BT speaker automatically disconnects after sound stops playing

[Korleon Palmer]

I am using Bluez on Ubuntu 24.04 (or more specifically the Ubuntu Studio flavor).

After a few seconds or minutes after I stop playing audio on Ubuntu (both Ubuntu Studio and vanilla Ubuntu), my Nest Home Mini speaker I've connected via Bluetooth disconnects automatically.

What I expected: The Bluetooth speaker works like a regular speaker and doesn't disconnect.

What happened: The speaker disconnects automatically after a few seconds/minutes of no audio. If audio was about to play before the crash, the program the audio was playing on will crash until it disconnects and switches to the next audio device.

How to recreate:

1. Connect a Bluetooth speaker (like the first generation Nest Home Mini I use) to your PC
2. Play a few minutes of audio.
3. When the audio stops, wait a few seconds, try playing some audio, and the speaker will disconnect itself and play the audio on the next device.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-31.31.1-lowlatency 6.8.1
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-31-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Tue May 14 00:27:08 2024
InstallationDate: Installed on 2024-05-09 (4 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Studio 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Release amd64 (20240424.1)
MachineType: HP 870-213w
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
PulseList: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/30/2017
dmi.bios.release: 5.12
dmi.bios.vendor: AMI
dmi.bios.version: F.10
dmi.board.asset.tag: 4CE73859L1
dmi.board.name: 82F1
dmi.board.vendor: HP
dmi.board.version: 1.01
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 4CE73859L1
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: HP
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAMI:bvrF.10:bd03/30/2017:br5.12:svnHP:pn870-213w:pvr1.01:rvnHP:rn82F1:rvr1.01:cvnHP:ct3:cvr:skuZ5N88AA#ABA:
dmi.product.family: 103C_53311M HP Omen
dmi.product.name: 870-213w
dmi.product.sku: Z5N88AA#ABA
dmi.product.version: 1.01
dmi.sys.vendor: HP