Bluetooth speaker no sound in Ubuntu 16.04

After upgrading to Kubuntu 16.04 my JBL Flip 2 bluetooth speaker no longer works.

It connects just fine, and the sound is set to use A2DP sink with the speaker, but I get no sound.

I found some places claiming I had to change /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf, but that file no longer exists.

Does anyone know how I get it to work again?

Solution 1:

I had the same problem after upgrading to 16.04. For me, there isn't a real fix, but I can get the speaker to work. I'm running Kubuntu so these steps are for KDE, and I'm not sure what the equivalent Unity steps are, but I'd imagine they're similar.

Here's what I did:

1. Let the speaker connect.
2. In your audio settings, change the profile to "Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP)" or equivalent
3. Power off Disconnect the speaker

4. Restart the bluetooth service

   sudo service bluetooth restart

5. Power the speaker back on and reconnect

6. In your audio settings, change the profile back to "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)" or equivalent

A2DP should now work. So far, it seems that things only go wrong when I try to connect in A2DP mode. Until there is a real fix/workaround, I am going to try to remember to always switch to HSP/HSF mode before powering off or disconnecting the speaker.

UPDATE:

It's sufficient to connect, switch to HSP/HFP mode, disconnect, reconnect, and switch back to A2DP mode. There is no reason to restart the bluetooth service.

Solution 2:

After testing all workarounds, i wrote a python script to change profile, disconnect, reconnect and set profile to a2dp.

run it after pair/turning-on the device with python3.5.

https://gist.github.com/pylover/d68be364adac5f946887b85e6ed6e7ae#file-a2dp-py

EDIT 1

$ python3.5 a2dp.py 
Connection MADE
Selecting device:
Device MAC: 00:22:37:3D:DB:1A
Device ID: bluez_card.00_22_37_3D_DB_1A
Sink: bluez_sink.00_22_37_3D_DB_1A
Turning off audio profile.
Disconnecting the device.
Connecting againt.
Setting A2DP profile
Device ID: bluez_card.00_22_37_3D_DB_1A
Updating default sink
Exiting bluetoothctl

Solution 3:

I had the issue. For me worked to remove the bluetooth device and search for it again and reconnect.