Windows 11 | No Hands free mode for bluetooth earphones

Anonymous
2021-11-04T05:17:20+00:00

Hi,

So, yesterday I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and everything seemed to be working fine until I connected my bluetooth earphones.

When you connect your bluetooth earphones you expect to see two output devices, Headset (music) and Hands-Free mode (voice) but I can only see the Headset mode.

I checked the earphone properties from the Device Manager and I can see "Hands-Free telephony" in the Services tab but in the Output Devices, the hands-free mode is not visible at all.

I've tried everything from re-connecting to reinstalling drivers but nothing seems to be working.

This is preventing from attending any Meetings on apps like Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Regards,

Kartikey

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-09T04:05:45+00:00

    This is NOT an issue to be resolved by the manufacturer of the bluetooth headphones. I have 3 different models of bluetooth headphones from 3 different manufacturers. ALL of them have this issue where there is NO hands free option and in Teams if you don't select the same bluetooth device for Speaker and Microphone you get NO sound and you can't hear the person on the other end. Kinda sucks to have an expensive Yeti microphone and I can't use it.

    I am a sysadmin that is trying to resolve this issue for more than just myself. I have 2 identical Lenovo P15 laptops, one running Windows 10 21H1 and one running Windows 11 21H2. All my bluetooth headphones work perfectly with Windows 10 but NOT with Windows 11. I have fought bluetooth issues with Windows 11 since the beginning of testing the very earliest beta version. Updating and rolling back bluetooth drivers does not work. Uninstalling and letting the driver get reinstalled does not work. This is a Windows 11 problem between bluetooth and sound and Teams.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-11-07T17:29:48+00:00

    Hello Kartikey,

    I had the exact same issue as you described. I use Teams a lot for work and have a custom setup (Headphones for Output, Separate Mic for Input).

    After around 2 hours of searching, I found a temporary solution! https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/report-an-issue/bluetooth-devices-have-less-audio-options-bad-audio-quality-win/m-p/2831911 

    Hope that helps.

    Best wishes

    Jamie

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-11-04T13:34:10+00:00

    Hi,

    Got some interesting information when I listed down all the PnP devices using Powershell.

    It seems my Hands-Free mode is detected but is in Unknown state.

    Thanks,

    Kartikey

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-11-04T11:47:33+00:00

    Hi RottweilerX and Carlo TJ,

    So, uninstalling and installing the drivers did not help at all.

    I noticed an interesting thing though.

    Just to check things, I launched a Google Meet meeting and to my surprise, it was working fine.

    In the meeting settings, I could see all the modes of my bluetooth earphones.

    Now, this makes things a bit confusing for me.

    The video conferencing tool is able to detect all my bluetooth earphones modes but Windows 11 is not ? 🤔

    Thanks,

    Kartikey

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-11-04T08:03:38+00:00

    ... the only thing that changed was upgrading to Windows 11. This makes me believe that the issue is due to Windows 11 ...

    Sorry again, but that's not correct, as you will discover in time. Windows is just the train, and your problem is the passenger.

    ... OR I need to do something else to get this working in Windows 11 which apparently I cannot find anywhere online.

    Only the manufacturer of your earphones can help you. (Which is useless advice for people who buy Bluetooth devices from unknown manufacturers that don't support their products, as I learned the hard way.)

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