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A surprising number of the problems covered elsewhere on this site — won’t turn on, Bluetooth connection issues, one side cutting out — get fixed or prevented entirely by staying current on firmware. Here’s how the update process actually works.
Where Updates Happen
All firmware updates go through the Marshall Bluetooth app, not through your phone’s regular software update system — there’s no update happening in the background without the app open. Pairing your headphones with the app is what lets it check whether your current firmware version is current, visible in the app’s “About” section.
Before You Start an Update
- Keep the headphones powered on throughout the entire update — an update interrupted by the headphones shutting off partway through is the main way this process actually goes wrong.
- Keep the headphones physically close to your phone. The update transfers over Bluetooth, and a weak connection partway through causes the same interruption risk as low battery.
- Keep the app open and your screen unlocked for the duration — backgrounding the app can pause or cancel the transfer depending on your phone’s power-management settings.
- Use Wi-Fi if the app is also downloading the update file itself, to avoid a slow or interrupted download over cellular data.
How Long It Actually Takes
A typical update completes in about 5 minutes once it starts, though this varies by model and the size of the specific update. Don’t disconnect or power off during this window even if the app appears to stall briefly — that’s often normal mid-transfer behavior, not a failure.
If an Update Fails or Gets Stuck
Per Marshall’s own support guidance, work through these in order rather than jumping straight to a factory reset:
- Toggle Bluetooth off and on, and restart your phone. This alone resolves a meaningful share of stuck-update cases.
- On Android, clear the Marshall Bluetooth app’s cache. Settings > Apps > Marshall Bluetooth > Storage > Clear Cache, then reopen the app and try again.
- Remove the headphones from your phone’s Bluetooth list and re-pair from scratch if the cache clear doesn’t fix it.
- Factory reset as a last resort. This returns the headphones to their original settings and removes any firmware already applied, so it’s worth exhausting the steps above first.
This process applies across Marshall’s current Bluetooth headphone lineup — Major V, Motif A.N.C., Minor IV, and others — since they all go through the same Marshall Bluetooth app rather than model-specific update tools.
Why This Is Worth Doing Proactively
Firmware updates on Bluetooth headphones routinely include real bug fixes for exactly the kinds of intermittent connection drops and pairing quirks covered in our troubleshooting guides — checking for an update is a genuinely useful first step before assuming a problem is a hardware fault. If you’re shopping for a replacement pair rather than troubleshooting an existing one, our full Marshall Headphones review covers the current lineup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a firmware update fix connection problems I’m already having?
Often, yes — many firmware releases specifically address Bluetooth pairing and stability bugs. Checking for an update is worth doing before more involved troubleshooting steps.
What happens if the update gets interrupted partway through?
This is the main real risk of the process — an interrupted update can leave the headphones in an unresponsive state. Keeping the headphones charged, close to your phone, and the app open in the foreground for the full update avoids this.
How often should I check for firmware updates?
Checking every few months, or any time you notice a new connection or performance quirk, is a reasonable habit — there’s no fixed release schedule, so periodic manual checks in the app are the only way to know.