Can't connect bluetooth earbuds, Kodi crashes

    I have LibreElec 11.0.6 and cannot get bluetooth to work right on a Raspberry Pi 4. In the past, I only got my earbuds to connect one time. All subsequent times, LE couldn't see my buds at all. I finally entirely reinstalled LE with the newest version, and immediately my earbuds could pair and connect. However, ever since then, while my buds show in the list of devices, LE cannot connect and only (sometimes) says "no reply" or such. Most of the time, the entire system crashes and reboots when I try to connect. Audio is set to use bluetooth in Kodi.

    My Pi is connected to my TV and I've never used it for computing directly. I don't know how to code or use Linux or any of that. I simply use the Pi and LE to run Kodi on my TV. I've seen discussions about different versions of bluetooth and them being compatible and whatnot, but I have tried this with whatever is built in to the Pi, with a bluetooth 4 dongle, and with a bluetooth 5 dongle. Overall, even scrolling the devices in the bluetooth list is difficult as the "cursor" keeps going back to the lefthand menu. I have tried to pair another set of bluetooth headphones with it but I can't even figure out what device it is in the list and it's so hard to scroll that I gave up. My buds are at least labelled clearly.

    In order to use this system, I must be able to route the sound to my earbuds or other bluetooth headphones for noise reasons. Without that, the entire thing is garbage to me. Can anyone help? Thanks.

    Thanks for the response! I'm not trying to use Kodi as a bluetooth receiver. Is the solution still the same?

    I have no idea where I'm supposed to type this code. The Raspberry Pi is attached to my TV and I have never seen a place to type anything. When I turn it on, LE starts and that's that. I don't know what nano editor or SSH is.

    Yes, it's the same for your Bluetooth device.

    On Windows you can use PuTTY for remote SSH access. Of course RPi has to be connected to your router to use SSH. On your PC PuTTY will establish a connection to your router, and from there to your RPi.

    • First login to your router menu to find the IP of your RPi. You will need that IP on PuTTY.
    • Start PuTTY and establish an SSH connection to RPi.
    • Username: root
    • Password: libreelec
    • After SSH login, type nano /storage/.config/autostart.sh to edit the file.

    I wanted to say thank so much for the info. I suddenly got super busy with work and then have to travel so I haven't tried this solution yet. I will let you know if it works when I finally get a chance!

    `I'd suggest an update to a current LE12 nightly as there are newer versions of drivers and BlueZ included, and rework to the settings add-on to change how the list of devices works that might improve usability. However the main reason is LE12 has been the focus of development for the last year and there are no futher LE11 updates planned.

    After all this time, I have finally been able to try things. I first tried adding the ssh file but the outcome did not change. Then I updated to LE12. The bluetooth menu is greatly stabilized, my earbuds are listed in the devices, and the system no longer randomly reboots after I attempt to connect my earbuds. However, when I try to connect I always get the reply "bluetooth error: did not receive a reply." The only options in the menu are connect, delete, and refresh. I have tried this in a variety of ways but the result is always the same. I can find nothing about this error on Google.

    The weird thing is, way back before I posted here, they worked - once. Just once (badly). Then they've never worked again. I literally just want to listen to audio from the TV through my earbuds like I can with a Roku.

    Quote from chewitt

    and rework to the settings add-on to change how the list of devices works that might improve usability.

    I'm not sure what that means. I see where I can install add-ons in Kodi and there is one called Bluetooth Audio Device Changer, but I can't figure out how to configure it. It won't let me do anything and there's nothing listed. I don't see a place for LE add-ons.

    Thanks for any help.

    I'd suggest to experiment with creating connections using 'bluetoothctl' over the SSH console. This bypasses our settings add-on completely so if connections work from there, we know it's something in our add-on. If they don't work, then it's something lower level with the BT stack in the OS.