Bose (or maybe Bluetooth headphones) Not Working?

My Bose AE2 Soundlink Bluetooth headphones stop working when MSFS starts (they have never worked with MSFS since I downloaded it). My other headphones (Turtle Creek Stealth 450) work fine - they are not Bluetooth and have a USB plug-in transmitter. My Logitech desktop speakers work fine also. I have tested this quite a bit. I can be listening to something like Spotify on my Bose headphones and exit Spotify, then immediately double-click MSFS. As soon as the first splash screen appears, I can very faintly hear my headphones change to a strange very light static sound. After that, the headphones stop working for ANY application. For example, after this happens I can exit MSFS and start Spotify again, and no sound will come through - only the very light static. I have turned the headphones off and on, no change. The Bose headphones remain selected by Windows as the default sound output throughout. They appear fine on the Sound settings in Windows - all appears perfect, but they donā€™t work. After a reboot, the headphones work fine again with any other application, but the moment I start MSFS, they cut out. I have no other Bluetooth headphones to test with, so Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s the problem.

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A few things:

  1. Run the bluetooth troubleshooter app within Windows

  2. Unpair then repair

  3. Turn bluetooth off, wait 10 seconds, then on again

With FS running.

Iā€™ve had this problem with my bluetooth headphones in a lot of games (Beyerdynamic Lagoon).

I finally resolved it by disabling the second bluetooth sound service (hands free phone thing).

Look in Control Panel -> Soundsā€¦ and see if the headphone is listed twice (one with a stereo connection, one with hands free)ā€¦ disable the hands free one. It seems the game jumps to that one when Iā€™m actually listening on the other one.

Might be head phone specific though, so not sure if this will work on your headphones.

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YearlingDeer, that didnā€™t work. Went through the steps and still got the static. Thanks for answering though.

ememPilot, that worked! I disabled ā€˜Bose AE2 SoundLink Hands-Free AG Audioā€™ and the headphones are working properly now! Thanks so much. Now can you fix the problems with the Longitude autopilot? :wink:

Hey Destruct, youā€™re welcome.

When Iā€™m out of the hospital, due to the 787 autopilot crashing me, Iā€™ll have a look at your longitude problem :smiley:

This did work with the Bose Quietcomfort 35 II, thank you for pointing it out.

The question is, why is FS2020 changing the default audio settings in this way, i canā€™t imagine it being the obvious choice.

Hey SpareRaptor,

I think itā€™s a Windows thing / bug, since I noticed it in more games. Also in Skype. Finally with the arrival of FS2020 I had enough of it and did some digging. Iā€™m assuming it was the same problem in the other games (havenā€™t checked yet).

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I wasnā€™t aware it was a windows thing, as it only happened with FS2020 for me, that a different sound option was created, selected and the default was disabled.
Your option of deleting the duplicate was a solution, but i still had to reconnect the headphones for them to work properly.

Iā€™m going to hold off from the sim for a little while and wait untill the dev team has some time to fix some bugs and even out some wrinkly bits with the downloads, the connected devices, optimize the whole thing a bit etc.
A Century of Flight is still fun.

Hello everyone!

In the windows sound parameters, in the recording tab, try to set your bluetooth device as a standalone device. This might helps solve this sound issue.
Weā€™ve created an article on the FAQ with more details - click here

Weā€™ll share the info with others but if this works for you donā€™t hesitate to share the link as well :slight_smile:

Thank you.

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That fixed it for me and my Beats Studio 3! Thanks, ememPilot!

Sounds good and solves the problem with old (Bluetooth 4.x) headphones. But do you guys know, if a Bluetooth 5.x-headset would be a solution to avoid an additional microphone?

Would a new headset with BT 5.x the solution?

From what Iā€™ve read about this problem, I wouldnā€™t count on it. Some early adopters reported itā€™s still not working under Bluetooth 5.

Also realize (perhaps you did already) that you need a Bluetooth 5 transmitter (so your PC has to be Bluetooth 5), else thereā€™s not even the gain of version 5 at all.

However, you can apparently make it work under Bluetooth 4, if the headphones support aptX Ɣnd you invest in some additional Bluetooth hardware (a dongle). So I guess that would also work for a Bluetooth 5 headphones.

Note that I have not tried this myself. Thereā€™s additional codec requirements, so if you really want this, it does involve some research.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Iā€™ve already a WiFi card that supports BT V5.1. So that should be good. Iā€™m waiting for the ā€œBose Quietcomfort 45ā€ to get released. But Iā€™m still not sure, that BT V5.x would solve it.

Iā€™m using the FS2Crew tools and theyā€™re great - especially the voice talks to the flight officer. But I donā€™t want to use an extra mic for that.

Well, I suppose if you have everything setup eventually, and it still doesnā€™t work, you could consider hooking up the headphones wiredā€¦

I know I knowā€¦ nowadays thatā€™s like profanity :smiley:

But that might solve the issueā€¦ no more need for Bluetooth audioā€¦ but annoyingly stuck to the computerā€¦ and else I guess that dongle might work. Not too expensive either.

Yes - a cable is always the solution. :wink: The QC45 ist out now. I still donā€™t know, if BT5.x has high res voice and audio duplex.