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

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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
    2009-12-10T01:30:46+00:00

    Same problem, purchased IQUA BHS702 A2DP Stereo BT-Headset that claims to be able to be paired with 8 devices simultaneously. But every time when in need to use it in Windows 7 with a brand new A2DP BT USB dongle, you have to remove the headset at all from the list of paired devices and then to pair it like a new device. Feels like no progress about that in this operating system. Same thing btw on Windows Mobile 6.5 on my HTC Diamond 2 aka Topaz T5353, whether i heard that Samsung, Nokia , Linux and Google OSs are take care of this issue pretty well.

    PS: all the latest updates, drivers, patches are installed from scratch, so please, MicroSoft, please invent a support for it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-12-04T10:16:06+00:00

    Hi Thank you very much for your answer.

    My bluetooth headset works fine with Windows 7. The drivers are installed by default when I pair it with windows. Everything works. I can even control WMP using headset as a remote. I haven't  use the headset with earlier version of Windows since I restarted using windows with Windows 7 after a long time. Also I don't have access to other versions of windows also at  the moment.

    I think my problem is not with the drivers. The problem is in Windows 7 there's no way of reconnecting to an already paired bluetooth headset. I tried the same steps as described in previous post with another headset (Jabra BT3030) the results are the same. In Windows 7 you cannot reconnect to an already paired bluetooth headset. There're no options like connect or disconnect in Windows 7 bluetooth devices.

    I've updated my Windows 7 to the latest using Windows update. Bluetooth A2DP works outofthebox. Only problem is connecting and disconnecting from a bluetooth headset.

    For curiosity I checked whether Windows 7 provides connect and disconnectfunctions for other bluetooth devices (other than headset). I paired two mobile phones with Windows 7. (Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic and Nokia 5530 Xpressmusic). To my amazement you cannot connect or disconnect either once paired. Only way of disconnecting from Windows 7 connecting and disconnecting is possible from mobile phone's side. Not from Windows 7. The mobile phones are shown as bluetooth devices in Windows bluetooth devices folder. But you cannot connect or disconnect from them. (you can remove them of course)

    So what I figured out is the problem is not only with A2DP headsets. It**'s common to Windows 7 bluetooth stack/functionality**.

    What I need as a solution is the ability to connect or disconnect from already paired bluetooth devicesfrom Windows 7 itself. (not from device's end). I hope it's not a difficult task for the Windows bluetooth stack implementation.

    Please don't suggest me to install Toshiba or other bluetooth stacks. I want to stick into the default windows bluetooth stack. It's simple it works. Except above problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-12-04T02:51:50+00:00

    Hi prasanhetti,

    Thank you for using Microsoft Windows forum.

    We do understand that it is a slow process of Installing the drivers for your bluetooth headset but it is very important to install the latest drivers for smooth functioning without issues in the future. Like it or not, you'd have to go through the process.

    a) Was the bluetooth working fine with Windows 7 earlier?

    Check if your bluetooth A2DP headset is compatible with Windows 7 in : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx

    b) Did you make any changes to your computer recently?

    Troubleshoot problems with Bluetooth enabled devices

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-problems-with-Bluetooth-enabled-devices

    Now try to update the latest drivers from the manufacturers website and check if it works.

    Note if the issue still persists then you need to install the driver or the software for the device in compatibility mode.

    Now try to update the latest drivers on your computer and check.

    c) What was your previous Operating System?

    d) Was bluetooth A2DP headset working fine with your earlier Operating System?

    If it did then I'd suggest you to run it in Compatibility mode to Make older programs run in this version of Windows.

    Steps in the link : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows

    Hope it helped

    Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support

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