How To Use Bluetooth Speakers In Ubuntu

Brief: This tutorial shows you how to connect Bluetooth devices to your Ubuntu system.

One of the It’s FOSS reader, Tim Pedersen, requested a tutorial on setting up Bluetooth speakers in Ubuntu around 20 days back. What a coincidence! Because I have been thinking of buying a Bluetooth speaker for some time and I used Amazon Prime Day to buy me Inateck Mini Bluetooth Speakers a few days later. I am not going to review the speakers, at least in this post. The post is dedicated to setting up and using Bluetooth speakers in Ubuntu Linux.

Set up Bluetooth speakers in Ubuntu

For this tutorial, I have used Ubuntu 15.04 and above mentioned Inateck speakers but I presume that the tutorial should be applicable to other versions such as Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 and other speakers as well. Let’s see what do you need to get the Bluetooth Speaker working in Ubuntu.

Step 1

Turn Bluetooth on in both Ubuntu and the speaker. Usually, Bluetooth is turned on by default in Ubuntu but if it is not enabled, just look for Bluetooth in Unity Dash and go to its settings. Normally you should see Bluetooth icon in the Unity Panel, click on it to set up a new device.

Step 2

It will try to look for all the Bluetooth devices in the vicinity. Make sure that you have turned on the Bluetooth speakers and in the set up, you have chosen ‘All Types’.

Step 3

Wait for some time and you’ll see that Ubuntu has recognized your Bluetooth speakers as headsets.

Step 4

Once found, Ubuntu will try to setup the device. Have patience. Just wait for a few minutes. If the device setup fails or it asks for a password, try to restart both Ubuntu and speakers, it did work for me. Once the setup is finished, normally you would see a screen like this:

Step 5

Once you have successfully paired up the Bluetooth headsets or speakers with Ubuntu, you should see that Bluetooth icon in the top Unity panel has been changed to indicate that it is connected to other device. Click on it and you’ll see your connected speakers or headsets there. To successfully play the audio through Bluetooth device, make sure that you have set the visibility on in Bluetooth settings in Ubuntu.

Step 6

To play audio through the Bluetooth speakers, go to Sound Settings (it’s in the previous screenshot) and you’ll see the option of choosing Bluetooth. This is similar to what you do to play sound through HDMI in Ubuntu. Selecting that would start playing audio through the Bluetooth speakers.

If you do not succeed to play through Bluetooth speakers right after the setup. try restarting both Ubuntu and speakers. Surprisingly, the restart worked for me.

Worked for you?

This is all you need to do for setting up Bluetooth speakers in Ubuntu. Hope this helps you fix no sound in Bluetooth headsets in Ubuntu. Any questions or suggestions are always welcomed.