S7 Bluetooth will not connect on incoming calls

[AC Question]

Within the last couple of months, my phone will not connect to my bluetooth speaker (both a stand-alone speaker as well as in-car system) on incoming calls only. I can make outgoing calls via bluetooth just fine, but when I try to pick up an incoming call, the bluetooth simply doesn't register. It's as if it isn't even paired with a speaker at all. If I toggle bluetooth off and then back on, it works, but that's not safe while I'm driving and kind of defeats the purpose of bluetooth.

Here's what I've tried:
- unpairing and re-pairing my phone with the bluetooth speakers. No change.
- wiping out the cache partition. No change.

I really don't want to do a factory reset because I invariably lose some settings or data or documents or stuff.

Any ideas??

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Any power-saving modes turned on?

 

[MAC1973]

Hi, B. Diddy. OP here. No, no power saving modes on that I know of.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, and no 3rd party battery-saver apps either, right? I'm just wondering if this happens after the phone screen has been asleep for a while, and something is turning off that Bluetooth connection in an attempt to save energy. Does this happen even if the phone hasn't gone to sleep?

 

[MAC1973]

It happens if my phone has been asleep for a while as well as when I'm playing music from my phone via bluetooth or using navigation or whatever.

I have GSam Battery Monitor installed, but that just monitors the battery. It doesn't try to optimize it as far as I know.
I have CPU Tuner loaded as well, but it hasn't been running for a while because I haven't configured it. Those are the only apps I know of that might mess with my battery.

Also, I found this website and tried the first suggestion (reset the network settings). That didn't do it, either. First incoming call I had the same problem. I also tried solution #3 on that site. No dice. I'm now going to try #5 to see if that does it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you recall if this started after the Nougat update? I think there have been some Bluetooth issues associated with Nougat on Samsung devices.

 

[MAC1973]

Could be. I don't recall when precisely the Nougat update came out for Verizon. I know it's been happening for the last few months, but I didn't notice exactly when it started.

When it first began, I thought it was just my bluetooth speaker going bad and that it would get taken care of when I bought a new car with an in-car bluetooth system. Now that I'm having the same problem with the car bluetooth, I realize that it's my phone and not the speaker(s).

Does it make a difference in how I solve this problem if it was the Nougat update?

 

[B. Diddy]

Does this happen in Safe Mode? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-28008. This can help exclude 3rd party apps as a possible culprit. I'm not sure if that's one of the suggested solutions that you tried.

If this is an issue that doesn't clear after wiping the cache partition, and persists in Safe Mode, then the main question is if it's a bug in the Nougat update, or if something went wrong with the update. Unfortunately, your next step may have to be a factory reset. If the problem persists after a factory reset, then try reinstalling the firmware (using Smart Switch): http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29914

 

[MAC1973]

Disabling Battery Optimization didn't work. Haven't tried Safe Mode, yet. That'll probably be next.

I really, really, really don't want to do a factory reset, especially if there's no guarantee that it'll actually fix the problem. Fingers crossed....

 

[Dre B]

Hi.
I know this thread's a bit old, but I've been having what appear to be similar issues to the ones described and was hoping to find a solution.

I have a Galaxy S7 that is currently running Android Oreo and I have a pair of MotoROKR s305 Bluetooth headphones that I use for music and to occasionally make and receive calls.

As OP stated, making outgoing calls is no problem. The audio will go straight to the headset when a call is made.

However, for some reason, when I get incoming calls, it will sometimes not acknowledge the connected headset or send audio to it. It knows the headset is paired. It will even go as far as to answer the call when I press the corresponding button on the headset......but then, the audio for the call will come directly from the phone (which is usually in its belt holster where I can't hear it) instead of the headset.

I figured it may be some kind of idle power-saving sleep mode as mentioned in this thread (either on the phone or the headset itself) that keeps causing this.......but I've found that this happens even when I successfully finish making a call with the headset and the recipient calls me back less than a minute later. This is simply not a long enough time lapse for any reasonable power-saving mode to go into effect on either device and it is extremely infuriating!

The only time I do not have any issues answering incoming calls with the headset is if a call comes while I am already actively using them, either to listen to music or to watch a video on my phone.....and the headphones are always ready to receive media audio in those instances no matter how long they have been sitting powered-on, idle and not in use. So, why is it not this way when calls come in?

If there is any kind of solution, say some settings I could tweak or even a 3rd party app I could use to put a stop to this behaviour, then I'm all ears.

Thanks.