I am having a significant Bluetooth problem with Windows 11 ARM running under Parallels Desktop 27 on an Apple Silicon M4 Mac.
Bluetooth worked satisfactorily for my applications with earlier versions of Parallels, but with my current setup I have been unable to get Bluetooth working at all. This is now affecting some important programs I use that communicate with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices.
As a workaround I purchased a TP-Link Bluetooth 6.0 USB adapter and connected it directly to the Windows VM through Parallels → Devices → USB → TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter.
Everything appears to be configured correctly:
I tested with Bose Bluetooth headphones placed explicitly into pairing mode. Windows finds nothing.
Therefore this does not appear to be a problem specific to my BLE application. Windows itself cannot perform Bluetooth discovery through the USB adapter, despite reporting that the entire Bluetooth stack is functioning normally.
My configuration is approximately:
Apple Silicon M4 Mac
macOS 15.7.4
Parallels Desktop 27.0.0
Windows 11 ARM64
TP-Link Bluetooth 6.0 USB adapter
VID_37AD / PID_0600
Microsoft ARM64 BTHUSB driver 10.0.26100.8972
This is particularly frustrating because Bluetooth/BLE is important to some of my MATLAB and scientific-instrument applications, and the loss of Bluetooth functionality has stopped several previously working programs.
Has anyone managed to get Bluetooth or BLE working reliably in Windows 11 ARM under recent versions of Parallels, either using this or another USB Bluetooth adapter?
I would particularly like to know:
Bluetooth worked satisfactorily for my applications with earlier versions of Parallels, but with my current setup I have been unable to get Bluetooth working at all. This is now affecting some important programs I use that communicate with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices.
As a workaround I purchased a TP-Link Bluetooth 6.0 USB adapter and connected it directly to the Windows VM through Parallels → Devices → USB → TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter.
Everything appears to be configured correctly:
- Parallels passes the TP-Link USB adapter directly to Windows.
- Windows recognises it as Generic Bluetooth Adapter.
- Hardware ID is USB\VID_37AD&PID_0600.
- Windows loads the native ARM64 Microsoft BTHUSB driver (bth.inf_arm64...).
- Device Manager reports “This device is working properly.”
- Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator is present.
- Microsoft Bluetooth LE Enumerator is present.
- Windows Bluetooth is switched On.
- Bluetooth Support Service is running.
- Windows Bluetooth troubleshooter reports that Bluetooth is working.
- Windows can read the adapter’s Bluetooth address and HCI/LMP firmware information.
- PowerShell reports the Generic Bluetooth Adapter as OK, present, with ProblemCode = 0.
I tested with Bose Bluetooth headphones placed explicitly into pairing mode. Windows finds nothing.
Therefore this does not appear to be a problem specific to my BLE application. Windows itself cannot perform Bluetooth discovery through the USB adapter, despite reporting that the entire Bluetooth stack is functioning normally.
My configuration is approximately:
Apple Silicon M4 Mac
macOS 15.7.4
Parallels Desktop 27.0.0
Windows 11 ARM64
TP-Link Bluetooth 6.0 USB adapter
VID_37AD / PID_0600
Microsoft ARM64 BTHUSB driver 10.0.26100.8972
This is particularly frustrating because Bluetooth/BLE is important to some of my MATLAB and scientific-instrument applications, and the loss of Bluetooth functionality has stopped several previously working programs.
Has anyone managed to get Bluetooth or BLE working reliably in Windows 11 ARM under recent versions of Parallels, either using this or another USB Bluetooth adapter?
I would particularly like to know:
- Is direct Bluetooth support intentionally no longer available in recent Parallels versions?
- Is there a known problem with USB Bluetooth HCI traffic/passthrough on Apple Silicon?
- Is there a particular USB Bluetooth adapter known to work with Windows 11 ARM under Parallels?
- Are there any Parallels USB settings or workarounds required for Bluetooth discovery?
- If the VM and Windows both recognise the USB Bluetooth controller correctly, why would device discovery nevertheless return no devices?