Windows 10: Why does one of my bluetooth headphones connect but not as mic, audio

I have Sony bluetooth headphones that did connect fine to my PC and do work on phone and tablet fine. However they only connect and do not show output device as headphones. I have another pair and they connect fine and work correctly as shown below.The only difference I can see is it looks like it is not seeing them as an audio device. How do I fix this. I have uninstalled device and even uninstalled and reinstalled bluetooth driver via device manager.Thanks

:)

 

Computer Won't Use Headphone Mic

Are you using a wired or wireless connection?

If you are using Bluetooth you will find there is a gotcha when using a headset with a microphone. With Bluetooth 4.x there is not enough bandwidth for both the headset's stereo speakers and the microphone at the same time. If the headset's speakers are used in mono mode then the microphone will work. Here is the information from my computer:
I I left-click on speaker icon on taskbar tray I see my options for the speakers:

• Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) = Laptops built-in speakers
• Headphones (Arctis 3 Bluetooth Stereo) = Headphones stereo mode
• Headphones (Arctis 3 Bluetooth Hands-Free AG Audio) = Headphones mono mode

I found out that if I select "Headphones (Arctis 3 Bluetooth Hands-Free AG Audio)" the headset microphone will work.




However, I found that next time the computer might choose "Headphones (Arctis 3 Bluetooth Stereo)". Then the headset speakers will work but the the headset microphone will not work.

To ensure that the right selection is always done automatically I have to go further and set the default to "Headphones (Arctis 3 Bluetooth Hands-Free AG Audio)".
Note I can always override this at any time. To do this...
I right-click on speaker icon on taskbar tray and left-click on Sounds




The first tab Playback is for the speakers

• Headset = Headphones mono mode
• Headphones = Headphones stereo mode
• Speakers = Laptops built-in speakers

The second tab Recording is for the microphone

• Headset = Headset's microphone
• Microphone Array = Laptop's built-in microphone
• Stereo Mix = N/A

To ensure that both the headset speakers and microphone work at the same time I set the default playback to Headset. This will put the headset in mono mode and allow the microphone to work. Note that if I disconnect the headset the computer will automatically revert back to using the built-in speakers and microphone.

 

Bluetooth headphone mic and stereo audio not working simultaneously on laptop

I have a Sennheiser HD4.40BT bluetooth headphone.

When I connect this to my android phone, I can listen stereo quality music and while call, I can hear other person clearly and use the mic also.

Problem appear when I connected headphone with my laptop through laptop's inbuilt bluetooth.

The problem is headphone is connecting in one of 2 ways: Headphone mode and Headset mode(with mic).

- When I select headphone mode, sound is great but I cannot use my mic.

- When I select headset mode(or handsfree mode), I continuously hear static and very poor audio quality but can use mic with this mode.

I already read to disable headset mode to get stereo quality but "this is not my purpose".

What I want is to use headphone with stereo audio and mic simultaneously.

 

Bluetooth headphones only play audio when mic is active

Hi Cristiano - thanks for your response. Unfortunately still no success. To confirm, I tried:

• Disabling Handsfree Telephony (per this MS guide)
  
• Disabling the AVRCP driver in Device Manager (this disconnected the Bluetooth headphones entirely)
  
• Confirmed in Device Manager that the device is working properly
  
• Reviewed sound settings in the Control Panel (tried enabling Mono audio, tried disabling Audio Enhancements on both output and input, checked for driver updates, Reset sound devices and volumes for all apps to the recommended defaults)
  
• Ran both Windows 11 sound troubleshooter and Bluetooth troubleshooter
  
• Unpaired and re-paired headphones
  
• Confirmed that this is the issue with multiple pairs of the same model of headphones
  
• Confirmed that this is an issue with multiple laptops (Dell Latitude) using the same headphones
  

One observation is that when audio is playing, there is a faint clicking in the headphones. So there is some audio transmission when the mic is not enabled. As soon as the mic is enabled, the sound resolves and is crystal clear.

I reached out to Altec Lansing support and received a generic response.

Thanks again for any further suggestions!