How to reconnect to a already paired bluetooth A2DP headset?

Anonymous
2009-12-03T13:50:48+00:00

I use a bluetooth stereo headset with my Laptop running Windows7/Fedora 12 and also with my mobile phone and with my ipod. I want to connect my headset to one of above devices at a time.

I have paired my headset with all of above devices (Windows 7, Fedora 12, my mobile and my ipod). Suppose I've currently connected my headset to the ipod and now I want to use it with my mobile. All I have to do is disconnect headset from ipod and connect it to my mobile. (The 'connect' and 'disconnect' facilities are there in both my ipod and mobile).

Suppose now I want to use the headset with Windows 7. (it's already paired and shown under Bluetooth Devices). Surprisingly in windows 7 there's no way of connecting to a already paired headset. (when you right-click on the headset icon under bluetooth devices there's no 'connect' options.). Now one might ask why don't you restart the headset? But it'll never work since headset will try to connect to the last device it connected. (in this case my mobile phone). Only way I can connect my headset to Windows 7 now is putting the headset back into pairing mode, deleting the headset from windows, and re pair it. This will take a lotof time and this will also install drivers for four bluetooth profiles headset supports. (A2DP, AVRCP, handsfree, headset). (This will also create a system restore point to make things slower).

Similar to my mobile phone and ipod in Fedora linux it's just a matter of right clicking bluetooth icon and selecting 'connect'. I have not used windows for a long time and may be I miss something very obvious or the way Windows 7 bluetooth works is very frustrating.

I use Windows 7 professional in a Dell Inspiron laptop. The bluetooth stack used is the one supplied with Wndows 7.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-07-20T14:39:16+00:00

Hi Jeff,

Reconnecting using Playback Devices works for reconnecting an already paired A2DP Bluetooth Headset to your PC, per the OP. Headsets are usually "dumb" in the respect that you cannot ask them to connect to a specific device, they just try to reconnect to the last device they connected to. Using "Playback Devices" gets around this by getting your computer to ping the device and ask it for a connection.

It sounds like you're having a totally different issue to the OP, namely that you can't get your android phone to connect to your PC after you've paired it. It's probably worth starting a new thread on that issue as it is completely separate to reconnecting "dumb" devices.

Apologies if I've misunderstood you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-11T12:25:13+00:00

    The easiest work-around for this MS mess that I have found, is to open Devices and Printers and just right-click drag the bluetooth headset/speaker icon to the start button and pin it. That way all I have to do is to turn on my bluetooth headset, open the start menu and click the shortcut. All this assuming you've installed the driver and paired the device with windows of course.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-31T08:44:26+00:00

    At least for Windows 8 it seems to work (German version so I hope I remember the terms right):

    1. Go to Settings
    2. Go to Show all printers and devices
    3. Scroll to your bluetooth device (it does not seem to matter in which group it is)
    4. Right-click and hit control (first option)
    5. There you should be able to connect to the device

    All given Bluetooth is turned on.

    If anyone finds a shorter way to this it would be great. Quite remarkable that you cannot reach it from stack directly....

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-07T17:13:00+00:00

    Let me also echo the frustration of the above users...I have the same problem with my bluetooth Kensington Slimblade Trackball Mouse, my bluetooth Apple Mighty Mouse and my bluetooth Interlink Numeric Keypad.

    With bluetooth now an integral part of so many computers, especially notebook computers these days, you'd have thought someone would have recognized and addressed this problem before Windows 7's release.

    I also note that Prasanhetti got a pretty quick response, but once the flood gates of criticism opened, no response from Microsoft.  Doubly sad.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-01-26T12:21:53+00:00
    1. Select Audio tab

    There is no Audio tab here on my computer

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