Why does my S5 bluetooth music keep skipping?

[AC Question]

Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Hi. I know this is an issue with the GS5 and I have researched a bit on the internet. The problem is that anywhere from every 20 seconds to once a minute, audio skips using Bluetooth. It doesn't matter if I am using the stock player, Pandora, Google or Amazon, etc.
The only consistent solution I have found from others is to leave the display on as the problem only occurs when the display "sleeps". This does indeed work for me as well, but I think it is ridiculous to have to leave your display on to listen to skip free music.
Another possible solution I saw was to 'overclock' your CPU while sleeping, however I am not a rooter so I don't know if this works.
Any suggestions/solutions other than getting an app to keep the screen lit (longest setting is 10 minutes from Samsung)?

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Welcome to Android Central! Have you been able to try different Bluetooth devices? Does the same thing happen on all of them?

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Hi. I know this is an issue with the GS5 and I have researched a bit on the internet. The problem is that anywhere from every 20 seconds to once a minute, audio skips using Bluetooth. It doesn't matter if I am using the stock player, Pandora, Google or Amazon, etc.
The only consistent solution I have found from others is to leave the display on as the problem only occurs when the display "sleeps". This does indeed work for me as well, but I think it is ridiculous to have to leave your display on to listen to skip free music.
Another possible solution I saw was to 'overclock' your CPU while sleeping, however I am not a rooter so I don't know if this works.
Any suggestions/solutions other than getting an app to keep the screen lit (longest setting is 10 minutes from Samsung)?

Same problem. This is what I did that works for me and a couple of other users have tried it and it works for them as well so far.

I was unable to find any decent information on the net for this long going problem other than:


1. Leave your screen on all day while listening (ridiculous, but it does work FWIW)
or
2. If you are a rooter, then root the phone and get an app that will let you overclock your CPU while the phone is asleep.

The theory seems to be that the problem is that the CPU slows down too much in sleep to consistently push the BT.

I'm not a rooter and the screen fix is unacceptable to me so.....

This is how I fixed the problem:

I thought I would look for an app that would continuously prod at the CPU by running to keep it from deep sleep, yet not pull too much battery drain.
I already had an app on my phone called simply "Stopwatch & Timer" by Jupiter Apps.
It can be downloaded from Play for free
Download it
Install
Open
Use the timer feature
Set the timer to about the amount of time you will be using BT audio or as long as you want (the max is 9 hrs and 59 minutes on the free version)
You can set the alert of your choice when the countdown is complete or choose no alert, whatever works best for you.
Start the countdown, play some tunes and enjoy skip free music for the duration of the timer, all while saving your beautiful screen from burnout.

If the timer runs out it takes about 2 seconds to start it again from the task bar. You can repeat the old timer or make a new timer for a different amount of time. I'm currently keeping mine around 5 hours and will tweak as I go along....it is easy to change the times.

I haven't been using this fix long enough to determine just how much battery the timer uses but one would think it would be much, much, less than leaving your screen on all bloody day, right?

Disclaimer: This was done on a my GS5 and works perfectly. The problem is so similar across so many Galaxy devices that I can't imagine this so called 'fix' not working almost all the same devices. What would be nice though, is a REAL FRIGGIN' FIX, but obviously that is not gonna come so I guess a crumb is better than hungry.

NOTE: I thought this might be obvious, but just in case, you do not have to stay in the "timer screen". Once you got the timer rolling, just hit the middle button at the bottom of the phone and the timer will just have a little icon at the top of the task bar/notification bar and are free to proceed with doing whatever you normally do the rest of the day. The timer is very easy, lightweight and virtually unnoticeable in the rest of your daily phone experience. If time happens to run out while you are listening, you will be probably be reminded to reset it by the skipping that returns.

GS5
Kit Kat 4.4 (downgraded from 5.0 because I hate it and it still didn't fix the issue)
Players tried so far: Stock Player, Pandora

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Welcome to Android Central! Have you been able to try different Bluetooth devices? Does the same thing happen on all of them?

Same thing on 2 pair of Zvigo Bluetooth headphones (sorta cheap) and LG Infinum ($160). I returned the first pair of Zvigo and got a second pair because I thought it was a factory defect, but further research shows it is the GS5 and also present on several other Galaxy devices.
I am the guest that posted that question and have since registered and may have solved my own problem (my username may now show "dmagikwand" instead of guest). Steps are listed below whenever Mod approves it. I originally posted my possible fix on the Note 4 thread because that seemed to be where the most discussion was going on at the time.
GS5
Kit Kat 4.4.4 (downgraded from 5.0 because I hated it and it did not fix the problem either).

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

UPDATE:
OK, so now this is getting weird. After using the timer workaround very, very heavy for the past 3 days with no glitches, I decided to turn the timer off after it had ran for a couple of hours on day 3 and see what happened. Guess what? NO SKIPS. I tried everything, running stock player and Pandora to get a skip. I was practically begging for a skip, but 2 hours after turning the timer off and nothing. No skips whatsoever. I'm a guy that has had a really bad case from the beginning, like a skip every 30-40 seconds per song. But now I was getting nothing, no skips after turning the timer off and screen was still off.
I then made the apparent mistake of rebooting the phone and re-paired with my headset and then when everything is set up again, skips were back to normal with the screen off.... a skip every 30-40 seconds.
I go back to the "screen on" method, setting my display time out to 10 minutes and now we are back to no skipping while the screen is on.
So now I decide to stop the music momentarily and set up the timer again....stop music, screen timeout back to 1 minute, timer back on, music on.
Skipping is back to normal with the screen off and the timer running. I have never made it 3 minutes much less the 3 days and I thoroughly enjoyed this workaround I thought I had found. I was happy enough I was just getting ready to take advantage of a deal on Amazon and get another pair of my LG Infinims for 89 dollars ( a great deal) and then crash, boom.
Depressing.
All I can think of at this point is clearing the main cache partition, the Bluetooth caches, then running the timer again and seeing what happens since none of these methods worked independently, but that is sort of the order I used when it was working.

So...I guess I'm back now to asking you guys for any ideas or help? Are a lot of people having this problem or just a few? I know it seems to be more frequent with the Notes, but I've seen it referenced on GS3's, 4's, 5's, 6's and several Notes. Would Sprint (actually Radio Shack is where I purchased) just give me a new phone if I proved the problem to them if it is just an issue on a few phones instead of many? I don't really want a refurb as my phone is immaculate and the best phone ever other than the Bluetooth issue (so long as KitKat and not Lollipop is installed)

This is one of the few things I haven't been able to find any real workarounds/fixes for on this forum (leaving the screen on is not going to cut it for me). There are some really, really smart people on here but the ideas for fixes have really reached down to a comical superstitious level on some of the threads that talk about it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Man, that sounds frustrating.:-\

At this point, you may want to consider re-flashing the stock firmware using Odin: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...w-flash-stock-rom-via-odin-new-interface.html. Find the correct firmware here: Firmwares - SamMobile

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Man, that sounds frustrating.:-\

At this point, you may want to consider re-flashing the stock firmware using Odin: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...w-flash-stock-rom-via-odin-new-interface.html. Find the correct firmware here: Firmwares - SamMobile

Thanks. I already moved my device back from 5.0 to 4.44 after the 5.0 upgrade. It was my first experience using Odin and SamMobile. I dumped Odin however because I traced a nasty couple of pieces of Malware to it that kept reactivating days or weeks later when I thought I had finally gotten my PC clean and was in the clear. It looks like you have linked a "clean" site so maybe I can do it again. I learned a lot the first time and think I can pull off the procedure if something lower than 4.4.4 is available.
I never used Bluetooth before 4.44 so maybe I should try for something earlier than that? Is there any way to know what the phone was loaded with when it came out of the box?
.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Is there any way to know what the phone was loaded with when it came out of the box?

According to Wikipedia, it shipped with 4.4.2.

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

According to Wikipedia, it shipped with 4.4.2.

Thanks.

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Man, that sounds frustrating.:-\

At this point, you may want to consider re-flashing the stock firmware using Odin: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...w-flash-stock-rom-via-odin-new-interface.html. Find the correct firmware here: Firmwares - SamMobile

Okay...I haven't flashed 4.4.2 yet, I'm still wating on it to download. I upgraded to the latest Odin and I'm sure I can pull off switching out the ROM to 4.4.2 since I was able to pull off the reverse from 5.0 to 4.4.4 a month or 2 ago. I'm pretty sure it isn't going t make a difference, but I'm still going to try.
But...if it doesn't, do you have any quick advice on rooting?
Which customs won't trigger Knox and let you get back to original? And then after that do you have any idea what combination of ROM and APK will allow a user to overclock CPU while the phone sleeps?
The leave screen on app in the Play store works but still irritating. I'm ready to learn rooting if I have to.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

I can't help with rooting, sorry. I actually don't have any experience with that.

 

[dmagikwand]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Oh, no problem man. I'm sure there is tons of rooting info here when I get to looking. If 4.4.2 resolves for me when I get a chance to flash it, I'll let you know. Thanks for all your help and quick responses to my questions.

 

[cdawg333]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Hi. I know this is an issue with the GS5 and I have researched a bit on the internet. The problem is that anywhere from every 20 seconds to once a minute, audio skips using Bluetooth. It doesn't matter if I am using the stock player, Pandora, Google or Amazon, etc.
The only consistent solution I have found from others is to leave the display on as the problem only occurs when the display "sleeps". This does indeed work for me as well, but I think it is ridiculous to have to leave your display on to listen to skip free music.
Another possible solution I saw was to 'overclock' your CPU while sleeping, however I am not a rooter so I don't know if this works.
Any suggestions/solutions other than getting an app to keep the screen lit (longest setting is 10 minutes from Samsung)?

Hi all,

Several years later and this is still an ongoing issue lol... well I've found a solution on reddit that has actually worked out for me so far:

[–]Scarytrek 11 points 3 years ago
I had the same problem and I contacted Samsung. They gave me instructions which fixed my issue. Try this! 1. Turn your device off. 2. Press and hold the volume up key and the home key, THEN press and hold the power key (so you end up holding all 3 keys) 3. When the device vibrates release the Power key ONLY 4. When you get to the Android Device Recovery Menu you can release the other two keys. 5. Use Volume keys to navigate to "Wipe cache partition" and use power key to select it. 6. Use the Volume keys to navigate to "Reboot system now" and use power key to select it.
The device will reboot and all should be well from there on out. Mine was!!!!

I hope this helps anyone else coming across this post years later

 

[fractaloon]

Re: Still frustrated with S5 bluetooth music skipping

Hi all,

Several years later and this is still an ongoing issue lol... well I've found a solution on reddit that has actually worked out for me so far:

[–]Scarytrek 11 points 3 years ago
I had the same problem and I contacted Samsung. They gave me instructions which fixed my issue. Try this! 1. Turn your device off. 2. Press and hold the volume up key and the home key, THEN press and hold the power key (so you end up holding all 3 keys) 3. When the device vibrates release the Power key ONLY 4. When you get to the Android Device Recovery Menu you can release the other two keys. 5. Use Volume keys to navigate to "Wipe cache partition" and use power key to select it. 6. Use the Volume keys to navigate to "Reboot system now" and use power key to select it.
The device will reboot and all should be well from there on out. Mine was!!!!

I hope this helps anyone else coming across this post years later

I tried this and so far it seems to be working for me. Thanks!