In this guide, we will show you the steps to fix the issue of audio playing from the phone speakers instead of the connected Bluetooth device on your OnePlus. The OEM isn’t having the best of times right since its co-founder Carl Pei left the company. To top it all, their wired decisions of integrating Oppo’s ColorOS devices haven’t been met with positive receptions either. Then the fact that it occasionally has to go through a few issues only makes the matter worse for it.
As of now, there’s a major issue with Bluetooth device’s unable to function on OnePlus devices. While the connection stands successful (and even the menu shows a visual confirmation of the same), the audio still comes from the phone’s speaker and not from the connected Bluetooth device. Be it the OnePlus 7 series, 8 series, or even the Nord lineup, none have been spared from this issue.
And let’s not go into depth regarding the problems that it could result in (from inconvenience in listing to songs to some embarrassing moments as well!). All the users are running their devices in a stock environment with no modifications or tweaks. Likewise, the Bluetooth speaker/headphones are functioning well and good on other smartphones.
So all this points to the Chinese OEM as the culprit. With that said, the major concern is how to rectify this problem at the earliest. Well, there do exist a few workarounds that have been known to spell success for various users. So without further ado, let’s check these methods to fix the issue of audio playing from the phone speakers instead of the connected Bluetooth device on OnePlus.
Table of Contents
Fix OnePlus: Audio Playing from Phone Speaker instead of Bluetooth Device
There isn’t any universal fix as such. You will have to try out each of the below-mentioned workarounds until one of them spells out success. So keeping that in mind, let’s get started.
Fix 1: Enable Media Audio
Start off by verifying that the connected Bluetooth device has its media audio settings enabled. Here’s how to do so:
- Head over to the Settings menu on your device.
- Then go to Bluetooth and Connections and select Bluetooth.
- Now tap on the settings icon next to the connected Bluetooth device.
- Finally, verify that the Media Audio toggle is enabled. If it’s not, then do so right away.
- And if it is already enabled, then disable and re-enable it to give it a fresh start.
Once that is done, verify whether the issue of OnePlus playing audio from the Phone Speaker instead of Bluetooth is fixed or not.
Fix 2: Turn off Absolute Volume
Sometimes, issues with Bluetooth devices could be attributed to the hidden Absolute Volume feature. Therefore, the best bet is to disable this feature, which could be done as follows:
- To begin with, you will have to Enable Developer Options on your device.
- To do so, head over to Settings > About Phone > Tap on Build Number 7 times. You shall be notified that you are now a developer!
- Now go to Settings > System > Developer Options.
- Within that, scroll to the Disable Absolute Volume option and enable the toggle next to it.
Now verify if your OnePlus device is able to play audio from the connected Bluetooth device instead of the phone speakers or not. If the issue is still persistent, then disable the Developer Options from the top menu bar (optional) and then proceed ahead with our other fixes.
Fix 3: Uninstall Alibaba App
As strange as it may sound, uninstalling the Alibaba app did manage to fix this issue for some of the OnePlus users. So go ahead and remove this app from your device, as follows:
- Head over to the Settings menu on your device.
- Then go to Apps and Notifications and tap on See all apps.
- Select Alibaba from the list and tap on Uninstall.
- Finally, hit OK in the confirmation dialog box that appears.
Once done, verify if the issue of OnePlus playing audio from the Phone Speaker instead of Bluetooth is fixed or not. Well, most of you might not even be having this app installed in the first place. If you belong to this domain as well, then here’s another fix worthy of your attention.
Fix 4: Delete OnePlus Cache
If a lot of temporary data gets accrued over the due course of time, then it could conflict with the proper functioning of the device and several of its features. Therefore, you should consider deleting these data at regular intervals via the device’s stock recovery. Here’s how:
- To begin with, head over to Settings > System and access the Developer Options menu.
- Then enable the toggle next to Advanced Reboot.
- Now long-press the Power button to bring up the Power menu.
- Then tap on the overflow icon situated at the top right and select Recovery.
- Your device will now boot to Stock Recovery. Type in your password and select the English language.
- Then select Wipe Data and Cache followed by the Wipe Cache option,
- Finally, select Yes on the confirmation screen.
- Once done, reboot your device via the Reboot option or the Power key (if it doesn’t boot up automatically).
Check if your OnePlus device is able to play audio from the connected Bluetooth device instead of the phone speakers or not.
Fix 5: Reset Network Settings
If none of the aforementioned methods managed to spell out success, then you should consider resetting the network settings back to their factory default state. Doing so will delete the WiFi passwords and remove all the paired devices. While the passwords couple easily be restored from your Google account (granted you have synced them in the first place), for the Bluetooth devices, you will have to re-pair them again. So if that’s well and good, then follow along with the instructions.
- Start off by going to the Settings > System on your device.
- Then go to Reset options and tap on Reset WiFi, Mobile and Bluetooth.
- Finally, tap on Reset Settings and wait for the process to complete.
- Once done, the underlying issue would have been rectified.
Concluding Remarks
So with this, we round off the guide on how you could fix the issue of audio playing from the phone speakers instead of the connected Bluetooth device on your OnePlus phone. We have listed five different methods for the same. Since numerous OnePlus devices (of different series) are all facing this issue at the same time, it could well be a software side issue as well.
If that is the case, then all you could do is wait until the OEM releases a fix for the same in the next software or OTA update. On that note, we round off this guide. If you were able to rectify this issue via any other workaround, then do share with us via the comments section below.
