How to Manage Mobile Devices and Phone Link in Windows 11 Bluetooth Settings

Bluetooth Pairing vs. Phone Link: What’s the Difference

Windows 11 uses two separate systems for phones, and mixing them up is the most common source of confusion:

• Bluetooth 🔷 pairing connects your phone to your PC for audio, file transfer, and notification mirroring over a short-range radio link. This is the same pairing process you’d use for headphones or a mouse.
• Phone Link (formerly called Your Phone) is a Microsoft app that mirrors your phone’s screen, texts, calls, and notifications, using your Microsoft account to link the two devices. Most of its features, such as notifications, messages, and photos, run over your internet connection and don’t need Bluetooth 🔷. Calling is the exception: Phone Link calls rely on a Bluetooth connection between the phone and the PC. Windows surfaces its setup inside the Bluetooth & devices page because most people set both up around the same time.

You can have one without the other. A phone can be Bluetooth 🔷-paired for audio only, or linked through Phone Link with no Bluetooth pairing at all. If you later want to make or take calls through Phone Link, though, the phone and PC do need a Bluetooth connection, and that means the PC must have a Bluetooth adapter. The steps below handle both setups.

Where to Find Mobile Devices Settings in 🪟 Windows 11

1. Open Settings by pressing Win+I.
2. Select Bluetooth 🔷 & devices in the left-hand navigation pane. You’ll see your Bluetooth 🔷 toggle at the top, a list of paired devices below it, and a Mobile devices entry further down the page.
3. Select Mobile devices to open that page. This is where the Allow this PC to access your mobile devices toggle lives, along with a dropdown to pick which phone Windows treats as your “linked” device and a Manage devices link that opens Phone Link.

If you don’t see a Mobile devices section at all, your version of Windows 11 may not have it enabled, or Phone Link has been uninstalled. Check Settings › Apps › Installed apps and search for Phone Link. If it’s missing, reinstall it from the Microsoft Store before continuing.

How to Pair a New Phone Over Bluetooth

Do this if you want audio streaming, file sharing, or notification mirroring over Bluetooth 🔷 specifically, not the full Phone Link screen-mirroring experience. It’s also the pairing you need if you plan to use Phone Link calling later.

1. On your phone, turn on Bluetooth 🔷 and make it discoverable. The exact menu depends on your phone’s operating system, but it’s usually under Settings › Connections or Settings › Bluetooth 🔷. Keep the Bluetooth 🔷 screen open on the phone, since many phones stop being discoverable once you leave it.
2. On your PC, go to Settings › Bluetooth 🔷 & devices and confirm the Bluetooth 🔷 toggle at the top is turned on. If the toggle is missing, see the section on blocked settings further down.
3. Select Add device. A window titled Add a device opens with a list of device types, including Bluetooth 🔷, Wireless display or dock, and Everything else.
4. Select Bluetooth 🔷. Windows scans for nearby discoverable devices and lists them by name.
5. Select your phone’s name from the list. Windows shows a pairing code on both the PC and the phone screen.
6. Confirm the codes match on both devices, then select Connect on the PC and accept the pairing request on the phone. Your phone now appears in the device list on the Bluetooth 🔷 & devices page with a status of Connected.

If your phone doesn’t show up, move it closer to the PC, because Bluetooth 🔷 range drops quickly through walls and furniture. Also make sure another computer nearby hasn’t already paired with it, since some phones only advertise themselves to one device at a time.

How to Set Up Phone Link from the Bluetooth & Devices Page

This links your phone for screen mirroring, texts, calls, and notification access, using your Microsoft account rather than Bluetooth 🔷 pairing. Check these requirements before you start:

• Android phone: Android 9 or later, plus the Link to Windows app on the phone. Some Samsung devices have Link to Windows preinstalled. On other Android phones, install it 💿 from the Google Play Store.
• iPhone: iOS 15 or later. iPhone support is limited compared with Android. Bluetooth 🔷 must be turned on, and paired with the PC, for calls and messages to work.
• Calling: Phone Link calls run over Bluetooth 🔷 between the phone and the PC, so the PC needs a Bluetooth adapter for calls even though the rest of Phone Link works over the internet.

1. Go to Settings › Bluetooth 🔷 & devices › Mobile devices
2. Turn on Allow this PC to access your mobile devices if it isn’t already on. This toggle has to be enabled before Phone Link can mirror anything from your phone.
3. Select Manage devices. This opens the Phone Link app, or a Microsoft Store prompt to install it 💿 if it isn’t on your PC yet. You can also open Phone Link directly from the Start menu ⊞ and pair from there. The result is the same.
4. Sign in to Phone Link on the PC with your Microsoft account, and choose your phone type (Android or iPhone) when asked. Phone Link then shows a QR code on the PC screen.
5. On an Android phone, open the Link to Windows app, sign in with the same Microsoft account, and scan the QR code. On some phones, scanning the code with the camera app prompts you to open or install Link to Windows. On an iPhone, scan the QR code with the camera and follow the prompts to pair over Bluetooth 🔷.
6. Grant the notification, contacts, and phone permissions the app asks for on Android. Calls and messages work on iPhone, but full screen mirroring is Android-only.
7. Return to Bluetooth 🔷 & devices › Mobile devices Your phone now appears in the device dropdown as your linked device.

Phone Link setup fails most often because of Wi-Fi 📶 network mismatches. Both devices need internet access, and some strict guest or work Wi-Fi networks block the traffic Phone Link needs. If setup hangs on the QR scan step, switch both devices to the same home network and try again. If calls don’t work even though everything else does, check that Bluetooth 🔷 is on for both devices and that the phone is paired with the PC.

Managing an Already-Connected Mobile Device

1. Open Settings › Bluetooth 🔷 & devices
2. Find your phone in the device list and select it, or select the three-dot menu next to its name.
3. Choose what you need from the options shown. Select Disconnect to break the Bluetooth 🔷 link without removing the pairing. Or select the device to see toggles for which services it’s allowed to use, such as audio, contact sharing, or notification mirroring, depending on what your phone supports.

The options you see vary by phone and by what it advertises over Bluetooth 🔷, so a toggle you expect may not appear. For Phone Link specifically, notification and messaging permissions are managed inside the Phone Link app itself, not the Bluetooth & devices page. Open Phone Link’s own Settings if you want to turn off, say, text message mirroring while keeping calls active.

How to Remove or Forget a Mobile Device

You’ll need to pair it again from scratch if you want to reconnect it later, so do this only if the device is genuinely no longer needed or is causing connection problems.

1. Go to Settings › Bluetooth 🔷 & devices
2. Find the phone in the list under your paired devices.
3. Select the three-dot menu next to it and choose Remove device.
4. Confirm the removal when Windows asks. The device disappears from the list immediately.

Also delete the PC from your phone’s Bluetooth 🔷 settings (often listed as a paired or saved device). Leaving the old entry there is a common reason a re-pair fails later.

This is separate from the Bluetooth 🔷 removal above and won’t affect audio or file-sharing pairing.

Fixing a Device That Shows “Connected” But Isn’t Actually Working

A common problem: the Bluetooth 🔷 icon in your taskbar 🖥️ shows a device as connected, but opening it shows “Not connected,” or Phone Link says the phone is offline even though Bluetooth looks fine. This usually means the pairing itself is still active, but something higher up the chain has stalled. That could be audio streaming, Phone Link’s connection, or Windows’ Bluetooth support. Work through these in order and stop when it’s fixed.

1. Toggle Bluetooth 🔷 off and back on from Settings › Bluetooth 🔷 & devices, or from the quick settings flyout (click the network/sound/battery icons in the taskbar 🖥️) using the Bluetooth 🔷 tile. Wait about 10 seconds between turning it off and back on.
2. If that doesn’t fix it, run the built-in troubleshooter. Go to Settings › System › Troubleshoot › Other troubleshooters, then select Run next to Bluetooth 🔷. It checks for driver issues and stalled services automatically and reports what it fixed.
3. If the troubleshooter finds nothing, remove the device using the steps above and pair it again from scratch. A stale pairing that’s out of sync between the phone and PC is a frequent cause of this exact symptom, and re-pairing resolves it more often than restarting.
4. If it still misbehaves, restart the 🔄 PC. Bluetooth 🔷 stack issues in Windows sometimes only clear with a full reboot, not just a service restart. This is a case where a restart genuinely fixes something a toggle won’t.

Why Mobile Device Options Might Be Greyed Out

A few conditions block access to these settings entirely, and it's worth checking these before assuming something is broken:

• Airplane mode is on. Check quick settings in the taskbar. Airplane mode disables Bluetooth along with Wi-Fi and greys out the toggle in Bluetooth & devices.
• No Bluetooth hardware or driver. If your PC has no Bluetooth adapter, or the driver failed to load, the entire Bluetooth toggle is missing or stuck off. Phone Link calling won't work in this case either, because it needs Bluetooth. Check Device Manager under Bluetooth for a yellow warning icon, which points to a driver problem rather than a settings problem.
• Managed device restrictions. On a work or school PC managed by an organization, an administrator can block Bluetooth or Phone Link through policy. If the toggles are greyed out and you're on a managed device, this is almost certainly the cause. Contact your IT department rather than trying to work around it.
• Phone Link isn't signed in. The Mobile devices toggle can be on, but if you haven't signed in to Phone Link with a Microsoft account, the Manage devices button just relaunches the sign-in flow instead of showing device options.

Turning Off Mobile Device Access Without Removing Pairings

If you want to stop Phone Link from accessing your phone temporarily, say before lending the PC to someone else, you don't need to remove anything.

1. Go to Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Mobile devices
2. Turn off Allow this PC to access your mobile devices. Phone Link stops syncing immediately, but your Bluetooth pairing and Phone Link account link both stay intact.
3. Turn the toggle back on later to resume exactly where you left off, with no need to re-pair or re-link anything.

What to Do Next

If your phone still won't stay connected after re-pairing and a restart, check for a Bluetooth driver update through Windows Update or your PC manufacturer's support site. Outdated Bluetooth drivers are behind a lot of intermittent disconnects that settings changes alone won't fix. From here, it's also worth reviewing your notification and privacy permissions inside Phone Link itself, since screen mirroring and message access are controlled there rather than in Bluetooth & devices. If you manage a work PC and these options are locked down by policy, your next step is a conversation with IT rather than more troubleshooting on your end.