Windows 10: Windows is not correctly identifying my headphones and they cannot be selected as an audio...

When my Bluetooth headphones are disconnected from my computer, sound playback identifies them as a a potential audio output device. However, once they are connected to my computer they disappear from the list and cannot be selected as an audio output device. For further information, I am using AirPods Generation 3 and my computer and drivers are fully up to date. I have tried resetting my headphones, disconnecting and reconnecting them, removing the device entirely, restarting my computer, and nothing seems to solve the problem.

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Headphones are not identified as the audio device when connected.

Hi Abdul,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10!

I understand that your headphones are not identified as the audio device when connected. In order to troubleshoot the issue, I would suggest you to try the following methods and check if the issue persists.

Method 1:

Run the Playing audio troubleshooter.

a) Press the ‘Windows + W’ key on the keyboard.

b) Type Troubleshooter in the
Search box and then press Enter.

c) Select Troubleshooting. Click on
View All and select Playing audio.

d) Click Next and follow the on-screen instructions.

If the issue still persists, try the next method.

Method 2:

Set headphones as default audio device.

1. Right click on the volume icon and click on Playback Devices.

2. In the new windows click on the tab "Playback" and right click in the window and click onShow Disabled devices.

3. Now check if headphones are listed there and right click on it and choose enable.

4. Highlight that headphones and click on "Set as Default".

If the issue still exists, try the next method.

Method 3:

You may check the same issue with the new user account.

Try these steps to create a new user account and check if it fixes the issue. Refer to the steps below to create a new User Account:

• Go to Settings.
• Choose Accounts and then select Other User Accounts towards the left.
• Select Add an Account.
• Enter a user name and hit Next.
• Click on Finish.
• Sign out from the current Account and Log into the new account.
• Check if issue persists.

Hope this information is helpful. Do let us know if you need any further assistance, we'll be glad to assist you.

 

Headphones do not show up when Realtek is installed

OK, so this happened to me on my laptop. It wanted to use the realtek drivers no matter what. Let me show you what to do.
Step 1. Open the start menu and type 'Device Manager' in the search bar. Click on the result.

Step 2.

You'll see this window appear.

Step 3.

Expand the 'Sound , video and game controllers' category.

Step 4. Find 'Realtek High Definition Audio' in the list, then right click it and select Properties.

Step 5.

Click on the 'Driver' tab near the top of the window.

Step 6.

Now click on the button that says 'Roll back driver'.
If the button is dimmed, make sure your Realtek drivers are currently installed.

Step 6. If you did it correctly, the system should ask you to restart to finish. If it does then you finished the tutorial correctly!
Once restarted, Open device manager again using step 1. Expand the 'sound, video and game controllers' category again.

Step 7. If it says 'High Definition Audio Device' then you did it right. Here's a pic for example purposes:

 

Move audio to one side for speakers but not headphones

Hello J1mmyth3F1sh,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

• Is your headphones getting detected in the Playback settings?
  
• Are you trying to play the audio on both Speakers and Headphones at the same time?
  

Ideally, if you have configured Sound settings to play on your left speakers, the same goes with the headphones. The sound starts playing only on the left side of your headphones according to the settings changed.

Meanwhile, we can try configuring the headphones and change the balance level in the sound settings and see if it works. Kindly check with the steps listed below and see if it helps.

Method : Run audio test for your headphones.

• Open Control Panel from the Start menu and click on
  Sound.
  
• In the Sound window, click on your
  Headphones and select Configure option at the bottom left.
  
• By running the test, check if both sides of your headphones are working fine.
  

If that doesn’t help, I would suggest you to check with the audio balance by following the steps listed below:

• Open Sound settings from
  Control Panel, and right click on the Headphones to open its
  Properties.
  
• Click on Levels tab and select
  Balance button. In the Balance window, you can use the slider to balance both left and right headphones equally.
  

However, I commend and appreciate you for recognizing this behavior. This is a valuable suggestion as there may be other users with a similar requirement. Hence, I suggest you to leave a
Feedback for this product so
that our developer team can look into this and check if it can be implemented in the future updates.

Regards,

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator