My bluetooth headphones will only provide output from one program at a time

Question

My headphone cable is broken, so I've been using my headset on Bluetooth mode recently. The problem with this is that I can only hear one app/program at any given time. For example, I play video games with friends and if I join the discord call first then I can't hear audio from my game and if I launch the game first then I can't hear the discord call. How do I just make Bluetooth headphones play all audio outputs produced by my PC rather than a single specific one?

I've googled it but no one else seems to have the same problem. I think I read something about certain apps overriding audio when Bluetooth is on, but can't find any more info on this both in the apps and in my settings.

Edit: I've disabled exclusive mode on all audio devices associated with my headphones (hands-free audio and stereo)

Answer 1

To address your question "How do I just make Bluetooth headphones play all audio outputs produced by my PC rather than a single specific one?"

Your bluetooth device is showing up as two audio devices to windows, but your headset can only play the output one of these virtual devices at a time and your headset automatically changes which one it is without windows knowing. Windows thinks both are active, so you need to go into Windows and change the output from one of the bluetooth virtual devices to the other. Normally the high quality one is active in the actual physical headset, but as soon as activity is detected on the low quality one or the mic, then the high quality output shuts off and the headset switches. So you need to move the output of the game/music/program to the low quality output which may be called handsfree possibly by temporarily disabling the other one or selecting the output in "app volume and device preferences" in sound settings.

https://audeze.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018651652-Notes-on-Bluetooth-quality-for-gaming-video-and-microphone-use

https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/

Hope I am wrong though bc it sucks!

Answer 2

Was facing the same problem for a few days, but I have managed to find a fix for the problem in the example. Apparently, all you need to do is change the input and output devices in Discord. See your PC detects your bluetooth devices as 2 separate devices. see attached image

1st is the headset mode (or hands-free mode), which allows access to the bluetooth device's microphone as well as plays low-quality audio for calls.

2nd is the stereo mode, which is normally used when you play any audio from say YouTube or a video.

Your game uses the Stereo mode of bluetooth headphones, but the Discord call uses the headset mode for the call.

So you can shift to stereo mode on Discord after joining a voice channel. Just right-click on the headphones icon at the bottom of the discord screen see image for reference

After this tweak, you'll be able to listen to game audio as well as your friend's voices from Discord simultaneously. But there's a catch, you might not be able to speak to your friends, only listen to them.

Hope this helps !!

Answer 3

I had this problem on windows 11. I went to System > Sound > Properties. At the bottom is 'Spatial sound' and it had Windows Sonic for Headphones' on. I changed it to OFF and it fixed the problem.

Good luck!! this was a sucky problem to have.

Answer 4

This is how I would solve it, im not sure if its the "right way" but I opt to do it regardless because it lets me use other [Sound Card's Effects] such in the case as realtek surround, or bass boost, etc.

sp?* Voicemeeter banana.

Basically you choose your [stereo mixer] or ["what you hear"] as an input, and you have a destination for that sound.

Its kinda like a "way better*" ["Listen to this device"]

When you do this, you would set the Realtek (or whatever) as normal main device with voicemeeter on.