Update 8901.4.A.0016.6: Bluetooth control broken on various devices

Thanks idle. I didn’t realise that phone functions still worked until you mentioned it.

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Well, thats curious. Do you change phone media volume and car music volume simultanously?

Hello,
I have the same problem with a bluetooth loudspeaker (Anker Soundcore Mini).
Before the August update it worked fine.
Now my phone (FP3) doesn’t react to the stop/play button (volume up and down works).
Quite annoying. I opened a request (https://support.fairphone.com/hc/requests/542362) but no answer yet.
I am curious how long it will take to receive an answer.

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Same in my Nissan. Very annoying.

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Nice that you’ve called! I also got a reply on my reported issue, stating that it will be forwarded to the relevant team, that they’re doing everything to resolve it as quickly as possible etc.

Nothing more to do than to be patient I guess.

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Welcome to the no BT media control club!

How long is a piece of string? I was told a long time ago that the customer service team are very small. I was quoted it being less than 20 agents? Treat that number as hearsay though, it could be more or less. BUT just assume it’s now 10 (at worst), that would mean 10 agents dealing with 1,381 new support requests in 10 days. I’m basing the number of support tickets using your number and mine 10 days ago if the numbers are sequential. That would make the last 10 day average as 138.1 tickets a day. With 10 agents, that’s 19 tickets a day each assuming they work a 5 day week. I guess they follow up older tickets too, you can see it could end up being much more than 19 a day per agent. I presume the same agents answer the phones as well. Is that do-able? I dunno if you include backlog ? To be honest, I think the best way to report a problen is to firstly use the ticketing system followed by a phone call. You can then draw your ticket to their attention and they can forward it to whoever is best equiped to deal with the problem. I’m not suggesting you do this on this issue as the fault is already known.

Yes I agree. Several of us reported it, now lets hope those responsible for breaking it come up with a fix without breaking anything else. I hope it’s done by the time the next security update comes out. Also that the NFC issue brought to our attention by @urs_lesse is sorted too.

One thing I’ve noted is Fairphone end users seem to be the beta testers. Is anyone here an actual beta tester as in get the update before anyone else? Angels?? Anyone??? Before FP tweak anything, they really out to test it first. I’m guessing is costs them money to send updates out so they bundle whatever with the latest security update.

OT: When 'droid 11 was installed, a sound recorder appeared. It seems to have gone with this update!? Was it removed or have I just forgotten where it is?

there is a group of beta testers, probably none of them uses BT… such bugs always happen also at the big player, the difference is, the big player can fix it faster (although I think the NFC bug is fixed quite fast as being potentially life threatenig when you cant use the device for health related apps) as Fairphone can do, becasue they just have more man power to do this. The bug is annoying yes, however is not as important to be fixed as the NFC bug I would say.

did you check all apps, probably its only gone from homescreen? in case its gone in general, just download something from playstore.

On what is this based?

The current BT problem is more complex than might at first appear. It would seem that certain phones have shown no problem, while other phones are exhibiting media audio faults regardless of the Bluetooth device used.
Naturally, we mostly have reports of phones that are exhibiting problems, since people rarely write in to say that everything is working well.

you read the word probably? its a potential root cause assumption and I never said anything is easy. I dont have the issue and I dont expect anything from any beta tester as I know they do it in their freetime.

Oh, I meant changing media audio volume. Changing audio level for phone works fine (while in a call).

Do you change phone media volume and car music volume simultanously?

To clarify: No, I can (or rather could before) change media audio if not actively using the phone (ie. being in a call), and phone audio while in a call.

I also have problems with notifications from my weather warning app. does anybody else notice such issues?

Good to hear. I thought an Angel would know the answer. You also make a good point in that I don’t use NFC so if I were a beta tester I wouldn’t have picked that fault up. Not everyone uses all available features. Any idea of how many Fairphone beta testers there are?

I agree. It’s an irritation but not the end of the world. Though I’d probably think differently if I used it as in car entertainment.

The new sound recorder was never on my homescreen. It just appeared next to the other sound recorder ( which I downloaded soon after I got the phone ). This was an observation on it missing rather than a moan. Although maybe a little moan as every change should really be put on the release notes. It really grates with me when Google want to upgrade their rubbish every few days and often provide no details.

You are right!

Does your weather app use Bluetooth? My “Fatbit” fitness tracker uses BT and that still works okay. It seems that it’s only media player controls which no longer working on my device.

Thank you very much, same here.

no, I only switch BT on when it’s nedeed. It’s actually always switched off and I’ll turn it on only when I use headphones. To be honest, I’m not sure if this warn weather issue has been begun after the Android Update from the 5th August… :sweat_smile: I don’t get warnings since several days but the update could been installed earlier

If its a single app misbehaving, I’d suspect the app unless it uses a hardware function known to have been broken by a recent upgrade. Android 11 does put apps to sleep and has more permissions than 10, so worth at the very least checking to see if it has background permissions.

After that I think the place to report problems or seek advice is to contact the app developer who may have some tips. If you still think the apps misbehaviour is phone specific, you could start a new thread naming the app in the subject. As this thread is about Bluetooth, it’s not the best place in the forum to ask.

Well if everyones phone got as hot as mine did during the upgrade, you could be onto something :wink:

Yes. It is. Not the end of the world. But the mere existence of that bug is… a good example of: 'How quality control should not work."

And, to be honest, suggesting the bt-connectivity remaind untested is, if true, not only a quality control issue but an issue with the mindset of the developers: “Ah… no… we don’t test this. What could possibly go wrong.” Bad attitude, if true.

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Same here. Even with Tasker integration, the volume control has changed. Also, commands from Tasker like: Change overall volume on (dis)connection, change (overall) volume based on locations etc is down. Seems they blew internal communication of bluetooth.

Sadly whatever the platform, bugs are a fact of life. Some bugs are introduced by Google, others by Fairphone. Don’t ask me who is responsible for this as Fairphone are not transparent. This forum would be a great place for Fairphone to list known bugs and issue progress updates, but they rarely engage users here. Since I phoned them on the 5th, there has been no update to my support ticket either, this I find even more irritating than the BT issue itself.

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I’m sure if Fairphone had the time and resources they would, but then do Samsung and Apple etc. engage in such a way with a user forum?

It takes time to find how and where each issue can be tackled and so Fairphone may not be responsible and slagging off Fairphone for a lack of transparency is a lack of understanding.

However a weeks wait for an update to your ticket is just about a minimal wait so being irritated by that seems to be a misunderstanding again .

I can understand user’s irritation at not getting the support and response they would like but your post seems more of over expectation rather than a Fairphone failure.

Just hope they find some indication and get back to you and all soon.

All the best

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