W11 Bluetooth won't pair but can see devices. BT works w/ Linux
tldr; W11 bluetooth doesn't work with multiple cards. It will see devices but will not pair. Same hw pairs under Linux.
hey folks. I posted this to /r/techsupport on reddit and for some reason they say they don't support Windows 11 Enterprise... and it took them a day to tell me instead of using automod. I thought this was both funny and the dumbest thing. Anyway, here's a fun little issue I'm trying to sort out.
Windows 11 Enterprise 22h2 (22621.3810)
About two weeks ago (after a year of having this system) my bluetooth decided not to pair with anything. It will see devices and try to pair, but it never goes through.
I have tried:
- a different wireless card / bt combo (PCIE)
- removing the wireless / bt combo and using a bt dongle
- removing all drivers (show hidden devices etc), rebooting clean, reinstalling
- changing the USB connection to the mobo for the PCIE card
- live boot of latest Ubuntu LTS -- successfully paired DS4 controller and Sony Headphones
The event logs for Bluetooth Policy are all positive (e.g. A connection to a remote device 0xA4538553B7FD was successfully established) -- but nothing is paired.
This happened on a day when I added two HDDs to the box and ran updates etc. I also tried everything above without the drives installed without any luck.
Any ideas?
notes:
- I just finished with a W11 windows-to-go install off a super slow USB and I wasn't able to pair headphones or the DS4, but I did pair some sony TW earbuds. I'm sensing a fresh install in my future.
Just two ideas off the top of my head:
Have you "forgotten" the devices and then tried to re pair them? I've had issues like this and that usually does the trick.
See if the firmware on your Bluetooth devices needs an update.
sadly, yes. A pair of headphones was paired before it crapped out and still worked. I removed that to test it and it hasn't re-paired since.
No updates for the bluetooth either. Its on the same version as when it was working. This has been uninstalled and reinstalled a dozen times, too.
I meant your Bluetooth device itself.
I had an Xbox controller that kept dropping connection on me, turned out, I needed to update the controller firmware to get it back to normal.
oh, hm. no -- but it won't pair with anything. I could try that for the controller, but the others don't have firmware to be updated.
Here's something about changing some default windows options for Bluetooth, which could be a culprit.
haha yeah, I've got all that. The cricut link has been a... revenant.. of sorts. No matter what I search, that link is there.
Sony doesn't make native Dualshock drivers IIRC, you have to use https://ds4-windows.com/ if you aren't already.
Also, do your dongles/cards actually support Windows 11? I've had device in the past throw some crazy system interrupt issues and was kind of appalled to discover a basic-ass network card didn't support Windows 10 after upgrading from 8...
it won't even pair with the system -- neither will sony headphones. I was using the DS4 for a year with this system without issues.
the process is: put device in pairing mode > run bluetooth > bluetooth sees the device, but hangs, ultimately returning 'Couldn't connect. Try connecting again.'
Everything involved is supported by Windows 11 and was working for a year prior to this bulllllshit :)
I had this kind of problems with Joycons too. This one helped me:
Open Regedit. Delete everything in:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Devices\Restart. You should no longer have any bluetooth devices paired, phantom or otherwise. If that didn't do the trick to get them to pair, here's a bit more voodoo:
haha. I thought I was alone with the second power cycling part! I had that issue mainly with DS4 and deleting the default profile fixed it. I think DS4 was flooding the bluetooth with light data or something stupid... regardless, ditching the profile worked, but the cycling also worked temporarily.
I did all this again, also removing the stuff from the registry. I also tested with a new profile just to be sure, but but no dice.
Anything as in anything? Can you pair your phone perhaps? Or anything else non-Sony? Just to confirm it's not unique to their equipment.
Otherwise, if the route you're trying to reinstall the drivers is by uninstalling in device manager and letting Windows reinstall them on reboot, you might instead check your mobo's or wifi card's support site and see if they offer the driver from there (if it's a laptop or prebuilt desktop, the manufacturer might have it as well). If so, you could also check if they offer previous versions to try since this seems like a more recent issue.
Outside of that, without being able to tinker myself, the only other things I can think of are to do an SFC, DISM \checkhealth, check the power settings, check for BIOS update, check BIOS settings, and possibly check group policy settings. That's just the general IT "throw shit at the wall" stuff before going full reimage.
haha you're the only person that noticed that its all sony! I just tried it. It saw my phone (iPhone 12 Mini on ios18db) and the phone even prompted to pair, but it ultimately threw the same error.
I think a fresh install of W11 is in my future.. but I'm not in any rush. I ran a long-ass USB cable to a hub on my desk with a wired controller etc etc. not the worst.
Its sick, but I kind of like this sort of gremlin issue.
Hmm, I'd still suggest trying to manually download the latest Bluetooth driver from your PC manufacturer's support page rather than letting Widows handle it automatically (if you haven't already).
Another thing to try, if you go to System Settings>Bluetooth & Devices>Devices, scroll down to Device Settings and try setting the Bluetooth Devices Discovery option to Advanced instead of Default.
You can also click More Bluetooth Settings and try checking "Allow Bluetooth devices to find this PC".
Finally, as a Hail Mary, you could try the below command in Powershell as admin:
It reinstalls all of the default Windows apps. I've had it fix a few obscure issues before, so it might be worth a shot before going the nuclear route.
But yeah, beyond that I'm out of ideas.
hm. I'll try the last one. I've done the other stuff already. The whole thing is such a mess.
When it reinstalls the default apps, does it also reset the preferences? I'm not even sure I've used any of them outside of the terminal.
At my company, we have been having various problems with Smart Sound Technology device drivers. The devices can be found in the device manager under Sound, video and game controllers. The USB driver has caused problems with plugging peripherals into docks (locks up Windows until the device is unplugged from the dock). The BT driver has caused issues connecting devices. The digital microphone driver has caused problems with connecting devices and getting them to function as a headset with mic instead of just headphones.
Assuming you have these devices on your computer, I would disable the BT device first to see if that fixes it. If not, turn it back on and turn off the digital mic device. Try with both off as well.
I haven't even bothered to see what the Smart Sound Technology does, but disabling those devices to fix said issues has not caused any ripples that we've noticed. However, I have seen them cause issues when they were disabled without any known issues being present. I didn't bother deep diving that part, so I don't know why that would happen or how consistent it is.
Good luck! I hope it helps.
I had that issue with an old comp. Sadly (maybe not sadly) I don't have any smart sound stuff at all. All I have is the onboard audio, the HDMI audio, and my DAC. Same with the APOs and inputs listing.
I'm almost certain that this will magically work one day.
On a side note: I did get a 8BitDo Pro 2 wired controller and its pretty nice.