How to Use Your Bluetooth Headset in Leopard

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Posted October 30, 2007 at 7:32pm by iClarified

To use your Bluetooth Headset as a microphone and headphones in Mac OS X Leopard please follow these steps:

Step One
Select Set up Bluetooth Device.. from the Bluetooth menu at the top right hand corner of your screen.

How to Use Your Bluetooth Headset in Leopard

Step Two
A Bluetooth Setup Assistant will appear. Click Continue to begin configuring the Bluetooth Headset.

Step Three
Select the type of device you want to configure. In our case we will select Headset then click the Continue button.

Step Four
Put your Bluetooth Headset into pairing mode. Directions to do this will be included with your headset. In most cases you just hold down the button for a few seconds until the light on the headset stays solid.

Step Five
The Bluetooth Setup Assistant will search for your headset. Once found it will appear in the list of headsets. When the setup assistant finds your headset, select it, then click the Continue button.

Step Six
The Bluetooth Setup Assistant will now gather information on your headset. Once its done click the Continue button.

Step Seven
You will now be asked to enter a passkey to pair with your headset. This passkey can be found in the manual for your headset; however, if you do not have the manual, the usual passkey is "0000". Please the Continue button to proceed.

Step Eight
Congratulations! Your computer is now set up to use your Bluetooth headset. Click the Quit button to exit the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.

Step Nine
Now that we have the Bluetooth Headset paired to the computer we need to tell the computer how to use it. If you want to use the headset with one specific program (ie Skype) then go into the program's preferences. Usually there will be an area to specify the audio device. Select your headset from the list.

To use the Bluetooth Headset for all applications continue to the next step.

Step Ten
Select System Preferences from the Apple menu at the top left hand corner of your screen.

Step Eleven
Select the Sound icon from the System Preferences Window.

Step Twelve
Select the Output tab from the Sound Preferences Window. Then select your Bluetooth Headset from the list of sound devices.

Step Thirteen
Select the Input tab from the Sound Preferences Window. Then select your Bluetooth Headset from the list of sound devices.

Step Fourteen
Press Command+q on the keyboard to quit System Preferences.

Now your Bluetooth Headset will be the default sound device used in all your applications!

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Ryan Gray - March 30, 2008 at 10:03pm

I've found OS X, especially Leopard, to be touchy about using Bluetooth headsets. I followed these steps, which are the standard procedure, but I would get no audio. It would say connected, but as if the audio was just going into the bit bucket as iTunes or whatever played on in silence. What I found was the problem for me was that setting up the device will automatically make it a Bluetooth favorite, which is fine for a keyboard or mouse, but perhaps not for a headset. To make it not a favorite, you have to select it in the Bluetooth preferences, then click on the gear menu next to the +/- buttons. On that menu, choose "show more info". You should see more info in the right pane, including that your headset is marked as a favorite. Now go back to the gear menu, which now shows more items. Choose "remove from favorites". To use the headset without problems, I then tap the button on the headset (don't select "Use headset" in the Bluetooth menubar menu for the headset). After a second, OS X will bring up a dialog asking if you want to use the headset. Selecting to use it will then connect the audio input and output to it. To stop using the headset you then do go to the Bluetooth menubar menu for the headset and choose "Stop using headset". I found that this was the only way it would work properly. It's not bad once I figured it out, but before that, I was doing the same things I used to do all the time in Tiger, and it was not working at all. At least this way, I just have to turn on the headset, then tap its button, wait for the dialog to use and press enter. With Tiger, I would turn on the headset, then use SoundSource to select the headset as the output (and input if I wanted), but sometimes the connection would fail.

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