Bixby having trouble lately

[arunma]

For several days now, I've noticed Bixby behaving strangely. I used to be able to tell Bixby to "navigate home by driving." Now, when I speak this command it opens the Maps app correctly, but asks me to specify a destination. Bixby doesn't seem to realize that "home" is the destination, despite that it previously could.

I'm also experiencing another issue, which I assume is unrelated to the maps problem. Previously, Bixby was able to recognize names in my contacts, and spell them correctly. This is important for me because I have a lot of people with foreign-ish sounding names in my phone book, and if Bixby can't recognize them, that's going to severely hinder its functionality for me. But now, some apps seem to have lost support for it. For example, let's say I have someone with a big long name like "Sai Venugopalan." If I search for this guy in my contacts, Bixby is still able to recognize the name and spell it correctly. But if I try searching for him in WhatsApp, it no longer works, despite that just a couple weeks ago I had no problems with this.

A couple of important points:
- I know Bixby was updated a few days ago, but I was experiencing these problems prior to the latest update
- I have tried to "teach" these names to Bixby, and it doesn't seem to be willing to learn

Anyone else had problems with Maps or support for contacts searching?

 

[itinj6]

I'm having issues with Bixby recognizing contacts too. "Teaching" isn't helping either. Very frustrating. Even worse, quick commands and custom responses aren't working. I was a huge believer in Bixby at first but I'm feeling kind of skeptical now.

 

[daves221]

clearly still a work in progress, and I think will be for some time, and we're along for the ride! I'm ok with that but will be ups and downs.

 

[aldo82]

I keep trying to use it but it's so terrible for my use case Vs Google assistant. I think the fact that it needs the internet for everything really slows it down and I often get connection errors even though all other data functions are working fine on my phone

 

[Awhispersecho]

Yup, Bixby doesn't recognize half of my contacts. Something as simple as "Christina" wich Bixby had no problem with before, suddenly she tries looking for "Cristina" and can't find the contact. Teaching it doesn't work anynmore and when you select the name, she then doesn't know whether to dial the cell or mobile even though you said cell. This started a week or so ago.

I used Bixby because she responded to a button press on my bluetooth headset, now that she sucks, does Google Assistant respond to a Bluetooth headset button press. I used to just pres the button on my headset and Bixby would open and listen for me to tell her to call someone or do something. I need that ability from 1 of these damn assistants and I;m wondering if Google Assistant does that. Cortana was perfect with this on Windows Phone but she sucks on Android too. I don't understand how Android doesn't have 1 assistant that truly works hands free without me having to have it open or on the home screen. Bixby was close but she has clearly taken a step back. Any suggestions? This is pathetically bad compared to the supposedly inferior Windows Phone and Cortana.

 

[z0ove]

Happend it to me last week and i fixed it out clearing cache partition and Bixby cache.

Working fine so far

 

[itinj6]

Coincidentally, Just opened the Galaxy app store and there is a Bixby update sitting there. Hopefully this update fixes the problems.

 

[Awhispersecho]

Can you explain to me how to clear the cache partition and the Bixby Cache? Is there anything that clearing the cache could damage or change? I would really rather stick to my Bixby and Cortana combo if I could get the damn thing to work instead of having to use Google Assistant. I just want 1 assistant that did what Cortana used to do. Press the bluetooth button and it opens so I can call or text a message, announce calls and texts to me, track my packages, set reminders and all that good stuff.

Cortana did all of that and she did it over the phone, through a bluetooth heaset or through the car. That's all I want and I think the #1 Mobile OS in the world with the money and technical abilities along with all the info they gather from us, should be able to provide that. If they can't, let MS fully bake Cortana into Android so she is as capable as she was on Windows Phone. Having to use 2 or 3 assistants and still not be able to do all the things just 1 assistant did on another now dead platform is crazy and they should be embarassed.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

As someone said, bixby is a work in progress. Unfortunately Samsung is the ones doing the work in progress, it will be awhile. Bixby disabled on my phone, no headaches to deal with.

 

[arunma]

Happend it to me last week and i fixed it out clearing cache partition and Bixby cache.

Working fine so far

Thanks for the suggestion. I know how to wipe my cache partition, but how do I wipe the Bixby cache?

 

[z0ove]

Thanks for the suggestion. I know how to wipe my cache partition, but how do I wipe the Bixby cache?

The same way

 

[Awhispersecho]

Didn't work for me. It now only recognizes contacts spelled a certain way where before the update, it had no probelem recognizing the contacts. I then changed my default assistant to Ok Google but when I push the button on my bluetooth headset, it still launches Bixby. Such as pain in the *** to have so many different apps to do the same things. If I set Ok Google as my default voice assistant, it should be the 1 that launches when I'm trying to use an assistant over bluetoooth. Period. Nothing else should open. So I still have to have the phone right with me and say OK Google to the phone if I want it to launch so I can use it through bluetooth. This is the type of dysfunction that I was starting to see with Microsoft, didn't expect it to be worse coming to Android.

 

[arunma]

Tried wiping my Bixby cache. I also factory restored my phone yesterday (due to the unrelated but common problem of random restarts after the latest Android update a couple months ago). Still having the same problem of no longer being able to reference the spelling of my contacts.

Very annoying problem, especially given that Bixby used to do this without any issues. For the most part Bixby is great, but this inability to spell certain words/names is really making it less functional. On occasion I've noticed some egregious errors even unrelated to contact names. Just yesterday I asked Bixby to navigate me to the movie theater. It first spelled "theater" correctly, and then adjusted it to "theatr." Replacing a non-pronoun English word with a, well...non-word is not something that should ever happen.

I wish Samsung would roll back whatever was in its latest update.

 

[DARK Vader777]

Tried wiping my Bixby cache. I also factory restored my phone yesterday (due to the unrelated but common problem of random restarts after the latest Android update a couple months ago). Still having the same problem of no longer being able to reference the spelling of my contacts.

Very annoying problem, especially given that Bixby used to do this without any issues. For the most part Bixby is great, but this inability to spell certain words/names is really making it less functional. On occasion I've noticed some egregious errors even unrelated to contact names. Just yesterday I asked Bixby to navigate me to the movie theater. It first spelled "theater" correctly, and then adjusted it to "theatr." Replacing a non-pronoun English word with a, well...non-word is not something that should ever happen.

I wish Samsung would roll back whatever was in its latest update.

That last update has Bixby just on a vacation with my note. Just when I broke rankings under 17000 this happens. It's a conspiracy I tell you. I'm crying on the inside but laughing on the outside. Come on Samsung get that Bixby back working right I need my Rewards.

 

[DMarie04]

They are confirmed issues with Bixby across the board since it's update. My Bixby just stopped responding totally both voice & the button! I reset the voice response to high, I retrained the voice model & neither helped. I spoke w/Verizon and as of now there's two options: 1 is to re-set the app preference for Bixby voice by clearing the data & force stopping the app...BUT this ONLY fixed my issue for a DAY and then it stopped working again. And resetting the app preference forces you to have to re-set your Wifi, BT, your notification sounds & a few other settings, kind of a hassle. The only other temporary fix (for me, anyway) has just been to re-start your device. This option too, only works for a day or two as well but it's easier than the first option. Verizon said there's no patch or fix as of now. (12-17-17) Sad, just when people were starting to accept & see the usefulness of Bixby boy!!

 

[arunma]

Aaaand, just like that it works again! Bixby is now able to recognize names from my contacts once again. This did not happen immediately after an update. The only thing I did was add a phonetic spelling to my wife's name a few days ago, and I'm not sure if that was the cause because it can also recognize other contacts' names.

I guess I'm not complaining since the problem is gone. Would have been nice to know what happened in the first place though.

 

[pbike908]

I just got a Bixby update today on my S8. I stopped using it a couple of months ago as I couldn't get it to work properly when I said something as easy as "Call Jane Mobile" when I only have one Jane in my phone. After the update today, I decided to give it a go again and it is now working again. Samsung has been really quiet about Bixby trouble as have the Android blogs. I would like to see Samsung sort it out or else another alternative to GA as I don't want to use GA since I have to agree to allow Google to store my every query, movement, etc. on their servers in order to use GA to simply call numbers that are stored on my phone!

 

[magichoward]

I always get the answer ok cancelled

 

[Dooki]

it has gotten so bad at everything lately and the update did nothing to help so I uninstalled it. I'll give it awhile and see if it gets better.

 

[rsmin]

I love the phone but gave up on Bixby a day or so after I got the phone. Couldn't ever open it using my voice no matter what I tried. So it was kind of useless for me after that.