Unable to pair bluetooth speaker "Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExists"

18.04 sound bluetooth pulseaudio

9,160

What helped me was to restart the Bluetooth service.

When I did sudo service bluetooth status I saw error info in red:

Unable pair since another pairing is in progress

and another one

B4:6C:47:53:FF:86: error updating services: Device or resource busy (16)

So I did sudo service bluetooth restart and then I was able to pair the device.

9,160

Andreas

When I want a laugh while being forced to do hard reboots due to awful memory management, I use Genuine Ubuntu. When I want to run both Spotify and a web browser at the same time without irrevocably locking up the entire system, I use Windows or macOS. Or perhaps a 7 year old phone. Not even exaggerating. 10+ years and still waiting for a usable version of Ubuntu.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Andreas almost 2 years
I'm running Ubuntu Mate 18.04 (32 bit) and I'm having trouble pairing a bluetooth speaker. It has worked before, but after putting the system to sleep and using the speaker with another computer it never seems to want to pair again.

Meanwhile, other computers can pair with and use the speaker with no problems.
- I tried pairing it manually with bluetoothctl but I always get a Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExists. I can't say I know what that means.
- I can successfully remove the device, but the result is always the same when trying to pair it again.
- The device is not listed when doing paired-devices.
- As suggested in other answers I tried restarting pulse audio with pulseaudio --kill and pulseaudio --start, and tried pairing again. No difference.
How do I find out what's wrong?
- Dhinesh.B about 4 years
  
  I'd make sure that the speakers don't pair with the other computer (maybe you've already checked that) by watching the output bluetoothctl on the other computer.
- Andreas almost 4 years
  
  My best guess is that the drivers aren't good enough to restore the adapter after suspend (a hard problem). At least that's the case for the Ethernet drivers, which I have systemd restart for me after every resume from suspend. Restarting the machine whenever the problem occurs without touching the speaker will show whether this is the case for Bluetooth as well.
wilks almost 4 years

did that but still getting Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExists
Andreas over 3 years

I've been using a oneshot service that does /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart after suspend.target, so basically the same thing, I think. I assume you're also mainly having the problem after waking from suspend and not immediately after boot?
Zbyszek over 3 years

Yes, but only with my new Panasonic headphones and not always. Happened 2 times till now.