Force connect to Bluetooth device

I have a Bluetooth speaker in my house. Myself and my partner periodically connect to it using either our phones (2 × Android) or laptops (1 × MacBook and 1 × laptop PC) to play music whilst at home. As far as I know, it's only possible to have a single device connected to a Bluetooth device at any given time.

The problem arises when one of us wants to play music from a device, but we are unable to pair with the speaker because some other device in the house is already paired. There is no way (that I'm aware of) of knowing which device is already connected, or where in the house that device is. The Bluetooth device we're connecting to is a StarTech Bluetooth wireless receiver - a normal speaker actually connects to this receiver. Since this device has no menus of any sort, there's no way to just walk up to the receiver and press a 'disconnect' button. In fact, simply turning-off-and-on-again doesn't work, as the device automatically re-pairs with the last device it was connected to.

There doesn't appear to be an option on any of the devices to 'force pair' with the music receiver device. I totally understand that this would normally be a security concern, but this is a speaker device in our own home, so we'd like to find a way to be able to override this security and allow forcibly disconnecting of any existing paired connections.

Is there any way to achieve this?

Solution 1:

Unfortunately you can't force pair it. Unless you buy a new bluetooth speaker that allows multiple connections or comes with a software control panel such as the BlasterAXX. It is understandable that once a connection is established another device should not be able to terminate this connection and force a new one.

Receivers that allow only one connection are doomed to reconnect to the last device connected and the only way to resolve it is to disconnect the other device. I had a number of receivers and bluetooth speakers in the past and I always ran around the house to find the device that is connected to the speaker. If the receiver is not configured by the factory to allow multiple connections then you can't do much. Unless you want to crack open the receiver and start messing around with the chips (which I am sure you wouldn't like to do)

The ones I used had a pairing button, that once I pressed it a new search began and I was able to connect a different device. You should check if there is a similar option.

The logical way to proceed in the future, is to turn off your bluetooth on the device, after you are done, so that the receiver is free for a new connection. Now, if you want to find which device is connected, you can always use your phone to scan for nearby devices and go check every one of them if it is connected to the receiver.

Another way is to configure your devices so that they wouldn't automatically connect to the receiver, but only when you desire to. I am sure that every single device, or computer you are using has the option to connect automatically or not.

I understand this is not what you would like to hear but there is no other way. That's a common problem with devices that don't have a control panel available. If you are not willing to spend some money on a new device then try any of the things I mentioned, and I would suggest to have the receiver free for connections when you are not using it.

Solution 2:

Actually there is a way to connect to a Bluetooth speaker that can only be connected to one device at a time when it is already connected to another device!

Make sure the Bluetooth speaker is off.

Go to settings, Bluetooth, and find your speaker (There should be a list of Bluetooth devices that you last connected to).

Tap on the Bluetooth speaker to connect, then turn the speaker on AFTER you pressed the connect button, while your device is trying to connect to it.

Your speaker then should connect to your device.

This trick worked for me and wanted to share this tip.