Forum Discussion
Bluetooth audio out stops when using Teams
Hi everyone.
I have a pair of Taotronics Soundliberty 79 earbuds. They've pair fine with my laptop running Win 10 and work for listening to music. I've also tested joining a Google Meets meeting and audio works fine in both directions.
However, when I join a MS Teams meeting after a minute or two I can no longer hear audio through my earbuds, but the microphone continues to work and others can hear me. I need to go to device settings in Teams and switch to PC speaker/mic then back to the earbuds to restore audio which only lasts a couple of minutes before dropping out again.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to resolve this?
I've been criticizing Microsoft for owning the problem and doing nothing about it. I did follow the suggestion from Sven and updated the driver for my Intel Wireless Bluetooth device. With driver version 22.20.0.3 - 2020-11-27 the problem seem to be there no more.
With that I was wrong in my opinion that Microsoft is to blame for the issue and that you deliberately would ignore the problems caused. I apologize for that.
kind regards
T
68 Replies
- I believe that I have solved the problem. This problem seems to stem from any Bluetooth device that offers "Hands Free" mode for their device (you can either notice this in your listed Audio Devices or in Device Manager).
In order to correct this issue, you will need to navigate to Device Manager (Windows search "Device Manager") and make sure that you are in Administrator mode. Next, find the following categories: "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" and "System Devices". Expand out those drop-downs and you should now see devices with "Hands-Free AG" or similar naming scheme.
Next, you will want to open the properties of these devices (one at a time) and navigate to the "Driver" tab. You will then select "Disable Device" from the list of buttons below. (If those buttons are grey'd out, this is due to requiring Administrator Permissions. You will need to either sign in as an Admin user or go to the "General" tab and select "Change settings". It should reopen the Window and un-grey the buttons). Select "OK" to close the Window.
Do this for all of your Bluetooth Devices in both drop-downs. Once completed, you will either need to restart your computer or if you know how to restart all Audio Devices, this will work too.
Hope this helps all. I dunno if you have solved it but I may have stumbled upon a solution. In Teams, go settings by clicking "..." in the top right, go to devices and select another microphone other than your bluetooth speaker/headset. You also have to change speaker from headset to headphones. This solved it for me.
Ruzlan I wish that worked for me - I have two mics that I can use - one on a webcam, the other built into the laptop. When I am on a desktop client meeting it seems to activate call mode on my Bose headphones and kills all desktop audio when this is active. It is either low quality headset mode or no audio at all through BT.
This works perfectly using the web client, which is my ultimate workaround, but I would much prefer to use the desktop client as there are additional features not present on the web client.
I have Bose 700 Noise Cancelling headphones (certified with Teams) and to summarize the problem, in only Teams, the audio cuts out if I use a different mic than what is on the bluetooth headphones.
In Windows 10, when selecting audio devices there were two output devices: A plain bluetooth one, and a hands free one). I had the same issue if I was using the hands free audio but not the mic. But resolved by using the bluetooth audio source.
I upgraded to Windows 11 and now only one audio source shows (plain Bluetooth). Audio works on everything fine right up until the moment that a call actually connects in Teams. At which point, all the audio (from all applications) cuts to the bluetooth headset.
If I use the bluetooth headset and mic in Teams settings, it works but as soon as the call connects, the audio quality coming from the headset turns complete garbage.I have upgraded bluetooth drivers (and everything else). Tried disabling LE Enumerator and all the other fixes. Restarted after every change. And to clarify again, this only happens in Teams. Zoom, Voice Recorder, and everything else behaves as it should. Teams needs to simply respect which devices I choose for input and output like everything else does. This is a Teams issue.
- My SOLUTION : I have a Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 bluetooth headset.
I have the latest Intel Bluetooth drivers for Windows 11.
When I use teams I don't want to use the headset microphone (which is shit), I prefer to use my high quality USB microphone. I have disabled the BB Pro 2 microphone input in sound settings, but have enabled the BB Pro 2 headphones output.
As soon as I join a meeting in Teams... all sound stops working (including other apps like youtube on chrome).
If I re-enable the headset microphone and select the headset mic in Teams... all sound starts working again in Teams.
If I want it to work, I have to re-enable the headset mic.
Otherwise for the time being I am just using teams in the browser...which is not ideal, but at least I can use my USB Microphone.
Hopefully Microsoft fixes teams so that you are not forced to use both the headphones and microphone of the same headset.This is IT. I have lost 4h from my life chasing this. This is the fix!
Even if you use the headphones for audio output only, you still have to have the microphone enabled, even if it not selected / or in use.
derekjwhitten I have found the solution for me, provided that the problem still exists:
As you can see in the picture, I've set the audio output from "hands free audio" to just the stereo audio (I don't know what it's called for your headphones or if there even are multiple options). However, when i switched this (both on the output and microphone-input) it works just fine and the audio quality got better.
I hope this helps some people. Although this seems quite obvious, it was the solution for me.
Ps.: If anyone knows, what hands-free audio is for, I would love to know.
bioheater this does not work for me, if I click the stereo option, no sound comes out. I still have to click between the stereo and hands free once or twice for the audio to return when the hands free option is selected. As others have stated above, my mic continues to work, it is ONLY audio. I'm also using Bose 700 headphones but have used Sennheiser Momentum headphones as well and had the same result. This does not seem to happen on the teams iOS app.
I too am having this issue. I can get low quality audio through bluetooth, but if I am listening to music this is unacceptable. As soon as I change the mic to any other device, audio stops completely. Choosing another output device like speakers enables audio from the call to play, yet the bluetooth still is dead until I end the call. Weirdly the test call audio doesn't work, but if I hang up during the intro audio starts playing for a second until it properly disconnects. It almost seems like Teams is explicitly disabling audio on BT during calls.
My solution is to not use the desktop teams client at all for calls, but instead using Chrome. The audio there works perfectly and I can chose another mic. It is really annoying as there are some features of the desktop client that I would like to take advantage of.
Still having this problem. I've updated the Intel bluetooth drivers, disabled LE Bluetooth Enumerator, and a lot of other things. On symptoms, maybe I can add some information.
All bluetooth speaker output works well when not in a Teams meeting.
It works before the meeting, and it works after the meeting, it just stops working at the start of a meeting.
Bluetooth speakers work during the meeting if I go to Devices, switch to some other output device, and then switch back to my bluetooth speakers.
I can reproduce the problem using Make a Test Call. The narrator gets exactly to "To test your call quali", and then all audio cuts out. This includes music I had playing on WMP (lowest common denominator). Then, upon hanging up, I can hear the tail end of the hang-up chime, and press play on WMP, and the music resumes.
If I set my output device to, say, the laptop speakers, before making the same test call, there is no interruption of output audio.
ChrisG221 The other experiences I've had where Speakers or Mic's just drop out for no apparent reason is where I have sync'd them to two different devices and the one that is not using Teams steals the Bluetooth signal back through the auto-connect feature.
To work around this I always make sure I "Remove Device" via Windows 10 "Bluetooth & Other Devices" Settings and only have it as an added or remembered device on one PC or Phone etc at a time.
Usually I have had Audio Device (eg- Headphones) sync'd to my Phone and it competes with my PC to connect via Bluetooth, even if it has made a successful connection beforehand...
Not sure if this helps, but it can be a factor.
Thanks, but I've tried that already.
Also, it would be exceptionally coincidental for another device to grab the bluetooth connection to the speakers at exactly the same place in the Make a Test Call script the dozen or more times that I have tried it. Also, the audio comes back on at exactly the same time that the call is ended.
I have the same problem as most others...
My solution was a combination of:
- Installing the latest (2021) Windows 10 Bluetooth Driver (likely to have been unnescessary)
- Going into Teams (click on your Teams profile icon)/ Settings / Devices / Audio Devices (make sure ALL the three selection rows are set to your particular Bluetooth Device)
- Make a Test Call and hopefully it will be fixed!!
- Actually, for me, after further testing, the newest Intel Windows 10 Bluetooth Driver did make a big difference along with the manual Teams Audio Device setting changes i listed above..
Latest Bluetooth Drivers:
Intel® Wireless Bluetooth® for Windows® 10
Version: 22.40.0 (Latest) Date: 3/30/2021
Link:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/30326?v=t
- I have a JBL Flip connected via bluetooth. It seems to work with all my other programs but with Teams it just goes dead after about 30 minutes.
Sounds like I am not the only one with this problem. Would be nice to have a fix. - Even with the latest driver update from intel, I was still having the issue with the sound cutting out after 10 min. I wound up buying a webcam with an integrated mic (usb) and am now using my Bluetooth speaker for just sound output (it also has a mic but I disabled it).
Teams and Zoom work perfectly now, though it’s too bad I can’t use the integrated mic with my speaker.- Using a Surface Laptop with Windows 10, the bluetooth is woeful. I believe I've finally narrowed it down to either a flakey bluetooth transceiver in the surface or a flaky Marve; AVASTAR driver. After trying a failing with several third party Bluetooth dongles, I landed on the EVEO device: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CF1H9WJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 To use it, you must uninstalled the crap MARVEL first, then install the EVEO driver and then disable the Marvel driver or it will reinstall itself whenever you reboot (maddening) I hope this helps someone else. Whether it is the radio or the driver, SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT!
I was having the same problem with the new Phoak P70 hearing aids. I could connect and things would work normally for about 10 mins. The mic in the hearing aids worked as the input device for Teams and the hearing aid speakers as the output.
But after about 10 mins I would lose the speaker audio, but the mic in the hearing aids continues to work.
But now, I think the problem might be connected with channel switching in Bluetooth, becasue of recent tests.
I changed devices in Teams so that the hearing aids are the Output device and my (wired) Yeti Microphone is the input device. Now I no longer get the disconect
I've now had a Teams connection open for more than 20 mins and and I am still hearing through the hearing aids and talking through the wired mic
hope this might help someone else.Jim
Thanks for the post. I think you are right. I'm about 4 hours into researching and experimenting and the issue is not specific to Teams but is specific to my Surface laptop across several bluetooth devices. I spoke with a support person who admitted that Microsoft has completely buggered up the bluetooth services in windows 10. They suggestion buying an inexpensive BlueTooth USB dongle. I have one on order that should arrive on Tue. If that solves it, it will be disappointing but if it costs only $12 to save me hours of aggravation, I guess that's the price I pay for using Microsoft stuff.
-BD'
- Teams is the only app that is giving me problems. Hope you have sucess with the dongle.
FYI, I have a new Dell computer and that is using the Killer 1650i USB card which supports BT 5.1
