What connection is needed?

[Tetragrammaton]

Hi forum,

I use my LG Watch Urbane 2 (European version 3G) not that often, but I do really like this watch.

What I never understood is: What is the "minimum" connection needed, so that the watch is connected with the phone. I understood, that Bluetooth should be enough, but if I only switch the BT-connection on and turn off the phone and WiFi, then I only see the "not connected" sign on the watch. The phone via Android Wear-App says, it is connected.

I once went to the supermarket with only phone connection activated and the phone being at home connected via WiFi to the internet and I received all messages (Whatsapp, Emails, Facebook notifications). That worked perfectly, but with the phone connected "directly" to the watch, I am not quite sure, what connections are really needed (in order to save battery life on the watch).

 

[mdw1995]

Bluetooth should be enough. If you are in range, the watch will pair to the phone through bluetooth even if cell and Wi-Fi are turned on. I leave cell and Wi-Fi off when I'm close to my phone to save battery.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Thanks mdw1995

 

[StimulatorCam]

I leave cell and Wi-Fi off when I'm close to my phone to save battery.

I'm actually curious as to if a recent AW update has affected battery life for the better, as I used to see quite a drain when I had it on cell all day with my phone at home, sometimes having to charge it around 3:00pm, but in the past few weeks I haven't had that problem at all. In fact yesterday I had it on cell only (with wifi and bt still enabled, but not connected) for at least 11 hours, plus I did a 1 hour walk with GPS and heart rate tracking on after that, and I still had at least 15% battery life when I plugged it in just after midnight.

 

[mdw1995]

I'm actually curious as to if a recent AW update has affected battery life for the better..

I haven't updated my AW app on the phone for a while so I can't compare. I've turned off the auto update because I'm always afraid the new version will cause issues so I wait to hear positive reports. I'm currently on 1.5.0.3086575 (August 4th) on the phone. There have been 3 updates since then. The latest on October 7th, so hopefully you're right. The last watch update I received was the June security patch, 1.5.0.2922984.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Today was a nightmare. I haven't used the watch since early September. The watch kept showing, that it was not connected, yet there were notifications. After the answer to my question, I turned off WiFi and phone network. It did not connect again, even after I turned on the (then) missing connections.

I went home, uninstalled AW and made a factory reset on the watch. They paired, but the phone kept on saying "synching". After I made another factory reset on the watch and uninstalled AW again, rebooting my BlackBerry Priv, the phone went on a loop and not booting properly, thus I had to stop by entering the boot mode. From then on it took another while (about 1.5 hours) for me to stop AW from "synching". The watch itself was done with the factory reset and pairing process. I shut down AW and started the app again, now mysteriously being connected to the watch and truly synching. If I disconnect the watch via airplane mode from any connection, it takes another awful lot of time to re-connect.

 

[mdw1995]

Have you tried pairing with a different Android phone? Do you think the BB Priv could be the issue? Found this thread.... https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/android-wear/0pFYdh_AeLk

 

[foxbat121]

I'm actually curious as to if a recent AW update has affected battery life for the better, as I used to see quite a drain when I had it on cell all day with my phone at home, sometimes having to charge it around 3:00pm, but in the past few weeks I haven't had that problem at all. In fact yesterday I had it on cell only (with wifi and bt still enabled, but not connected) for at least 11 hours, plus I did a 1 hour walk with GPS and heart rate tracking on after that, and I still had at least 15% battery life when I plugged it in just after midnight.

I didn't notice any improvement and hence keeps cell radio off almost all the time. The battery life when have cell radio on is mostly dependent on cell signal strength as the watch will try to maintain connection with cell tower for voice and SMS.

 

[StimulatorCam]

The battery life when have cell radio on is mostly dependent on cell signal strength

Well that's the weird thing, I go to the same office all the time, and have had poor battery life there for months, until the last few weeks. I guess it's possible the cell towers near there have been upgraded or something recently, but it never really seemed like I had poor reception in that area to begin with.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Just an update: After I experienced the watch only to connect, when the cellular is running with bluetooth, I factory reset both devices (Blackberry Priv and the watch). Still the connection is lost and can not be reinstated, if I do not turn on the cellular connection.

Also: Googlemaps only works on the watch now and then...

 

[foxbat121]

Sounds like your Bluetooth never connected to the phone's AW app. I'd blame your phone for that.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Hi Foxbat, Bluetooth on both devices say, they are connected.

 

[foxbat121]

Not the BT pairing or BT audio connection. I'm talking about AW app connect via BT connection. The fact that if you turn off the cell radio and lost connection to phone means exactly that. There is no other way to tell otherwise.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Ah, ok. And you think/suggest it is the Priv? Are there reports, that Bluetooth may be buggy? I switched on the battery safe mode, does this influence this behaiviour as well?

 

[foxbat121]

I have no idea about Priv but since you have this problem and we don't, it is probably most obvious direction to look. Find another Android phone to try out. Who knows what RIM did to Android. Without BT connection working, you can't even upgrade firmware for the watch (we now have monthly security updates).

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I have no idea about Priv but since you have this problem and we don't, it is probably most obvious direction to look. Find another Android phone to try out. Who knows what RIM did to Android. Without BT connection working, you can't even upgrade firmware for the watch (we now have monthly security updates).

There were different issues, but now it finally works out fine: Only BT is active on the U2 and it is connected with the phone. There were some settings I had to change on the Android Wear app on the phone and I erased the U2 as a device in the BT-list of my phone. Now it does not show the watch being connected on the BT-settings, but the Android Wear app says it is connected... and they are.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

There were different issues, but now it finally works out fine: Only BT is active on the U2 and it is connected with the phone. There were some settings I had to change on the Android Wear app on the phone and I erased the U2 as a device in the BT-list of my phone. Now it does not show the watch being connected on the BT-settings, but the Android Wear app says it is connected... and they are.

OK... I guess, I was a bit too happy. I wanted to go to sleep and turned off BT (GSM and WiFi were turned off anyway) and checked if both devices reconnect. No such luck. I restarted both devices many times this day, just to check and they always reconnected. Only now, when I deactivated BT on the watch, they do not reconnect properly. I can say "OK Google" and my phone reacts. AW on the phone says they are connected, the U2 does say they are not. I am resetting the watch again and check if it works out. Perhaps I should not change to developer mode.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

...and now both devices won't connect... :'( I had one day with a perfectly running system.

 

[foxbat121]

Sounds like you are wasting your time. Get a real Android Phone.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Sounds like you are wasting your time. Get a real Android Phone.

Always thought that the PRIV was almost stock Android?