cannot rename bluetooth device on Win 11

If that is the case, then you have one of a few issues, and nobody here will be able to help you - possibilities following

I. You're on a company-managed device, and your System Administrators have decided that you're not trustworthy enough to be allowed access to that tab

II. Your installation of Windows is irreparably damaged, preventing you from being able to see something that should be there by all rights, given how you are accessing it

III. Your Bluetooth devices are irreparably damaged OR the drivers are not correctly programmed

IV. You stole Windows - Microsoft actively does the opposite of supporting pirates

Or V. (And this is super likely) You aren't following directions closely enough

If you find that none of the three above are the case, then I suggest you do the following:

1. Calm down
2. No really, go back and look at #1 here
3. I mean it, calm down
4. No really, put your caps-lock key away
5. 5
6. 9
7. Now that you're calm...

• Go back and carefully follow all of the instructions from each person
• You almost 100% certainly have made a mistake while trying to follow the directions
• I say this because I speed-read the instructions several times from several people, and didn't perform the operations correctly myself, multiple times
• So really, please, if you're still upset, and you still want to USE ALL CAPS here for no reason, go back to step 1 - "1. Calm Down"

Screaming at people when they are attempting to assist you is never going to get you the assistance you want, at least not in the professional world. Now, you want to try again?

After wasting time checking lots of unhelpful advice, I found a solution thanks to Ionuț-Alexandru Popa at binaryfork_. Here's a summary:

1. Pair the device (if not already paired)
2. Go to Settings > Bluetooth and devices > View more devices
3. Scroll down to 'More devices and printer settings' (near the bottom of the window): (this is the crucial step that most of the unhelpful advice misses)
4. Right-click the device and choose 'Properties', then the 'Bluetooth' tab
5. Edit the name and click OK
6. Disconnect the device then reconnect it (this is important to prevent the device name reverting to the default)

This is the way. I spent the last six months trying to figure out how to differentiate between my pairs of headphones, and (unhelpfully) I had gotten as far as actually renaming it. When I hit either "Apply" or "OK" it would just do nothing, regardless of how long I waited. I needed to disconnect and reconnect immediately after renaming the device. Then and only then did the device become renamed.

This needs to be a stickied post, if this is going to be the "normal" way to rename Bluetooth devices from here on out. This would be damn near impossible to figure out ex nihilo. Thank you so much!

[Deets]

This is working as of 25 October 2024, on Windows 11 Home 10.0.22631 (23H2)

Although we are all trying to change bluetooth device name, the device we are trying to change can vary. For my experience, the bluetooth tab is not available for some devices.

It shows up for my bluetooth speaker but not for the bluetooth controller.

BTW, I do find a pattern so far:

Bluetooth tab available: output device (speaker, headphone, etc)

Bluetooth tab unavailable: input device (mouse, game pad, etc)

Just FYI, If anyone wanted to know how simple it could be to do this, in any form of Linux, click on Bluetooth device, and then "rename". The device can be connected or not at the time, and the change persists through reboots. That's how easy Microsoft could make it.

The bluetooth tab comes up after you double click on the device you want to change from folder:

"Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Devices and Printers" (copy paste that without the quotes in file explorer)

Another window will popup that has the bluetooth tab on the far right.

Open that tab, then remove the device while that window is still open.

Then change the name to what you want it to be then hit ok. Exit out of the window.

Then reconnect the device and it has the new name. It finally worked for me! Hope that helped.