Bluetooth headphones do not stay connected and doesnt work

[pp2222]

I have been using Manjaro on my laptop for 6 months now, and everything has been working great until today.
Today I tried to connect the Bluetooth headphones I use every day, and they keep connecting and disconnecting from Bluetooth every few seconds. Even when they are connected, there is no sound!
Removing the headphones from the list of Bluetooth devices and reconnecting them did not change the situation. Restarting the computer did not help either.

How can this be fixed?

[Aragorn]

@pp2222

I have been using Manjaro on my laptop for 6 months now, and everything has been working great until today.

Well, maybe you could tell us what happened today that didn’t also happen yesterday? What is different today? Did you install something? Did you decide to update today?

[pp2222]

The point is that nothing happened today. I updated the system yesterday afternoon, but in the evening the headphones were working fine! Today I didn’t install or update anything.

[Aragorn]

If they were working yesterday evening after the update and not today, then I would suggest checking their batteries.

[pp2222]

First thing I checked - fully charged

[kisun]

@pp2222

I updated the system yesterday afternoon …

And did you reboot after the update?

[pp2222]

I am 99% sure that I rebooted my computer immediately.

[Aragorn]

Well, software does not change overnight, so I’m guessing that it must be a hardware problem.

[pp2222]

    ~  systemctl --full --no-pager status bluetooth                                                                                                                   ✔ 
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2026-02-26 19:36:52 GMT; 9min ago
 Invocation: 70176ff5ef144545ad22bab076c1fd9f
       Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
   Main PID: 591 (bluetoothd)
     Status: "Running"
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 18305)
     Memory: 3M (peak: 3.6M)
        CPU: 116ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
             └─591 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Feb 26 19:41:35 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: profiles/audio/avctp.c:avctp_control_confirm() Control: Refusing unexpected connect
Feb 26 19:41:36 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: plugins/policy.c:reconnect_timeout() Reconnecting services failed: Operation already in progress (114)
Feb 26 19:43:06 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: No matching connection for device
Feb 26 19:43:26 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: profiles/audio/avdtp.c:avdtp_connect_cb() connect to A8:4D:4A:6E:DF:65: Connection timed out (110)
Feb 26 19:43:26 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: src/profile.c:ext_io_disconnected() Unable to get io data for Hands-Free Voice gateway: getpeername: Transport endpoint is not connected (107)
Feb 26 19:43:26 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: src/device.c:search_cb() A8:4D:4A:6E:DF:65: error updating services: Connection timed out (110)
Feb 26 19:45:01 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: /org/bluez/hci0/dev_A8_4D_4A_6E_DF_65/sep2/fd0: fd(28) ready
Feb 26 19:45:25 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: profiles/audio/avdtp.c:cancel_request() Suspend: Connection timed out (110)
Feb 26 19:45:35 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: profiles/audio/avdtp.c:cancel_request() Suspend: Connection timed out (110)
Feb 26 19:45:37 pavlo-vivobook bluetoothd[591]: profiles/audio/avdtp.c:cancel_request() Abort: Connection timed out (110)
    ~                                                                                                                                                                 ✔ 

Can I check the update history to make sure that nothing has been updated today?

[Aragorn]

Please don’t post any screenshots of terminal output. Copy the output with the mouse and paste it in between two lines of three backticks each.

The connection timed out, which means that the problem lies either with the headphones or with the Bluetooth transmitter/receiver in the computer.

---

@pp2222

Can I check the update history to make sure that nothing has been updated today?

Nothing would have been updated without your consent, because that requires root privileges. But you can examine the log as such…

paclog --after "$(date -Iminutes --date '1 day ago')"

[pp2222]

Just tested the headphones with my smartphone - they connect and work fine.

[Aragorn]

Then it might be on the side of the computer. I would recommend booting up with a recent live USB and seeing whether they work in the live session.

Is this a built-in Bluetooth device or is it a dongle? If the latter, see if it’s properly plugged in.

[pp2222]

I just booted Windows (dual boot) and the headphones work fine there!

Bluetooth is build in

[Aragorn]

What kernel are you using?

[pp2222]

I just tried to reconnect and got a message - "Connection to the device failed "

Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.73-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: VivoBook_ASUSLaptop M1603QA_M1603QA
System Version: 1.0

[Aragorn]

I would recommend installing the 6.18 kernel. It’s an LTS kernel, like 6.12.

[pp2222]

Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.12-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: VivoBook_ASUSLaptop M1603QA_M1603QA
System Version: 1.0

It didn’t help. I removed the Bluetooth device and reconnected it, but nothing changed and it still doesn’t work.

It seems to be working, but somehow strangely… At first, it didn’t want to connect and gave an error. By the way, even when Bluetooth shows that it is connected, headphones do not always appear in the audio mixer.

And then the sound started to appear intermittently. And after 30 seconds of intermittent operation, the music plays normally.

I will monitor the situation and write back later or tomorrow!

Unfortunately, as soon as I closed the browser where the music was playing and started the film (SMPlayer), the sound disappeared and won’t work…

[Aragorn]

Well, that sounds like a problem for our resident audio expert, so I’ll leave it into his hands.

@nikgnomic

[pp2222]

Thank you for participating and trying to help!

Feedback on the issue:

Yesterday, I tried again to boot Windows and check if the headphones worked there — as a result, they started glitching there too, but a system and driver update popped up! I updated everything and the headphones started working again in Windows 11.

Unfortunately, Windows messed up GRUB and Manjaro stopped booting… After spending two hours trying to restore GRUB (with no effect), I decided to reinstall Manjaro — it’s quicker and easier for me to do that.

After restarting the newly installed Manjaro and installing all the updates, the headphones are working without any problems!

I suppose that it was Windows that somehow affected the Bluetooth, but I cannot confirm this 100%!

At the moment, the problem has been resolved. Thanks everybody!