S6 trouble pairing with vehicle

[Bradskey]

Just upgraded to a new S6 128GB on Sprint yesterday from an old S3. My old S3 happily pairs automatically with the Bluetooth in my 2013 Focus every day without issue. Paired the new S6 with the car yesterday and it seemed fine, auto paired again after work with no issue. This morning it would not connect to my car's Bluetooth, kept messing with turning Bluetooth on and off, telling the car to connect, messing with menu settings. Finally it paired after I rebooted the phone and fiddled with it some more, very frustrating. I found a thread on the Verizon community complaining about this very issue with the S6 pairing with in-vehicle Bluetooth.

Anybody else having issues pairing the S6 with your car? Is there maybe something wrong with the Bluetooth radio or software stack? The device works fine with my Android Wear watch, stays paired without issue, but I haven't really gotten to try any other Bluetooth accessories yet (the BT adapter in my truck, BT speakers at home, BT headphones, etc).

 

[TrekScout]

I have had to fuss with connecting BT a few times... not pairing but connecting a device on BT that was previously paired, which is what I think you mean. I have also rebooted the phone and rebooted the car. I have a Volt and it literally boots like a computer. I eventually get it to connect. Something seems to confuse the phone if the order of things in the connect process are done wrong, like I start the car and then realize BT is off on the phone and then I turn on the phone's BT and it doesn't connect automatically or fast enough, so I impatiently, go to BT settings and try to force it to connect. I feel like sometimes it is something that I do in the wrong order that just confuses the connection beyond it's capacity to recover. Rebooting both devices and making sure BT is turned on in the phone before turning on the BT device seems to help. Mildly annoying, but I'm always able to get it to connect eventually.

 

[Bradskey]

Yes I meant connecting. I tend to leave BT turned on on the phone all the time. I don't want to have to mess with it and fight with it every morning, it should just work, the car and the phone should connect when I get in and start it up and I shouldn't have to do anything, much less in any particular order. That's been my experience for 2+ years with the S3 in my Focus. Granted I don't have a track record of issues yet, just the first day, but others seem to have been experiencing this issue with multiple make and model vehicles already which is concerning. If there is a problem here it seriously needs to be fixed soon.

 

[Rob Nielsen]

I have a 2011 Kia Sportage. It paired with my S3 on the first try and worked flawlessly. I just downgraded to the S6 and after the first 3 days, i have to manually pair it every time i start the car. If it were not for the battery life, i'd hand the S6 back in and go back to my S3. I am getting some serious dislike for the S6.

 

[Bradskey]

Ive had 2 or 3 days of consistent luck with the phone auto connecting to my car after that one incident, but I have no confidence that it wont happen again. I've also had issues playing a recording back to a bluetooth speaker with occasional intermittent stuttering and static for about 30s like the cpu is too busy to play back smoothly. I do think the bluetooth on this device is a little buggy. Was flawless on my S3 so again I don't know how to screw up something that previously had no issues.

 

[Bradskey]

Phone did not connect to BT in my car again this morning. It has worked fine for several days in a row. I did notice last night before retiring that it had lost connection to my Android Wear watch and would not reconnect. So my theory is basically Bluetooth stack on the phone was completely hosed. I turned BT off and back on again and was able to get the car connected. Was streaming music in the car and at some point BT just died again. Turned it off and back on, phone got really slow for a couple minutes, I got annoyed, and it eventually reconnected. Came home and again the watch would not connect. Finally rebooted the phone and seems to be okay now, but the phone seems to get in a state sometimes where BT just is not stable. Dunno if its Lollipop or Samsung, but something is definitely not right and needs to be fixed.

 

[jcp007]

No problem pairing with our vehicle. It was the first thing I did after I picked it up at Best Buy.

Posted via My Samsung Galaxy S6 Handheld Device

 

[Coney718]

I sometimes have issues connecting mine. Some days it connects just fine when I start my car other times not. I have to turn bluetooth off then back on again for it to connect.

 

[mack1951]

I have the S6 and have had no trouble pairing it with my 2012 Hyundai Accent. Been 2 weeks and phone connects every time I start the car. I did have a problem connecting my Sony SW2 smartwatch and had to use NFC to pair it but it has stayed connected since.

 

[tlo07]

I have an intermittent problem where my steering wheel control buttons (2011 Hyundai Sonata) won't answer an incoming call but other that it connects every time by itself. I havent done any troubleshooting because its pretty infrquent. I have no problems with my Bluebuds X headphones. As a matter of fact they work better with my S6 than they did with my Note 4. No hiccups during music playback. Yay!

Sent from a far away Galaxy

 

[Bradskey]

This is a thread on Verizon where people have discussed this issue:

https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/857847?start=0&tstart=0

I find just about every day or two I sometimes have to turn Bluetooth off and on again (sometimes multiple times) to get devices to connect again, including my car and my smart watch. Its really annoying, and I shouldn't have to do this ever. I should be able to leave BT on all the time and connect/disconnect devices with ease. I still believe Bluetooth on this phone is unstable, whether its Lollipop or the S6 or a combination of factors. I have never had these issues with my S3.

 

[Rff2015]

I had an S4 for 2 years and it worked flawlessly. I only paired once with my 2013 Hyundai. Since then, I upgraded to S6 and now I have to pair every couple of days because it says "pairing failed".

One of the people commented that they used NFC to pair. How do you do that?

Thanks!

 

[cwagon13]

My S3 would connect with my Kenwood car stereo within a few seconds of starting the car, but my S6 takes about 35-45 seconds before it even starts the connection and sync process.

 

[steveSouthofFrance]

I have the same bluetooth hands free pairing problem with my new S6 Edge and my car. I just switched from the S4. It pairs but then every 5 minutes or so it unpairs and then repairs. When I'm on a handsfree call it cuts out but the handset is still connected to the call. Then after 30 seconds or so it reconnects and picks up via the hands free speakers in my car. Very annoying.

 

[steveSouthofFrance]

Is the new BT on Samsung S6 Edge incompatible with my Car perhaps? Here is some text I found on another website (I'm cutting an pasting here).

"Galaxy S6 Can’t Find Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Headset
Problem: Hello, my name is Michael. My problem is, that I tried to connect my Backbeat 903+ to my new Samsung galaxy S6, but the phone just seem can´t find the headphones.
I had an old android phone that died on me (Motorola Razr) the headphones are brand new and worked fine on the old phone, before it died, but when I start the Bluetooth search button on my new S6, nothing can be found in the near.
Sometimes in the list appears “6C:94:F8:E3:C1:4D” (I don´t know what that is for a device) but when trying to connect to this, it says it can´t communicate with it. I apologize for my bad English and wish you a nice day.

Suggestion: Hi Michael! Your phone already answered your question–it can’t communicate with your Bluetooth headset. The BackBeat 903+ (by Plantronics) was released around the last quarter of 2010. I should know because I received one from a local retailer for review. There have been a lot of improvements to Bluetooth since that time and as much as we want our older BT devices to work our new phones, we really can’t do anything if the issue is with compatibility. They’re not just compatible. The fact is a lot of Bluetooth headsets can no longer be used or paired with new devices bearing newer technologies. But apparently, your phone can still detect a device that is trying to pair with it through Bluetooth only that it can’t recognize it and therefore, they can’t be paired or connected."

 

[Okillawi]

Hi, for Samsung galaxy S6 edge, Bluetooth can't detect car problem. Try this:
1st, turn your car on. 2nd, go to settings then turn on Bluetooth in your mobile. 3rd, open phone screen in your car and tab connections (contacts numbers) then it will ask you to search for mobile Bluetooth, accept and check your mobile for approval pop-up message. Good luck

 

[ahaynes106]

I have a 2011 Sonata. BT in it has worked flawlessly with my Droid X for several years and my Moto X for the last year or so. Now I have a Galaxy S6. Every single morning I have to re-pair the device to my car. Moto X is not an old phone, so I am not buying the new tech won't work with old BT devices comment that was posted earlier.

 

[laarj]

We had Samsung dumb phones that worked great with our 2014 Kia and Panasonic link to cell home phones. Our S6's have issues with initiating calls (via BT) on our Panasonic phones. We can connect phone calls over BT with the Kia but listening to SMS msgs is hit or miss. I called Samsung and the techs have no clue. Clear the cache, re-pair the BT makes no difference. You would think that these type of issues would be resolved prior to release. Researching S6 BT issues shows a large number of users having problems; not sure it's a priority with Samsung....

 

[Toni Julian]

back in April i bought a 2015 Sonata Limited. A month ago i bought S6 Edge, and it pairs fine, but it screws with my software in the car and makes it to where i cant use the Bluetooth !!! I took it in to be looked at, at the dealership. The service manager makes me aware that my phone is not yet compatible with Hyundai !!! The phone has been out since April 2015. I mean come on !!! I was very upset that I was not made aware when i bough the car that there was a PDF file for Hyundai about cell phone compatibility !!!! I have a 2013 BMW that it works just fine with ! How sad is that? So needless to say I showed by **** in the dealership. I travel a lot and it is very important that i can use my Bluetooth ! Well now i have this brand new 2015 Sonata Limited that the bluetooth is useless. They have no clue of when they will even be compatible ! I was so mad that i told the manager they had a week to figure out rather they wanted to buy my car back at contract price or pay $700 for me to get out of my contract and buy a older phone "SAD" so i could use it in my brand new $30,000 car. VERY PIST AND UPSET WITH HYUNDAI !!!!!!!

 

[jfs101]

back in April i bought a 2015 Sonata Limited. A month ago i bought S6 Edge, and it pairs fine, but it screws with my software in the car and makes it to where i cant use the Bluetooth !!! I took it in to be looked at, at the dealership. The service manager makes me aware that my phone is not yet compatible with Hyundai !!! The phone has been out since April 2015. I mean come on !!! I was very upset that I was not made aware when i bough the car that there was a PDF file for Hyundai about cell phone compatibility !!!! I have a 2013 BMW that it works just fine with ! How sad is that? So needless to say I showed by **** in the dealership. I travel a lot and it is very important that i can use my Bluetooth ! Well now i have this brand new 2015 Sonata Limited that the bluetooth is useless. They have no clue of when they will even be compatible ! I was so mad that i told the manager they had a week to figure out rather they wanted to buy my car back at contract price or pay $700 for me to get out of my contract and buy a older phone "SAD" so i could use it in my brand new $30,000 car. VERY PIST AND UPSET WITH HYUNDAI !!!!!!!

Toni, you might want to look at this video. It's a review of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata. They used a Samsung S6 with Android auto and the Hyundai system.

https://youtu.be/xlsV8ModOgY

Posted via the Android Central App