Help Galaxy S4 loses - drops bluetooth connection to Subaru Outback

[radman2020]

I have an S4 that has no issues with my audi bluetooth.. but loses connection with my 2013 Subaru Outback (with nav). The call isn't disconnected... but the bluetooth lets go. I have a note 3 which doesn't lose connection.

Anyone else with this issue?

Any workarounds?

I have already deleted and re-paired.

 

[Goodspike]

You might try the app Bluetooth Auto Connect. I was having different issues with my Subaru, that the app seemed to fix (a Verizon update came in shortly after downloading that app, so I'm not 100% sure it fixed my problems).

 

[CyreneK]

Idk if this will help, but it did for me with my 2014 Forester. Settings, more, location services, my places, car. Here you can choose Bluetooth. Mine remains connected now. Hope this helps.

 

[kgreen169]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and 2013 Subaru Forester. I have the same exact issue. The phone bluetooth connects OK to the Navigation bluetooth, but continually disconnects/connects. Very annoying. I bought the new Forester so I could connect my phone to the car bluetooth. I have a hearing loss and it is very important that I get phone calls over the car speakers.

I did install the Bluetooth Auto Connect as suggested. It did disconnect once then stayed connected for a while. I will test this further on a longer drive.

I tried to find the Settings, more, location services, my places, car, bluetooth but could not find the option for location services on the Forester or Samsung phone. So no help there.

Will let you know if the Bluetooth Auto Connect works.

 

[rags2rich]

Here is what fixed ours
We have a 2013 Subaru Outback with Navigation and we have had the same issues with our Samsung S4's. Our bluetooth share would keep disconnecting and then connecting again. I found this online in a Subaru forum and I tried it this morning and it has not dropped all day long. Previously bluetooth share would stop at least 7-10 times on my way to work. This was originally written for a Subaru XV and the order of message/contacts acceptance for the Outback is a little different.
1.Unpair your phone with your Subaru in Bluetooth settings. Go to Application manager on your phone and scroll over on the top to ALL. I think it is 3 swipes to the left. Scroll down to Bluetooth Share and click on clear data, clear cache. Turn off bluetooth on your phone, and restart your phone.
2. Go to your car. Delete your Samsung from your cars Bluetooth and turn the key off.
3. Turn on key on and start the process of pairing on your car navigation screen. Turn on bluetooth on your phone and scan for device. Click on CAR MULTIMEDIA and allow you phone to connect. BE READY! WATCH your screen on your phone and as soon as it asks you to allow access to messages, check the Do not ask me again and say CANCEL. Then when it asks to share your contacts, check, Do not ask me again and say OK. Your contacts should upload. You should be good to go.
It supposedly has to do with the message compatability. So you won't be able have access to your messages over the bluetooth but your phone will stay connected. I paired my wife's phone this evening and it works as well. I will report back if there is a problem but from the looks of it, this was a fix.

Previous attempts with no success
1. All day on phone with Verizon
2. Most of the day on the phone with Samsung.
3. Two hours of personal attention from a Verizon store manager trying to solve the problem. (also a S4 owner.)
4. Subaru dealership replaced the Head Unit thinking it might be defective.
5. Thoughts of trading the car in after a week of ownership.

 

[kjohnrussell]

Did the trick! Thank you! Bothered me for a year.

 

[The1Metallian]

Here is what fixed ours
We have a 2013 Subaru Outback with Navigation and we have had the same issues with our Samsung S4's. Our bluetooth share would keep disconnecting and then connecting again. I found this online in a Subaru forum and I tried it this morning and it has not dropped all day long. Previously bluetooth share would stop at least 7-10 times on my way to work. This was originally written for a Subaru XV and the order of message/contacts acceptance for the Outback is a little different.
1.Unpair your phone with your Subaru in Bluetooth settings. Go to Application manager on your phone and scroll over on the top to ALL. I think it is 3 swipes to the left. Scroll down to Bluetooth Share and click on clear data, clear cache. Turn off bluetooth on your phone, and restart your phone.
2. Go to your car. Delete your Samsung from your cars Bluetooth and turn the key off.
3. Turn on key on and start the process of pairing on your car navigation screen. Turn on bluetooth on your phone and scan for device. Click on CAR MULTIMEDIA and allow you phone to connect. BE READY! WATCH your screen on your phone and as soon as it asks you to allow access to messages, check the Do not ask me again and say CANCEL. Then when it asks to share your contacts, check, Do not ask me again and say OK. Your contacts should upload. You should be good to go.
It supposedly has to do with the message compatability. So you won't be able have access to your messages over the bluetooth but your phone will stay connected. I paired my wife's phone this evening and it works as well. I will report back if there is a problem but from the looks of it, this was a fix.

Previous attempts with no success
1. All day on phone with Verizon
2. Most of the day on the phone with Samsung.
3. Two hours of personal attention from a Verizon store manager trying to solve the problem. (also a S4 owner.)
4. Subaru dealership replaced the Head Unit thinking it might be defective.
5. Thoughts of trading the car in after a week of ownership.

I thought it had worked for me, but it didn't. I have an S3 though and my Outback doesn't have navigation. I followed your instructions as much as possible considering the differences and the biggest one I can come up with is that my S3 doesn't prompt for access messages so I have no way to disable that. F'ing thing, I'm f'ing tired of this s***. What confuses me even more is that I didn't notice this as soon as I upgraded to 4.3 but later.

 

[cohenja]

I was fine with my 2015 Subaru Outback and KitKat on my Galaxy S4. But Lollipop release broke it with the symptoms described.

 

[glewin]

Idk if this will help, but it did for me with my 2014 Forester. Settings, more, location services, my places, car. Here you can choose Bluetooth. Mine remains connected now. Hope this helps.

@CyreneK

Thank you so much. I was going crazy with the constant disconnect of my S3 phone in my 2014 Forester. I tried everything and nothing worked. I came across this forum and saw your post and tried your suggestion. Finally no more disconnect ever since. Can't thank you enough.

"Settings, more, location services, my places, car. Here you can choose Bluetooth. Mine remains connected now."

 

[Matt_P]

Here is what fixed ours
(...) as soon as it asks you to allow access to messages, check the Do not ask me again and say CANCEL (..)
It supposedly has to do with the message compatability.

Hi Rags2rich, all, Believe it or not: Had the same symptons on a 2015 WRX STI !
Previous phone (Android4) was alright (ok - did not sync SMS anyway, not an issue for me), yesterday I was pairing my new Ulephone with Lollipop (Android 5) - despite pretending to be coupled via Bluetooth, phone line was saying "no service" ! Contacts (phonebook) empty. But even playing music from the mobile worked. Multiple deletes / restarts on both sides - NOPE.
Discovered this post, gave it try in the evening - YES THIS HELPED !
Sequence was a bit different, but the main point is to CANCEL the initial transfer of messages offered when pairing for the first time. After this, phone was succesfully connected, Phonebook was loaded,
I could even re-transmit the (1) message after this initial pairing !
Thanks so much for sharing this.

 

[jrcasas]

Hi Rags2rich, all, Believe it or not: Had the same symptons on a 2015 WRX STI !
Previous phone (Android4) was alright (ok - did not sync SMS anyway, not an issue for me), yesterday I was pairing my new Ulephone with Lollipop (Android 5) - despite pretending to be coupled via Bluetooth, phone line was saying "no service" ! Contacts (phonebook) empty. But even playing music from the mobile worked. Multiple deletes / restarts on both sides - NOPE.
Discovered this post, gave it try in the evening - YES THIS HELPED !
Sequence was a bit different, but the main point is to CANCEL the initial transfer of messages offered when pairing for the first time. After this, phone was succesfully connected, Phonebook was loaded,
I could even re-transmit the (1) message after this initial pairing !
Thanks so much for sharing this.

Great for you but I did not get much luck on my similar problem. Have a 2016 Scion FR-S (exactly the same model as the Subaru BR-Z), S4 with Android 5.0.1. Have probably removed the BT connections to my car and the phone a gazillion times now and lastly followed the rags2rich suggestion just now and the darn problem rears its ugly head after a minute or so. Lose connection with the car. The S4 is still paired to my Scion but NOT CONNECTED. Plays music in my song library in my phone but drops again and again. It never reconnects. I had to manually punched buttons to reconnect but never stable and drops the connection eventually. This never happened with my last Mazda cars (Miata and Mazda 6). Forums have been publishing this problem with Subaru vehicles mainly. Scoured the web, no results. Scheduled to visit my Scion Dealer tomorrow. Do not know if they have a solution. I have read some reporting that the dealer had to replace the whole audio unit with a new one. Wish me luck. Thanks for sharing your experience.