Bluetooth Issues

[htcdesirezgeorge]

Hey guys, I've had the Pixel 2 XL for a while and am about fed up with the Bluetooth issues I'm experiencing. Anyone else having Bluetooth call issues when wearing a smartwatch, difficulty connecting automatically to Bluetooth devices, and bad connections? This is my 2nd 2XL and it's the same issues. Has Google seriously botched their Bluetooth Stack as badly as it seems and messed up the handoff protocols? I've found myself using my Galaxy Note 8 as my daily driver because of these issues; I want to like the 2XL, honestly but these issues are just too much.

BTW I've reset settings, I've cleared caches, and reset both phones several times and I'm on 8.1

Thanks,

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I haven't noticed any issues on mine. Do the problems persist in Safe Mode? https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/2852139?hl=en

 

[htcdesirezgeorge]

thanks! The my do persist in safemode and I've logcatted what the issue is on the handoff side where it reaches out to all paired devices instead of just the connected one.

it's strange. should I post the log cat or is that more appropriate for XDA?

 

[idiotekniques]

You aren't the only report I've heard of issues with smart watches but usually there is a workaround depending on the watch.

As far as BT connecting the Pixel 2Xl will do just fine with one BT device but will simply not autoconnect to a second one without being prompted to. It seems to be a rather silly 'feature' of Google's implementation of BT in this phone.

 

[Ca_lvn]

This is the age of BT unacceptable from Google , needs a resolve haven't heard of one coming

 

[B. Diddy]

Can you give a specific situation where Bluetooth isn't automatically connecting? It's possible that it's not related directly to the phone. For example, my 2 XL pairs fine with my car system, and then if I get out of the car and put on my BT headphones while walking to the gym, the headphones automatically connect. However, when I recently had to rent a car (an Altima), the headphones wouldn't automatically connect -- the reason was that the car's BT system wasn't deactivating immediately upon turning the car off (it wasn't even idling), so the phone kept the connection with the car (even when I was in the gym lobby), and wouldn't let me connect the headphones unless I went to the BT menu to manually select the headphones.

 

[ClintRo]

I am pretty sure that the issue is the phone is connected to the watch as a phone.... so when you want to phone connect to your radio automatically it thinks you are already connected to the watch. All I have to do, it is annoying that I have to, is go into BT setting and switch the phone rocker switch on the car radio connection and it picks it up.

There should be a way to set a priority to one device so that it always connects. It works perfect on my Note 8.

 

[ClintRo]

Maybe try this week it's fine on my S3

 

[Ca_lvn]

Maybe try this week it's fine on my S3View attachment 277590

This is a known fail for BT on the pixel 2 and it's unacceptable but other phones don't do this and Google does they need to fix it!

 

[ClintRo]

I agree they need to fix it.... But that is a workaround for now. It is because it thinks the watch is a BT speaker.

 

[erasat]

Sorry but this is not an exclusive issue with the Pixel 2 as the Essential on Oreo Beta does the same, so it's an obvious Oreo BT issue, yes, Google must fix this but it will be an Oreo update good not an specific Pixel fix.

For the record, the issue occurs wuth,y Essential on 8.0 and Pixel with my Gear S3 and Ticwatch S watches,only way to make it work is by doing what it has been showed above to turn off Phone Calls on the connected device bluetooth settings. Essential Phone on Nougat works fine BTW.

 

[B. Diddy]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure it's an Oreo issue per se. I recall when I first tried connecting my Huawei Watch for phone calls to my Nexus 6P (running Nougat), it wouldn't automatically switch over to the car when I got in. So I think it may have to do with how Bluetooth works in general. To my knowledge, there's no Bluetooth setting to prefer one device over another, so if the phone is connected to one device, it will stay connected until you manually switch it over. That's why I turned off the Phone Calls option on the watch -- besides, I never use it to make or receive calls anyway, and it's much more important for my phone to connect to the car system.

 

[erasat]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure it's an Oreo issue per se. I recall when I first tried connecting my Huawei Watch for phone calls to my Nexus 6P (running Nougat), it wouldn't automatically switch over to the car when I got in. So I think it may have to do with how Bluetooth works in general. To my knowledge, there's no Bluetooth setting to prefer one device over another, so if the phone is connected to one device, it will stay connected until you manually switch it over. That's why I turned off the Phone Calls option on the watch -- besides, I never use it to make or receive calls anyway, and it's much more important for my phone to connect to the car system.

I don't know but when I first got my Essential Phone it was on Nougat and it didn't have any issues having my S3 Frontier connected together with the car's bluetooth. Right after I sideloaded the Oreo beta I began experiencing this issues so immediately knew that it was Oreo that caused it.

But, I didn't think that it was exclusively an Oreo issue and more a Samsung Gear/Tizen issue with the Oreo version, so I decided to get an Android Wear watch just to see if it was better so I looked for the Ticwatch S, sadly to me the issue was still there, so that's when I thought that it was an Essential beta issue so I reported it to them. A couple of days later I decided to get the Pixel 2 XL, I think that I didn't read about the same issue on the Pixel as I was surprised and shocked to see the same with the Pixel, but like I said, I just decided to turn the phone call option off until this is fixed, I don't answer calls on my watch anyways so I won't miss a thing for now.

But yes, they need to fix this ASAP.

 

[idiotekniques]

Can you give a specific situation where Bluetooth isn't automatically connecting? It's possible that it's not related directly to the phone. For example, my 2 XL pairs fine with my car system, and then if I get out of the car and put on my BT headphones while walking to the gym, the headphones automatically connect. However, when I recently had to rent a car (an Altima), the headphones wouldn't automatically connect -- the reason was that the car's BT system wasn't deactivating immediately upon turning the car off (it wasn't even idling), so the phone kept the connection with the car (even when I was in the gym lobby), and wouldn't let me connect the headphones unless I went to the BT menu to manually select the headphones.

If I get in my car and automatically connect to my FM Transmitter it connects, but then turn on my BT headset, it will never connect. My LG V20 did no problem.

 

[B. Diddy]

So it stays connected to the FM BT receiver? Are you able to manually change it to the headset?

Do you remember if the V20 had an option to set priorities for Bluetooth devices? I've never seen something like that on Nexus or Pixel devices, so if the V20 did have that option, it's something the manufacturer added on (i.e., it's not part of the basic Android code). I'm wondering how a phone would know which BT device you prefer to connect with automatically, unless there was some way to set the priority.

EDIT: If anyone's interested, this app might be a decent solution: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.myklos.btautoconnect

 

[idiotekniques]

So it stays connected to the FM BT receiver? Are you able to manually change it to the headset?

Do you remember if the V20 had an option to set priorities for Bluetooth devices? I've never seen something like that on Nexus or Pixel devices, so if the V20 did have that option, it's something the manufacturer added on (i.e., it's not part of the basic Android code). I'm wondering how a phone would know which BT device you prefer to connect with automatically, unless there was some way to set the priority.

It will stay connected to the FM receiver if I manually connect to the headset afterwards yes. Just won't do it automatically. So it's just an inconvenience.

LG didn't have a priority labeling setting. It would connect to my FM Transmitter for phone calls and media. Then I would turn on my headset second, and then it would connect to that for phone calls only (as per my setting).

 

[htcdesirezgeorge]

for me, if I'm paying $1,000 for a phone, it WILL JUST WORK or I'm not going to use it lol

 

[theobject]

I've also had intermittent BT connection issues with the XL. If paired with my Gear S2 watch it's hit or miss if it auto-connects to the car stereo BT. If it does connect it will take priority for phone calls which is ok since I don't really want to talk to the watch if I'm driving. However, once I disconnect from car BT the phone priority does not always go back to the watch, I can see the call but I can't answer it.

 

[DesertTwang]

I've had massive issues with my Pixel 2's Bluetooth connection. I can no longer play music through wireless speakers. The song is playing (silently) on my phone's Google Play app, but no sound although the phone claims to be connected to the Bluetooth speaker.

 

[Onkel Per]

I have not seen any problems so fare.
I have a Google Pixel 2 XL, Sony Smartwatch 3, Google Pixel Buds and a Blaupunkt Stockholm 230 bluetooth car radio.
I cast a radio station to the headset every day, when biking to and from work. Controlling volume from the watch.
The phone connect/disconnect nicely with the car radio, and both phonecalls and casting music works nice. I don't use the Buds when driving in the car, as the car stereo sounds great.
I run with the watch "stand alone" and it reconnect with the phone and update the track without any problems.