Windows 10: Cannot find AirPods Stereo Mode

I have been experiencing issues lately with my AirPods on Windows 11, It is stuck on Hands-Free Mode andi cannot find the Stereo Mode.

:)

 

AirPods not working in stereo mode. Hands-Free works but very poor quality.

I use AirPods for all my calls on many apps such as Zoom and Discord. I’ve been noticing that the Stereo version of the AirPods sounds great! The quality of the voices and music is absolutely amazing. But I can’t speak and let everyone hear my voice when
I am on that mode. So now I just use the Hands-Free mode which I absolutely hate. The quality of the people’s voices and the music is so poor. My voice is also very bad, and I just hate it. Is there some way I can have clear audio playing, and having my mic
be great as well?

 

Airpods no longer giving option for hands-free or stereo

I've been having an issue where my airpods will crackle, lag, and cut out when I am using them on my Windows 11 laptop. I noticed this correlated with them no longer giving me the option to select hands-free or stereo mode in the volume settings. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

Airpods connected but no sound

SOLVED: For me anyway...

I just managed to get mine working on Windows 10. Not sure if it will work for everyone, but seeing how we haven't gotten answers from MS on this, here is what I did.

Like most of you, the AirPods (gen 2 in my case) are paired and connected fine. If I have external speakers on and talk into my AirPod mics, that part works. However, Video, Music, and Game audio was not. After reading a few things online including this thread, I realized the whole time I was trying to "Set Default" on the AirPods for playback... I was picking the wrong one. When I paired them, 2 devices showed up under the Playback tab... "AirPods Stereo" and "AirPods Hands-Free AG Audio". Seeing the latter on the Recording tab, I assumed that was the Microphones on the AirPods. But it's actually both Recording and Playback. It seems "AirPods Stereo" isn't doing anything other than showing up in the Playback list.

Solution for me: Change the "AirPods Hands-Free AG Audio" to Default.

Everything worked after that. So ignore that "AirPods Stereo" device and set the default on both the Playback and Recording tabs to "AirPods Hands-Free AG Audio".

I hope this helps at least 1 of you out. I'm attaching a screenshot pointing to the correct device.