CCleaner Driver Updater RUINED my Bluetooth!

[AntiTrust]

CCleaner ruined my computer! OMG, I spent about 20 hours on this. I'm so mad! I finally fixed it though. The only way was to completely re-install Windows 11 and BLOCK the "recommended" Avrcp Transport driver update for your Bluetooth speaker. 

The driver will be under the Bluetooth section. For all you folks out there that use Bluetooth speaker as your computer audio DO NOT INSTALL THIS RECOMMENDED BLUETOOTH DRIVER UPDATE IN CCLEANER! It will BREAK your Bluetooth to only connect your speakers as a headset and there is no way to fix this other than to re-install Windows. I have now skipped this driver, but the damage and time I spent on this is done. There's no getting back those 20 hours. After a 2nd Windows reinstall I connected 2 new speakers (Sony and Bose) CCleaner recommended the Avrcp Transport update from 2014 for both of them. I installed it and MY Bluetooth BROKE AGAIN! I had to reinstall Windows for a 3rd time. 

 

Attached is a screenshot. 

I have a Bluetooth speaker that I use for my computer audio. It's been working flawlessly forever. CCleaner recommends driver updates. I've NEVER had issues in the past. All of a sudden, CCleaner recommends a "Avrcp Transport" driver update for my speaker. I proceeded without paying much attention, because I knew I could revert the driver back. 

 

Look closely at the screenshot. The driver release date is from July 25, 2014! The current version installed is from 2022. Why in the heck is CCleaner trying to download something so old? 

What happens? My Bluetooth speaker I have to reconnect to Windows, but it connects as a headset. The audio is HORRIBLE! If I go to Control Panel > Sound, there is NO WAY for me to switch it from headset to speaker. I right-click, click Connect, and nothing happens. I disable the headset and try everything to get my audio on "speaker" and it simply refuses to connect after this driver update. 

I spent countless hours in Device Manager uninstalling drivers and reinstalling. NOTHING fixes the issue! I tried to revert back the driver in CCleaner, but it doesn't work! I reboot the computer, open CCleaner, go to Driver Update, and it shows "installed." There's zero options to revert it since I already did it once. So, reverting it worked, but didn't. CCleaner still reports it as installed. 

 

I really like CCleaner despite all the hate they get, but this has totally got me thinking I need to reconsider CCleaner as a product going forward. They claim the Driver Updater is "Safe," but this week's experiences 100% prove them wrong. 

 

I reinstalled Windows. Reinstalled all my apps, and ran Driver Updater AGAIN. At this time, I didn't know it was CCleaner causing the problem on my 2nd attempt to reinstall Windows. I even went as far as buying 2 new Bluetooth speakers! When connecting a Sony and a Bose speaker they both were affected too. Windows ONLY wanted to play as a "headset" and not a "speaker." By this time I reinstalled Windows a THIRD time. I paid real close attention and when I got the Driver Updater I noticed the release date from 2014 and realized this is what's causing the problem. 

 

CCleaner, PLEASE FIX THIS! I have the driver "skipped" for now, but you REALLY need to fix this so others don't lose their Bluetooth speakers as well. I was going crazy thinking it was something much worse hardware related. The Bluetooth speakers works PERFECTLY up until this "recommended" driver update is installed. Once it's installed, there's no reverting it. I reverted it, but it didn't actually do anything. 

 

How to replicate the issue? Connect a Bluetooth speaker to your Windows 11 computer. It needs to be a newer speaker. An old Bose speaker from 2013~ was not affected. It doesn't matter on the brand. I bought the Bose Soundlink Revolve II, a Sony SRS-XB23, and my Earfun UBOOM speaker I bought from Amazon. Run CCleaner Driver Updater and install the Avrcp Transport update for your Bluetooth speaker as shown in the screenshot. Your Bluetooth is now broken.

Edited August 25, 2022 by AntiTrust
Typo

[AntiTrust]

FYI 

@MeganCCleaner

@johnccleaner

@Stephen CCleaner

[Bastet]

I’m having the same problem with my Beats Studio 3 but don’t recall CCleaner offering me this update nor can I find avrcp under driver installations.
In any case usually if the driver is older than the one installed it will fail. I have two drivers blocked because they are older than installed so they failed.

[AntiTrust]

9 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I’m having the same problem with my Beats Studio 3 but don’t recall CCleaner offering me this update nor can I find avrcp under driver installations.
In any case usually if the driver is older than the one installed it will fail. I have two drivers blocked because they are older than installed so they failed.

I didn’t notice the driver either the first time, but I wasn’t paying too close attention. When I reinstalled Windows 11 for the 2nd and 3rd time, I noticed it both times as the root cause. 
 

unfortunately, the only fix I know of is to reinstall windows. 
 

CCleaner is not responding to this thread nor did my email to support result in any response. What a horrible company. 
 

I suggest you create your own thread to help create awareness regarding this issue. The driver is still being recommended as an update in my CCleaner app. They have not removed it yet in an app update. 
 

CCleaner….. hello?!?

@MeganCCleaner

@johnccleaner

@Stephen CCleaner

Edited August 30, 2022 by AntiTrust

[Bastet]

I’m currently running an in-place repair which should fix the problem also. If not then I’ll need to find that entry to see if it was updated & if it was I will create my own thread.

[AntiTrust]

Please keep me posted! I genuinely would like to know your outcome. 
 

I’m getting ready to switch to a new laptop. Before I do, I’m going to connect a Bluetooth speaker to my old laptop and run the CCleaner driver update. I want to see if it breaks on my old laptop. If it does, then I want to raise another ticket to CCleaner since it’s an entirely different computer. I doubt they’ll respond, but at least the Google archives will pick it up for other folks. 

[Bastet]

Will do. 

[Bastet]

Alas it didn’t fix the problem.
The Avrcp driver isn’t shown for the Beats but is shown under hidden devices for my iPhone X.

[AntiTrust]

10 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Alas it didn’t fix the problem.
The Avrcp driver isn’t shown for the Beats but is shown under hidden devices for my iPhone X.

Rats! Are you going to reinstall Windows? If you do, run CCleaner driver update and share a screenshot of all the drivers (if you want.) The Bluetooth driver should be listed, and that’s what breaks the Bluetooth sound quality. 

Edited August 30, 2022 by AntiTrust

[Bastet]

As I can still connect them via cable I’m not going to reinstall Windows 11, especially as the laptop is an unsupported device. I may roll back to Windows 10 via disk image but that will depend on how the next feature (22H2) update to 11 goes.

What date did the update appear in CCleaner? I rolled back to last Thursday & the problem remained. I may try rolling back earlier & see what happens.

[AntiTrust]

3 minutes ago, Bastet said:

As I can still connect them via cable I’m not going to reinstall Windows 11, especially as the laptop is an unsupported device. I may roll back to Windows 10 via disk image but that will depend on how the next feature (22H2) update to 11 goes.

What date did the update appear in CCleaner? I rolled back to last Thursday & the problem remained. I may try rolling back earlier & see what happens.

Mine broke last week. I would say the week of August 15th. 

[Bastet]

Thanks.

[Bastet]

I’ve managed to check the Beats avrcp & the driver is dated April 2022 so CCleaner cannot be the cause for me.

[AntiTrust]

6 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I’ve managed to check the Beats avrcp & the driver is dated April 2022 so CCleaner cannot be the cause for me.

But the problem only happened after you ran CCleaner driver update tool? 

[Bastet]

That’s the thing, CCleaner hasn’t offered any driver updates for avrcp. I’ll double check for all bluetooth but I rolled back via the latest from Intel & it was the same. I will keep investigating.

[Bastet]

Update:
I’ve rolled back to 1st Aug image when I know the problem didn’t occur & I still cannot connect my headphones so it appears my problem may be hardware related.

[AntiTrust]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Update:
I’ve rolled back to 1st Aug image when I know the problem didn’t occur & I still cannot connect my headphones so it appears my problem may be hardware related.

Huh, can you connect to another computer and try? That will help narrow it down if it truly is hardware or a reinstall of Windows. Best of luck!  

[Guest Andrei CCleaner]

Hello @AntiTrust, please email our team at support@ccleaner.com so they could have a look over your situation.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, AntiTrust said:

Huh, can you connect to another computer and try? That will help narrow it down if it truly is hardware or a reinstall of Windows. Best of luck!  

I can connect to non Windows devices. Unfortunately I don’t have another Windows device.
I also tried connecting my iPhone to the PC & that failed to connect also.

[AntiTrust]

1 hour ago, Andrei CCleaner said:

Hello @AntiTrust, please email our team at support@ccleaner.com so they could have a look over your situation.

I did and got no response. I pointed them to this thread topic. If you actually read it, you will see I resolved my issue my reinstalling Windows. CCleaner is still recommending the driver update that breaks Windows. You really need to fix the issue. I see others are having Bluetooth issues too and more reports will most likely continue to come in. 

[ccleanerisbroken]

Hi Anti Trust, recently I also got ccleaner and made the very unfortunate mistake of running the driver updater and updated all of my drivers. I then reconnected my earphones to bluetooth, (would only connect as headset with 16000hz (tape recorder quality)). My windows face hello biometric camera also was broken. After a while (1 hour or so) then my bluetooth just wouldn't connect. It would only connect to the earphones and then play sound out of the laptop speakers. I couldn't system restore checkpoint as I reinstalled Windows 11 before finding out about the system restore points. I repeated it twice, and my drivers are still broken with the bluetooth audio not working as well as the hello face recognition software. I then reinstalled Windows 11 (complete reset including files) but somehow, the drivers are still broken. I'm not sure what is going on, contacted CCleaner support via email and via form but still no response. How did you get around this?

[AntiTrust]

2 hours ago, ccleanerisbroken said:

Hi Anti Trust, recently I also got ccleaner and made the very unfortunate mistake of running the driver updater and updated all of my drivers. I then reconnected my earphones to bluetooth, (would only connect as headset with 16000hz (tape recorder quality)). My windows face hello biometric camera also was broken. After a while (1 hour or so) then my bluetooth just wouldn't connect. It would only connect to the earphones and then play sound out of the laptop speakers. I couldn't system restore checkpoint as I reinstalled Windows 11 before finding out about the system restore points. I repeated it twice, and my drivers are still broken with the bluetooth audio not working as well as the hello face recognition software. I then reinstalled Windows 11 (complete reset including files) but somehow, the drivers are still broken. I'm not sure what is going on, contacted CCleaner support via email and via form but still no response. How did you get around this?

I fixed it on my own be reinstalling Windows 11. I ran CCleaner driver update again, but this time I didn't not update the driver that caused all these issues. I skipped it and CCleaner no longer tries to update it.

 

If you reinstall Windows, do NOT run CCleaner driver update. Get everything up and running. If you still have problems after that, then CCleaner is not your problem.

 

Support won't help you. Just an FYI. CCleaner support is non-existent. 

[keyr0j]

Just found this thread after banging my head against the wall re-pairing for hours, going to go ahead and try to restore windows from a backup first. Not trying to re-install my entire OS for this.

[AntiTrust]

On 31/08/2022 at 09:43, Andrei CCleaner said:

Hello @AntiTrust, please email our team at support@ccleaner.com so they could have a look over your situation.

 

On 31/08/2022 at 10:52, AntiTrust said:

I did. I pointed them to this thread topic. If you actually read it, you will see I resolved my issue my reinstalling Windows. CCleaner is still recommended the driver update that breaks Windows. You really need to fix the issue. I see others are having Bluetooth issues too and more reports will most likely continue to come in. 

 

8 minutes ago, keyr0j said:

Just found this thread after banging my head against the wall re-pairing for hours, going to go ahead and try to restore windows from a backup first. Not trying to re-install my entire OS for this.

Please open your own support thread and contact CCleaner. THEY NEED TO PULL THIS UPDATE AND FIX THE PROBLEM!

 

The more people that raise hell, CCleaner will finally be forced to address the problem! 
 

 

@MeganCCleaner

@johnccleaner

@Stephen CCleaner

[ccleanerisbroken]

15 hours ago, keyr0j said:

Just found this thread after banging my head against the wall re-pairing for hours, going to go ahead and try to restore windows from a backup first. Not trying to re-install my entire OS for this.

i talked to windows support, completely reinstalled os 

apparently it also broke the driver of the backup windows as well

i needed to plug in usb and everything

go to windows support, they helped me out and fixed everything

screw ccleaner