I've been using my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones without any issues to connect to Bluetooth on Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon, but now they have stopped auto-connecting. This issue started recently; before that, everything worked fine. I can still connect manually with Blueman 2.4.3, but I don't see their battery life anymore. My non-audio Bluetooth devices, like my mouse, still connect automatically without any problems. After running some commands to restart the Bluetooth service, it helps temporarily, but the issue persists. I've also been experiencing similar problems with my Soundcore P20i earbuds. This all started around the time of my last kernel update, but I'm not sure if that's the actual cause. Interestingly, an earlier kernel version worked fine for auto-connecting. Has anyone dealt with this before or know what could be going wrong?
2 Answers
You might want to check the Bluetooth configuration files. Since you've already manually modified settings to disable the headset profile, that could affect the auto-connect functionality. Also, make sure your Bluetooth drivers are properly updated and compatible with the current kernel you're using. It sounds like you're on the right track by testing different kernel versions, so keep at it! Sometimes reverting to a previous version completely helps with hardware compatibility issues.
Kernel updates can be tricky sometimes. If your headphones auto-connect with an earlier kernel, that likely means some compatibility changes were introduced in the newer one. A workaround could be to keep using the older kernel until the Bluetooth stack is patched or updated in the newer versions. You might also want to report the issue to the developers so they can look into it further. Better compatibility would help a lot of us!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll double-check those configs and see if any driver updates are available. Fingers crossed it sorts itself out!