Note 5 & Gears S Connection Issues

[W9jbm]

I've had my Gear S for several months now and it worked great with my Note 4 (No Problems At All) Now that I have a Note 5, The Bluetooth Connection is constantly disconnecting & reconnecting! I've reset the Gear several times and loaded the Samsung Gear App several times on the Note 5.... this does nothing to correct the problem. The other puzzling thing is, when the phone is in my cargo pocket (I have the ZAGG Screen Glass Protector & The Samsung S View Case) it seems to do it more often!

I've read where some Note 5 owners are experiencing very poor Bluetooth Range (that's not the problem here) the Note 5 & the Gear S are less than a foot away when it disconnects! I've had the Note 5 linked to a rental car's entertainment system since day 1 and it works fine but I've also noticed that the Note 5 is definitely the slowest Samsung device when it comes to pairing with another device via bluetooth!
I've had the Note 3, 4 and I also have the Samsung Note Pro 12.2 Tablet plus 2 smaller tablets and it seems to me that this new Note 5 struggles to locate & pair with other Bluetooth Devices! Several times it timed out & I had to search again!!

Anyone else experiencing any strange behavior with Bluetooth Connections with your New Note 5? Especially with a Gear S??

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[mike almodovar]

Yeah I'm having the same issues, I get random disconnects... a restart on gear s and phone both seems to help the issue for day or so...

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[W9jbm]

Stopped at a Best Buy Store and spoke to a Samsung Rep about my Note 5s poor Bluetooth and he saw how my Gear S disconnected & reconnected.... I told him that there have been some reports of very poor Bluetooth Range on some Note 5s!

He took his Note 5 & my wife's Note 5 and searched for any Bluetooth Devices and both of their phones found every Samsung TV in the store (a very long list!) My phone only found the devices that were a few inches away!!
Mine is Deaf on Bluetooth!!!
It's going back to the AT&T Store Tomorrow to get replaced!!

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[haus]

That's a really interesting test. Sounds like some note 5's may have bad internal antenna connections. If that kind of thing is tested at the factory it's likely tested against something closeby. Mine is ok; my gear 2 disconnects when I walk pretty far away (like 30 feet through some walls), which I think is normal and definitely consistent with my galaxy s4 and other phones.

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[Flashfox]

That's a really interesting test. Sounds like some note 5's may have bad internal antenna connections. If that kind of thing is tested at the factory it's likely tested against something closeby. Mine is ok; my gear 2 disconnects when I walk pretty far away (like 30 feet through some walls), which I think is normal and definitely consistent with my galaxy s4 and other phones.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I agree with your antenna assessment as my stock "T-Mobile 64GB Note 5 + Gear S" combo is not having any BT issues whatsoever. It's been working just as good as when it was paired to my Note 4. I can be quite a distance away before it loses the connection.

 

[FudgeMcStuffins]

I find myself having the same issue. Only difference. The Bluetooth seems fine at range for me with most devices. I thought it may have to do with the power saver feature on the Note 5. Thought it might be turning off BT connectivity after a set period and then after disconnect the watch nudges Note 5 back and reconnects..

Whatever the case, battery life on the Gear S has plummeted from no problems during days 25-60% left depending on use... to the point where I take it off the charger at 7am and it's dead before lunch. It's more than disheartening and makes me rather apprehensive about the new Gear S2 since they can't seem to make their products work well together.

 

[mtbdaivd]

Have you used your note 5 with Bluetooth headphones and the gear is connected at the same time? If so do you Bluetooth issues at that point? I'm starting to believe this is an issue when adding both Samsung gear for Android where and Bluetooth headsets. David

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[dwterry]

Brand new Gear S2 Watch user here ... with a "new since it's release" Note 5 and former Pebble Watch user.

I am similarly getting multiple disconnects per day. My phone is never further away from the watch than my pants pocket. I'll notice a notification (a vibration) in my pants pocket and wonder why I didn't feel anything on my wrist. I go to look at the phone and it has disconnected from the watch.

I believe I had to reconnect my Pebble every now and then (I'm thinking maybe a couple of times per week at the very most), but nothing like the continual disconnects I'm seeing with the Gear S2. (I might have had to reconnect to the Pebble with the Note 4 every now and then, but it was extremely rare)

I also think that the BT connection to my car is much slower than it used to be with the Note 2 and Note 4.

At this point, does everyone suspect the Note 5 to be the culprit? Is it something that can be fixed with a firmware upgrade? Or is my only solution to take the phone back to T-Mobile to be replaced?

 

[Mahmoud52]

I agree with everything you said about the Bluetooth connection issues here I have returned one lg urban watch and 3 moto 360 2nd generation watch thinking it was the watches after talking to Motorola and Google Android wear the problem is with the Samsung note 5 and I'm mad and sick of samsung pushing out broken products I also agree with how it takes forever for the phone to be found in your car using Bluetooth it takes forever and it's not reliable. I put the pH in my back pocket and I lose connection from my smartwatch or connection issues with my Chevy car I'm waiting for the nexus 6p or the lg v10 ph or bb priv I'm done with samsung...

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[Lance Vandyke1]

My note 5 connects in seconds when i get in my car...js

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[BarryH_GEG]

I don't have any general problems with BT and range and speed of re-connection to my devices in general are fine. Where I am/was having problems is my Gear S re-connecting via BT after being connected remotely. It is/was driving me crazy.

I don't think it's h/w, I think it's Gear Manager and/or software. I've had similar problems with previous Notes and Gears that were corrected via Gear Manager updates. It's cured since yesterday and here's what I did.

• Remove my Gear S and Circle from BT device settings so there's no longer a BT connection between them.
  
  
• Clear the Bluetooth app/service in Aplication Manager.
  
  
• Remove each individual Gear related app/service via Application Manager. Note: Remove/clear the main Gear Manager app last. On my Note 5 Gear Manager stub is pre-installed so I can't remove it, only clear it. Before removing or clearing the main Gear Manager app go back through Application Manager as some of the secondary Gear Manager apps re-install themselves and uninstall them again before removing/clearing the main app.
  
  
• Boot your phone in to recovery and wipe its cache.
  
  
• Hard reset your Gear so it's virgin. All history of it will be removed from the phone so it'll have to be re-built from scratch.
  
  
• Open Gear Manager on your phone or re-install it if you don't have the stub pre-installed. Go through the whole mating process from scratch.

Since yesterday my Gear S has been re-connecting to my phone as it should. Not knowing what the real problem is it may reoccur until Samsung updates Gear Manager or the Note 5 itself.

 

[chrisppppp]

I think there is a definite hardware problem. Unfortunately, I bought my note 5 used so I don't think I can claim warranty but I did everything to reset...but the bluetooth is very weak. My Gear S2 would not stay connected. Even if I put it in my pocket, the signal drops. This is true with every bluetooth device. It can't detect any device unless I'm less than a feet from the device. So...my advice to everyone who MIGHT have any bluetooth problem is that you NEED TO RETURN the phone right away and NOT waste your time resetting anything. Your phone company is very aware of this hardware problem so they will exchange the phone for you without an hassle.

 

[Youngfi]

I have an AT&T 64gb Note 5 and a first gen Gear S. I am having the same issue. I believe the general consensus is to have the phone replaced. Is that correct?