QC35 on Windows 10 - Showed only as paired, not connected

[joker313]

Hi all,

I have a problem that I cannot solve.

My QC35 got from one to the other day deleted from my bluetooth devices on Win10 and now I try to pair and reconnect it. It does not work.

What's the case: I find the QC35, I can pair it (however only as other device) and then it gets paired additionally as audio device. So, I have two entries QC35 in my bluetooth list, one as other device and one as audio device. Both show only paired, I can only try to connect the audio device. If I do this, it gets never connected (aborts after a few seconds).

In my sound settings, hand-free and the normal speaker are listed, however always as disconnected.

It's freaking me out, the following things I already tried:

1. Re-pairing

2. Deleting bluetooth PC driver

3. Installing newest bluetooth PC driver (Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth Driver)

4. Using Windows troubleshoot for devices, audio, bluetooth,...

5. Resetting the headphone (turn 30 seconds, charging 5 secs,...)

6. Reconfigure bluetooth service in services.msc

Does anyone has an idea what the problem could be?

[Charlotte_G]

Hello joker313, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Bose Community. 

I'm sorry to hear that you have encountered this problem. 

I would recommend removing both entries of the headphones from the Bluetooth list on your computer. Then, hold the Bluetooth button on your headphones to clear the pairing list. Now try to initiate the pairing once again. 

Let me know how this goes for you. 

Warm regards,

Charlotte G - Community Support

[joker313]

Dear Charlotte,

thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately that did not help. The device that is shown in the list of pairable devices are my headphones, however recognized with the sign of other devices and not of an audio device. After pairing the headphone as other device, it is in the list of other devices + in audio devices as headphone.

But the same problem persists - the headphones are only paired, but I cannot connect.

Do you have further ideas?
Thank you!

PS:

This is how my bluetooth devices list looks like - NC-Mukke are my headphones

[Liam_W]

Hi there @joker313 and thanks for following up!

I'm sorry to hear that you're still having this issue, and thank you for elaborating!

Following the above, there are a couple of things I would suggest here.

Firstly, please right click the volume icon on Windows, and select "Sounds". This should open up a small window with your sound information. Please select the "Playback" tab, which will show a list of devices. Please right click the headphones in the list (Ideally the Hands-Free profile, but if not then please choose the stereo profile) and select "Enable" if possible. If this is greyed out, please select "Connect" first, then try "Enable" again.

If this does not produce audio, please select to open the Sound Settings and see if you're able to select the speaker directly from there.

Please get back to me to let me know how this goes!

Liam W

[joker313]

Dear Liam,

my headphones are turned on - however I am not able to connect them. If I click via the right click menu on connect, nothing happens.

Accordingly, I cannot select the headphones in the sound settings as playback device...

Do you have further ideas?

Thanks!

[Jeff_G]

Hi joker313, 

Thanks for getting back in touch. 

It could be that the headphones are appearing there from a previous instance of pairing. 

As an analogy, think of connecting headphones to your computer as being given a set of keys to the headphones. When you click CONNECT the key is "inserted" and this allows you to access the headphones. When you clear the device list on the headphones, however, this is the equivalent of you "changing the locks" so to speak, the "key" no longer works, so you clicking CONNECT now will yield a message that says something along the lines of "That didn't work, Make sure the device is still discoverable." 

You will need to remove the headphones, then create a new pairing to obtain a new "key."

I understand Charlotte has already advised you to clear the device list for the headphones, but for the sake of being sure, I'd kindly suggest doing it again after you have removed the headphones from the Bluetooth settings page on your computer. 

When you attempt to connect again, go to the Bluetooth Settings > Add Bluetooth or Other Device > Bluetooth > Choose the headphones > done. 

If you go back to the list, you should now see the headphones appear as "NC-Mukke - Connected, Voice, Music."

I hope this helps you and anyone else facing a similar issue. 

Kind regards, 

Jeff G 

[joker313]

Dear Jeff,

I followed your advice but still the same problems persists. I removed the headphones from the bluetooth list and I then checked the sound settings. In both lists, the headphones were not longer listed.

Then, I repaired the headphones, however the same problem occurs as previously described. I can only pair my headphones as an "other device" and afterwards are the headphones detected additionally as audio device. The headphones are listed in the sound settings, too. But I cannot connect to them, not in the bluetooth nor in the sound settings.

Please see again what kind of "other device" my PC can only pair:

Once again the resulting bluetooth list:

Do you maybe further ideas?

Thanks!

[Jeff_G]

Hello Joker313, 

Many thanks for getting back to me, I appreciate that.

That is very unusual that you are still unable to connect correctly. Just to confirm, on the first screen, are you having to choose "Everything Else" instead of Bluetooth to be able to find the headphones? If that's the case, that certainly shouldn't be happening, I have just tested with a number of different Bose headphones, and all connected using the first option on the list, labeled "Bluetooth."

Interestingly also, each time I connected a device, it automatically switched the audio to the device also, there was no need to change any settings in the Sounds settings. 

Can you kindly confirm the following: 

- Has the product always worked fine in previous instances? 

- Have you tried pairing it to a smartphone to test Bluetooth is actually still functioning correctly on the headphones? 

- Have you tried pairing to another computer? 

- Have you tried updating the firmware? This can be done here.

I'd love to hear how you get on, so please reach out again even if you manage to solve the issue! 

Kind regards, 

Jeff G

[joker313]

Dear Jeff,

thank you for testing with different devices. The sign itself next to the headphones stands for "other devices". I find them under the "bluetooth" menu point.

To answer your further questions:

- Yes, it worked on this computer with the same OS before. It just lost one day the pairing and since then I have these problems.

- With my phone, the headphones work perfectly.

- I had just a Mac book now at hand - it does not see the headphones at all, even with several pairing tries...

- I constantly update the firmware via the smartphone app and I installed as well the Bose firmware updater on my PC - checked it, was one the latest version.

Do you have any ideas on OS level how to solve it?

Thanks again for your help.

[Jeff_G]

Hello Joker313, 

Many thanks for getting back in touch. 

It is difficult to place this, as the headphones should use the same connectivity profiles to connect to your smartphone as the computer, so there isn't any reason why it should work on one and not the other. 

Do you have any other Bluetooth headphones/speakers that you can attempt to pair to the computer? 

Is the MacBook running a boot of Windows 10? or do you have a Windows laptop also? 

Kind regards, 

Jeff G