No Audio on Android if connected to Surface Link on Windows 11

Question

No Audio on Android if connected to Surface Link on Windows 11

Anonymous

I just received my Surface 2+ headphones and they immediately worked with my Windows 11 machine and easily paired with my Pixel 6 pro. The issue is that as long as the headphones are connected to the USB Link adapter on my Windows machine I can't get any audio from my Android phone. If I unplug the USB Link adapter from my Windows PC or use the Surface app to disconnect it from my PC the audio on my Android phone starts playing immediately. I often switch between my PC and my phone since I am moving around but this makes it impossible since the USB Link adapter seems to monopolize the audio. I would rather not have to disconnect from my PC every time I want to listen to music from my phone.

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4 answers

Answer 1

Hi akwebb1,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community.

Just to confirm that we get the exact picture of the concern: you have your Windows 11 device and Android phone connected to your new Surface Headphones 2+ (through USB Link for the Windows 11 device and Bluetooth for the android phone), audio plays fine on the Windows 11 device but when you try to play audio on the Android phone, no audio output on the phone, correct?

How about if you step far ways from the Windows 11 device until the connection does not reach the headphones then play audio on the android phone, do you get audio output on the Android phone?

The Surface Headphones 2+ supports multiple devices. When 2 devices are connected, the headphones will play audio to whichever device is providing the audio first and the other device will just be on standby. You do not need to manually disconnect the first device first before switching to the other device. However, you need to either turn off Bluetooth first on the first device then play audio on the second device. Try also to open the Surface app on your Android phone then select the headphones and click Connect. Once it shows Connected, start playing audio on the Android phone then and see if this works.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

That scenario is correct.

As soon as the connection is lost between the Headphones and the USB Link, the audio starts coming through from my android device. It does not matter if it is by disconnection with the app, unplugging the USB Link or getting out of range.

If I start the audio on the Android device and then connect to Windows, I keep getting audio from my phone until I switch audio over to the USB Link. Then I can't get audio back on my phone again until the USB Link connection is lost.

I have several other headphones that handle switching between the 2 sources without any problems. I know I should not have to disconnect the USB Link first, but that is the only way I can ever get the audio out of my phone.

Andrew

Answer 3

Hi akwebb1,

Thank you for the response and apologies for the delay in getting back as I was out of the office for a few days. I'm sorry to hear also that the issue persist.

Yes, you should not have to disconnect the USB link physically or disconnect on the Surface app from the host device in order to switch to another host. However, you have to connect the other host in order to switch like if you were playing audio on the Windows device and wants to switch to your phone, you need to open the Surface app on the phone then select the headphones and click Connect. Once it is connected, the audio from the phone should then be played on the headphones while the Windows device will show only as Paired on the Surface app to the headphones. To switch back to your Windows device, you'll also need to open the Surface app on the Windows device then click Connect to transfer the source back to the Windows device. Does doing these steps works and switches the audio host on the headphones?

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 4

This is crazy. I have a pair of regular Surface 2 headphones that handle being connected to 2 devices at the same time and switch back and forth without any trouble. Why have the ability to be connected to 2 devices if you can't actually use both devices? I don't expect any more responses to this. I am sending them back and will consider them defective by design.