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Heyyy! Thanks for reading my post! I've been trying to get figure this out since June. How do I save some battery life, and disable bluetooth on startup? ...What does the variable AutoEnable do? It's in the Ubuntu file /etc/bluetooth/main.conf, and I'm curious if I turn it from true to false, what will happen... Anyone know?

Specifically, will it make the default state of my laptop's Bluetooth off, instead of on? Would it do anything else?

For reference, the code in the file reads:

# AutoEnable defines option to enable all controllers when they are found.
# This includes adapters present on start as well as adapters that are plugged 
# in later on. Defaults to "true"
AutoEnable=true

Thanks for your help!!!

I haven't tried changing the true to false or anything, except asking this question on StackOverflow. I expect there's a small chance I'll break something and will have to reinstall a new image of Ubuntu if I'm unlucky.

dcpetit
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2 Answers2

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Avoid changing files if you don't know what they do. You can easily disable the Bluetooth service by running the command below:

sudo systemctl disable bluetooth.service
Douglas Moura
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  • Thanks Douglas! Do you know how I can disable the Bluetooth service on startup? I'm trying to save my laptop's battery, and would like to avoid forgetting to turn Bluetooth off after booting – dcpetit Jul 31 '24 at 13:44
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    This is the command. – Douglas Moura Aug 01 '24 at 11:27
  • Hey Douglas, I hope you're doing well these days. My Bluetooth is unresponsive now in the dropdown menu alongside Wi-Fi, airplane mode, dark mode, etc. I've found a nice workaround, the terminal's "sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service". But do you know how I can restore the default control of Bluetooth in the top bar panel menu, while still having the default be off? – dcpetit Nov 26 '24 at 05:06
  • Are you still around AskUbuntu, buddy? Your first piece of advice was so useful, I bet you will know what to do in order to get the Bluetooth in the dropdown menu working instead of having to use a sudo command in the terminal every time. :-) – dcpetit Mar 20 '25 at 07:13
  • Third time (or comment) is the charm! I'd very much like to avoid using sudo commands in the terminal for activating Bluetooth on a daily basis... any ideas on how to make the buttons in the dropdown menu work (while keeping the default as 'off')? – dcpetit May 15 '25 at 23:53
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@dcpetit Did you find a solution to sudo issue?

Also, I think the best way was to toggle it to false:

# AutoEnable defines option to enable all controllers when they are found.
# This includes adapters present on start as well as adapters that are plugged 
# in later on. Defaults to "true"
AutoEnable=false
AdityAV42
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  • Nope, haven't found a solution to the sudo issue yet. I've been taking Douglas's sound advice of "Avoid changing files if you don't know what they do". So before I change the /etc/bluetooth/main.conf file, do you know what it does? Especially regarding the AutoEnable option? – dcpetit Sep 18 '25 at 05:08