Windows 10: No audio through connected Bluetooth device

I am having problems playing audio from my Windows PC through my Bose Bose AE2 Bluetooth headphones.1 I have previously connected to these headphones without any issues. The audio was fine2 at some point, the audio started experiencing distortions and disconnects3 I can now no longer play any audio through the headphones from the PCIn the Bluetooth and other device settings menu, my headphones are connected. I have also tried un-pairing and re-pairing the device several times. The device manager recognizes the headphones in the bluetooth dropdown menut. In the Sound settings on Windows,

:)

 

Cannot connect to Bluetooth audio devices (only) under 21H1.

I had no problem connecting Bluetooth audio devices while running Windows version 20H2, and had 3 different audio devices paired and working normally. Upon upgrading to the latest Windows 10 version (21H1, 19043.1348), they can no longer connect.

There's nothing wrong with the devices. My 2nd system is running 20H2 and is connecting fine with them.

On my primary system running 21H1, I go to the Bluetooth settings screen, see my paired devices in the list. I turn on a Bluetooth audio device... and nothing happens. Previously the laptop would auto-detect the audio device and I'd be good to go. So I select the paired audio device in the list, see the option button to "CONNECT" and press it. IMMEDIATELY, I'm given this message: "That didn't work. Make sure your bluetooth device is discoverable." It's obvious it's not even trying. It's an instant response. On my 20H2 laptop, when I try to manually connect to a Bluetooth audio device that's not turned on, it takes about 20 seconds or so until the "didn't work" message to appear. It's clearly trying.

NOTE: I have a mouse device connected via Bluetooth and it's working perfectly fine. It's only audio devices that fail.

Another vexing related issue -- if I try to remove any of my Bluetooth audio devices from the paired list, I get a "Remove Failed" message and nothing happens.

Troubleshooting: Went to Devices --> Bluetooth. Did a View of hidden devices... and yes, there were duplicates of these devices listed. I deleted all of them. I rebooted and while they are absent from the Devices list, they're still showing up in the Bluetooth interface and behaving as before. I ran the Bluetooth troubleshooter that claimed to find a problem and fixed it, but rebooting showed that not to be the case.

Either something appears to be wrong with 21H1, or I have some screwy configuration conflict going on.. I've got Realtek Bluetooth hardware. I have uninstalled Bluetooth and reinstalled the Realtek drivers. No help. Upgrading to 21H1 was long and tedious--I don't want to roll back to 20H2. Is there anything I can try to fix this?

Thanks!

 

Audio on connected Bluetooth devices


I'm having a weird problem that I can't figure out and it's driving me nuts.

All that I'm attempting to do is to listen to the podcasts that I have on my Android smart phone through the speakers on my computer via Bluetooth. This worked in Win 8, but since upgrading to 10 I'm encountering a problem.

The computer will pair with the phone with no issues. It will also connect with the device via Bluetooth, no issues there either. But I can't make it pull the audio from the phone. When connected, the audio still plays through the phone, and not the computer.

I've poked around audio settings, and can't find anything. I installed drivers specific to the phone, that did not work. I also went to Dell's site and installed Bluetooth drivers that are specific to my computer. No change.

Any suggestions?

 

Bluetooth headphones pairs and connects but not connected on "audio devices"

I tried all those steps with Bluetooth. The bluetooth connects, but the "Audio devices" does not show a connection.