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How to PERMANENTLY disable Handsfree Telephony for a bluetooth device in Windows 11?

Anonymous
2023-06-15T02:37:19+00:00

I need to disable Handsfree Telephony to make my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones work in MS Teams (as resolved in this thread).

But, the setting keeps being enabled again - possibly during reboot or bluetooth re-connection.

Is there a way to PERMANENTLY disable the setting for this device?

Aside: I'm open to a fix in powershell if anyone knows the API calls for toggling the setting based on BT connection trigger.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-18T12:25:32+00:00

    Hi,

    I haven't found a way to switch off hands free telephony permanently - no matter what I do, it always turns itself back on.

    Disabling the microphone device in sound control panel does not prevent windows 11 switching to headset mode whenever an application uses a microphone.

    The solution I found was to disable the hands free driver for the device:

    Using the device property page found from "Control panel" -> "Hardware and sound" -> "Devices and printers" go to the hardware page and disable the hands free system device.

    After this process, even though hands free telephony turns back on, it is unable to select the hands free device and the headphones stay in audio mode, rather than headset mode.

    139 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Rodrigo Queiroz 75,710 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-06-15T03:13:37+00:00

    Hi logularjason,

    I'm Rodrigo and I'll help you.

    If the Hands-free telephony option is reenabling after the restart, another option is to disable the hands-free device under Settings > System > Sound > More Sound Settings > Recording tab and under Playback tab.

    Test it and tell if it changes after the restart or reconnection. if it doesn't work we can try other fixes.

    Example:

    36 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-04-08T18:05:07+00:00

    Not sure if this will help, but for me I was able to permanently disable the handsfree part of my bluetooth headphones by disabling the system device entry for it in the Device Manager->System Devices area on my Windows 11 machine. (Note that the system device is different from the driver and represented by a different icon (for me a computer tower and blue pane monitor):

    Simply right-click and disable:

    I have noticed that this method requires me to have to hit the connect button in Bluetooth & devices -> Devices more often / almost every time I turn my headphones back on, but it has helped me not have to disable the handsfree device every time which I found just a bit more cumbersome. Teams also now picks up the proper device so I don't lose audio.

    27 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-23T10:30:40+00:00

    This has saved me from going back to Windows 10 for the second time. Thank you very much.

    13 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2023-07-26T22:54:21+00:00

    thank you very much, this solved the problem.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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