My bluetooth (Galaxy S4 Mini) intermittently drops when paired with my car (2013 Mazda 3)

[theonlybutters]

My pairing used to work just magically then one day about a month ago when on a call in my car the audio just cut out (my radio started playing again). A few seconds later the car connected back and my call was there, the other person happily talking away. So, my call is not being dropped. Further investigation showed that my phone was toggling between bluetooth headset (i.e. my car's bluetooth) and the device itself. I've disabled all other possible pairings for my car and phone (i.e. GPS not paired with car. Samsung Gear watch not paired with phone, etc...) and still the same behaviour occurs.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Is the phone's wi-fi radio on? I have seen some posts about wi-fi interfering with Bluetooth, even with no wi-fi signal nearby, so see what happens if you turn the wi-fi radio off.

 

[theonlybutters]

I will give that a try and report back forthwith. Thanks!

 

[axllebeer]

Welcome to Android Central! Is the phone's wi-fi radio on? I have seen some posts about wi-fi interfering with Bluetooth, even with no wi-fi signal nearby, so see what happens if you turn the wi-fi radio off.

I did have this problem for many months. But now I cannot connect to any wifi connections when I'm using bluetooth. That's hotspots, wifi direct, anything. So frustrating as I'm on wifi all the time at home, (wifi calling) and then to do that I have to shut down bluetooth connections then I can't use my Pebble.

This happens on my Galaxy S4 Mini and my Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE Edition. But not my Galaxy Note 10.1 or my Nexus 7 2013 or Dell Venue 8 Pro. Is this a cheaper end Samsung problem?

Posted via the Android Central App from my Nexus 7

 

[theonlybutters]

I tried this. Still getting the same behaviour, albeit the temporary outages seem less frequent. Any other suggestions?

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry, not sure what else to try. You may want to speak to Samsung service, although I would guess that the phone is no longer under warranty.

 

[difun1]

i have the same problem using my moto x phone on my mazda3. Started in the last few months and i use an app (llama) that shuts off wifi and starts bluetooth when my phone looses it's home network. I believe the problem is related to some type of bluetooth functional changes, as i simultaneously noticed one or two very subtle changes to the function of my phone with my bluetooth audio player i.e. It doesn't seem to advance as "cleanly" as it used to when streaming siriusxm; used to always jump to next identical trackname, now stops at all tracks or sometimes goes backward a track.

Tried repairing, and no surprise, no improvement. Considering how to do a master reset. I guees, just let my battery die completely again.

Have you tried any sorts of madter resets on your mazda3.

 

[81chevette]

I have similar problems with my Mitsubishi Mirage. I have found several possible causes. This is all guesswork based on patterns I've noticed, so it might not be 100% accurate.

1) Location services interferes with Bluetooth connectivity.
1a) GPS appears to interfere mostly with Bluetooth media profile.
1b) Wifi location pinging seems to interfere mostly with Bluetooth phone profile.

2) If you drive the same route often, you build up a list of wifi hotspots that your phone fails to forget once out of range. When they come back in range, Bluetooth connectivity seems to suffer. Occasional restarts seem to help with this.

3) Deleting the Facebook mobile app reduced the occurrence of this problem by 99%. I just use Chrome when I want to check Facebook now. Google pings your location just as often as Facebook, but their code must be better at doing it without interrupting connectivity.

4) If you have the WeatherBug app installed, it comes with some nonsense "helper" app that appears to do nothing other than break Bluetooth. You can delete this helper app without apparent consequence. You'll have to search Google for specifics, as it's been a while since I looked it up.

5) The Time Warner Cable wifi hotspot app seems to have been a major contributor to this issue, balanced against its apparent uselessness. Deleting it seemed to help, but not as much as deleting the Facebook app.

6) I am currently experimenting with whether turning location, wifi, or both off affects this problem in a significant way. I imagine it would have to, but I like having location services on, and I don't want to have to remember to turn wifi on and off all the time. I may give Tasker a try, but I'm concerned about its effect on CPU speed and battery life. I will report back if I figure anything out. Currently, the problem occurs so infrequently that it will be hard to nail down specifics, as all the things I listed above changed it from a constant problem to a once-a-month problem.