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
    2016-11-04T22:20:36+00:00

    Try going to services (a desktop app), bring up the list, restart the Bluetooth Handsfree service. Your device should reconnect.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-14T13:30:23+00:00

    The question wasn't "How do I get a new device to work with windows"

    It was more "I can see my connection in the list of devices, how do i get my device to connect so I can use it?"

    I have the same question for windows 10. Since I don't know how to do it, I always feel my user experience is inferior on windows since I just delete the paired device and then reinstall it.

    So I would ask, since this question is asked over and over, instead of seeing remove device as an option, how about Connecting the device I double click on AND show the remove device. OR tell me where I should go on various versions of windows to get connected. Then I can do it the windows way for every version of windows without looking it up and the intuitive way every where else.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-14T17:41:33+00:00

    I think I've found out how you reconnect an A2DP headset.

    1. Pair your device, confirm that it is working yadda yadda.
    2. Disconnect your device, connect to something else and confirm that you are not automatically reconnecting to windows.
    3. Right click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
    4. Select "Playback Devices"
    5. You should see your paired devices in here.
    6. Right click the paired device and you will see "Test, connect, disable, set as default...etc etc etc.
    7. Obviously you'll be wanting to click "Connect" at this point.

    Hope that helps. I worked for me. I agree though that it is counter intuitive. Having the connect / reconnect option in the bluetooth device section as well seems sensible.

    EDIT There's still no "disconnect" option though. "Connect" just greys out.

    This Worked Swimmingly... im not sure if this is based on windows 7 / 8 / or 10 just wanted to update as this post is 6 years old.

    I am currently running windows 10 and under these exact directions you can now find a "Disconnect" option... otherwise everything else was spot on let me connect to the bluetooth (when already paired) it also gives you the options to change between currently connected playback devices so you dont even actually need to disconnect from the bluetooth for re-connects if you didnt want to (although i wouldnt advise that especially with something that runs off battery power i.e a cell phone...)

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-21T09:06:58+00:00

    This was very very helpful. Thanks ThursdayNext, really appreciate.

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