Arch Linux

Everything2067

Member

Registered: 2025-06-29

Posts: 104

[SOLVED] Volume only changeable within somerandom range in Bluetooth..

Sometimes when I connect my Bluetooth headphones to my PC, the volume is only changeable within some range (example: 15-25). Attempting to change volume does nothing. However, using the media keys on my Bluetooth headphones, I can change the volume but it does not reflect on my PC. Also, after changing the volume from my headphones, changing the volume on my PC resets the volume to that range. Sometimes by spamming the volume keys on my PC, I am able to change this range of volume.

Let me illustrate this:
1. Connected my Bluetooth headphones, by pressing volume down/up keys, volume does not go below 15 and does not go above 25.
2. Using the media keys on my headphones, I increase the volume to say, 50. This does not appear on my PC.
3. Now when I press volume up on my PC, volume resets to 25.
4. By spamming the volume keys, the range of the volume changes, to, say, 22 and 32.
5. After 1-3 reconnects the volume works perfectly fine.

The headphones work perfectly on my phone. Not being an audio expert on Linux, I can't tell that much but I do have the following related packages:

pipewire
pipewire-audio
pipewire-pulse
pipewire-session-manager
pulseaudio-qt

I am using KDE Plasma as my DE, if it helps a bit. I never configured any audio related stuff.
I checked using alsamixer if I can change my volume there fine, but there was no slider to do that in there.
bluetoothctl did not show any suspicious stuff, if it is supposed to.
The headphones in question are Sony WH-CH720N. I have the dual device pair feature disabled, so my headphones connect to only one device at a time. Let me know if you need more information.

Last edited by Everything2067 (2026-03-23 20:44:30)

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,110

Re: [SOLVED] Volume only changeable within somerandom range in Bluetooth..

BT audio will always have somewhat of a desync between what the BT protocol reports and what's actually implemented in hardware and this can differ widely. You can try disabling attempts to sync the HW volume with a wireplumber config to the tune of

monitor.bluez.properties = {
   bluez5.enable-hw-volume = false
}

which should leave with something more consistent that's software based. You can add this to e.g. /etc/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/99-disableBTHWVolume.conf or so

Last edited by V1del (2026-03-25 19:35:46)