26

Is there a way, through powershell, or any other tools to connect and disconnect a paired Bluetooth device? Basically press the Connect/Disconnect button in Bluetooth & other devices, except from command line of whatever sort (Powershell, bat using some command line tools, code in C#, C++, etc.):

Bluetooth & other devices

I found this answer but it involves unpairing and pairing again, which won't work because my headphones need to be in pairing mode to accept new pairing. I'd rather not simulate keypresses and mouse clicks via AutoIt or some other software like that.

MarcinJ
  • 721
  • 1
  • 7
  • 10
  • 6
    LOL, my exact problem. The sony headset handling multi device usecase too poorly and windows having cluncy interface for connect/disconnect. – user232548 May 13 '20 at 09:59
  • The most reliable and fast solution for me was to use `AutoHotkey` script from [this](https://superuser.com/questions/408302/how-can-i-script-a-bluetooth-device-to-connect-disconnect) topic. Particularly, from [this](https://superuser.com/a/1742707/720486) answer. – Pavel Sapehin Feb 17 '23 at 08:10

8 Answers8

27

I wrote C++ code to do it using Win32 Bluetooth API's BluetoothSetServiceState, but it's actually enough to use Bluetooth Command Line Tools.

As it turns out, once all services in use by a device get disabled, device gets released and disconnected by Windows automatically. In my case these are voice and music, as per the screenshot, and most headphones will work the same way.
Voice is actually the hands free service (HFP) and music is just an audio sink (A2DP). Service identifiers will be necessary and they can be discovered through the usage of btdiscovery command from the package above, or via the list of Bluetooth services. HFP voice is 111e, A2DP music is 110b.

Per btcom command line help:

Usage:

btcom {-c|-r} {-bBluetoothAddress | -nFriendlyName} [-s{sp|dun|GUID|UUID}]

 -c  Create association between COM port and a remote service (Enable non-COM service).
 -r  Remove association between COM port and a remote service (Disable non-COM service).
 -s  Remote service to use (Default is Serial Port Service)
 -b  Bluetooth address of remote device in (XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) format. 
 -n  Friendly name of remote device.

To disconnect the device, issue the following (only works when run as administrator in my case, using Windows 10 1809 (17763.437)):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bluetooth Command Line Tools\bin\btcom" -n "WH-1000XM3" -r -s111e
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bluetooth Command Line Tools\bin\btcom" -n "WH-1000XM3" -r -s110b

To connect again, issue the same with -c instead of -r. This works for other devices, not just headphones, as long as all services/profiles connected to by Windows get disabled/enabled.

Note: using -n <friendly name> is much slower than using -b <address> due to performing Bluetooth discovery.

MarcinJ
  • 721
  • 1
  • 7
  • 10
  • 5
    I've scripted your solution in form of clickable/bindable VBS scripts, so one can bind it to e.g. some media button on keyboard: https://github.com/stanleyguevara/win10-bluetooth-headphones – InTwoMinds Jun 28 '19 at 22:53
  • 1
    My edit to the answer is pending, but just in case, here is an archive.org mirror to the broken link to the "Bluetooth Command Line Tools" page: https://web.archive.org/web/20190603121131/http://bluetoothinstaller.com/bluetooth-command-line-tools/ – Will Ediger Dec 21 '19 at 23:23
  • @WillEdiger site still seems to be working fine, at least for me, not need for an archive. – MarcinJ Dec 23 '19 at 00:24
  • @MarcinJ - It's working again for me too! It must have been fixed quickly. Someone else noticed it 4 days ago: https://github.com/stanleyguevara/win10-bluetooth-headphones/issues/3#issue-540221274 Strange! – Will Ediger Dec 23 '19 at 03:05
  • Yeah the link to the Bluetooth command line tools is still broken – shieldgenerator7 Apr 04 '20 at 06:37
  • 1
    It works for me, but if it doesn't then it seems there's a solution in the github issue @WillEdiger linked. – MarcinJ Apr 05 '20 at 09:10
  • Too bad that CLI tool isn't on github. The current site's ad/popup behavior is past my acceptable threshold... – xdhmoore Jul 04 '20 at 20:45
  • The link worked for me, 2020-12-29. I am able to connect and disconnect without invoking admin mode, but it works *much* faster in admin mode. I'm running Win10 Home, v2004 build 19041.685. – EJSawyer Dec 29 '20 at 17:04
  • Confirmed working with my PLT_BBFIT headphones which I switch between computer (zwift) and phone (running). I needed both s111e and s110b to make the audio not sound like it was in a tin can (only s111e at first sounded horrible) – agrath Jan 01 '21 at 00:01
  • My device not connect automatically. bat script with: `btpair -u` and `btpair -n"deviceName" -p0000` practical method. Thank you @MarcinJ – Fahri Güreşçi Mar 09 '21 at 18:47
8

win 10 shortcuts https://www.windowscentral.com/best-windows-10-keyboard-shortcuts

win-key + K opens the sidebar menu and instantly searches for bluetooth devices. then click on your already paired device and connect.

BaBis fLou
  • 81
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
    While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/1098790) – Mureinik Dec 23 '21 at 15:23
  • Wow...I really never new about that shortcut....I was about script or code something to do the reconnecting for me...lol.. – Mesh Aug 08 '22 at 08:29
5

In case the solution from @MarcinJ with Bluetooth Command Line Tools is too slow for you, especially in case you want to pair the device meanwhile an incoming call try creating a windows shortcut:
(Right click > New > Shortcut)

%windir%\explorer.exe ms-settings-connectabledevices:devicediscovery

It will pop up a display and audio panel right on the screen, which is one click away from connect.
And nice BT icon for the shortcut can be found for example on C:\Windows\System32\fsquirt.exe.

Popkornak
  • 61
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
    For Win11, this and `Win`-`K` only bring up the "Cast Display" side-menu, unfortunately, no longer does this include bluetooth devices. Instead `explorer.exe ms-settings:bluetooth` brings up the correct bluetooth-connection window. – r2evans May 05 '22 at 13:35
  • THis is in no way faster. It' slower than the slowest you can do the btcom script which is by searching by friendly name because it still has to perform the bluetooth discovery. – Swish Oct 20 '22 at 11:24
2

Maybe Get-PnPDevice, Disable-PnPDevice and Enable-PnPDevice will do the trick for you. I havent been able to test it out though.

Example:

$DeviceName = "YourDevice"
$BTDevice =  Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -eq $DeviceName -and $_.class -eq "Bluetooth"} 

Disable-PnpDevice -InstanceId $BTDevice.DeviceID -Confirm:$false

Enable-PnpDevice -InstanceId $BTDevice.DeviceID -Confirm:$false

Change the $DeviceName variable to the name of your BT device.

Get-PnPDevice Enable-PnPDevice Disable-PnPDevice

doenoe
  • 1,171
  • 6
  • 15
  • It doesn't, I've stumbled upon `Disable-PnPDevice` myself too. Depending on what gets disabled (as there are multiple devices, depending on BT profiles), either nothing happens, bt stack crashes or audio output gets disabled but the device stays connected. – MarcinJ Apr 19 '19 at 20:56
  • 2
    Solved it, [in case you're interested](https://superuser.com/a/1427536/1023467). – MarcinJ Apr 19 '19 at 22:49
  • coolness. Glad you worked it out. I was still digging at this myself. I don't much mess with device in this manner. So, interesting little digging event. – postanote Apr 19 '19 at 23:14
  • I have managed to make this answer work for me, please check my [answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/71539568/7585517) – PolarBear Mar 19 '22 at 16:01
1

Using inspiration from https://github.com/stanleyguevara/win10-bluetooth-headphones I've revised that script so I can connect/disconnect multiple devices from a single shortcut click (or a keyboard shortcut bound to the shortcu.

disconnect shortcut properties dialog

My fork is here: https://github.com/nickboldt/win10-bluetooth-headphones

nickboldt
  • 111
  • 3
0

Edited based on OP response.

Looking at the underlying class, that item is not exposed for programmatic access.

Bluetooth​Device.​Close Method

When will Close/Disconnect be implemented? [Windows.Devices.Bluetooth.BluetoothDevice]

When will Close/Disconnect be implemented? Are you planning to have a disconnect? Dispose() doesn't close the connection

849 opened on Jan 9, 2019

There does not appear to be another API doc to say otherwise. So, it looks like you are stuck with SendKeys, AutoIT, etc., at least for now.

postanote
  • 4,589
  • 2
  • 7
  • 7
  • What I meant by "baiscally press the connect/disconnect button" is perform the same thing Windows performs when that button is pressed, except from whatever code, e.g. PowerShell, bat, C#, C++, whatever. Turning off the whole BT radio won't work, there could be other devices connected, I just want to connect to or disconnect from a specific BT device (headphones). – MarcinJ Apr 19 '19 at 07:09
  • Solved it, [in case you're interested](https://superuser.com/a/1427536/1023467). – MarcinJ Apr 19 '19 at 22:49
0

https://github.com/m2jean/ToothTray is a project implementing connection/disconnection with bluetooth audio devices. From its README.md:

Instead of using Windows bluetooth API, Windows Core Audio API has to be used to connect bluetooth audio. Ultimately it is the driver that connect the bluetooth device to Windows' audio system, and we need to get an interface to the bluetooth audio driver.

After bluetooth audio devices are paired and the drivers are installed, they will appear in Windows as audio endpoint devices, which can be enumerated with EnumAudioEndpoints. Each endpoint has various properties. Their avalibility depends on the type of the endpoint. We can enumerate the properties programmatically, or view them in the details tab of a device from Device Manager.

One useful property is the state of an endpoint, which tells us whether a bluetooth audio device is connected. If it is connected, the state will be DEVICE_STATE_ACTIVE. Otherwise, it will be DEVICE_STATE_UNPLUGGED.

After getting the endpoints, we need to use the device topology API to get an interface to the driver. In Windows Driver Model (WDM), drivers expose the hardware and their functionality with a graph of kernel streaming (KS) components. By navgating through the topology, we can find the KS components that actually controls the connection of a bluetooth audio device.

And it turns out the the KS component we are looking for is always a KS filter directed connected to an audio endpoint (which might have been specified by related WDM audio driver development documents). We can get the filter by getting the connector of the filter from the connector of the endpoint. Then we can use the IKsControl interface of the filter to send KSPROPSETID_BtAudio property request to the driver, which is simlar to IO requests. By sending either KSPROPERTY_ONESHOT_RECONNECT or KSPROPERTY_ONESHOT_DISCONNECT, we ask the driver to connect or disconnect from the bluetooth audio device.

Detailed implementation can be seen in its code.

I forked it and made its core functionalities into CLI version for script use: https://github.com/shunf4/ToothTrayCli

Note the above only applies to bluetooth audio devices.

Shun Feng
  • 46
  • 2
-1

I have tested the below vbs script successfully in Windows 10. Here I am simulating the keystrokes using the SendKeys command. The number of {TAB}s will be different on your system to reach the bluetooth device name.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "ms-settings:bluetooth"
WScript.Sleep 2500 
WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
WScript.Sleep 500 ' 
WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WScript.Sleep 500 ' 
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
phuclv
  • 26,555
  • 15
  • 113
  • 235
user1244032
  • 1