Disabling handsfree telephony permanently with bluetooth headphones on Windows 11

Question

Hey there,

I recently made the switch from Windows 10 to 11 and got a problem that arose from doing the upgrade.

I have a Soundcore Life Q30 headphones and in Windows 10, it used to be that there would be a "Hands free" option in the audio devices. So basically the headphones would show two virtual devices in the sound settings. One with good quality and the other one, the "hands free" one, was terrible.

Now that I have made the switch to Windows 11, these two seem to have merged together and are switching between each other constantly for calls. Now I do not know about the next guy, but I like good quality for my calls and/or games playing during those calls.

Now there was already a very helpful article on this forum, here, but everytime I restart my pc, these settings reset; drivers I uninstalled get downloaded again and settings I disabled get re-enabled.

Things I've already tried for reference:

• Turn off the hands free telephony option in the services settings in the property of the device
• disabling the microphone in the sound settings
• uninstalling drivers (for all the hands free options and the device itself)
• removing the device and adding it back again

I've been looking for things to fix this, but the lack of more advanced customization in Windows 11 leaves me with very little to work with. Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello, I understand that you disable the hands free mode but it gets renabled when you restart right? Thats a normal behaviour. Now here's the full context, skip to bottom for solution.

This behaviour was not in windows 10 because the audio profile selection was manual, for example, when connecting a bluetooth headset on win 10 you had basically 3 devices, two audio outputs (headsed stereo and hand free) and microphone. Someone at windows had the great idea to make this automatically managed by the OS (read horrible idea). So now when connecting a bluetooth headsed you only have 2 devices (microhpone and headset) and windows "automatically" chooses the best bluetooth profile. This was made to make things easier for the user (read solving a problem that nobody had by creating another problem)

Games like COD, for example, always activate the "hands free profile" when you active voice chat (they tell the OS "hey, Im on call, give me a hands free mode plz") and the only way to do away with this is disabling the hands free gateways on services, disabling hands free telephony on you device or disabling the hands free drivers for the device. Every single option disables some features on the headset but solves low audio quality problem.

Now, I've seen you tried everything but the gateways. Now on windows there's a service called "Bluetooth Audio Gateway Service" this bad boy is what supports the "hands-free" mode. By disabling it you basically deny any hands-free mode on any device you connect and like most services, the modifications are permanent till you change them.

Description: "Service supporting the audio gateway role of the Bluetooth Handsfree Profile."

Steps to disable:

1.-Search "services" on seach bar or press WInd+ R to and write "Services.msc" to open... well services

2.- Search "Bluetooth Audio Gateway Service"

3.-Double clic it and on the Startup type select disabled. If the service is running you can stop it.

Now read that most likely you will loose some functionality like the battery level on your device, but if you are like me you onyl use you headphones for audio and have an extra microphone (like the one in the laptop).

And no, there's no human way to use microphone and have good audio quality on the same headset on windows.

edit:instead of "uninstalling drivers (for all the hands free options and the device itself)" you should have disabled them, windows detects devices without installed drivers and installs them, that;s the reason why they came back.

Answer 2

Hello，Mark van de Vorst

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

Thank you for your exploratory tests. Your sharing is also a very useful thread for solving sound quality problems. We have also noticed that some users have reported problems related to Bluetooth headsets. Usually, headsets have high-fidelity mode and headset mode. In headset mode, the sound quality you mentioned is indeed reduced.

As for the fact that your settings for Bluetooth headsets will be restored to the default state every time you restart the computer, this is determined by the configuration file written in the driver by the manufacturer of the Bluetooth headset. Some headset manufacturers will write your changes to the configuration file when you adjust the headset settings, and read these configuration information to remember your changes after you restart the device. We do not have your brand and model of headsets for actual testing, so if it is convenient for you, you can use other Windows 11 computer devices to connect Soundcore Life Q30 headsets to test whether your changes to the headset can be remembered after restarting the device. If it is still reset to the default state on other devices, it may be that the driver of this headset is not compatible with the changes made to the headset settings under Windows 11. You can consult Soundcore Life's official technical support to ask if they have other solutions to remember and adjust your headset settings.

Here I provide you with the website link of Soundcore Life official technical support, you can click it directly to visit.

ContactUs | Soundcore

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

Best Regards，

Rota|Microsoft Community Support Specialist