How to reconnect to a already paired bluetooth A2DP headset?

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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67 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-01-08T16:54:48+00:00

Go to Bluetooth settings and go into the power management and un-check it, if you use this type of mouse or board and you idle you will be disconnected if this box is checked. The power management is under Bluetooth Settings, then hardware (click on the Generic Radio Tab) then click bottom rt properties, then you'll see power management and the check box as described above to avoid idle disconnection.... WastedAce

Thanks.

This actually fixed an issue with an MS910 barcode scanner not reconnecting to Windows 7 after several minutes. The device sleeps after 3 minutes, and reconnects fine. Longer periods doesn't reconnect. I turned off the power saving in the scanner, but still had the same problem. Turning it off in bluetooth properties for the Microsoft Bluetooth stack solved the issue.

Go to Bluetooth settings.

Hardware Tab

Select Generic Bluetooth Adapter

Click Properties

On the General Tab, click Change Settings

On the Power Management Tab, uncheck "allow computer to turn off this device to save power".

I'm disappointed that this power management option, isn't visible in the control panel's Power Management options.
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Anonymous

2014-12-22T12:01:43+00:00

Hi have the same problem (SP3 speakers). But I can reconnect by turning the Bluetooth off and then on again.
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Anonymous

2014-12-22T10:18:03+00:00

I have the same problem for my recently purchased Bluetooth speaker. I am connecting the Bluetooth speaker from my Surface Pro 3, Windows 8.1. For the first time when I am adding my speaker it works just fine, paired and connected successfully. But when the next time I am trying to connect it won't let me to. By right clicking the speaker icon at the task bar > playback devices, my Bluetooth headphones and headset are both shown "Disconnected". Right click on the headphones / headset I had the option to connect, but nothing happen when I clicked the "Connect".

The only way I can connect the speaker again is to remove the device, then add it back, just like adding it the first time. So every time I want to connect my speaker, I have to do it all over again. This is definitely not a good and easy way to connect.

By the way, My android phone connects the Bluetooth speaker without any issues, connect, disconnect then reconnect without any issue.

So Microsoft please do something...

Thanks.
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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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