bluetooth headset connects but not showing in sound settings

Question

I was able to listen with my BT headset, but suddenly, one day, it disappeared from sound settings forever!

I've even re-paired my headset (and its connected already) but it doesn't have any options in sound settings in order to listen from it.

When I try this command:

hcitool scan

It doesn't find any devices! Even this command:

pactl list cards short

Only lists my default sound card only! What should I do?

Answer 1

Try this command:

sudo -H pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover

I run this whenever I have paired, and successfully connected, but still can't see them in sound settings. It essentially tells pulseaudio to load reload it's list of bluetooth devices.

Answer 2

The permanent solution would be to add the blueman PPA and update your package to the latest version which has the bug fixed: https://launchpad.net/~blueman/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:blueman/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

That way, you should no longer have to run the

sudo -i pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover

command every time but only once. Works for me on 14.04 LTS (Trusty)

Source

Answer 3

The headset is properly paired and shows under Bluetooth Devices but it does not show as an available INPUT / OUTPUT source for audio. The problem is that the pulseaudio bluetooth module is loaded before X11, changing a couple of config files do the trick:

PulseAudio can not load bluetooth module 15.10/16.04

nano /etc/pulse/default.pa

Comment out the following lines:

#.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so
#load-module module-bluetooth-discover
#.endif

nano /usr/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11

Find the following lines and add after them:

if [ x”$SESSION_MANAGER” != x ] ; then
/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-xsmp “display=$DISPLAY session_manager=$SESSION_MANAGER” > /dev/null
fi

Add the following lines:

/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect

This way the Pulse audio’s Bluetooth modules will not be downloaded at boot time but after x11 is started.

Answer 4

I am not able to comment on the top response, but I thought I'd add that on my Ubuntu MATE 12.04 LTS Laptop, I had to do:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

only then did this work

sudo -i pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover

Then I had to go into bluetooth manager app, pair the device, then set to 'Audio Sink' mode, then I could see the device within the Ubuntu Sound options and manipulate inputs/outputs!