Ubuntu 20.04 LTS bluetooth connection failed

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on a laptop (previously had windows and bluetooth worked fine). I am now trying to connect to my bluetooth headphones. bluetooth turns on and can see devices, but when I try to connect to it I get a message saying connection failed: software caused connection abort

i opened this bluetooth devices window by searching and clicking 'bluetooth manager' in the ubuntu software search. do i need to install or update some other bluetooth stuff? Ive already done sudo apt-get update

Answer 1

What you can do is directly connect from the command line as such:

> bluetoothctl

It will prompt you the bluetoothctl app, you can now run:

scan on

This will show you all devices with bluetooth on that are around, find yours and copy it's MAC Address.

Next add it to your trusted devices

trust XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Now get your device into pairing mode (Depends on each device, for my Powerbeats Pro I had to hold a button on the front for about 10 seconds until it blinked red.) You can now pair it with your computer:

pair XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

And finally when that is done succesfully, you can go ahead and connect:

connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

NOTE: Replace XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX above with your external device's MAC Address.

Good luck!

NOTE2: I actually found it simpler to just create some shell functions that would contain this information as it isn't sensitive, for e.g in my fish config I got this:

function bluetooth-powerbeats-pro
    bluetoothctl connect A4:83:E3:E6:48:65
end

Answer 2

you shouldn't need to install any addtional software for this to work.. Try not using this bluetooth manager and instead go into your system settings under bluetooth and connect from there.

Answer 3

Finally, I successfully connected to my beats studio 3. The system setting won't work and you still need Blueman. It seems that pairing is not working for headphones. Right-click on the device and open the setting menu. Under the pairing tab, choose "process as unpaired" and a connection will be established. (My menu is in the Chinese language, so the menu name I provide may not be accurate but should be similar.)