BT connection with my S4 keeps dropping
 

Newbie. Have a 2016 FR-S with 300+ miles, S4 phone with Android 5.0.1. Dealer paired originally on delivery. Connection with either phone and/or music keeps dropping. Will pair initially but only last for 1-2 minutes. Re-connect but still drops within 1-2 minutes. Went to dealer and diagnosed it saying that the car unit does not like the S4 connected to the USB port in my FR-S. So disconnected that. Have also un-paired all other BT devices in my phone and my FR-S. Freshly re-paired with only the car and phone but connection still drops within a couple of minutes. My S4 was stable in my old 2015 Mazda 6 and performed admirably. Frustrated as heck. If anyone had this problem and solved it, I will be very eternally grateful to hear from you or anyone with constructive suggestions. My advanced BIG THANK YOU.

Does the phone still stay paired just fine with everything else? Could just be the phone getting old/broken.

I used to have issues with my Jawbone UP3 fitness tracker causing the BT connection between my phone and car to lag/drop when it was updating my phone with stats periodically. But it seems that isnt your issue.. hm

Also, check if there are any power-saver type settings on your phone. I have a S7 so I cant really look and tell you exactly what to check.

Lastly, is your case or car mount metal? Could be interfering with the signal.

Thanks for the comeback. The phone is staying paired just dropping connection. Think my S4 is still good. Power Saver is off. That is one thing I did also. But no effect. No case metal case or mount. It is naked just laying on the passenger seat. No external 12V power connection either. Puzzled??????? But Thanks though.

Not sure if this setting is available for the 2016 FR-S audio system, but my 2013 BRZ has a setting that controls whether the car or phone 'manages' the Bluetooth connection. If you have it in your settings, then try setting it to phone instead.

Thanks, dys586
 

I did attempt to get to those settings in my FR-S but could not duplicate what you did. Maybe it is not available in my unit. BTW, even when it drops either my music or phone connection, the phone is still paired to my FR-S. My FR-S on the contrary could not find my paired phone. I still have to do a few gyrations to get reconnected. When I do get reconnected AGAIN, it still drops the connection quickly. Couldn't seem to keep it stably connected. UGH! Thanks again though.

Just out of curiosity, what music player are you using on the S4? My old S4 (and my new Huawei 6P) would drop at least once on my 20 minute commute every day, and then when I switched to the Poweramp music player the drops completely went away. I get the occasional stutter with about the same frequency but it never disconnects while playing anymore.

I used to use the Apollo and stock Google Play Music apps and it would disconnect with those.

Update. Dealer saw the problem again. They looked at all the apps actively using BT at the same time. Saw many. Narrowed it somewhat to ?Music Player. Installed another Music Player from App Store. Still dropping. Went to another new 2016 FR-S. Repeated the whole thing again. Still dropping after 55 secs everytime. Narrowed it down to the S4 Android 5.0.1. Salesman had an S6 with Android 5.1. No dropping. So need new Phone. Weird. Anybody else have better solution? Thanks. FYI.

Maybe its worth a try to root your phone and flash a custom firmware?

Root it and flash the Google Play Edition rom. My GPe S4 never had any bluetooth issues in my FRS when I had it. Plus stock Android > Touchwiz