Problems with first 5-10 minutes of bluetooth on Nexus 5X, why does it break up so much?

[West Coast Wolverine]

've been going running with my 5X connected via bluetooth to Silicon Volcano headphones. The headphones sound great with one horrible exception. During the first 5-10 minutes, the sound breaks up constantly. I'll hear a quick beep and then the sound start skipping. It'll work for anywhere from a couple seconds to, maybe 30 seconds and then beep and start skipping again. After it finally stops doing this, it works beautifully. This has been happening while I'm listening to Google Music in download only mode. Unless I'm mistaken, this means the problem is not due to buffering because the music is already on my phone rather than streaming live.

When it first started happening, it would happen in the house and on the first part of my run. Now it seems to be working fine in the house, but literally the moment I stepped out the door to walk my dog tonight, it started roughly 10 minutes of breaking up. My wi-fi connects 10-20 yards from my front door (and I was in download only mode) so I don't understand why stepping outside my door would matter, but I'm just trying to give as much info as possible. I have no idea if this is a problem with the headphones or my Nexus 5X.

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this? Is anyone else having a similar issue with their 5X?

Thanks!

 

[eaccentsac]

've been going running with my 5X connected via bluetooth to Silicon Volcano headphones. The headphones sound great with one horrible exception. During the first 5-10 minutes, the sound breaks up constantly. I'll hear a quick beep and then the sound start skipping. It'll work for anywhere from a couple seconds to, maybe 30 seconds and then beep and start skipping again. After it finally stops doing this, it works beautifully. This has been happening while I'm listening to Google Music in download only mode. Unless I'm mistaken, this means the problem is not due to buffering because the music is already on my phone rather than streaming live.

When it first started happening, it would happen in the house and on the first part of my run. Now it seems to be working fine in the house, but literally the moment I stepped out the door to walk my dog tonight, it started roughly 10 minutes of breaking up. My wi-fi connects 10-20 yards from my front door (and I was in download only mode) so I don't understand why stepping outside my door would matter, but I'm just trying to give as much info as possible. I have no idea if this is a problem with the headphones or my Nexus 5X.

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this? Is anyone else having a similar issue with their 5X?

Thanks!

Have you tried clearing/erasing the pairing info (on both the phone and the BT headset) and re-pair?

Alternatively, try turning WiFi off to see if things improve. WiFi and BT have been known to interfere with each other as they both run on 2.4GHz

I have two sets of Motorola BT headsets and a cheapie BT set from Amazon (can't remember the brand off hand....). None of them exhibit this issue.

 

[West Coast Wolverine]

EAC - Thank you for the response and sorry for the crazy slow reply. I had tried turning off Wi-Fi, but it had no effect. I tried re-pairing, but it didn't work. I happened to catch an article on EndGadget that mentioned that BT sometimes struggles outdoors because it has nothing to bounce the signal off. So apparently, this is a bit of a known problem. I thought I was going to return the headphones, but I got lucky and seem to have stumbled on a fix. If I wait to connect the headphones to the phone until I get outside, the problem totally goes away! It acts up for about a second and then works beautifully. They have worked great the last 3-5 times I've taken them out. Hopefully this keeps working - and hopefully someone else finds this and it helps them also!

 

[eaccentsac]

EAC - Thank you for the response and sorry for the crazy slow reply. I had tried turning off Wi-Fi, but it had no effect. I tried re-pairing, but it didn't work. I happened to catch an article on EndGadget that mentioned that BT sometimes struggles outdoors because it has nothing to bounce the signal off. So apparently, this is a bit of a known problem. I thought I was going to return the headphones, but I got lucky and seem to have stumbled on a fix. If I wait to connect the headphones to the phone until I get outside, the problem totally goes away! It acts up for about a second and then works beautifully. They have worked great the last 3-5 times I've taken them out. Hopefully this keeps working - and hopefully someone else finds this and it helps them also!

Glad you found a solution!

Folks also need to remember that BT struggles to go through water...(ie The human body)

Motorola Forums has a "best answer" function...these forums do not?

 

[West Coast Wolverine]

It's funny you made that comment about BT struggling with the human body. My friend is an avid cyclist (100+ mile rides... crazy!). He has the Wireless Beats 2.0 (I think that's what they are called). He said he never has the problem outside, but sometimes if he's at an indoor mall, he'll have to move it from the left side of his body to the right to avoid the cutting in and out.

 

[eaccentsac]

It's funny you made that comment about BT struggling with the human body. My friend is an avid cyclist (100+ mile rides... crazy!). He has the Wireless Beats 2.0 (I think that's what they are called). He said he never has the problem outside, but sometimes if he's at an indoor mall, he'll have to move it from the left side of his body to the right to avoid the cutting in and out.

I suspect that while indoors there are a lot more 2.4Ghz frequencies that we are exposed to, and with the exposure to more 2.4Ghz devices the potential for interference increases. Some devices to consider can be found in this page.

 

[DWolf1231]

It's funny you made that comment about BT struggling with the human body. My friend is an avid cyclist (100+ mile rides... crazy!). He has the Wireless Beats 2.0 (I think that's what they are called). He said he never has the problem outside, but sometimes if he's at an indoor mall, he'll have to move it from the left side of his body to the right to avoid the cutting in and out.

Yeah, most BT headphones include instructions to have your device be on the same side of your body as the headphones receiver. Most of the time, that is on the right side.