Won't reconnect to shared headphones (Sony WH-1000XM3)

[Alistair Cunningham]

In Ubuntu 19.04, I could use my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones with both my laptop running Ubuntu, and my Android smartphone. The headphones would pair with both, and I could simply re-enable the connection in Ubuntu or Android to connect to the headphones if the other device had been using the headphones last.

In Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu now refuses to reconnect to the headphones if my Android phone was using the headphones last. I have to manually unpair the headphones and re-pair them again. This is very inconvenient.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: bluez 5.53-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-29.33-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-29-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
Date: Sun May 10 15:44:22 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-08-16 (997 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
InterestingModules: rfcomm bnep btusb bluetooth
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0316 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB3.0-CRW
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 5986:111c Acer, Inc Integrated Camera
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: LENOVO 20HFCTO1WW
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-29-generic root=UUID=c023de63-612b-4367-874e-b3c987874f56 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: bluez
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-04-12 (27 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/29/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N1WET57W (1.36 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20HFCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Defined
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN1WET57W(1.36):bd11/29/2019:svnLENOVO:pn20HFCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadT470s:rvnLENOVO:rn20HFCTO1WW:rvrNotDefined:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.family: ThinkPad T470s
dmi.product.name: 20HFCTO1WW
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20HF_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad T470s
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T470s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
hciconfig:
 hci0: Type: Primary Bus: USB
  BD Address: F8:59:71:8D:1A:16 ACL MTU: 1021:4 SCO MTU: 96:6
  UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
  RX bytes:20456 acl:96 sco:0 events:2692 errors:0
  TX bytes:604938 acl:84 sco:0 commands:2573 errors:0
mtime.conffile..etc.bluetooth.main.conf: 2019-10-27T23:41:27.085337