Windows 10: Wireless headphones only connecting through hands-free mode

Greetings, everyone. I'm kind of desperate trying to understand what's happened to my wireless headphones after what I think was a failed attempt of driver updating. I'll try to be as specifically technical as I can to explain the problem and seek for a solution.Going into detail:My PC Dell Inspiron 5490 AIO; Windows 11 has been working pretty well using two audio output devices: a set of wired Logitech Speakers I can't recall the model at the moment and a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones. When I don't use the speakers I use the headphones, and viceversa.Yesterday I noticed my A

:)

 

Unable To Connect Boase Headphones To ASUS Laptop.

Hi Chris,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



In order to get clarity on this issue and assist you with appropriate troubleshooting steps, please reply with the answers to the questions below.

1. What is the model number of the Bose headphone?
   
2. How are you trying to connect the headphones to the laptop?
   
3. What is the model number of your ASUS laptop?
   
4. Are you using a wired or a wireless Bose headphone?
   

I suggest you to follow the steps mentioned in Connecting To A Computer
and try connecting your headphones to the laptop.



If you are still facing issues connecting the headphones to the laptop, I suggest you to elaborate on the issue, so that we can understand the concern and reply to us to help you further.

 

Windows 11 | No Hands free mode for bluetooth earphones

I think I might have some sort of a solution!

I've been using it for the last couple of hours and it seems to work!

This solution only enables me to use the headphones on hands-free mode (the mode with the low quality audio + mic) so it's not suitable for listening to music or anything like that.

Basically the idea is to trick windows to use the mic all the time, that way the auto switch to audio mode (which was introduced in win11 - see here, and I believe is the one causing this issue) won't trigger and the headphones will remain in the hands-free mode.

Here are the steps I did -

• Preparation Step (only need to do once) do this when you're headphone are disconnected. Not sure if this one is needed but haven't yet tested without it.
  
  • Go to control panel
    
  • Click on Sound (make sure you're not in "View by: category" mode so the Sound icon appears)
    
  • Click on the Recording tab
    
  • Right click and disable each one of the recording devices except for your headphones.
    
• Day to Day use - we now want the headphones to start in hands-free mode and stick to it
  
  • Once again, open the Sound setting and click on the Recording tab
    
  • Connect your headphones
    
  • Now, the recording tab tries to use the mic on the headphone to display the sound level, so the headphones should be in hands-free mode. As long as you keep this window open, the headphones should remain in that mode.
    
  • You can now go into zoom/google meet/teams/any other video conference app you use
    

As I said, this worked for me for the past day... even made some zoom calls and people were actually able to hear me again

Let me know if this helped you!

 

Connecting Bluetooth wireless headphones to an HP laptop

Hi Milicent,

One of the reasons why you cannot connect the Bluetooth wireless headphones to your computer is due to an outdated driver. We would like to know more details about your concern, kindly answer the questions below:

• Just to verify, by saying that you can't see the option in Settings, are you saying that the device can't be recognized by your computer?
• Have you tried connecting the Bluetooth headset to a different computers?
• Have you tried connecting your computer to a different Bluetooth device?

Furthermore, we suggest that you update the drivers for your Bluetooth and headphone by following the steps provided in this

article.

We're looking forward to your response.