bluetoothctl: list connected devices?

Question

I'm trying to get a list of connected Bluetooth devices via the command line on Kubuntu.

When I launch bluetoothctl, it defaults to the latest connected device, and I need to disconnect it to display the other one.

Is there a way to list the connected Bluetooth devices?

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 17 '21 at 20:06

14

Here's a fish-shell one-liner (see below for bash)

bluetoothctl devices | cut -f2 -d' ' | while read uuid; bluetoothctl info $uuid; end|grep -e "Device\|Connected\|Name"

bash one-liner:

bluetoothctl devices | cut -f2 -d' ' | while read uuid; do bluetoothctl info $uuid; done|grep -e "Device\|Connected\|Name"

edited Aug 17 '21 at 20:06

Lincoln

103
3

answered Dec 28 '20 at 09:18

niveau0

141
1
2

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '21 at 12:30

You can list paired devices with bluetoothctl paired-devices

From this list you can get info for each device with bluetoothctl info On the info you have the Connected status.

So loop on each devices grep for Connected: yes if so display the name:

bluetoothctl paired-devices | cut -f2 -d' '|
while read -r uuid
do
    info=`bluetoothctl info $uuid`
    if echo "$info" | grep -q "Connected: yes"; then
       echo "$info" | grep "Name"
    fi
done

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 21:35

2

This may help: sudo bluetoothctl info MAC-ADDRESS-OF-DEVICE

edited Aug 18 '21 at 21:35

ewen-lbh

103
4

answered May 09 '20 at 05:53

Hien Nguyen

21
3

1

Welcome to Super User! Would you mind explaining how that would help the person who asked the question? – Registered User May 10 '20 at 23:08
2

I get `Missing device address arguments` – Swedgin Sep 21 '20 at 18:13
2

@Swedgin this means you have no connected devices. – joshpetit Jan 20 '21 at 18:07
I see my headphones listed when i run `bluetoothctl paired-devices` -- but when I run `bluetoothctl info` I still get the error `Missing device address argument`... – Carl Walsh Mar 02 '21 at 06:56
1

@CarlWalsh, the error tells you exactly what you're missing: `bluetoothctl info` gives information about _a single_ device, thus you need to tell it the MAC address of the device you want to get information about. – ewen-lbh Aug 18 '21 at 16:08

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 10 '22 at 01:10

As of bluez/bluetoothctl 5.65 (bluetoothctl --version), we can use bluetoothctl devices Connected (Capitalized C) to list connected bluetooth devices. For example:

$ bluetoothctl devices Connected
Device AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF MY-DEVICE-NAME

If you care about paired devices, use bluetoothctl devices Paired for bluez/bluetoothctl version >= 5.65, or bluetoothctl paired-devices for bluez/bluetoothctl < 5.65.

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 22 '21 at 21:40

1

After running sudo bluetoothctl...

you can type paired-devices to see a list of paired devices
or list to see a list of currently connected controllers

you can also type info to see info about each device.

Each command here supports tab completion of MAC addresses.

edited Jan 22 '21 at 21:40

Casey Jones

110
9

answered Sep 27 '20 at 22:34

9 Guy

105
1
8

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 06 '21 at 21:38

I use this to display the currently connected device in my Swaybar:

bluetoothctl devices | cut -f2 -d' ' | while read uuid; do bluetoothctl info $uuid; done | grep -e "Name\|Connected: yes" | grep -B1 "yes" | head -n 1 | cut -d\  -f2-

Breakdown:

bluetoothctl devices
# List all devices

cut -f2 -d' '
# Cut out the second column containing the MAC address

while read uuid; do bluetoothctl info $uuid; done 
# For each MAC address call bluetoothctl info

grep -e "Name\|Connected: yes"
# Find all lines that have either name or Connected: yes

grep -B1 "yes"
# Find the line with yes and the line before that line

head -n 1
# Return the last line

cut -d\  -f2-
# Return the second column and all other columns for the device name

bluetoothctl: list connected devices?

6 Answers6