W11 - Bluetooth discovery always on

Operating Systems & Open Source Windows
1

Trying to troubleshoot a weird weird bug with Bluetooth. For some reason, device discoverability is always on - i.e. I can always see the Bluetooth for the Windows laptop - doesn’t matter whether I configure it to “Not be discoverable”. I discovered through this guide that the registry key “Write Scan Enable” (should be REG_BINARY, not REG_DWORD) controls the “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this PC” setting. For some reason this setting (in the screenshot below) does not matter, and the Bluetooth discovery is always on. Has anyone encountered this behaviour before? And has anyone been able to resolve it?

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2

In a surprising turn of events, I discovered that if you turn off and on Bluetooth from the Quick Settings menu, then the behaviour goes away (if configured with the “Write Scan Enable” registry key correctly)… :person_shrugging:

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Hoping this helps any lost soul, because nobody has given an exact answer (as far as I can see online)

PS: To find the “Write Scan Enable” key, just browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum and Find (Ctrl+F) the key. It’s a lot easier than mapping the Device ID / Sub ID.