I've bought a mini bluetooth keyboard (unbranded), to use with my Samsung Galaxy S5. I have successfully followed the instructions for pairing the keyboard with my phone. The Bluetooth display on the phone shows "Bluetooth keyboard. Connected as input device". When I open an app to input some text, the normal on-screen keyboard does not appear. But when I press keys on the external keyboard, the characters dont appear on the phone.
I have tried exactly the same with a friend's Samsung Galaxy J3 - and everything works fine. Pairing it up and pressing keys on the external keyboard causes text to appear on the phone.
The J3 is running Android 5.1.1, whereas my S5 is running Android 6.0.1. So, perhaps there is a regression.
(6 years ago, someone else reported a similar problem on this forum. But that was with Android 4, so, I dont know if there's any connection.)
I looked in Settings > Language & Input > Keyboards & Input Methods. On the S5, the Bluetooth keyboard is not shown. However, under Default, there is a switch for Virtual Keyboard, which only appears when the phone is paired with the keyboard. This is off by default. If I switch this on, then the on-screen keyboard operates as normal even with with the bluetooth keyboard paired up (ie the switch can be used to completely ignore the external keyboard - but it cannot be used to make it actually work!)
By comparison, on the J3, when I look in the same place under settings, I see a new section, underneath Keyboards and Input Methods, headed External Keyboard, with one entry: Bluetooth Keyboard, which is shown as Default.
It looks to me as if the J3 is fully recognising the external keyboard, whereas the S5 manages to pair up, and manages to (optionally) disable the normal on-screen keyboard, but then fails to accept any input from the external keyboard.
Does anyone know a fix for this problem?
I have tried exactly the same with a friend's Samsung Galaxy J3 - and everything works fine. Pairing it up and pressing keys on the external keyboard causes text to appear on the phone.
The J3 is running Android 5.1.1, whereas my S5 is running Android 6.0.1. So, perhaps there is a regression.
(6 years ago, someone else reported a similar problem on this forum. But that was with Android 4, so, I dont know if there's any connection.)
I looked in Settings > Language & Input > Keyboards & Input Methods. On the S5, the Bluetooth keyboard is not shown. However, under Default, there is a switch for Virtual Keyboard, which only appears when the phone is paired with the keyboard. This is off by default. If I switch this on, then the on-screen keyboard operates as normal even with with the bluetooth keyboard paired up (ie the switch can be used to completely ignore the external keyboard - but it cannot be used to make it actually work!)
By comparison, on the J3, when I look in the same place under settings, I see a new section, underneath Keyboards and Input Methods, headed External Keyboard, with one entry: Bluetooth Keyboard, which is shown as Default.
It looks to me as if the J3 is fully recognising the external keyboard, whereas the S5 manages to pair up, and manages to (optionally) disable the normal on-screen keyboard, but then fails to accept any input from the external keyboard.
Does anyone know a fix for this problem?
