i have problems with my bluetooth headsets. they always can be paired and connected but in most of the cases there is only sound coming through the first time after reboot. when i disconnect the headset and reconnect it afterward there is no audio to be had. also the bluetooth symbol is not always in sync with what is shown in the settings dialog: it doesnt always show that bluetooth is on (but this seems to be random). sometimes it works when i shut down the app i want to listen to (podcast, media), then restart bluetooth, reconnect the headset, and start the app again. but this isn’t working very often and looks random to me.
i have no idea where to start debugging this. any help with this would be very much appreciated.
The BT indicator turns off (BT crashes), so you need to go to Settings → Utilities → Restart Bluetooth. Sometimes I need to restart the Audio also to get BT headset working.
meanwhile i got the impression in addition to the bluetooth problem, there is also a problem with the audio sinks (or whatever the audio output is called). sometimes the sound doesn’t play even though the file plays after bluetooth is disconnected.
I do encounter the same issues as reported above (audio cant be reproduced on reconnect or is routed through phone speaker).
Restarting bluetooth semi-consistently restores functionality. I sometimes restart the audio subsystem too just to be sure.
This is occasionally not enough and even Media Player needs to be reopened.
Interestingly, those issues happen with my valco vmk 25.2, but not with some older Sennheiser hd 4.50.
The only difference i can spot is the bluetooth protocol being 5.4 for the valco and 4.0 for the sennheiser.
Would you like some more debugging data or the mentioned fixes cover this?
Based on the suggestions in the AAS BT support thread I linked, I uninstalled the AAS BT component and now my bt headphones reconnect and play audio correctly.
One caveat: audio rerouting still seems to be finicky if playback is ongoing during a disconnect/reconnect of the headphones.
Therefore, it works reliably with my Valco only doing this (for me):
connect
play via bluetooth
stop playback
disconnect headphones
play (plays through speaker)
stop playback
connect headphones
start playback (plays through headphones)
Disconnecting mid-playback causes the player to hang sometimes, requiring a restart of the app and of bluetooth. This specific situation is probably unrelated to the AAS BT issues though.
The original bug therefore seems related to AAS BT. It’s encouraging to see from the linked thread there’s awareness of the issue and fixes will be soon released
My procedure when listening music with native Media player and NL25 is
power on/connect headphones
go to BT Settings and disconnect and connect headphones (tapping headset button there)
start Media player and play
Headset connects ok when powered on but no sound without disconnect/connect trick. I have not yet checked is there differences in pulse sources/sinks/connections with and without step 2.
10iii/5.1 did not have this behavior with same headset. Also Plantronix PLT V5200 connects and plays without tricks on J2/5.2. It is just for calls (mono) so it probably looks different to OS.
Jep, could be related to BT version. I tested with all that I have. NL21 (BT 5.0) and VMK19 (not more than BT 5.0…) works without problems. VMK 25.2 and NL25 (BT 5.4) both need tricks to get audio out.
Disclaimer; there could certainly be other differences that make things work or not.
Replying to myself and also happy to confirm 5.2.0.18 fixed these issues.
Now the audio routes properly through the phone speaker when the headphones are disconnected, and through the headphones when they reconnect.
Same for the Android apps.
