Windows 10 suddenly refuses to connect to the bluetooth airpod pros

bluetoothwindowswindows 10

Have had these airpods for 4 months now, and they haven't had much issue.

Starting from yesterday, they started refusing to connect to my windows 10 PC.

Different symptoms encountered:

It refuses to connect despite trying dozens of times
Sometimes it would eventually connect, but would have 0 sound come out
Other times it would connect but have extremely choppy sound
Other times it would connect but have sound in one ear be delayed from the other.
I tried removing the device and rediscovering it, and the computer couldn't even detect the device for 30 minutes.
One time I couldn't even disconnect it since it said "cannot disconnect device"
Other times it would be very choppy for a few minutes and then disconnect by itself.
I've seen it continue saying "connected" even long after I put the airpods back into the case and had them turn themselves off.
Sometimes it would say connected voice, other times connected music, other times connected music and voice. Well it doesn't matter, either way it doesn't do anything

All the things I've tried:

Restarted machine (numerous times)
Put airpods into case and back
Cleaned airpod contact points and made sure they were both at 100%
Pulled out my bluetooth chip from desktop and put it back in 30 minutes later. Tried this numerous times
Restarted bluetooth support service
Removed bluetooth device and rediscovered dozens of times.

Tried connecting the airpods to my phone and laptop, neither had any issues.

Edit:

Tried another pair of earphones and they also couldn't connect to my windows.

I've always hated bluetooth since it never works, but this is the worst I've ever seen.

I've spent 35 minutes trying to resolve this issue yesterday(not to mention the many hours spent letting it "sit for a bit and trying again in 30 mins") and it finally worked. I woke up this morning and it is happening again.

Edit 2:
I discovered something important. This seems to only happen after waking my computer up from sleep. If I restart the computer after sleep it gets better until it goes back to sleep again.

Best Answer

Some fixes for wireless problems upon wake from sleep:

Disable hybrid sleep
When the problem happens, in the Services applet, restart the WLAN AutoConfig service
When the problem happens, run the following command in PowerShell as Admin:
restart-netadapter * -Confirm:$false
See also this unconfirmed method of disabling device radios control by apps.

Related Solutions

Windows – How to script a bluetooth device to connect/disconnect

As it turns out, once all services in use by a device get disabled, device gets released and disconnected by Windows automatically. In my example case below for WH-1000XM3 these are voice and music, and most headphones will work the same way. This will of course depend on device in use.

You will need Bluetooth Command Line Tools.

Voice is actually the hands free service (HFP) and music is just an audio sink (A2DP). Service identifiers will be necessary and they can be discovered through the usage of btdiscovery command from the package above, or via the list of Bluetooth services. HFP voice is 111e, A2DP music is 110b.

Per btcom command line help:

Usage:

btcom {-c|-r} {-bBluetoothAddress | -nFriendlyName} [-s{sp|dun|GUID|UUID}]

 -c  Create association between COM port and a remote service (Enable non-COM service).
 -r  Remove association between COM port and a remote service (Disable non-COM service).
 -s  Remote service to use (Default is Serial Port Service)
 -b  Bluetooth address of remote device in (XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) format. 
 -n  Friendly name of remote device.

To disconnect the device, issue the following (only works when run as administrator in my case, using Windows 10 1809 (17763.437)):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bluetooth Command Line Tools\bin\btcom" -n "WH-1000XM3" -r -s111e
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bluetooth Command Line Tools\bin\btcom" -n "WH-1000XM3" -r -s110b

To connect again, issue the same with -c instead of -r. This works for other devices, not just headphones, as long as all services/profiles connected to by Windows get disabled/enabled.

Note: using -n <friendly name> is much slower than using -b <address> due to performing Bluetooth discovery.

Windows 10 Bluetooth – Fix Sound Issues with Voice Chat Applications

This annoying behaviour is caused by limited Bluetooth bandwitch when using both mic+headset channels. It's quite well explained here: https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/

Here's the salient part for your issue:

Technically, when you’re just using the headphones as a sound output device, they’re using the A2DP Bluetooth profile, and ideally using AptX for maximum sound quality.

When you need the microphone, they’ll use the headset profile or hands-free profile (HSP or HFP). This allows for both recording via the microphone and playback via the headphones, but the headphone sound quality is terrible when using HSP or HFP.

If you’re just using a Bluetooth headset to take a phone call, that might be fine. If you want to speak into your headset’s mic while listening to music, playing a game, or watching a video on your PC, you’ll be frustrated.

For a PC headset with an integrated microphone, Bluetooth is a terrible choice. You’re better off getting a wired headset, or even just getting a separate microphone.

Bluetooth 5.0, which has already been announced, offers much higher bandwidth. This should let future Bluetooth headsets play back audio at high quality while the microphone is being used, in theory.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – How to script a bluetooth device to connect/disconnect

Windows 10 Bluetooth – Fix Sound Issues with Voice Chat Applications

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