I have a Samsung S21 FE 5G which is ~2 years old. Ever since the most recent major android update (seemingly), the bluetooth on it has been absolutely unusable. It started with random disconnections, having to manually connect devices, etc. My phone kept forgetting bluetooth connections and I would have to pair devices each time I turned them on. About 2-3 months ago, bluetooth started randomly shutting off and trying to toggle it on from the drop-down menu at the top, or through settings, didn't work. Usually it would restart on its own after a certain amount of time while I was using the phone. At some point it turned into a daily occurence, and for the past 3 days or so bluetooth will not turn on at all, even after trying to start it through the shell using adb. Whenever I try to toggle bluetooth on from the menu or settings, it will turn light gray and stay that way indefinitely without actually turning on.
Before you reply, please consider that I have already tried these troubleshooting steps and other things:
- Basic restart
- Airplane Mode on & off
- Wifi on & off
- Reset WiFi & Bluetooth Settings (several times)
- Reset all settings
- Cleared cache partition through recovery mode (several times)
- Booted into safe mode (several times) - This worked almost flawlessly for a few weeks up until about 3 days ago
- Shut off & back on
- Samsung Members diagnostics (result is helpfully "bluetooth isn't working") (several times)
- Updated to latest version (issue has persisted through updates)
- Changed every bluetooth-related setting under Developer Settings and used different combinations of settings
- Cleared cache & data, force-stopped Bluetooth Agent and Bluetooth MIDI services through "Apps" under Settings (several times)
Extra note: When I have gone in to Apps under settings and into Bluetooth Agent when experiencing the issue recently, the option to force-stop it has been grayed out, like potentially the service isn't running? Also can't clear the cache or data on the actual bluetooth app/service itself because those options are grayed out.
What is the best course of action here? Could this be a software/firmware issue or a hardware problem? I do not have the time, resources, or patience to do a factory reset at this point, so should I bring it to a service center or just trade it in for a new phone? I want some opinions or similar experiences before I make any decisions. I need my phone available and can't tolerate anything past the absolute minimum amount of downtime. Thanks.
Before you reply, please consider that I have already tried these troubleshooting steps and other things:
- Basic restart
- Airplane Mode on & off
- Wifi on & off
- Reset WiFi & Bluetooth Settings (several times)
- Reset all settings
- Cleared cache partition through recovery mode (several times)
- Booted into safe mode (several times) - This worked almost flawlessly for a few weeks up until about 3 days ago
- Shut off & back on
- Samsung Members diagnostics (result is helpfully "bluetooth isn't working") (several times)
- Updated to latest version (issue has persisted through updates)
- Changed every bluetooth-related setting under Developer Settings and used different combinations of settings
- Cleared cache & data, force-stopped Bluetooth Agent and Bluetooth MIDI services through "Apps" under Settings (several times)
Extra note: When I have gone in to Apps under settings and into Bluetooth Agent when experiencing the issue recently, the option to force-stop it has been grayed out, like potentially the service isn't running? Also can't clear the cache or data on the actual bluetooth app/service itself because those options are grayed out.
What is the best course of action here? Could this be a software/firmware issue or a hardware problem? I do not have the time, resources, or patience to do a factory reset at this point, so should I bring it to a service center or just trade it in for a new phone? I want some opinions or similar experiences before I make any decisions. I need my phone available and can't tolerate anything past the absolute minimum amount of downtime. Thanks.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram