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Bluetooth audio output device not listed / not selectable on Raspberry Pi

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#114 3 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
42/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
linux, python, raspberry-pi
Domain
audio-video-rtc, embedded-iot

Research direction

Start with the sendspin --list-audio-devices entry point and reproduce the issue while the Bluetooth speaker is connected through bluetoothctl. Compare the devices visible to PipeWire or PulseAudio via paplay with those listed by sendspin. Done means the Bluetooth sink is selectable, or a documented reliable workaround lets headless users route playback through the current default sink.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Describe the problem
On Raspberry Pi OS (PipeWire audio), my Bluetooth speaker is connected and set as the default audio sink (PipeWire sees it and playback via paplay or other apps works). However, when I run sendspin --list-audio-devices its not appearing. The Bluetooth output never appears in the sendspin device list, so I cannot select. What can I trieout?

Expected behavior

  • PipeWire/PulseAudio sinks (especially Bluetooth) to show up in device list
  • Ability to select by PulseAudio sink name
  • Or, at minimum, a way to force sendspin to always use the current default device used by PulseAudio/PipeWire

Environment

  • Raspberry Pi OS, updated, using PipeWire as default sound system
  • Sendspin running as systemd service and direct command
  • Bluetooth speaker connected with bluetoothctl.
  • sendspin-cli latest version (as of Feb 2026)

Additional context

  • It appears that PortAudio with ALSA backend can't see PipeWire/PA virtual devices on some distros
  • This makes reliable multi-room playback hard/impossible if you want to use Bluetooth speakers

Request

  • Please add support for PipeWire/PulseAudio sinks in the device list and audio routing, or document a reliable workaround for headless systems with Bluetooth.
Dominant language
Python
Stars
190
Forks
36
Avg merge
11d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
2

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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