Only very ocassional sound through bluetooth headphones, despite them being connected

Noah Sprent

10/31/23, 11:03 AM

I have a bluetooth usb dongle that has worked perfectly with my bluetooth headphones for a long time, but recently has stopped working. The headphones still connect, and I can still control play/pause using the buttons, but sound doesn't come through the headphones. I am using kubuntu, and have tried controlling bluetooth via the inbuilt bluetooth controls as well as blueman. I have tried controlling sound through the inbuilt audio controls as well as pavucontrol. When I move the volume slider in pavucontrol sometimes hear the 'pop' noise that indicates the volume level, but only once, and then no longer. The volume bar does light up when moving the slider. The headphones work fine with other bluetooth devices, and the same issue is also there with other bluetooth dongles.

In pavucontrol, the profile that is set is 'High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)', and 'Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP)' says '(unavailable)'. In 'Output devices' under 'port': 'Headset (plugged in)'.

Any help would be really appreciated! I've read through lots of threads and tried lots of things but nothing has helped so far. I've tried upgrading/rebooting, removing and re-adding the device. Killing/restarting bluetooth.

lsb_release -a:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS
Release:        20.04
Codename:       focal

lspci -knn | grep Net -A3; lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 05e3:0616 Genesys Logic, Inc. hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 2f68:0082 Hoksi Technology DURGOD Taurus K320
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 045e:0761 Microsoft Corp. LifeCam VX-2000
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. 4-port hub
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 0458:0137 KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems) USB Optical Mouse
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 2b16:6689 SunplusIT Inc AV Camera
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

0 + 4

sound

usb

bluetooth

20.04

David

10/31/23, 11:05 AM

Sounds like it is time to replace the dongle.

Noah Sprent

10/31/23, 11:08 AM

Thanks for the suggestion @David, but as I mentioned I tried a few different dongles and had the same issue.

Noah Sprent

10/31/23, 11:11 AM

No idea why this worked, but in debugging to add more information to the question I tried booting into Windows to see if it would work there. I added the device, and it worked. I then moved back to Ubuntu, removed and readded the device, and now it all works fine. I wonder if this fixes it because of https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/255509/bluetooth-pairing-on-dual-boot-of-windows-linux-mint-ubuntu-stop-having-to-p ?

David

10/31/23, 11:14 AM

Sometimes just removing and re discovering a Bluetooth device works. i think using Windows in between is not what really fixed it. Who knows.

Elon Musk

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EN: Only very ocassional sound through bluetooth headphones, despite them being connected

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