold anymore (at least in France), I managed to find some A4 with a bigger capacity on conrad.fr (ref. CP1254 A4) for 18euro each and it works perfectly well :D

I replaced the existing cells which were a Varta CP1254 A3 & ZeniPower. Im guessing this is because early on in my ownership I had to send them to Sony as one bud decided to just... Not turn on anymore. I can't remember which one was being problematic but these seem to be the two brands that Sony uses.

Like others, I used Varta CP1254 A4 cells in the hopes of longer battery life, I'm about a week into using them and can report that they are indeed feeling like new again, and I'm also having much much fewer random disconnects or power cycling.

Cells were sourced from Conrad.com

Worked great for me too, however as Maximilian S. says, the mic and touchpad were firmly atteched to the cover with a ribbon connecting them to the rest of the unit. This model in the video doesn't have this, as it's a slightly different version. Be careful and you'll be fine.

I broke the glue trying to remove it. Any idea what glue I could use instead?

(I tried without, but it's not working)

Great guide! Although I would recommend to not go too deep with the opening tool. I broke a plastic part. No big deal, there are still other plastic hooks on the case and there is glue below. But still.

Question: my brand new Varta battery was hot when I took it out of it's anti-static bag and removed the plastic sheets around it. Is that normal?

I purchased the new batteries and swapped them in. Now the Bluetooth doesn't work on the left ear bud. Its super strange because the charging case lets me do a hard reset and soft reset on them and they're fully charged but when i go to pull the pair out of the case only the right one flashes blue like its ready to pair for Bluetooth.

super easy to do but i think i bricked them or something.

Thanks for this repair guide, it was super easy to replace the battery and keep using the earbuds!

Easy - T*H*A*N*K**Y*O*U*!!!
Saved my earbuds after they fell into a bathtub, fully submerged. Immediate disassembly, part separation and drying recovered both the battery and the electronics.

Need to be careful when putting the metal contact on the new battery because if the metal contact also touches the side it will short the battery. I accidently did this and luckily noticed that the battery was getting hot.

Simply amazing. Flawless tutorial, simple, straightforward procedure! My left bud's charge kept dropping to 10% within an hour and I was prepared to be forced to replace the entire set when I stumbled across this tutorial. Great job. I put in the A4 aswell and it seems to work just fine. I am really pleased that it is at all possible to replace those batteries. Thanks a lot!

The right one isn't playing anymore, though it charges, connects, blinks blue and responds to touch input! Can't tell what I've done wrong but a slight scratch(oh, barely) on the large ribbon cable at the top(inside part).

So sad :(

Installed the A4 batteries. The flatflex cable was attached to shell not the battery holder.

Thanks Ludovic!

Without your video I wouldn't have dared to open my Sony WF-1000XM3. My issue was not the battery but the right pod did't sound right any more. It was extremely quiet and when turning the volume up it started cracking and clipping. I first tried resetting and re-initializing and pairing with different devices but nothing would help. Then I noticed that I could get a slightly louder sound after shaking the pod a bit. I suspected that it was a an issue with the speaker. With your guide I was able to disassemble the pod - only to discover that I was not able to reach the actual loudspeaker because the last circuit board is glued to the case, effectively locking the speaker in.

However, after I had carefully reassembled the pod, I was delightfully surprised to discover that the pod was working perfectly fine again :-). Even if I found no smoking gun, it most likely wasn't the speaker. And in case the problem reappears, I will first investigate the contacts that are accessible.

Tried this and unfortunately one of the small screws was stripped and I'm unable to get it out - tried rubber band (not sure given it's recessed location if glue would work). Any recommendations?

great guide simple and easy to follow, just to add an option

if you hold the metal conector to the plastic cover with your finger while use the plunger, to take out the battery, doing this, the glue wont come off, and don't have to worry about the alignment of the metal piece, at least to me this saved me few seconds and made it easier.

regards

Wenn man die Kontaktlasche zu nah an der Batterie positioniert, entsteht ein Kurzschluss und der Akku raucht ab!

Also an der Seite der Knopfzelle muss ein kleiner Abstand zum Blech bestehen.

After insertion of the new battery and closing the screws the advice gets really hot. I immediately opened it again and took the new battery out again. What did I do wrong? Any advices?

Got my new battery from an online shop in Germany, with specification compatible to the WF-1000XM3. It's not the Varta and in the imprinting it sais 3.6V (and not 3.7V Like the Varta in the Video).

Worked well. Testing the batteries. I split them using my nails also. I bought Varta A4 that say it's better. We'll see

Small FYI for anyone opening the Buds:

Be super careful you don’t stick the picks too deep. In my experience you shouldn’t go deeper than 5mm if 1/4 inch. Me and a friend both tried to replace the batteries and in both cases, we dislodged a couple of SMD components by inserting the picks too deep.

Is there any onther alternative to these i can buy in Euprope? I mean the batteries? Seems like a waste to just throw out the earbuds and buy new ones when all they need is a new battery

It worked! Thank you for the guide. My earbuds had VARTA batteries, but I bought ZeniPower Z55 for replacement because they are much cheaper, and I read somewhere that they don’t deteriorate as quickly. However, I can’t confirm this from my own experience. I’m glad the earbuds work after the replacement.”

Great guide. Was able to complete both within 10 minutes.
I too had the touch board attached to the 'lid' of both earphones.
Using the picks to pry the two halves ajar, I found that they were too weak/flimsy to fully separate the two halves due to the adhesive on the touch board.

Using the plastic spudger from my Pro Tech Toolkit to gently twist the top lid off between the edge of the lid and earphone and let the adhesive separate slowly made things easier.
Doing the same to remove the batteries from the adhesive also worked well with the spudger. Unlike the video, I put the corner of the spudger into the end of the tray and gently twisted against the tray to remove the battery. This also caused the metal contact and adhesive to stay relatively in tact within the tray.

My headphones came with the Varta A3 batteries. My right earphone was down to about 45mins runtime.. where the left could go for about an hour.
have had them for about 4 years now and use them almost every single day for commuting and gym. Installing the Z55H batteries from Zenipower seems to have brought new life to my headphones, and saved me about $380 on new ones!!