Bluetooth can be so frustrating

[Petruccis Biceps]

For the longest time I've always been against removing headphone jacks from phones as well as other useful functionality like SD card slots. Ever since my wife got a new car a couple of years ago, I've been using the bluetooth on there to use android auto/music, and it works fine. So I thought, "hey this isn't so bad, let me get some bluetooth headphones so I can listen to music on my phone when I'm exercising or mowing the lawn."

Paired my phone with the new headphones and everything is great. Headphone audio and no wires to deal with! This is great!

Mowing the lawn and 10 minutes in, my music stops and the headphones say "disconnected." Whip out my phone and look at bluetooth settings and its having trouble pairing to the headphones. Turned off and on, paired again, start music, start mowing. 5min later, same shit happens. I then notice my wife is in her car in the driveway. What seems to be happening is the phone realizes the car is on and thinks its a great idea to just say "hey Petruccis Biceps, I'm just gonna stop your music and connect to this other device automatically."

I tried to just unpair the device from the car but it still fucking auto connects if you turn the damn car back on. So the only real way is to forget and delete the device from the car, which means whenever I want to use it again, I have to fiddle and re-pair to avoid this shit.

I did some googling and it seems this is an issue that nobody really has a real solution for. Its so frustrating.

Why isn't there an option to either:

1. Lock the device you're currently using so the phone doesnt auto connect to other previously paired devices
2. Prompt you if you want to connect to the nearby device
3. Disable auto-pairing for specific devices (apparently there was an option for this but they removed it in the past few years in android)

I was talking to my brother and he has the same issue with a garage bluetooth speaker. If hes listening to music and accidentally walks too close to the garage, it just switches on him.

I'm currently on Android so I dont know if Iphones have this issue, too, but if anybody has any other solution to this dumbass shit, I'm all ears.

I'm THIS close to going back to my wired earphones.

 

[nhlducks35]

Apple fixed this issue if you use their headphones since they have their own specific wireless chips, so they can seamlessly connect

 

[RocketDarkness]

I hate bluetooth so much. I always manage to run into weird issues with it, and I hate how laggy it is with sounds when playing games on the phone.

 

[GWX]

It's ass, there's no way around it. This very specific issue you mention bugs the hell out of me, why can't it have a "auto-connect" feature in settings per device, like Wi-Fi SSIDs, is beyond me.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

I never liked bluetooth or found it practical until 5.0. There's the rare stubborn connection, but it generally works seamlessly for me as long as I remember to turn it off on certain devices like my phone before using it for things like Chromecast, headphones.

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

I agree. It sucks so much. My stupid headphones never want to stay connected to the device I want and I have to go around disconnecting them from everything. Then one side's battery doesn't last as long as the other, so I'll lose my left audio.

I'd rather just have a wire most of the time. It just works. Can't do that in bed though, because I'll end up falling asleep and get it wrapped around my neck.

 

[Android Sophia]

Part of the reason why I like my Sony headphones, is they have an Android/iOS app for this specific scenario. They also have a Bluetooth pairing mode that overrides whatever the device was last paired to.

But yeah if you pair it with a lot of devices, this can be a real issue. Every once in awhile my desktop computer will restart for updates and automatically try to pair with my Sony headphones again. :\

 

[Dyno]

Can't you just turn off auto play at the car? Mine connects but doesn't swap to the music unless I ask it to as I have ambient sounds in the car usually. If I want to swap to music from my phone I have to swap the media source on the car.

 

[Petruccis Biceps]

Can't you just turn off auto play at the car? Mine connects but doesn't swap to the music unless I ask it to as I have ambient sounds in the car usually. If I want to swap to music from my phone I have to swap the media source on the car.

Click to shrink...

I dont think its the fact that its playing music in the car automatically(my wife said my music didnt come through into the car after it happened), its that it simply connects to it. In fact, I went into my phone settings for the car's device, and only "contact and message" access is selected by default.

Part of the reason why I like my Sony headphones, is they have an Android/iOS app for this specific scenario. They also have a Bluetooth pairing mode that overrides whatever the device was last paired to.

But yeah if you pair it with a lot of devices, this can be a real issue. Every once in awhile my desktop computer will restart for updates and automatically try to pair with my Sony headphones again. :\

Click to shrink...

This is interesting, do all Sony BT headphones use their own app? What kind do you have?

 

[Android Sophia]

This is interesting, do all Sony BT headphones use their own app? What kind do you have?

Click to shrink...

The headphones I have are the Sony WH-XB910N. The app is called Sony Headphones Connect and it seems most Sony headphones use it. It allows you to quickly connect your headphones as well as customize the settings on them. I've never really had an issue with keeping the headphones connected to my Samsung phone or my iPad using the app. There's actually even support for connecting to two devices simultaneously even with my headphones, although you will lower the sound quality by doing this.

Click to shrink...

The app itself is optional - they work just fine pairing with the button to anything. As long as you read the instructions on how to pair stuff up and don't pair them to too many things, I've not had issues.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Yeah I have so many problems with the connection just inexplicably breaking in my car or my headphones. I lost Samsung buds but have some JBL ones which weirdly ALWAYS connect if my Bluetooth is turned on, killing their battery, and also only the left one works for some reason.

 

[PSI Rockin’ Ω]

Sometimes when I drive out of the garage, I'll suddenly get my wife's podcast or phone call on the Bluetooth. And vice versa. It's not great.

 

[TaySan]

It works about 90% of the time in my car but the the 10% of the time when it doesn't it can be a pain in the ass to reconnect

 

[impingu1984]

I can technically see why this is a issue...

And equally as a given the Bluetooth protocol... I struggle to see how it differentiate from "my wife just fired up the car I'm not in but I am near" to "I'm in the car switch over please"...

It would have to be proximity stuff between the headphones, car and phone..

It's not a easy problem to fix... Apple likely got round it via designing there own silicon and OS in the phone / headphones... So have a lot more scope to deal with it...

At least the software engineer in my thinks that anyway

 

[ruggiex]

Part of why I stick with wired AA since it doesn't need to have BT pairing unless you want to use the phone call feature. My phone needs to charge anyways so a wire doesn't bother me.

 

[StreetsAhead]

There are certain spots on the roads where the connection between my phone and the car just drops. I always assume there's something nearby that turns it into a bluetooth dead zone but it makes me crazy, particularly when I'm using a map app because I need directions.

 

[AstronaughtE]

I tend keep my Bluetooth off on my phone until I need it, then I can choose which device I'd like to use.