Bluetooth audio lag on windows 10 & 11: will it ever be fixed? A discussion

The delay/lag is killer. Netflix, Prime, out of sync lip movement with audio. 

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

You can install Linux on exactly the same hardware and use the same Bluetooth headphones or earbuds and it completely fixes the delay/lag of up to 500ms. This is not a device or hardware issue.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ.

Please note this is not a tech support post. It is a discussion about the lack of progress in fixing this issue.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ.

In a forum post on this from 2016, the post has 1042 votes by people with the same issue: “I have the same question (1042)”. It carried on until sometime in 2020 before it was locked. The issue itself was not fixed & remains for many in Windows 10 & 11. 

.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/bluetooth-audio-lag-on-windows-10/e09c766b-cac7-42ef-93d8-8328db731b62

.

What do you all think about the fact this issue still hasn’t been fixed?

.

I want to say that I am a massive fan of Windows. 7 was a masterpiece, 10 was a revolution. It is the great equaliser. Can everyone afford a Mac or run Linux? No. But anyone can run Windows. The issue is, it’s losing some of that efficient powerful function it had during 7. 

.

Bluetooth is so infamously broken on Windows that gaming wireless headphone makers for PC sell headphones with their own USB transmitters and proprietary stuff to avoid the lag. They use keywords “eliminate delays” “eliminates lag”. People are using TWS buds with android gaming mode also to get around Windows lag in all scenarios, it’s only meant for lag with gaming. On windows it must be used just to watch a film with no audio delay. Windows does this so badly an entire industry is running around it. You won’t get lag or delay like this on iOS, you won’t get lag like this on Linux, you won’t get lag like this on Mac, you won’t even get lag as bad as this on cheap Android phones - the lag android users complain about is lower than Win11 lag. Maybe 100-150 ms. 

.

I spent all day Sunday trying lots of fixes suggested online:

• Disabling Bluetooth personal area networks
• Disabling talk mode
• Restarting over and over
• Turning Bluetooth off and on again.

.

A small amount of quietly raved about doing these, and after i did all that, what did it achieve? Little. Audio still out of sync with lips on TV and Movie shows on my laptop.

.

And it’s not just delayed audio. Windows lags so badly with Bluetooth devices that people complain Bluetooth mice stutter around the screen and take almost a second to catch up sometimes.

.

What do you all think about the fact this issue still hasn’t been fixed?