Bluetooth Device Management

[t3kboi]

Call me stupid, but here is where I cannot find something that should be simple:

I have a bluetooth headset.

I routinely share it with my phone, my car, my laptop, and a desktop.

On all of those devices, I can go to bluetooth settings, and disconnect or connect the headset in a dialog box, so it is only active on the device I want to use it with at that time.

On the Surface Pro - I cannot find a way to do this, other than to use the minus sign in the Metro Devices screen to delete the device. When I want to use it with the Surface again, I have to pair it again.

I know can turn off bluetooth on the Surface - but I also have a bluetooth mouse - so I will lose my mouse if I have to turn off the radio to disconnect the headset.

Is there a device manager that allows me to do anything besides pairing/unpairing or Bluetooth radio on/off ?

Thanks for your anticipated input.

 

[J515OP]

Swipe from right to center to bring up Charms bar. Then choose device. Alternatively, you can do Charms>Settings>Change PC Settings then Devices/Wireless. Also you can use Search from Charms for "bluetooth" or "devices". So there are lots of ways to get to where you need to go actually.

JP

 

[bosamar]

Here's some good info: Set up your devices - Microsoft Windows

 

[t3kboi]

Thanks for the replies - but you aren't answering the question that I asked - I will re-phrase

Can I disconnect and connect a single bluetooth device, without deleting/removing it, and without disabling bluetooth radio altogether?

ISSUES:
If I delete/remove the headphones - then I have to pair them again, the next time I want to use them, which involves power-cycling, and forcing them into pair mode - then searching for devices on the Surface, then entering the pairing code.

If I disable the Bluetooth radio, then I cannot use my bluetooth mouse (which has far lower power consumption than a usb mouse receiver, and requires me to have a usb dongle sticking out of my Surface).

On my phone, and other computers - I simply go to the equivalent of Devices, select the individual bluetooth device, and select Connect/Disconnect. Does the Surface Pro have anything like this?

 

[ArnoldC]

<snip>
Can I disconnect and connect a single bluetooth device, without deleting/removing it, and without disabling bluetooth radio altogether?
<snip>

In my case, yes.

My Acer BT headset is paired to my Surface RT. When I turn the BT headset on, it connects to my RT automatically. Turn it off, or walk away from range, it obviously disconnects. I come back in range, it connects.

 

[jeffskent]

On my phone, and other computers - I simply go to the equivalent of Devices, select the individual bluetooth device, and select Connect/Disconnect. Does the Surface Pro have anything like this?[/QUOTE]

I have the same issue with my Jambox. Some times I use the Jambox with my iPhone, then turn BT off and sync the Jambox with the Surface. I don't seem to find any way to connect or disconnect the BT device itself. The one time I did try to do this I made the BT device itself disappear. Luckily I was able to go to a near MS store and the tech spent 30 minutes getting the BT icon to re appear in my task bar. Overall this seems like a poor design on the part of Windows of any variety. Perhaps I am wrong. I'll keep reading here. TIA

 

[whiteblazer01]

I have the same issue, and found this thread searching for a solution.

I have a pair of Motorola S305 bluetooth headphones, which I use with my phone and now Surface Pro. It works great on both. The problem I'm having is connecting it back to the SP after I have been using it with the phone. I continually have to delete the profile on the SP, and re-add the headphones.

How can I have the headphones sync with the SP after using it with my phone? (assuming I turn off bluetooth on my phone, and the only other connection is the SP)

 

[whiteblazer01]

Bump. Hoping to find a solution

 

[jeffskent]

8.1 has a new and improved Bluetooth device management page. It seems to be cleaner, quicker, and more reliable in that it set up my Jambox to pair with the Pro in only about 30 seconds. In the past it would take many attempts and much frustration. Not so much now, I hope. I am always the optimist.

 

[Sit]

I think I understand the issue cause I use Bluetooth all the time on the different devices. To prevent the pro from connecting to my Bluetooth headphones, I'll simple turn it off on the pro. Connect the headphones to the other device, then turn Bluetooth back on, on the pro, for the Bluetooth mouse. Kind of a pain but it works and the mouse reconnects pretty quickly to the pro.