Bluetooth Audio

Hardware Support
#1

Hello again,

I have posted seperately on this topic, but at that time I was not able to resolve my BT audio issues, so effectively gave up.

I have deiced to revisit this and try to get my Bluetooth audio to work.

To that end, is there a way I can delete / restore to factory any and all bluetooth and audio settings so that I can "start from scratch".

Thank you,

#2

Try just reinstalling bluetooth I believe it is bluez but could be blueman first run sudo apt remove bluez then sudo apt install bluez and try again

#3

If it is bluez after removing and reinstalling it also run sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service and sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

#4

I will give this a go and report back on progress. Thank you.

#5

No luck with this method.
I tried to connect and whilst the headphones were paired. It just refused to connect.

image

I also then got into a loop with the UI saying "Bluetooth OFF"..."Turn off bluetooth?"

#6

Thank you for your help. I have made a step in the right direction.

I applied this "fix" and can now connect my bluetooth headset.
Solved?
Well, it says it is connected, however I did not get the "Bluetooth connected" voice in my headset that I would normally get.

The issue now remains that even when connected, the headset does not appear as an audio device for me to select as the output device.

Any suggestions?

#7

2 Steps forward, 1 step backward.

Managed to get some audio through the bluetooth headset, but only one ear and very jittery and unstable. Worse than last year when I first tried all this.

Now back to not being able to connect. (I wish there was a pattern to this intermittent connection issues).

I dispair! (excuse the pun).

#8

Sounds like a hardware issue. How old is the device (headphones) and how old is the machine? (PC / laptop)

If it is working try settings > sound > then change output device to your headphones. - this should work using gnome desktop environment core/pro

1 Like
#9

My machine is 3 years old. Should be fine.
I can't try your suggestion - the BT headphones are not listed as a sound output device.

I have managed to get my BT headphones to connect to Zorin OS installed on another machine (even older).

Is there a way I can compare the settings between these two machines?

I have looked at some folders in /etc and tried to compare them but so far have not found anything amiss. Where else are bluetooth / audio settings saved?

Thank you.

#10

Concluding thoughts.

I have managed to resolve this issue, but not convinced it is the "right way".

I had tried just about everything, and through a combination of changes now have bluetooth audio now working through my Sony BT headphones.

  • I disabled the onboard BT module in my HP Elitedesk BIOS.
  • I plugged in a generic USB BT receiver.
  • I re-installed all packages refering to bluetooth
  • I used bluetoothctl and entered the command for "set default"

I did run across other issues which have now resolved themselves. These included what must have been conflisst with my BT keyboard + mouses's unifying receiver.

The headset now connects and works as expected, without jitter. It is still slow to be "found / connected" but I'm not going to pursue this further in case I break it.

So my problem / solution seems to revolve around incompatibility between the onboard BT and my headset, which I have resolved by using a 3rd party USB BT dongle.