RPi 4 bluetooth: a2dp-sink profile connect failed

[MochaBrowser]

Hi,

While Bluetooth was previously working normally on my Rpi4, I cannot seem to connect to speakers/headsets anymore. I can't remember doing anything related to Bluetooth, I think it probably stopped working after some update.

[code]
$ uname -a
Linux pisces 6.12.56-1-rpi #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Oct 30 13:40:14 MDT 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

[bluetoothctl]> connect 04:5D:4B:EA:39:75
Attempting to connect to 04:5D:4B:EA:39:75
Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.Failed br-connection-unknown

$ journalctl -b -u bluetooth.service
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces bluetoothd[404]: Bluetooth daemon 5.84
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces bluetoothd[404]: Starting SDP server
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces bluetoothd[404]: Bluetooth management interface 1.23 initialized
nov. 02 10:40:59 pisces bluetoothd[404]: Battery Provider Manager created
nov. 02 10:41:39 pisces bluetoothd[404]: src/service.c:btd_service_connect() a2dp-sink profile connect failed for 08:DF:1F:86:AF:B0: Protocol not available
nov. 02 10:47:27 pisces bluetoothd[404]: src/service.c:btd_service_connect() a2dp-sink profile connect failed for 04:5D:4B:EA:39:75: Protocol not available

$ systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
○ pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket

○ pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
[/code]

I'm out of ideas as to what broke things, happy to hear from anyone who knows where to look !

Thanks!

[Sam_Fisher]

Why is pipewire dead (not loaded)? You should "enable" all three services, "pipewire, wireplumber and pipewire-pulse".

systemctl enable --now --user pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

If they are installed, this command should enable all three and this should survive reboots.

[MochaBrowser]

Hi, thanks for your answer and sorry for the late reply, I didn't get a notification !

I cannot start/enable the services because of Condition=!root:

---(sorry code blocks don't seem to work)
[root@pisces ~]# systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
○ pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ○ pipewire.socket
Condition: start condition unmet at Sun 2026-01-04 07:26:41 CET; 3h 16min ago
└─ ConditionUser=!root was not met

janv. 04 07:26:41 pisces systemd[1039]: PipeWire Multimedia Service was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionUser=!root).

○ pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ○ pipewire-pulse.socket
Condition: start condition unmet at Sun 2026-01-04 07:26:41 CET; 3h 16min ago
└─ ConditionUser=!root was not met

janv. 04 07:26:41 pisces systemd[1039]: PipeWire PulseAudio was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionUser=!root).

○ wireplumber.service - Multimedia Service Session Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/wireplumber.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)

janv. 04 07:26:41 pisces systemd[1039]: wireplumber.service: Bound to unit pipewire.service, but unit isn't active.
janv. 04 07:26:41 pisces systemd[1039]: Dependency failed for Multimedia Service Session Manager.
janv. 04 07:26:41 pisces systemd[1039]: wireplumber.service: Job wireplumber.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.
---------

[MochaBrowser]

However if I login as a user, enable pipewire etc.. then I still get

bluetoothctl]> connect 08:.....
Attempting to connect to 08:.....
Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.Failed br-connection-unknown