Sony bluetooth headphones don't connect with correct audio profile

[Jason Bodnar]

I have connected my Sony bluetooth headphones (WH-H900N (h.ear)) to my Linux Mint 19 Tara system. After the initial connection when I disconnect the headphones and reconnect them later on when I view the headphones with the blueman-applet and look at the Audio Profile it shows Off. If I try to play audio I get no sound in the headphones. If I select High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) most of the time audio will play through the headphones. (Occasionally, the first time I select High Fidelity Playback it doesn't stick and I have to pick it again.)

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Release: 19

$ apt-cache policy bluez
bluez:
  Installed: 5.48-0ubuntu3.1
  Candidate: 5.48-0ubuntu3.1
  Version table:
 *** 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 500
        500 http://pubmirrors.dal.corespace.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     5.48-0ubuntu3 500
        500 http://pubmirrors.dal.corespace.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

$ apt-cache policy blueman
blueman:
  Installed: 2.0.5-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.0.5-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.0.5-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://pubmirrors.dal.corespace.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Feb 5 11:26:52 jbodnar pulseaudio[2226]: [pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Profile a2dp_sink has no transport
Feb 5 11:27:14 jbodnar pulseaudio[2226]: [pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to a2dp_sink: Not connected
Feb 5 11:27:22 jbodnar pulseaudio[2226]: [pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to a2dp_sink: Not connected
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: blueman-manager version 2.0.5 starting
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: card
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: change
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: card
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: change
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: card
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: remove
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: card
Feb 5 11:27:25 jbodnar org.blueman.Applet[2086]: add
Feb 5 11:27:31 jbodnar blueman-applet[25681]: gdk_window_get_origin: assertion 'GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
Feb 5 11:27:31 jbodnar kernel: [1121873.865918] input: 70:26:05:87:D1:64 as /devices/virtual/input/input44
Feb 5 11:27:44 jbodnar bluetoothd[889]: /org/bluez/hci0/dev_70_26_05_87_D1_64/fd15: fd(37) ready
Feb 5 11:27:44 jbodnar rtkit-daemon[2229]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Feb 5 11:27:44 jbodnar rtkit-daemon[2229]: Successfully made thread 1443 of process 2226 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Feb 5 11:27:44 jbodnar rtkit-daemon[2229]: Supervising 4 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

bluez actually doesn't handle Bluetooth audio. That's handled by pulseaudio.

Can you please tell us the package version of pulseaudio you have?

[Jason Bodnar (jason-shakabuku)]

pulseaudio 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.1

[Jason Bodnar (jason-shakabuku)]

WORKAROUND:

1. Turn on the headphones after the initial pairing. The headphones will say "Power on" and then "Bluetooth connected".
2. At this point the headphones won't have an audio profile. (Checked using both the Bluetooth app/tray icon and Bluetooth Manager.)
3. Using one of the above apps disconnect the headphones. The headphones will say "Disconnected".
4. Using one of the above apps re-connect the headphones. The headphones will say "Bluetooth connected.
5. At this point the headphones will have an audio profile of "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)" and can play audio.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I would like to exclude the possibility that this problem might be some other component of Linux Mint (like blueman) affecting the profile selection. To do that, please boot Ubuntu 18.04 (which contains exactly the same version of pulseaudio) and tell us if the problem still occurs there:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/

[Jason Bodnar (jason-shakabuku)]

I put Ubuntu 18.04-2 on a USB driver and booted up. I got slightly different behavior:

1. When I first paired the headphones with my laptop the audio profile was High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) and everything sounded good.
2. When I turned off the headphones, waited for the Bluetooth devices window to say the headphones had been disconnected and then powered the headphones back on and waited for them to auto-connect the audio profile was Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) and all sound was in mono.
3. If I disconnected the headphones using the Bluetooth devices window and then reconnected the headphones using the Bluetooth devices window the audio profile was High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) and the sound was in stereo.

I removed blueman from my Mint system and still experience the original issue. Here's what I have installed on my Mint system:

$ apt list --installed | grep blue

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

blueberry/tara,tara,now 1.2.3 all [installed]
bluetooth/bionic-updates,bionic-updates,now 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 all [installed]
bluez/bionic-updates,now 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed]
bluez-cups/bionic-updates,now 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed]
bluez-obexd/bionic-updates,now 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed]
bluez-tools/bionic,now 0.2.0~20140808-5build1 amd64 [installed]
gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0/bionic-updates,bionic-security,now 3.28.0-2ubuntu0.1 amd64 [installed]
gnome-bluetooth/bionic-updates,bionic-security,now 3.28.0-2ubuntu0.1 amd64 [installed]
libbluetooth3/bionic-updates,now 5.48-0ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed]
libgnome-bluetooth13/bionic-updates,bionic-security,now 3.28.0-2ubuntu0.1 amd64 [installed]
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth/bionic-updates,now 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.1 amd64 [installed]

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks.

It sounds like you are experiencing bugs in the ballpark of bug 1181106 and bug 1789758. So I will defer to those because they are similar, but also because "Ubuntu" bug tasks should ideally be about Ubuntu systems, which those other bugs are.