Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

[Dvoraak]

Haven't had this problem with the Note 4 so far but had it consistently with two different S5s. Now I'm worried it's a matter of time for the Note 4.

 

[GundamZero1972]

Finished testing my Note 4 while using an app to keep the screen from turning off, and I'm glad to say that this approach works! I've just listened to two hours of music through my Bose Soundlink Mini without a single hiccup, stutter, or blip.

 

[josh_zombie]

Good info, guys. Hope Lollipop will fix. Leaving the screen on will become tiresome rather quickly.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[sparksd]

OK, since more than just me have found the screen left on helping, I posted a bug report on Google:

Issue 95294: Bluetooth streaming audio dropouts when screen is off, Android 4.4.4

When streaming music over Bluetooth, audio dropouts are occurring when the screen is off. If the screen is left on the audio dropouts do not occur. Multiple users are seeing this behavior with the Samsung Note 4 running 4.4.4 (http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-4/477341-note-4-bluetooth-skipping-audio.html).

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list

 

[hotzeug]

Cool, thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[TweakerL]

More likely than not to be an issue of the clock on the CPU going too low. Try increasing the minimum CPU clock speed. Note that this will have a small negative impact on battery life.

Step #1 - Root your phone/device
Step #2 - Install your choice of overclocking app (You're not technically going to be overclocking the device, but yea, you'll need one of these)
Step #3 - Using the overclocking app, set the minimum clock speed one step higher than it already is by default. This should diminish the skipping considerably. If it does diminish the problem, but doesn't solve it to your satisfaction, increase it another step until satisfied. If it doesn't improve the problem at all, then the problem is elsewhere, though unlikely.

This is one of the major reasons why it bothers the hell out of me that carriers try to keep users from changing basic settings on devices that are owned and paid for by their customers. There's absolutely no need for a single person to have to wait for a patch/fix/update for a problem like this. Solving it is extremely easy, albeit impossible for the average user due to greed in the part of people that will make a ton of money either way.

 

[sparksd]

More likely than not to be an issue of the clock on the CPU going too low. Try increasing the minimum CPU clock speed. Note that this will have a small negative impact on battery life.

Step #1 - Root your phone/device
Step #2 - Install your choice of overclocking app (You're not technically going to be overclocking the device, but yea, you'll need one of these)
Step #3 - Using the overclocking app, set the minimum clock speed one step higher than it already is by default. This should diminish the skipping considerably. If it does diminish the problem, but doesn't solve it to your satisfaction, increase it another step until satisfied. If it doesn't improve the problem at all, then the problem is elsewhere, though unlikely.

This is one of the major reasons why it bothers the hell out of me that carriers try to keep users from changing basic settings on devices that are owned and paid for by their customers. There's absolutely no need for a single person to have to wait for a patch/fix/update for a problem like this. Solving it is extremely easy, albeit impossible for the average user due to greed in the part of people that will make a ton of money either way.

I've rooted several other Android devices but I'm not interested in doing it with my Note 4 so I'll just stick with the screen-on workaround.

 

[c292]

Hi all, I finally solved the bluetooth music skip problem on my note4 after months of research, downloading program to keep the screen on, keeping the CPU at max level with the screen off etc. I compared the settings on my S4 and note3 which never have such issue, and figured out the cause is the fingerprint security lock. The keep on screen on method preventing the fingerprint lock being activated; Ever since I switched the security lock from fingerprint to pattern, the music never skip once. Hope it will solve the problem on yours as well. Good Luck!

 

[Soreloser]

I don't use a screen lock at all and the skipping glitches are happening with my blue tooth.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[sparksd]

I don't use a screen lock at all and the skipping glitches are happening with my blue tooth.

Posted via the Android Central App

Same here.

 

[hotzeug]

Thanks for the tip c292, but I too don't use a screen lock like Soreloser and sparksd. I did a test and set my phone up to pattern lock just to see if that would fix it for me too, but it still skips. I'm glad you found a fix for yourself though.

 

[tlo12duro]

So glad I'm seeing this. I thought I was going crazy! Not only did the audio skip on every audio player I've used, I actually returned my lg retractable headset and got the beats pro 2. Once connected the issue didn't start until about a day or so. I tried the method of keeping the screen on and I must say, no skipping on the audio. Thanks for the help!!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[sparksd]

Got Lollipop installed and it appears this skipping issue is fixed - so far I haven't run into it with the screen off though I haven't run a very long time yet. Can anyone else check this out?

 

[Slantize]

Got Lollipop installed and it appears this skipping issue is fixed - so far I haven't run into it with the screen off though I haven't run a very long time yet. Can anyone else check this out?

glad to hear this, the skipping is quite irritating! unfortunately i'm on at&t so i don't have the update yet. i wonder if the exynos versions suffer from this same thing?

 

[tlo07]

Got Lollipop installed and it appears this skipping issue is fixed - so far I haven't run into it with the screen off though I haven't run a very long time yet. Can anyone else check this out?

That gives me some hope, anyway.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[trance728]

Glad I found this thread because I was really getting pissed off and about returned the LG Tone Pro's I just got. These were the first things I used bluetooth with on my Note, wired never had any issues, but the bluetooth gets these skips like 3-4 times in a song and it's really irritating. The crappier part is my phone is running on Lollipop so the update did nothing for me. I haven't tried any of the other solutions as I just came across this, but I do not have any lockscreen security on my Note. I will try the battery thing and a couple other options to see if it will fix, then resort to a factory reset. If none of these fix this I am going to be deeply disappointed, keeping the screen on seems like an unnecessary option.

 

[sparksd]

Glad I found this thread because I was really getting pissed off and about returned the LG Tone Pro's I just got. These were the first things I used bluetooth with on my Note, wired never had any issues, but the bluetooth gets these skips like 3-4 times in a song and it's really irritating. The crappier part is my phone is running on Lollipop so the update did nothing for me. I haven't tried any of the other solutions as I just came across this, but I do not have any lockscreen security on my Note. I will try the battery thing and a couple other options to see if it will fix, then resort to a factory reset. If none of these fix this I am going to be deeply disappointed, keeping the screen on seems like an unnecessary option. I feel the blame is solely on Samsung and not Google since this is not a problem with my HTC.

I made a bug report at Google on this and others replied that they were seeing the same with other devices:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?can=2&q=95294&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars&id=95294

 

[trance728]

I just saw that on some other threads so I edited my post to take that line out. I'm trying out a bunch of scenarios with it right now to see if anything will eliminate it besides keeping the screen on.

 

[trance728]

I was able to reduce the frequency of the clipping by switching to the NuPlayer in the developers options but it hasn't completely eliminated them. I even went into safe mode with the WiFi off and I still get clipping, so frustrating. Judging by the amount of complaints on different devices starting with KitKat I'm not sure that we're going to see a fix for this anytime soon. Wish I would have had the chance to try it when I had KitKat on my Note because my buddy who hasn't updated his yet doesn't have this issue.

 

[sparksd]

I was able to reduce the frequency of the clipping by switching to the NuPlayer in the developers options but it hasn't completely eliminated them. I even went into safe mode with the WiFi off and I still get clipping, so frustrating. Judging by the amount of complaints on different devices starting with KitKat I'm not sure that we're going to see a fix for this anytime soon. Wish I would have had the chance to try it when I had KitKat on my Note because my buddy who hasn't updated his yet doesn't have this issue.

I don't recall what they are and can't find them in searches, but there were other issues associated with NuPlayer being on so keep an eye out. It used to be on by default but then was switched to off by default in an update.