How to prevent switch from Stereo to Hands-Free profile on Bluetooth headset

Question

I just got a new Bluetooth headset (Philips PH802) and whenever the various video-conference platforms (Teams and Zoom) use the device's microphone, instead of my laptop's, there is terrible distortion on the audio output. The headset works just fine on my Android (on the same apps), but whenever Windows tries to switch to the Hands-Free mode, the sound is distorted (it crackles and pops, and is actually painful to my ears, the audio gets completely lost in this). Teams is essentially unusable - it refuses to use my headset audio and built-in microphone.

I have checked the drivers, there are several on Device Manager:

Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI) - 10.0.22621.608 of 2006/06/21

Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator (used by Philips PH802 driver) - 10.0.22621.755 of 2006/06/21

Microsoft Bluetooth LE Enumerator - 10.0.22621.608 of 2006/06/21

Philips PH802 driver - 10.0.22621.755 of 2006/06/21

Philips PH802 Avrcp - 10.0.22621.1 of 2022/05/06

Realtek Bluetooth 5 Adapter - 1.8.1030.3010 of 2020/09/08

I've paired and unpaired the headset a few times, and rebooted.

On Windows 10 one could select the audio output, but 11 seems to do it automatically. Is there any way to do this or disable the hands-free stream altogether? Or do I need to wait for a Windows Update that adds this function back?

Answer 1

Hi Carin,

I'm Rodrigo and I will help you.

You can disable the hands-free mode this way:

With the device connected, go to Settings > System > Sound > More Sound Settings > Recording tab > Right-click the hands-free device and disable it.

Answer 2

Hi Rodrigo.

Thank you for the advice. I have already done so, but this effectively turns my headset into headphones. I just want to disable the Playback headset, not the Recording headset.

Windows 10 would have two "devices" representing the Bluetooth headset, one for regular audio, and another for calls. In Windows 11 there aren't different options for the two functions in the settings, but the video conferencing apps grab the one that causes distortion, while audio playback uses the other one.

The microphone works just fine, as long as I use the laptop built-in speakers for playback. But that doesn't work very well when I'm wearing a headset!

Answer 3

When the headset microphone is in use, the device enters the hands-free mode, cutting the audio from the Stereo mode, this limitation is not from Windows, it is from the device and Bluetooth protocols.

Answer 4

Then there is something really odd going on with the Bluetooth on Windows, because I do not have the same problem on my Android phone. I guess something with the drivers, if it's not the hardware. The driver is quite old (see my first post), but I don't know if there's a way to update it.

Answer 5

I don't use Teams so not experienced in that area, but does your system and network have the performance to use normal sound or is it being limited in such a way that Teams may need the lower bandwidth sound.

Windows has settings to allow certain Apps to control devices. Maybe you can find a setting which would stop Teams from being able to do that.

Possibly, the distortion is being caused by two microphones actually on and some sort of feedback loop is happening.

The driver dates are just a Windows situation and that date stands for something involving Microsoft or Windows.