Multiple issues with Bluetooth earphones

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I have tried multiple BT earphones and this happens with all of them. When I first pair them, they show up as 2 devices, one called “Headset - xxxxx” and one called “Handsfree - xxxxx”. It seems random as to which the audio defaults to when they connect. “Handsfree” is considerably worse audio quality to the point of being unusable. It becomes annoying having to keep manually switching to “Headset”.

The first bigger issue is when starting any app that may use microphone, the audio auto switches to “Handsfree” poor audio.

The other issue is that after the screen goes to sleep, after waking it up again, the “Headset” option has completely disappeared and I’m stuck on “Handsfree” poor audio. Disabling BT and turning it back on does not resolve it. Only restarting the machine resolves it.

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I seem to have resolved this myself so thought I’d update here in case it happens to help someone else out as it was driving me mad.

I edited file /usr/share/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf

changed the line bluetooth.autoswitch-to-headset-profile = { default = true } to default = false

This doesn’t disable handsfree but stops it from automatically switching to it when you open an app that wants access to the mic. That’s good enough for me. The times when the earphones only connect with the handsfree option hasn’t happened since but I’ll keep an eye on that.

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