Less robust bluetooth sometimes

[Ken LaVoie]

When my screen goes dark, bluetooth music connection is sort of "weakened". Example. I exercise and use my phone to play either spotify or youtube videos and all is well but after a while the screen goes dark and when it does it's almost as if that connection's power is reduced by 50%. Still plays but suddenly there'll be stuttering, break ups, etc. Like suddenly I have a flip phone from the 80's. It's absolutely perfect correlation (i.e. it happens exactly the same every time). There USED to be an app called "Caffeine" which would over ride this and allow you to allow certain apps to keep everything up and running but I've googled it exhaustively and cannot find that app, or anything like it.

Also, I have new hearing aids that allow streaming from my phone and they're absolutely amazing! BUT if I do spotify etc. and ptu the phone in my POCKET, jostling around makes them cut in and out. Like I need an external "belt mounted holder" or soemthing which I do NOT want. Is there any way to make things "bullet proof" when a phone is in one's pocket? Like be able to quickly pull it out and access controls but slide it back in pocket and not have every thigh twitch result in a breakup, skip or jump to the next song, or text a picture of my wife's butt to one of my tenants! (yeah...happened once...)

 

[Six dots Software]

Appearantly there are more people with bluetooth connection issues. Maybe the answer could be here:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S21/Issue-with-Bluetooth-on-S21-Ultra/td-p/1706765

 

[mikedt]

Appearantly there are more people with bluetooth connection issues. Maybe the answer could be here:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S21/Issue-with-Bluetooth-on-S21-Ultra/td-p/1706765

Reading through that, Bluetooth issues might be a common problem with US variant S21 phones?

 

[olbriar]

I have the S21 Ultra and have had no BT issues. I stream tunes all day while working and if there is an issue.. it's with XM and not BT and that is fairly rare. You won't catch me bragging about the BLE connection but BT has been just as solid and steady as any phone I've owned.

Speaking of BLE (blue tooth low energy) that is most likely the connection that your hearing aids are using. I personally think the BLE is weak in my S21. I had zero problems with my Note 10 and my aids but a miserable experience between my aids and the S21. The connection is weak at best and will bounce the stream back and forth between aids. And if my phone is in my pocket... it's rare that it even connects. I gave up on streaming to my aids. My prescription makes music sound bad and with the BLE connection being weak I simply gave up. I take out my aids and put in a set of Bose and stream all day.

As for controlling your phone while in your pocket, I use a smartwatch.

 

[Six dots Software]

@mikedt Samsung does try to make their phones battery efficient and lowers the bluetooth performance when the screen goes off. But it shouldn't affect the performance that much. But reading on their forums, I assume there are loads of issues currently with it and the chance is pretty high in this case.

But... have you tried resetting it back to default (factory restore)? The best thing is to try all kinds of solutions to find out the problem itself. It could even be that your head phones aren't working correctly. What kind of head buds do you use?