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How do you unpair a bluetooth device from the command line?

I was able to pair my computer with an Android phone via bluetoothctl, but there doesn't seem to be any "unpair" option. Even though I removed the pairing on the phone, running paired-devices still lists it. I've tried running disconnect and remove but they say my device doesn't exist.

Cerin
  • 6,943

2 Answers2

59

first of all start your Bluetooth from System settings.

Open terminal and type:

bluetoothctl

then you should see the list of devices you have paired with and their corresponding MAC address. If you do not, type:

paired-devices

For Ubuntu 24.04, it is just devices to see all paired after executing bluetoothctl.

devices

Make sure your Bluetooth is on before the next step, or you may run into an error like: org.bluez.Error.NotReady

To un-pair a device type:

remove aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

replace aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff with the MAC address of the device to un-pair.

there is no un-pair commmand

Also typing help after executing bluetoothctl gives a nice list of available commands.

help
Seek Truth
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Alex Jones
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    In case anybody is searching for blocking a device from reconnecting: use block aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff – yamass Jun 28 '21 at 19:10
  • For (yet) unknown reasons I needed to execute remove <device> more than once (it was 5 times) to actually unpair the device. I had issues with the device beeing connected but not working correctly, perhaps something got stuck here. – doak Nov 14 '24 at 07:24
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In case somebody looks for an up to date answer. The interface of bluetoothctl has changed a bit. The following answer is valid for Ubuntuu 20.04 LTS:

To unpair, now do the following: Open the bluetooth command line by entering

bluetoothctl

in the command line. After this you get a list of all paired bluetooth devices by entering paired-devices

[bluetooth]# paired-devices
Device F4:4E:FD:48:08:FF SoundCore mini
Device 30:C0:1B:79:6B:FF JBL GO 2
Device 7C:96:D2:88:2A:FF Soundcore Motion+

Now you can remove pairing of the desired devices with remove mac:id and control the result with executing `paired-

[bluetooth]# remove 7C:96:D2:88:2A:FF
[DEL] Device 7C:96:D2:88:2A:FF Soundcore Motion+
Device has been removed
[bluetooth]# paired-devices
Device F4:4E:FD:48:08:FF SoundCore mini
Device 30:C0:1B:79:6B:FF JBL GO 2

now you can leave the bluetooth command line by entering exit

Kound
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  • Can you elaborate in what respect "interface of bluetoothctl has changed a bit" and how it impacts unpairing? Without such explanation you answer looks like a late duplicate of the accepted one. – Artur Opalinski Apr 05 '21 at 14:31
  • The original answer stated that calling bluetoothctl will lead to a list of paired devices. At least in my version of bluetoothctl this was not the case: I needed to enter paired-devices first after executing bluetoothctl – Kound Apr 06 '21 at 09:36
  • But I guess "editing" the original post would have been the better solution here, as indeed my answer is only a more verbose version of the original answer ... – Kound Apr 06 '21 at 09:37
  • It is now devices Paired to list paired devices. – rjh Jan 13 '23 at 09:59