Are you facing a frustrating situation with your Bluetooth device not displaying battery information in Ubuntu? There’s a potential solution you can try out. Ubuntu, similar to most other Linux distributions, uses Bluez as its Bluetooth stack. This advanced and open technology is compatible with a wide range of Bluetooth devices such as mice, keyboards, gamepads, bluetooth headphones, soundbars, speakers, and more. In most cases, Bluetooth devices work seamlessly in Ubuntu when paired. If a Bluetooth device has a battery, its battery level is usually displayed in Settings > Power (assuming the device is connected).
Useful Add-on to Show Battery Levels in the Bluetooth Menu
You might encounter a Bluetooth device that is supposed to display battery level in the Bluetooth menu but for some reason, it doesn’t do so. Some products require Bluez tests to be enabled for their battery level to be displayed. From personal experience, modern Bluetooth headphones, speakers, and other audio devices often fall into this category. In most scenarios (though there are exceptions, such as Apple devices), if a Bluetooth device displays battery levels when paired with Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS, it should also do so in Ubuntu with Bluez tests. If it doesn’t, you can attempt enabling this feature to see if it resolves the issue (note: Fedora Workstation ships with Bluez emulators enabled by default while Ubuntu does not).
To enable Bluez feature in Ubuntu:
– Open /etc/bluetooth/main.conf as root
– Locate the section named ‘General’ (near the top)
– Add Experimental = true on a new line
– Save the file (and confirm the save action)
– Restart or run systemctl restart bluetooth
Don’t skip the last step, by the way — it’s crucial for the changes to take effect. Once you have enabled the Bluez feature in Ubuntu, reboot your computer or connect your Bluetooth device. Then navigate to Settings > Power (or inspect the bluetoothctl output and check the ‘battery percentage’ line).
Check battery levels in Settings > Power
We hope that the missing battery level is now visible; however, if it isn’t, it’s worth a try! While we cannot guarantee that this tweak will make the device’s battery level appear (as it depends on the device itself), it’s an easy test to conduct and easy to reverse (simply delete the lines you added). Let us know how it goes!
