Turn off Bluetooth auto connect?

[Android Central Question]

Galaxy S9+ running Oreo.
Bluetooth Auto connect has forced me to engage in ridiculous amounts of Bluetooth management when going in and out of my car. I use a bluetooth headset all day (talk and music). When I get in my car, my phone automatically connects to my car. I am in and out of my car 30-40 times per day...hence the high level of bluetooth management. I have tried several work-arounds with poor success and inconvenient interruptions to my day. It seems there should be a button in the Bluetooth connections menu that let's folks turn this feature on/off. Forcing a connection to paired devices implies someone (Android) knows my phone call and music preferences.

Bluetooth auto connect should be like the "auto brightness" on android phones where I have the choice to use the automated feature.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

You could unpair the car...

 

[Joe Ryan3]

You could unpair the car...

Yes, I could. But then when I want to use my car audio, I would need to re-pair. If there was no auto connect I could just choose what device I want to use from my Connection menu. Simple, quick, user controlled.

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

Have you tried dual audio? In settings, connections, Bluetooth, three dots, dual audio
Or keep the car's Bluetooth disabled until you need it.

 

[Hermes Hidayat]

Galaxy S9+ running Oreo.
Bluetooth Auto connect has forced me to engage in ridiculous amounts of Bluetooth management when going in and out of my car. I use a bluetooth headset all day (talk and music). When I get in my car, my phone automatically connects to my car. I am in and out of my car 30-40 times per day...hence the high level of bluetooth management. I have tried several work-arounds with poor success and inconvenient interruptions to my day. It seems there should be a button in the Bluetooth connections menu that let's folks turn this feature on/off. Forcing a connection to paired devices implies someone (Android) knows my phone call and music preferences.

Bluetooth auto connect should be like the "auto brightness" on android phones where I have the choice to use the automated feature.

Any thoughts on this?

Im sorry if i got this wrong. So the problem is that the phone keeps connecting back and forth? In my Mitsubishi i could turn auto reconnect off. So if i wantes to connect my phone to the car i got to open bluetooth in the car and tap my phone.

 

[CKwik240]

If you're only using it for media, you may be able to just turn off the phone call audio in the Bluetooth settings for that device.

 

[Jonathan Ben-Ami]

I have the same problem. We have multiple Bluetooth devices in our home and multiple phones. Whenever we turn on one device all the phones try to connect to it and it makes a mess. Especially if that phone is already playing something on a different device. I would like to be able to auto connect to some devices (like my earphones) but not others (like the speakers in the house). Is there any way to do this?

 

[methodman89]

I have the same problem. We have multiple Bluetooth devices in our home and multiple phones. Whenever we turn on one device all the phones try to connect to it and it makes a mess. Especially if that phone is already playing something on a different device. I would like to be able to auto connect to some devices (like my earphones) but not others (like the speakers in the house). Is there any way to do this?

This is a year old post.
Your issue can be resolved in settings by turning off Bluetooth scanning.

 

[krasher2]

This is a year old post.
Your issue can be resolved in settings by turning off Bluetooth scanning.

This didn't work.

Looking for an app or something that will manage BT devices. Use case: I want a particular bluetooth device to only connect with my phone during certain hours. Right now, I have a Tasker task set up, but it's not really working great. It will shut off the connection at the appointed time, but if I leave and come back to the space where the device is, it will automatically connect.

 

[Triangulatorr]

This didn't work.

Looking for an app or something that will manage BT devices. Use case: I want a particular bluetooth device to only connect with my phone during certain hours. Right now, I have a Tasker task set up, but it's not really working great. It will shut off the connection at the appointed time, but if I leave and come back to the space where the device is, it will automatically connect.

This is gonna sound crazy, but I miss something about my BlackBerry from 8 years ago. You could, per-device, select auto-connect, never connect, or ask to connect. Such a pain for my phone to connect to my wife's car when she gets home, etc. I'd like that feature in Android.

 

[pizza_pablo]

Perhaps this app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.myklos.btautoconnect

 

[forbagr]

Perhaps this app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.myklos.btautoconnect

Yearly subscription instead of a one time purchase, and I tried the free version, can't seem to stop it from Auto connecting even after I disconnect from the SmartThings menu (Note9), even if the app is supposed to do that. This problem should be easier to solve. I don't want to turn off Bluetooth. Having the same issue with multiple devices trying to grab the connection as soon as you turn on the speaker or when you walk into a room it just Auto connects to the first one that completes the connection.

 

[kikbxr1969]

Perhaps this app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.myklos.btautoconnect

The first ten or so reviews are 1 star. Appears the app is buggy and is scamming people out of their money.

 

[pizza_pablo]

The first ten or so reviews are 1 star. Appears the app is buggy and is scamming people out of their money.

Then it would be cheaper to get everyone their own BT speaker.

 

[Malleabous]

I've had this problem for over a year on a Galaxy S8 running Android 9. I'll be on a conference call when my wife will start her car or pull in the driveway, and my phone will switch from my speakerphone to her car. This is embarrassing and annoying, but I've yet to find a solution, unless I want to unpair every device and re-pair only when I need it. It's kind of hard to believe there's no way to manage BT devices or at least turn off the feature that automatically switches devices mid-call. It'd be great if the Android folks could put this on their backlog.

 

[Jacobbnielsen]

I have kind of the same problem with a BT adapter for our stereo. The adapter is always on for everyone to easily connecting to it. However this made it kind of a random race as for whom would connect to it at any given time.
Also when someone was home alone our phones/tablets would automatically connect to the adapter even when we didn't want to use it.

Unfortunately it seems like no one has solved this issue elegantly, though the solution seems obvious; implementing a BT auto connect setting for each BT device paired.

I did however find a usable work around:
By opening the BT settings for each device, for which you don't want to automatically connect to your phone or tablet, you can deselect all the functionalities for that device.
This will actually make your phone or tablet not reconnect to the device until you enable at least one of the devices functionalities again.
Now the trick is to make the device settings as easily accessible as possible. My current solution to this is adding a widget to our phones and tablets. Right now I have only found a widget that will let us enter the BT general settings, and not the settings of an individual device. But even this solution is working, all though it by no means is perfect.

If anyone knows of a widget that'll let me enter the settings of a specific BT device directly, please leave a note in here...
The same goes of course if you know of a simpler solution or work around for the problem causing this discussion.

 

[senwebtek]

Have you tried using the 'Devices' button on status bar pull-down?

 

[Malvisk]

My situation is needing this solution as well. My bathroom has a BT speaker that we need to turn on, and only allows one device to connect to the device. As soon as my wife turns it on to connect, my phone quickdraws and connects first.

A per device, disable autoconnect is exactly what I need.

 

[Nuc86]

My situation is needing this solution as well. My bathroom has a BT speaker that we need to turn on, and only allows one device to connect to the device. As soon as my wife turns it on to connect, my phone quickdraws and connects first.

A per device, disable autoconnect is exactly what I need.

Activate the Developers options and to "Maximum connected Bluetooth audio devices" and change to 1 device.

Restart your device.

 

[Nuc86]

Galaxy S9+ running Oreo.
Bluetooth Auto connect has forced me to engage in ridiculous amounts of Bluetooth management when going in and out of my car. I use a bluetooth headset all day (talk and music). When I get in my car, my phone automatically connects to my car. I am in and out of my car 30-40 times per day...hence the high level of bluetooth management. I have tried several work-arounds with poor success and inconvenient interruptions to my day. It seems there should be a button in the Bluetooth connections menu that let's folks turn this feature on/off. Forcing a connection to paired devices implies someone (Android) knows my phone call and music preferences.

Bluetooth auto connect should be like the "auto brightness" on android phones where I have the choice to use the automated feature.

Any thoughts on this?

Activate the Developers options and to "Maximum connected Bluetooth audio devices" and change to 1 device.

Restart your device.