How to connect Bluetooth headphones or a speaker to your PC or Mac

Bluetooth is wonderful when it works and baffling when it does not. The good news: pairing always follows the same pattern. You turn Bluetooth on in the computer, put the headphones or speaker into pairing mode, then pick the device from a list.

This guide covers Windows 11, Windows 10 and Mac. Pairing is a one-time job. After that, your computer should reconnect on its own whenever the device is switched on nearby.

Before you start

• Charge the device. A nearly flat battery is a common reason for a pairing that keeps failing.
• Put it in pairing mode. Most headphones and speakers need a button held down for a few seconds, until a light starts to blink. Simply turning the device on is often not enough. The manual or the maker's website will say which button to hold.
• Stay close. Keep the device within a few feet of the computer while you pair.

Connect Bluetooth headphones on Windows 11

1. Open Settings › Bluetooth & devices and make sure the Bluetooth switch is On.
2. Turn on your headphones or speaker and make it discoverable, as described above.
3. Click the network, sound and battery icons on the right side of the taskbar to open Quick Settings.
4. Click the small arrow next to the Bluetooth button to manage Bluetooth devices. Your device should appear under New devices.
5. Click the device, follow any prompt on screen, then choose Done.

Some computers also support Swift Pair. If yours does, a notification pops up when a device in pairing mode is nearby. Just click Connect in it.

Connect Bluetooth headphones on Windows 10

1. Open Settings › Devices › Bluetooth & other devices and switch Bluetooth On.
2. Put your headphones or speaker into pairing mode.
3. Click Add Bluetooth or other device, then choose Bluetooth.
4. Pick your device from the list.
5. Follow any extra instructions, then click Done.

If the device never shows up in the list, look at the setting called Bluetooth devices discovery on the same screen and set it to Advanced. Then try again.

Connect Bluetooth headphones on a Mac

1. Turn on your headphones or speaker and put it into pairing mode.
2. Click the Apple menu, choose System Settings, then click Bluetooth in the sidebar. You may need to scroll the sidebar to find it.
3. Find your device in the list, hover over its name and click Connect.
4. If a prompt appears, click Accept, or type the number code shown and press Return.

There is a shortcut too: click the Bluetooth icon in Control Center at the top right of the screen and choose your device from there.

Make sure the sound comes out of the right place

Sometimes the device says it is connected, but the music still plays through the computer's own speakers. The computer needs to be told where to send the sound.

On Windows

1. Click the speaker icon in the taskbar to open Quick Settings.
2. Next to the volume slider, click the small arrow to see the list of output devices.
3. Choose your headphones or speaker.

On a Mac

1. Open System Settings › Sound.
2. Under Output, click your headphones or speaker.

If the headphones have a microphone, the same Sound screen has an Input choice for it.

When a device will not pair or reconnect

Work through these in order. Most problems are fixed by the first three.

1. Switch Bluetooth off and on again in the computer, and switch the headphones or speaker off and on too.
2. Check the device is in pairing mode, with its light blinking, not just switched on.
3. Check the battery on the device.
4. Remove the device and pair it again. This clears out a stale connection and fixes most reconnection trouble.
5. Restart the computer and try once more.

To remove a device on a Mac, open System Settings › Bluetooth, hold Control and click the device name, then choose Forget. To only disconnect it for now, hover over it and click Disconnect instead.

To remove a device on Windows 11, open Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Devices, click the three dots beside the device and choose Remove device. On Windows 10 the list is under Settings › Devices › Bluetooth & other devices. Either way, go through the pairing steps above afterward as if it were brand new.

If none of this helps, Microsoft and Apple both publish their own Bluetooth troubleshooting pages, and the maker of your headphones may have a firmware update or a reset button combination in the manual.

Asking Key to help

Key is a free assistant for Windows and Mac that opens your settings for you. You can speak to it or type, and both do the same thing. Ask it to open the Bluetooth settings, and it opens the real settings window and tells you what it did. You still put the headphones into pairing mode yourself, since only you can press that button, and then pick the device from the list. It can save you hunting through menus on either system.

You can also ask it for other quick changes, such as muting everything, which is handy when a speaker starts playing something loud. For more of that, see how to change brightness, dark mode and other settings by voice.

KeyVoice

Open my Bluetooth settings so I can connect my headphones

opened the settings windowwent to the Bluetooth pageleft the device list on screen for you

The Bluetooth settings are open, so put your headphones in pairing mode and pick them from the list.

Checked: the Bluetooth page is showing on screen.

Key is free to download, and every feature is included. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, and on any Mac with macOS 11 Big Sur or newer.

A quick recap

• Turn Bluetooth on, put the device in pairing mode, then choose it from the list.
• Pick the headphones as the sound output if the music still plays from the computer.
• If a device keeps failing, remove it and pair it again from scratch.