Note 4 Bluetooth "skipping" audio.

[Astral69]

Check this out
Review of some high-end bluetooth headphones Bose AE2. The Guy wrtites:

Like most Bluetooth headphones, these have a range of about 30 feet, and they will cut out from time to time due to interference (Bluetooth signals actually don't pass through the human body as well as you'd think),
So it would mean we shouldnt blaim, per se, android or any device with it on board, right ?

 

[sparksd]

Check this out
Review of some high-end bluetooth headphones Bose AE2. The Guy wrtites:

Like most Bluetooth headphones, these have a range of about 30 feet, and they will cut out from time to time due to interference (Bluetooth signals actually don't pass through the human body as well as you'd think),
So it would mean we shouldnt blaim, per se, android or any device with it on board, right ?

I use Bluetooth headphones and earbuds with other devices and never have a dropout. If I leave the screen on on my Note 4 when using Bluetooth I don't have any dropouts. Screen off - dropouts occur regularly. So I blame the device.

 

[Astral69]

Well i must say now i remember that years back on my LG G2 running KK 4.4.2 had same situation like you. Screen off dropouts, screen ON + tweaked cpu/gpu min everything fine.
Lets see how will behave my Ipod Touch 6gen which i ordered today. Really curious if changing operating system completely will affect somehow those annoying dropouts

 

[sparksd]

Well i must say now i remember that years back on my LG G2 running KK 4.4.2 had same situation like you. Screen off dropouts, screen ON + tweaked cpu/gpu min everything fine.
Lets see how will behave my Ipod Touch 6gen which i ordered today. Really curious if changing operating system completely will affect somehow those annoying dropouts

Never ran into skipping on my Android Nexus 7's (2012 & 2013 models) running early Android versions through currently 6.0.1 (Marshmallow), my Asus TF700t tablet, my iPad Air 2, 2 different plug-in Bluetooth transmitters, or on my old Galaxy S III - it's been unique to the Note 4 for me.

 

[kgk1985]

Nope. Still garbage. I can make it skip on cue by pushing the phone against my leg with moderate pressure. Pretty sure it's related to whatever kind of G sensor the phone has. Just not sure if it's hardware or something in the software that causes this when it senses a certain amount of Gs. Regardless, it's unacceptable

 

[sparksd]

Nope. Still garbage. I can make it skip on cue by pushing the phone against my leg with moderate pressure. Pretty sure it's related to whatever kind of G sensor the phone has. Just not sure if it's hardware or something in the software that causes this when it senses a certain amount of Gs. Regardless, it's unacceptable

I get the skipping even when the phone is totally stationary (just leaving it laying on the table while listening).

 

[shizam76]

It went away for a while but is back. I don't even need to use Bluetooth. Just streaming tunein for instance, through the phone speaker, sitting on the table. At various intervals, a spit, sputter and skip.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Beenthere Donethat1]

I have an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 5C and they run bluetooth smooth as butter. I have a Note 2 that stutters like crazy no matter what I do, using the same bluetooth headphones as with the iPhone. It's definitely an Android problem as you can see posters here posting problems with all the Samsung phones as well as LG and HTC phones.

 

[ajhillaby]

Found a solution to this issue. A previous user comment that they thought the "skipping" would occur when the screen is shut off and the CPU slows down. I can confirm this. Here's the solution I used, but your phone must have root access.

Issue: CPU slows down too much when screen off, so Bluetooth headphones create a skipping sound when listening to music for example.

Solution:
0. Pre-work: Phone must be rooted.
1. Download a CPU Controller App (e.g. No-frills CPU Control).
2. Open app and give it Super User Access. (Super User Access is a kind of access that can be provided to apps when your phone is rooted).
3. Change the Minimum Clock Frequency or the minimum MHz the phone can go to. The idea here is that if the phone drops to a low MHz when the screen is off, by increasing the minimum MHz the phone has, then you can find a MHz level that will allow the headphones to stop skipping, while the phone screen is off. I had to change my default settings from 300MHz in the app to 883 MHz to stop the headphones from skipping. I did this through trial and error, by increasing the minimum MHz until the skipping stopped.
4. If you find this works, then you might want to look for a setting that also lets this app start and apply these settings every time you boot up your phone.

Note: Rooting can be a difficult process. It takes time, and you need to educator yourself on how to do it properly. But it allows you to be able to apply fixes such as this, pretty easily.

 

[sparksd]

Found a solution to this issue. A previous user comment that they thought the "skipping" would occur when the screen is shut off and the CPU slows down. I can confirm this. Here's the solution I used, but your phone must have root access.

Issue: CPU slows down too much when screen off, so Bluetooth headphones create a skipping sound when listening to music for example.

Solution:
0. Pre-work: Phone must be rooted.
1. Download a CPU Controller App (e.g. No-frills CPU Control).
2. Open app and give it Super User Access. (Super User Access is a kind of access that can be provided to apps when your phone is rooted).
3. Change the Minimum Clock Frequency or the minimum MHz the phone can go to. The idea here is that if the phone drops to a low MHz when the screen is off, by increasing the minimum MHz the phone has, then you can find a MHz level that will allow the headphones to stop skipping, while the phone screen is off. I had to change my default settings from 300MHz in the app to 883 MHz to stop the headphones from skipping. I did this through trial and error, by increasing the minimum MHz until the skipping stopped.
4. If you find this works, then you might want to look for a setting that also lets this app start and apply these settings every time you boot up your phone.

Note: Rooting can be a difficult process. It takes time, and you need to educator yourself on how to do it properly. But it allows you to be able to apply fixes such as this, pretty easily.

Yes, this would do it. Unfortunately, rooting voids your warranty.

 

[kgk1985]

And you can't root the Verizon version

 

[pduffer]

I never have a Bluetooth skipping issue with my Note 4 on Verizon. I regularly connect to car and a Bluetooth speaker at home.

 

[Soreloser]

Solution:
0. Pre-work: Phone must be rooted.

Unfortunately, those of us with an AT&T version are not able to root...so no love for us.

 

[Steve Berube]

Thanks for posting this.

Same issue with s7 edge on Verizon and Samsung level on and level u.

Tried turning off fitbit all day sync. Didn't help. Disabled location and that solved it.

My issue was every 30ish seconds audio would cut out.

Phone: Note 4, SM-N910C
Android 5.1.1 N910CXXU1COJ5 - stock, not rooted

I just started having this problem 3 weeks ago: When connected to a BT audio device, audio "skips" for 1 sec or less (no sound on the BT speaker... and when the sound returns, a second of music is "lost"). The problem happens 3 to 5 times in each song, or even more. It happens on spotify, play music, youtube and any other player I tested. Screen on or screen off.

I tried turning wifi off and it didn't help at all. What solved the problem was turning "location" off.

If location is off, the audio is absolutely perfect. Turning it back on brings the problem back.

Since the problem was apparently related to some app that was using the location services, I disabled the location history and checked the "recent location requests" list. All the apps in that list were uninstalled. Only one remaining was "google play services", which can't be uninstalled. Unfortunately after all that, the problem was still there.

So.... for now I blame some samsung or google play services update for the issue I have on my phone. And I am still searching for a real fix (turning location off is not an option, specially because it makes it impossible to use navigation apps).

 

[CSM MinerUK]

I use standard music player app, PowerAmp and Spotify, both wired connection via USB and headphone jack. It also affects my Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wireless and Jabra wireless gym headphones, and UE Megaboom, and various other wireless devices that I or my friends have. The issue occurs using all of these...so its definitely that phone!

I found that enabling developer options and changing limit background processes to 'at most 1 background process' makes the problem occur much less often, and no process makes it go away entirely. only trouble is, this turns itself back to standard every time the phone turns off, and sometimes just randomly. so still annoying. After a factory reset, with literally nothing installed, playing music from an SD card via standard card, issue remains, and also after just installing spotify. Thus I dont believe its another APP interfering. Just poor software.

Does anyone know if these issues happen on other android devices? ive only ever had samsung, but if this only occurs with samsung, might have to ditch sammy in favour of a phone that can perform this basic function. forget motion controls and all that rubbish! make sure your basic functions work first!

Dayuum!

 

[sparksd]

I use standard music player app, PowerAmp and Spotify, both wired connection via USB and headphone jack. It also affects my Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wireless and Jabra wireless gym headphones, and UE Megaboom, and various other wireless devices that I or my friends have. The issue occurs using all of these...so its definitely that phone!

I found that enabling developer options and changing limit background processes to 'at most 1 background process' makes the problem occur much less often, and no process makes it go away entirely. only trouble is, this turns itself back to standard every time the phone turns off, and sometimes just randomly. so still annoying. After a factory reset, with literally nothing installed, playing music from an SD card via standard card, issue remains, and also after just installing spotify. Thus I dont believe its another APP interfering. Just poor software.

Does anyone know if these issues happen on other android devices? ive only ever had samsung, but if this only occurs with samsung, might have to ditch sammy in favour of a phone that can perform this basic function. forget motion controls and all that rubbish! make sure your basic functions work first!

Dayuum!

See my earlier posts with the link to the Google problem report I made on this - other users with other devices chimed in on it saying they also see it on their device.

 

[Matthew Rizzo]

Vz Galaxy s7. Same issue. Tested multiple apps and multiple headsets, all same issue. So far doesn't happen while screen is on, and enabling always on feature doesn't help.

 

[Astral69]

It happens on LG, Nexus, Sony, Xiaomi and HTC.....and Iphones iOS and Windows Phone LOL
Yes, i tried all those phones and operating systems. Bluetooth skipping problem is directly related to interferances of some electromagnetic stuff...crazy

 

[Soreloser]

Well, I recently got a S7 Active and I can say with certainty that it does NOT do the skipping. The Note 4 does but the S7 does not. I also have a LG G4 that does NOT do it either. Only my Note 4...

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Astral69]

So you have differenmt kind of issue with skips than. How/where do you listen to bluetooth music ? Spotify or other online services ?