Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

[anon(8114070)]

So tried this and still get dropouts. Went back to screen on and no dropouts.

You mention having dropouts with audiobooks - is that using the Audible app? I only have this with music, not with the Audible app. And in both cases the audio content is stored on my external card, not internal memory.

Sorry I failed to mention, for the audiobooks I'm using Listen Audiobook Player. Currently for music I use the default app. I've used my phone rather heavily today either making long phone calls (10-15 minutes) and listening to audiobooks (about three hours) and during this time I had zero dropouts. My books are stored on my 64GB SD card.

BTW currently I manage the books on the SD card by connecting the phone to my PC (Win 8.1) and using my file explorer app (Xplorer2) to delete books I've listened to or add more books. Currently the book player cannot delete files on the SD card the developer is working on the issue.

 

[rmausser]

I'm not sure if the problem has already been solved, but yesterday I went out for my daily walk and began having the skipping problem right from the start. In fact, the skipping only happens when I'm out on my walk. I've yet to have it happen at home. This time, it skipped once or twice EACH song. I normally have my Note 4 in a front pouch around my waist. Frustrated, I decided to try something different. I took my phone out and held it as I walked. For the next hour or so, it did it only twice. When it did skip, I noticed it did it when I held it waist high or lower. Perhaps the solution is not to have it too enclosed and not too far away from the earbuds or is this just a wishful thinking? I'll be looking for such a holder to confirm my "theory". Once or twice an hour I can live with.

Has anyone else tried this (or any other) "experiment"? I'd love to hear other possible solutions. Thanks.

Lawrence

The fix for this appears to be turning off wifi, AND going into wifi settings > Advanced and turning off "always allow scanning" and "network notification"

What is happening is that the wifi chip is snooping for wifi connections while you walk, and as you pass by a store, etc etc, it finds a wifi ping.

It doesnt actually connect, but the wifi/bluetooh radio in Samsung devices is a single all-in-one component.

This short "ping" is enough to draw some resources away from the bluetooth connection, thus causing a2dp profile (thats the audio connection) to skip.

It wont happen when you are stationary, as you aren't moving in space and thus, exposing the phone to a new location and new wifi signals it can snoop on.

 

[sparksd]

The fix for this appears to be turning off wifi, AND going into wifi settings > Advanced and turning off "always allow scanning" and "network notification"

What is happening is that the wifi chip is snooping for wifi connections while you walk, and as you pass by a store, etc etc, it finds a wifi ping.

It doesnt actually connect, but the wifi/bluetooh radio in Samsung devices is a single all-in-one component.

This short "ping" is enough to draw some resources away from the bluetooth connection, thus causing a2dp profile (thats the audio connection) to skip.

It wont happen when you are stationary, as you aren't moving in space and thus, exposing the phone to a new location and new wifi signals it can snoop on.

Tried that - doesn't work for me.

 

[zeuswsu]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

What's weird is it never skips in my car but always skips when connected to my bose Bluetooth speaker. So annoying, this with other issues are enough to get me to lean towards getting an iPhone when I'm due for an upgrade. I've never considered buying an iPhone before but Google seems to be putting out buggy updates lately.

With that said the screen on fix using the timer seems to be working so thanks for that.

 

[samwifi]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

What's weird is it never skips in my car but always skips when connected to my bose Bluetooth speaker. So annoying, this with other issues are enough to get me to lean towards getting an iPhone when I'm due for an upgrade. I've never considered buying an iPhone before but Google seems to be putting out buggy updates lately.

With that said the screen on fix using the timer seems to be working so thanks for that.

I could not agree more. I've always thought apple products were just dumb and always loved android only. But recently I was forced to buy an iPad air 2 because of work related needs that are optimized on the ipad. It works so well, I got rid of my note 10.1. My family wants to admit me to the ER because now I can't say enough about how well the iPad operates.. so I'm now considering an iPhone in the future.. I can't believe I just typed that... but smooth streaming bluetooth music is paramount for me along with fast uninhibited UI.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

What's weird is it never skips in my car but always skips when connected to my bose Bluetooth speaker. So annoying, this with other issues are enough to get me to lean towards getting an iPhone when I'm due for an upgrade. I've never considered buying an iPhone before but Google seems to be putting out buggy updates lately.

With that said the screen on fix using the timer seems to be working so thanks for that.

You don't have to use the timer. It was just an experiment I did based on the CPU sleeping theory that was either extremely lucky for a couple of days or there was an additional process (or processes) working together with it that I have not been able to replicate.

All you need is the screen on fix that the others came up with. Keep your screen dim unless you are using it and turn off the timer to save as much battery as you can.

 

[Degineth]

Really unfortunate for Verizon users as the fact that there is a work around and that the issue isn't prevalent on all carrier variants points to a kernel issue. If only bootloaders on the other variants weren't locked people could at least install other kernels in an attempt to increase minimum cpu frequency while screen is off to try to combat the issue. Agree with sparksd that more people need to complain about it to elevate the issue.

 

[dmagikwand]

I've noticed we've gotten 10 more complaints logged at google in the past 4 days. Up to 75. Possibly because this thread was brought back to life. If you are having this issue please post it here at Google. Maybe nothing changes, but it can't hurt. https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?can=2&q=95294&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars&id=95294#makechanges
It only takes about 5 minutes or so.

 

[Jetta392]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

You don't have to use the timer. It was just an experiment I did based on the CPU sleeping theory that was either extremely lucky for a couple of days or there was an additional process (or processes) working together with it that I have not been able to replicate.

All you need is the screen on fix that the others came up with. Keep your screen dim unless you are using it and turn off the timer to save as much battery as you can.

I too have the skipping problem. I believe it started after installing Lollipop. I use an app called keep Screen which allows you to choose what apps to keep the screen from timing out. It also has the option to dim the screen to min (which I have it set) or to leave it at max brightness. I can still read the screen with the dim setting.The drain on the battery is minimal. Once you leave the app you are using, the screens brightness returns to how you have it set. I'm hoping they will fix this annoying problem.

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

I too have the skipping problem. I believe it started after installing Lollipop. I use an app called keep Screen which allows you to choose what apps to keep the screen from timing out. It also has the option to dim the screen to min (which I have it set) or to leave it at max brightness. I can still read the screen with the dim setting.The drain on the battery is minimal. Once you leave the app you are using, the screens brightness returns to how you have it set. I'm hoping they will fix this annoying problem.

The screen (at least on the GS5) gets very dim, too dim to read, but I'm I'm sure it is good for my battery and screen. I find myself in normal room light having to guess where the button is to change the brightness back to auto. I've navigated Android screens for 6 years so and the brightness button location has never changed that I remember, so no biggie there. I compared it to my GS3's lowest brightness setting and the difference is remarkable in how much lower my 5 will go.

 

[mrcil20]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

I could not agree more. I've always thought apple products were just dumb and always loved android only. But recently I was forced to buy an iPad air 2 because of work related needs that are optimized on the ipad. It works so well, I got rid of my note 10.1. My family wants to admit me to the ER because now I can't say enough about how well the iPad operates.. so I'm now considering an iPhone in the future.. I can't believe I just typed that... but smooth streaming bluetooth music is paramount for me along with fast uninhibited UI.

Posted via the Android Central App

I had an iPhone 5 last year and I was having the exact same problem with Bluetooth skipping after installing ios 8.

 

[zeuswsu]

Re: Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

I had an iPhone 5 last year and I was having the exact same problem with Bluetooth skipping after installing ios 8.

Weird, I've never had any issues using my wife's iPhone 5 or 6. I've never had problems with any of my android phones either though until the Lollipop update.

 

[JMonty]

Thanks very much for the tip about turning off the screen saver. It was frustrating as I didn't know which component of my setup was to blame, i.e. phone, SD card, Bose Bluetooth headphones, music player using external SD card, phone OS, yikes! I get no blips now that my screen remains active. I am using Bose Soundlink headphones running Poweramp with a Samsung SD card on a Note 4. I too tried various things like turning off S Health app, different music player, putting music files on internal memory, etc. Nothing worked until this - keeping screen active. The Note 4 maximum setting for this is 10 minutes so I downloaded the No Time Toggle app suggested below to keep screen active beyond OS setting. Not a very elegant solution, but it works until Samsung and others figure this out. Thanks again!

 

[tkoreaper]

Fixed it!
Add this line to you build.prop and watch the skips disappear.

ro.bluetooth.request.master=true

It appears that Bluetooth stack completely changed which may have been the cause of the issue. A user solved his issues BEFORE the Bluetooth change by adding a bunch of stuff to his audio.conf file

[General]
Enable=Sink,Control,Headset,Gateway,Source
Master=true
AutoConnect=true

[Headset]
HFP=true
MaxConnections=10
FastConnectable=false

[A2DP]
SBCSources=10
MPEG12Sources=0

[AVRCP]
InputDeviceName=AVRCP
MetaDataBlackList=Ford Audio

If anyone knows how to do these things in KitKat/Lollipop this could fix the problem for everyone... That is, if the master setting itself doesn't fix it for everyone.

 

[sparksd]

Fixed it!
Add this line to you build.prop and watch the skips disappear.

ro.bluetooth.request.master=true

It appears that Bluetooth stack completely changed which may have been the cause of the issue. A user solved his issues BEFORE the Bluetooth change by adding a bunch of stuff to his audio.conf file

[General]
Enable=Sink,Control,Headset,Gateway,Source
Master=true
AutoConnect=true

[Headset]
HFP=true
MaxConnections=10
FastConnectable=false

[A2DP]
SBCSources=10
MPEG12Sources=0

[AVRCP]
InputDeviceName=AVRCP
MetaDataBlackList=Ford Audio

If anyone knows how to do these things in KitKat/Lollipop this could fix the problem for everyone... That is, if the master setting itself doesn't fix it for everyone.

With the caveat that you need to be rooted to do it.

 

[Soreloser]

I still have this issue, no matter what I have tried, even the fix I thought I had that I posted earlier in this thread doesn't work consistently. Very frustrating since I spend about 5-6 hours per day listening to music while working. Despite all the benefits of the Note 4 over other phones, I have considered changing phones just because of this problem. Grrr......

I suppose someday there will be root for the AT&T model and I might have hope of resolution...but in the meantime this sucks.

 

[kylev12]

Fixed it!
Add this line to you build.prop and watch the skips disappear.

ro.bluetooth.request.master=true

It appears that Bluetooth stack completely changed which may have been the cause of the issue. A user solved his issues BEFORE the Bluetooth change by adding a bunch of stuff to his audio.conf file

[General]
Enable=Sink,Control,Headset,Gateway,Source
Master=true
AutoConnect=true

[Headset]
HFP=true
MaxConnections=10
FastConnectable=false

[A2DP]
SBCSources=10
MPEG12Sources=0

[AVRCP]
InputDeviceName=AVRCP
MetaDataBlackList=Ford Audio

If anyone knows how to do these things in KitKat/Lollipop this could fix the problem for everyone... That is, if the master setting itself doesn't fix it for everyone.

tkoreaper you are a legend!

I can confirm that adding the line 'ro.bluetooth.request.master=true' to build.prop has fixed the problem! No more skipping over Bluetooth!

This worked on Note 4 (SM-N910G) 5.0.1
I had to root the device to do this.

Thanks again!

 

[PlanetPluto7]

Bumping it used to work for me but then I just got an app to keep the screen on. Works with at least several apps.

 

[Christian Howell]

That's good because I keep my phone in a pocket and leaving the screen on causes me to click apps when reaching for it. But testing it with the screen on there is no popping. I upgraded my Note to Lollipop and it still does it.

 

[Blacklac]

Wish there was a fix for this. I get this all the time just using wired headphones or using the phones speaker. I can't keep my display on while its in my pocket at the gym.

I have found Xbox Music doesn't have this freeze/skip/noise nearly at all, where as Play Music is every few songs. Both are downloaded music, too.

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