Continued Bluetooth LE & Teams Issues with Surface Earbuds

Question

On my 2nd pair of Surface Earbuds but still having continued issues with the Bluetooth LE connection. The sound quality degrades when compared to the standard Bluetooth connection + the left earbud continues to produce significant static/hissing while on Teams calls. 

I do not have any issues when connecting normally across a number of devices (Pixel 4, Surface Go, Surface Book 2). Have made tired updating the earbuds, resetting to factory, repairing, etc. to no avail. My primary use case for the earbuds are for work, so this makes the product extremely difficult to use.

Answer 1

I agree, got the surface book 3, after a week, got the surface buds, was using teams, what a disaster.  Using surface hands free ag, had to hang up, couldn't take the noise, couldn't hear anyone without loud noise crackling.  Stereo sounds fine, little underwhelming, but the teams experience with these surface buds are a disaster.  Also have a surface fingerprint keyboard, and when using the surface buds, the keyboard will lose connection.  Next, when using the surface precision mouse, it slows down, have to turn it off, then on again, comes back.  These surface buds are screwing with the Bluetooth on the newest of the surface devices.  Incredible.  Have the 1st generation of the surface headphones, never had a problem with the surface book two.  Tried them with the surface 3, seem fine, but wanted to try the buds.  Please help Microsoft.  Oh, and the genius that decided to only let one device connect to the surface audio buds at one time should be disciplined.  Brilliant, could have let us know....should be a warning on the Microsoft store website warning anyone that uses multiple devices, please beware.  Connect to your phone, or choose the computer, but you can't have both without disconnecting one of the.  Displeased....

Answer 2

I have the same problem (Surface Pro 6 with Windows 10 Build 1909):

With the audio playback device Surface Earbuds Hans-Free AG Audio connected via Bluetooth LE i constantly hear disturbing noises only on the left headphone. No matter in which application (Microsoft Teams, Spotify, YouTube, ..)

If I connect the Earbuds with a Smartphone or iPad, I don't have this phenomenon with the noise! Updates, resetting to factory settings, reconnecting, everything does not help. How can that be? It works with Samsung and Apple-Devices but not with the Microsoft Surface? Are you kidding me?

But the following is interesting: As soon as I switch to the second audio playback device (Surface Earbuds Stereo) in Windows 10, the sound is good without disturbing noises. But, this device only works as a stereo playback device without a microphone. In the sound settings of the corresponding headphones you can see: 2 channel mode, 16Bit and 44100Hz.

In Microsoft teams I can set Surface Earbuds Hans-Free AG Audio as audio device in the device settings. This is how the microphone works, but the sound sounds awful with disturbing noises. Another setting does not work with the Earbuds.OMG.

I also noticed that in Control Panel > Sound the following is set for this audio device: 1 channel, 16Bits and 16000Hz. What also surprises me is the relatively old Bluetooth driver in Windows 10:

driver name: microsoft_bluetooth_hfp.inf

Class GUID: {4d36e96c-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

Driver date: 03/18/2019

driver version: 10.0.18362.1

Driver provider: Microsoft

Driver section: Common_BthHfAud_Install

Driver rank: 0xFF0000

Suitable device ID: BTHHFENUM\BthHFPAudio

Common Microsoft, you should fix that issue very soon.

Answer 3

Following the support the MS agent suggested a replacement set of Earbuds as he thought that my pair may be faulty. I have returned mine today and ordered a new pair as I really like these earbuds, but seems like this may not solve the issue.

New pair didn't resolve it, so not a hardware issue as far as I can tell.

Answer 4

hi I am having the same issue. I went through a whole set up process with a MS agent but he couldn't resolve it. 

My issue is exactly the same in that the left earbud crackles when any sound is being played through M S Teams i.e. voice etc. The Earbuds seem to pick up my voice without any issues I.e. the people I am talking to don't notice an issue with me.

As per the other user, the issue seems to be related to the way the earbuds interact with MS Teams, as they work fine with other audio outputs.

Following the support the MS agent suggested a replacement set of Earbuds as he thought that my pair may be faulty. I have returned mine today and ordered a new pair as I really like these earbuds, but seems like this may not solve the issue.

Answer 5

Hi, Azure_19!

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your concerns. We are sorry to learn that you still have issues with your 2nd Surface Earbuds when on a call in Teams. Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this and allowing us to help you out.

Please allow us to ask questions for us to clarify the situation. When you are using the audio profile Surface Earbuds Stereo, you don't have an issue when playing music/video. When in a Teams call, are you using the audio profile Surface Earbuds Hands-Free AG Audio? As for the static/hissing noise, is it only present on the left? Anything happening on the right? Any further details you wish to share that could help us is welcome.

Looking forward for your response.

Kind regards,

Janette_Z