Database Users

[CM7 at least] Car Dock = Crappy BT Handsfree Audio

Cross posting from the CM7 Epic forum to get more exposure and see if there is anyone NOT experiencing this problem and also maybe see if this extends beyond CM7 to regular Epic GB users. Here is the original thread I created.
Here is the post:
The Issue: When the phone is placed into the Samsung Car Dock, and then subsequently a hands free BT call is placed, the audio quality over the hands free is terrible and unusable.
I have been experiencing this issue since I started using CM back in October, and it was only today that I finally (and accidentally) discovered the action that causes it to happen. For the longest time I thought the problem somehow centered on switching from playing A2DP audio (which always sounds just fine) to the phone call, though I couldn't repeat this consistently, as sometimes I could get a call with good quality, but most of the time, even with freezing Music so it didn't start automatically when BT/car dock were connect, calls just sounded horrible.
Today, all that changed and I figure out that no matter what the state of A2DP music is, as long as the call is placed/received BEFORE the USB connector of the car dock is slid in to place, the audio quality is just fine. If you put the phone in the dock and engage the USB connector and then place/receive a call, you run into my aforementioned issue. I tested to see if this was related to the Car Home app, and running the app and placing a call out of the car dock was just fine as well. You can place a call, and then plug in the car dock and everything is OK that way too.
So something has to happen when the car dock is physically connected to the phone that messes with the audio. Can someone attempt to repeat this problem so I know it is ultimately not someting weird with my car/head unit/whatever. I don't believe it is because I didn't experience this issue before I switched to CM7.
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Bump on this topic, no one else notice this? Can people try this out and see what happens, even if you don't normally use the device that way?

How is your Bluetooth

I have a new car and a new phone so it's hard to be sure.
I used the GNex for about 3 days with the new car and didn't see problems. Connected every time and sound was consistent
With the MotoX I am getting auto connected about 1/2 the time and a lot of stuttering on the bluetooth audio.
Same for others ?
Another question: When I connect bluetooth the volume always resets to about 80%. Can I change this setting anywhere ?

So it's not the car as I just had the same problems with my BT headphones. It also started playing through the speakers at one point even though the BT connection was still showing.

I use the Bluetooth calling feature with my truck. I haven't had any problems so far, but it's only been a few days. I will report back if I do have problems. I am running 4.4 with all OTAs.

My moto x after kitkat update bluetooth disconnects in middle and reconnects again in 5 seconds. Super annoying

sravanz said:
My moto x after kitkat update bluetooth disconnects in middle and reconnects again in 5 seconds. Super annoying
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My HTC One did that with aosp kitkat. I haven't seen that on the X yet.
Moto X using Tapatalk

I've had pretty much the same experience with mine since the 4.4 update. I don't even bother listening to music over bluetooth now because it's so annoying with the constant stuttering. I'm hoping they fix it with the next update, whenever that comes. If not, I'll probably have to look into upgrading to a newer head unit. My GNex always worked great with this stereo's bluetooth.

I listened to Spotify Inmine yesterday, no problems. It even sent the song information to my car's display which it didn't do on my last phone.

I've been tethering my Nexus 7 using Bluetooth and had a lot of trouble getting it to connect the first time. But today was my first real use of it and the Internet connection on the Nexus 7 dropped part way through the trip. It was only being used to get traffic info for CoPilot, so I didn't notice right away when the connection was lost. A little troubleshooting got me nowhere, but then while driving the connection came back on its own.

Something happens with me
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

No issues with bluetooth here. Pandora is streaming fine and Torque is talking to my OBD2 adapter as well (even both at the same time).

homemadehitshow said:
I have a new car and a new phone so it's hard to be sure.
I used the GNex for about 3 days with the new car and didn't see problems. Connected every time and sound was consistent
With the MotoX I am getting auto connected about 1/2 the time and a lot of stuttering on the bluetooth audio.
Same for others ?
Another question: When I connect bluetooth the volume always resets to about 80%. Can I change this setting anywhere ?
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I use bluetooth daily and haven't experienced a disconnect or even a stutter with Google Play Music on 4.4. I chose the setting to resume music when driving is detected and now I don't even take out my phone when I get in my car. Music usually starts playing within 100' of driving. There is a mod to remove the audio warning; I haven't tried it yet, but I don't really have a problem with it either.

P!X3L said:
There is a mod to remove the audio warning; I haven't tried it yet, but I don't really have a problem with it either.
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Samsung has the same thing on it's firmware, and while it was a PITA to find and fix, it can be done (fairly easily).

I've had some Bluetooth issues that I described here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2562186
At least one other person mentioned their connection dropping repeatedly. My issue started with it only connecting to my hands free in my car, but but my separate A2DP audio receiver. If I tapped on the device in Bluetooth settings, it connected fine. I found an app called Bluetooth Auto Connect that has nice configuration options to do what I needed (connect to A2DP once General Motors connects), but it also plays nice with Tasker.
I did notice last night that my General Motors connection was starting and stopping repeatedly my entire drive home from work (~45 minutes). I noticed it at first when I would turn the screen on to thumb up a song on Pandora, and the "you're connected to a trusted device" message would flash. At first I thought it was just reminding me of that each time the screen came on (or manually unlocking when the screen turned on), but then noticed my radio was saying "Bluetooth Connected" every few minutes as well. I rarely actually talk on the phone, so it's not a huge deal, but as described in my post linked above, on Monday I got a call when I (thought I) was connected to my General Motors, but it wasn't. I answered the call and was talking on the handset when it connected to Bluetooth and then I was hands free.
I did also notice yesterday when I was listening to Pandora with wired headphones at my desk at work that it got started sputtering pretty bad after I got a text message and Active Display was "breathing". Not sure if the two are related, but it happened. I did get a few texts while driving home and didn't notice any skipping over Bluetooth then.

Interesting theory on the active display... I've often wondered if that was partially responsible for the stuttering issue I'm having, but I was under the impression that it is automatically disabled when the phone is in your pocket, or face down. I guess I have some more experimenting to do while I wait for the next update.

At least for me it would not be face down in the car so I'll keep an eye on that.
Can someone point me to where I can take care of the volume issue ?

OK figured it out and learned about Xpose. Very cool.
I'll see if this is what was actually my problem. My problem was that bluetooth audio level is always reset to 80% (or so) each time I use it.

Bluetooth in my car is awesome.
ATT kitkat with Toyota Venza
Before the update music streaming took 20 seconds to load, but now it works instantly.

Bluetooth has had half second "pauses" at random times... sometimes seems too coincide with the screen on or off, other times when the phone is doing nothing. Also before kit Kat Google music would show track number (but nothing else) now I've lost that too. Unrooted
Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk 2

I experienced the pauses today when I overrode the volume warning. They kept occurring even after the volume was turned back down below 80%. I rebooted and started up some music without going over the volume suggestion and the skips were gone. If you're having trouble with the music or Bluetooth connection "skipping" try it out. Definitely tied to that volume warning somehow.

Interesting theory, I'll have to test it out. I have noticed that mine seems to do it at the same locations while I'm driving, and am starting to wonder if it is related to the handoff between towers.
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Does everyone have awful Bluetooth connection or is it just mine?

So I purchased some new JBL headphones black Friday. They work perfectly with everything but my Essential phone. Basically the audio cuts in and out less the 12" away. I listen to a lot of music and this is complete BS! Bluetooth in my car is sometimes sketchy and also on my Bose SoundLink Mini.
Do all of you have connection issues? Is it a firmware issue? I'm still on stock 7.1.1 with latest security patch.
P.S. All this happens on my wife's white one as wellwith same everything.

I have the same issue with multiple bluetooth audio devices on mine. Someone suggested turning off Bluetooth scanning in the location portion of the system settings but that did not fix it for me.
I'm on the Oreo beta.
The one thing turning off scanning DID fix for me in terms of Bluetooth issues was the constant disconnects I was seeing to my smart watch. That's stable now.

No issues with BT on my PH-1 with the numerous BT headphones i've used it with.
Currently using a Bose Soundlink OE and no complaints whatsoever.

Tried all Roms, stock and Oreo and BT audio is fine on my end.

After messing with the Bluetooth settings, I removed all devices and rebooted the phone as well. I paired the JBL and sure enough they work fine with no audio dropping. So I'm wondering if something is going on when I first initially pair the devices. I'm not a radio engineer, so I'm only guessing. It seems like it's not getting full handshake with the devices I first pair with. Only after I forget the device, reboot, the pair again will it have a good grip on the device.

jakkzen said:
After messing with the Bluetooth settings, I removed all devices and rebooted the phone as well. I paired the JBL and sure enough they work fine with no audio dropping. So I'm wondering if something is going on when I first initially pair the devices. I'm not a radio engineer, so I'm only guessing. It seems like it's not getting full handshake with the devices I first pair with. Only after I forget the device, reboot, the pair again will it have a good grip on the device.
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I got a red OnePlus 5T and white Essential at the same time and on looks alone used the essential. I've had two black models previous to this. I went to the gym after syncing my BT headphones and the result was music that but out every .5 seconds. Needless to say, I wanted to kill myself. I tried deleting all devices, resyncing, restarting, nada. I immediately went to the OnePlus with no issues. The essential is such a good value proposition especially with regards to build quality but I'm running out of reasons to keep trying it, price aside.

dc82 said:
I got a red OnePlus 5T and white Essential at the same time and on looks alone used the essential. I've had two black models previous to this. I went to the gym after syncing my BT headphones and the result was music that but out every .5 seconds. Needless to say, I wanted to kill myself. I tried deleting all devices, resyncing, restarting, nada. I immediately went to the OnePlus with no issues. The essential is such a good value proposition especially with regards to build quality but I'm running out of reasons to keep trying it, price aside.
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I totally get that. I haven't had the Bluetooth issues any more. Unfortunately now it will randomly freeze up. So, I am actually thinking of selling mine and getting a OnePlus 5t.

Just want to add that i have my essential phone since Dec. Never had any Bluetooth issues.

I've also got the same problem, can't connect to my PC, my pebble does connect but I have to "forget device", rescan and repair it everytime I connect. It's very temperamental with my Bluetooth headset too

with the beta versions of the os under developer options you now see options for different bluetooth codecs including aptx. I believe it is still a grey area if essential has acquired the rights to include the aptx codec but if you are rooted you can sideload the aptx directly. See here for more info on aptx https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2531440
Hope it helps you out.
Personally ive experienced no bluetooth issues using stenheiser hd-1 in ear headphones, bluetooth stereos and car adapters.

I'm having the same issue with my Essential phone and all bluetooth audio playback devices. If the phone is more than a foot away, it gets choppy. I don't have a workaround yet but will try some of the suggestions here.

bbohica said:
I'm having the same issue with my Essential phone and all bluetooth audio playback devices. If the phone is more than a foot away, it gets choppy. I don't have a workaround yet but will try some of the suggestions here.
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The Bluetooth connectivity is not that great. I don't quite have the exact problem you describe, but range is pretty poor. For example, my Gear S3 Classic is about 6-7 meters away from me right now and I cannot connect to it via Bluetooth. I have to be closer. My Samsung S8+ (after some post-launch patches of course) could maintain the connection to about 10 meters away. My S7 easily did 15 meter radius. This is all comparison in the same physical space.

my BT stutters about once every 45 seconds or so, also in my 2011 Mazda 3, the names of the songs do not display up on the screen where they had with every other phone i have had paired.
BTW if you are thinking of buying a 2009-13 Mazda3 there is a 5 second BT audio delay while watching Youtube/ videos ... and it gets really annoying

ToddEDM said:
my BT stutters about once every 45 seconds or so, also in my 2011 Mazda 3, the names of the songs do not display up on the screen where they had with every other phone i have had paired.
BTW if you are thinking of buying a 2009-13 Mazda3 there is a 5 second BT audio delay while watching Youtube/ videos ... and it gets really annoying
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Latency like that is perceptible on almost all phones and receivers... Your car is not special in that way...
Wanna see some really bad latency... Try playing a game on an emulator while using a Chromecast to your TV...

Here is a perfect example of how bad it is. I did a little test with my bluetooth speaker(it's nothing special, just an average bluetooth speaker, a few years old so not the latest bluetooth tech.)
I set the phone on the kitchen counter, connected and playing music on my speaker which is right next to it. I pick up the speaker and hold it to my chest, while I'm leaning against the counter, then turn around so my body is between the phone and speaker, it quits working. I spin back around, it works... As a comparison, i dug the old S6 out of a drawer, and it can play on the speaker with me holding the speaker the same way, spin around, and walk to the other end of my kitchen which is about 16ft and it keeps playing the whole time.
Same issue with bluetooth headphones, which led me to this awful issue. I'm a cyclist, and with the phone in my back pocket of my jersey, the headphones won't work.
Frustrated, today I unlocked and flashed back to the oldest stock software I could find... still doesn't work.

Same issue here. Is there a fix for this?

The only device I get a solid connection with is my Jabra Elite 65t headset (which happens to be BT 5.0 like the phone is). My Samsung gear and both of my cars have horrible connections. I believe there is a memory leak in the bluetooth stack because It'll get worse and worse, then I can clear it up temporarily by turning off bluetooth for about 30 seconds to 1 minute then turning it on again... then it'll tend to last until I reconnect again later.

bbohica said:
Here is a perfect example of how bad it is. I did a little test with my bluetooth speaker(it's nothing special, just an average bluetooth speaker, a few years old so not the latest bluetooth tech.)
I set the phone on the kitchen counter, connected and playing music on my speaker which is right next to it. I pick up the speaker and hold it to my chest, while I'm leaning against the counter, then turn around so my body is between the phone and speaker, it quits working. I spin back around, it works... As a comparison, i dug the old S6 out of a drawer, and it can play on the speaker with me holding the speaker the same way, spin around, and walk to the other end of my kitchen which is about 16ft and it keeps playing the whole time.
Same issue with bluetooth headphones, which led me to this awful issue. I'm a cyclist, and with the phone in my back pocket of my jersey, the headphones won't work.
Frustrated, today I unlocked and flashed back to the oldest stock software I could find... still doesn't work.
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If you are on 8.1 you can go into developer area and there are settings for BT connection type. You may be able.to get better results by changing from the default which is best effort to one that prioritizes connection quality. There are other settings as well. I haven't played with the settings because I'm not seeing issues.

Fixed mine
Disabled hd audio:aac in bluetooth device settings(for each headphones or device with that issue) and drop outs stopped i had them every 40sec for .5.

I have 4 different Bluetooth devices that all work perfect and all have 10+ meter range. I'm on the AICP rom and no problems at all.

Weird bluetooth issue, anyone? 8.1 final

Ever since I upgraded to 8.1 OPM1 last month, my car no longer plays it's default generic ringtone when a call comes in. I have basically done everything I can to fix this but nothing is working. Anyone else having this issue? The only thing that remotely works now that didn't before is if my phone volume is ON, it will play my phone's actual ringtone through the speakers on the car but that defeats the purpose. I have my phone on vibrate nearly 100% of the time and when I get in the car, I don't want to have to turn on the volume to hear the phone ring. I have completely reflashed the image multiple times, reset my settings in my car, pair/delete/re-pair multiple times, turned off media streaming on phone, but nothing is working. The only thing I haven't tried is completely factory resetting my car's MMI system. There have been no updates to my car either. I contacted google support/nexus forums but they didn't think it was a bug in 8.1 even though the issue started with 8.1 and was find on 8.0 and below. I still think this is an OS bug. For reference, I have a 2014 Audi S4 with the MMI 3G+. I am thinking about pairing my phone with my wife's car to see if it works with hers. I have not gotten the January OTA yet but will probably manually flash it if I don't get it tonight or tomorrow. Any ideas?

@jrg67 Enable developer options and I believe theres option in there to fix your issue.

My Bluetooth crashes on my phone now when I connect to my stereo ever since the 8.1 update. No problems on other Bluetooth devices like speakers and headphones. My Clarion CX505 has the latest updates. The January security update didn't help the problem for me.

Exodusche said:
@jrg67 Enable developer options and I believe theres option in there to fix your issue.
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Exo, I had Dev options enabled already and from what I can see in your screenshot, my settings are the same except for disable absolute volume which I have on (my jbl speaker doesn't like to play nice sometimes and when I connect, it's max volume for no reason). So do you have any specific settings in there that you have played with? The only thing I can think of would be the streaming codec. As stated in my original post, I do not recall my phone ever playing the phones ringtone over the car speakers no matter what. Even if I had the volume on, my car would always play the generic tone which I prefer. Now, it'll play my phones ringtone over the speakers only when the volume is on and the phone's volume setting effects the volume that's coming out of the car speakers too. It's super annoying and I honestly just want it back to the way it was. Now, I'll get a call while driving and my entire system goes silent and the only indication of a call I get is a faint vibrate buzz sound from my phone sitting in the cup holder and my MMI screen which I have to take my eyes off the road to verify wtf just happened.

Very strange and sorry I guess I didn't read through enough of your post. The only issue I have is when I first get into the car must turn the Bluetooth on my phone off and then on again after first connect in order to play music. Hope you can figure that out sounds super annoying.

Well for anyone who may have this issue, I finally figured out a work around. Go in to Dev options and turn off "Enable in-band ringing". I then turned BT off/on, tested and now working as it used to. Never noticed that option in there before today but honestly haven't spent much time on it. Cheers.

MT63 said:
My Bluetooth crashes on my phone now when I connect to my stereo ever since the 8.1 update. No problems on other Bluetooth devices like speakers and headphones. My Clarion CX505 has the latest updates. The January security update didn't help the problem for me.
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Did you ever find a fix for this? I have the same issue.

microbius said:
Did you ever find a fix for this? I have the same issue.
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Nope, I got a Pixel 2 XL that has 8.1 with the Feb patch and it does the same thing. I may try reapplying the Bluetooth update to the radio and see if that helps.

Media through bluetooth keeps dropping out...

I am having a weird issue that I've never encountered before. I have a bluetooth earpiece (an MPOW one from Amazon). If, while listening to podcasts (or music or anything else) through it I disconnect from Wifi, the audio drops from the earpiece and keeps playing from the phone's speaker. I then have to turn off my earpiece and turn it back on again to get the audio to route through the earpiece. It doesn't disconnect (still shows as connected) when this happens...it just stops playing though the earpiece.
I've tried forgetting and repairing the bluetooth device. I've tried rebooting. I've tried clearing the data for the Bluetooth Sharing application...none of it has fixed the problem. If I turn my wifi off, this doesn't happen....
Any help?

Bluetooth is 2.45Ghz, actually 2400Mhz to 2483.5 MHz including guard bands 2 MHz wide at the bottom end and 3.5 MHz wide at the top...
"2.4Ghz" 802.11 WiFi is 2401Mhz to 2495Mhz...
See the problem here? Your issue is not uncommon... reconfigure your router to a different channel or use a 5Ghz WiFi connection and your situation should improve.
This varies by device, and even varies between identical devices, and depends on the environment and situation at the time. My device may have no issues with my BT headset and your does, it actually isn't that unusual.

Me Too
primetime34 said:
I am having a weird issue that I've never encountered before. I have a bluetooth earpiece (an MPOW one from Amazon). If, while listening to podcasts (or music or anything else) through it I disconnect from Wifi, the audio drops from the earpiece and keeps playing from the phone's speaker. I then have to turn off my earpiece and turn it back on again to get the audio to route through the earpiece. It doesn't disconnect (still shows as connected) when this happens...it just stops playing though the earpiece.
I've tried forgetting and repairing the bluetooth device. I've tried rebooting. I've tried clearing the data for the Bluetooth Sharing application...none of it has fixed the problem. If I turn my wifi off, this doesn't happen....
Any help?
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I'm having the same issues. The wifi interference is not the issue. It's been happening to me playing offline materials on Google Play (podcast) and Amazon Music apps It's auto dropping when connected to my car, headphones etc. I wonder if it has something to do with my Pebble smart/dumb watch.? I'm going to try and disconnect that and reconnect it. It was a pain in the Arse the first time. Let me know if you ever figured anything else out. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic on this subject. It's gotta be something obscure. :cyclops:

I finally just did a system reset on my phone and it has fixed the problem. I wonder if it was an app I had installed that was causing the issue....I'm not really sure though.

I'm having the same issue - bluetooth disconnects whenever Wifi disconnects. Anyone figure out what's causing this?

Same issue here too. Mine says it is still connected, but starts playing through the phone speaker. It just happened on a second item, so it's the phone end.
I suspect a rogue app.... Moto G5 Plus
Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

This was driving me crazy too the last few weeks. Cache Cleaner seems to have fixed it.

Mine has been giving me the exact same issues!!! It is driving me crazy!

Tried clearing cache...didn't help. I can't get my wifi to stay connected for the life of me! I'll connect, and it'll die within 5-10 minutes, and won't reconnect until I manually reconnect. This is getting really annoying! Any suggestions?

Cache cleaner turned out to be a temporary fix only. I think I have finally fixed it, but the bad news is I can't really tell anyone what I did. I just went through and either uninstalled or froze all the apps I rarely use including several Motorola apps and it appears to be working now. So if it continues to work, it was a rogue app...just don't know which one.