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
    2017-04-11T16:39:47+00:00

    In case anyone is running windows 10, the following instructions worked for me:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17156/windows-10-connect-to-bluetooth-devices

    1. Click to open the notification center
    2. Click on "Connect" (the icon with a speaker and a monitor)
    3. Select your previously paired device.

    I was becoming tired of removing and repairing my devices each time but this works like a charm !

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-12T22:20:10+00:00

    I would just like to point out that I have the same problem with my bluetooth mouse and bluetooth numeric keypad.  With all the bluetooth devices out there, I can't actually believe that MicroSoft failed to have considered or come across this problem before issuing Windows 7.  Totally retarded!

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-02T15:31:54+00:00

    I have the same problem. I use Samsung SBH500. The device is installed and paired. It works perfectly fine. The only issue is, as soon as it is disconnected, the Headsets Icon disappears from the Sound devices panel. In the context menue of this Icon, there is a "connect" menue item. As soon as the Headset is disconnected, the icon disappears, and so there is no way to connect any more. The "Show deactivated devices"  and "Show disconnected devices" checkboxes are checked.

    The only ways to reconnect now are

    1. Restart the computer

    or

    1. Deactivate and activate the Bluetooth adapter

    or

    1. remove and (re)add the headset from the Bluetooth devices

    This makes Bluetooth Audio with Windows 7 completely unusable. I have to be able to reconnect to a disconnected Bluetooth Audio device without restarting the whole adapter or restarting the computer.

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  4. 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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