A55 bluetooth drops when modes and routines activates hotspot (worked fine on s24)

[GreenPen001]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a specific issue with my new Galaxy A55 and Modes and Routines, and I'm hoping someone might have some insight.

My setup:

Phone: Samsung Galaxy A55

Tablet: Xiaomi Pad 6

My Goal:

I want to automate turning on my phone's mobile hotspot. I created a routine on my A55 with the trigger "if bluetooth device [my Xiaomi Pad 6] connects" and the action "then turn on mobile hotspot".

The idea is to initiate a bluetooth connection from my tablet > which would trigger the routine and toggle on the phones hotspot > connect the tablet to phones hotspot > toggle off bluetooth on tablet when internet connection is not needed anymore > which would end the routine and revert phones hotspot to state before routine started. 

The Problem:

The routine *kind of* works initially. When the phone and tablet connect via bluetooth, the routine triggers correctly and turns on the mobile hotspot. The tablet then successfully connects to the phone's Wi-Fi hotspot.

However, about a minute after the Wi-Fi connection is established, the initial bluetooth connection between the A55 and the Pad 6 drops. Because my routine has "Reverse actions when routine ends" enabled (which I need), the routine stops, and the mobile hotspot turns off, cutting the tablet's internet connection.

If I just connect the devices via bluetooth without the hotspot being active, the bluetooth connection stays stable indefinitely. The drop only happens when both Bluetooth is connected and the Wi-Fi Hotspot is active between these two devices.

I need Bluetooth tethering enabled on the phone for the routine to trigger, but this seems to cause a conflict that drops the Bluetooth connection once the Wi-Fi hotspot (the routine's action) becomes active.

Troubleshooting I've already tried:

1. Setting the mobile hotspot band to 5 GHz only.

2. Disabling all battery optimization/sleeping apps settings for Modes and Routines, Bluetooth, and mobile hotspot/tethering system services on the A55.

3. Resetting network settings on both devices.

4. Ensuring both devices have the latest software updates.

5. Double-checking the routine setup (it's simple: BT connect -> Hotspot ON).

The frustrating part is that I had this exact same setup with the same Xiaomi Pad 6 and my previous phone, a Samsung Galaxy S24, and it worked perfectly without any bluetooth drops.

Is this behaviour a known issue or perhaps a limitation of the Galaxy A55's hardware or software compared to the S24? Is there any setting I might have missed, or any workaround to keep the Bluetooth connection stable while the Wi-Fi hotspot is active?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

[LongHiker]

@GreenPen001 Can you post a screenshot of your routine?

That will help identify what might be the issue. 

[realaud]

What have are you doing to indicate that the wi-fi is no longer needed that the BT connection severs?  First, a screenshot of your routine would be helpful.  Second, you could set one of the parameters as a "Wait before next action" to set a specific time period.  You can just set the first parameter: When (BT device connected): then (mobile hotspot on).  Leave the "when routine ends" section as it is.  The routine will end when you manually sever the BT connection or turn off the tablet. Otherwise, how is the routine supposed to know when the hotspot is no longer needed?  You would also have to make sure that the tablet is set to connect to the hotspot automatically and not be connected to any other wi-fi network.  The mobile hotspot has an automatic time out when no device is connected, so that could be an issue as well if the tablet is not automatically connecting.

[GreenPen001]

@LongHiker Of course, here's the screenshot of the routine.

@realaud The screenshot of the routine is in the link above. The idea is to operate the phone's hotspot by initiating a bluetooth connection from my tablet (routines if clause), for instances when phone is in my pocket or on another desk. When data connection on tablet is no longer needed, I would turn off the bluetooth on tablet (routines end clause) > which would turn off the phone's hotspot. This is how it looks like in 2X speed. The workaround would be to set the routines end clause to "don't change when routine ends" - which would leave the hotspot turned on for a minimum of 5 minutes, but it's not ideal in case another device (i.e. my wife's iPhone - she has Wi-Fi toggled on at all times) is in a range, meaning it would connect to my A55's hotspot and leech my data and battery. 😊

[LongHiker]

@GreenPen001 Please post the screenshot in the post here, not a link. 

[GreenPen001]

@LongHiker  It seems that on Chrome mobile there's no option to attach images, so here's me sending it from my laptop.

[realaud]

Well, that looks like it should be sufficient.  The only reason I can see for the hotspot turning off is if the tablet does not actually connect when the hotspot is open.  You have to set the table to automatically connect to the hotspot when in range.  If it is already connected to another wi-fi network it will not disconnect and auto connect to the hotspot.  If it is not already connected to another wi-fi network, we have to find out why it's not auto connecting.  You can also change the parameters of your mobile hotspot network for a longer time out period.  I just noticed where you mentioned "if the phone was on another desk", if you move out of BT range of the phone, the connection to the hotspot would be severed.  If you are moving away from the phone's location, you are likely moving out of range.  You have about 50 feet of leeway.  If you are sitting at a desk 49 feet from where the phone is and lean back in your chair, that could be enough to put you out of range.

Also, why access the members app in Chrome Mobile when you can use the app?  It's much easier.  I use the app on the phone and the browser on a real computer.

[GreenPen001]

@realaud If you can, feel free to take a look at the video linked in my first reply. The tablet connects to hotspot automatically, that's not an issue. The problem is that BT connection breaks after a short period of time, which triggers the routines end clause and turns off the hotspot. Phone and tablet are side by side, meaning the connection is not dropping because of long distance.

The connection doesn't drop if devices are connected only via BT (without hotspot), so it seems that on A55 it's impossible to have both bluetooth tethering and mobile hotspot in operation at the same time.

When you think about it, the way it's killing the BT tethering when hotspot is active is a smart feature, but I found strange (and better for my use case) that it worked on S24.

Is there perhaps a way to connect these 2 devices through BT, without enabling the "Internet access feature"?

P.s. tbh, I wasn't even aware that members app existed, never needed to open a community post until now.

[realaud]

The A55 is a lesser featured model than the S24, which may be why it works better on the S24. For the price point of the A series phones, you don't get as many features as the S series and also the hardware is not as robust or advanced.  That could be the crux of the issue. Just guessing here on the why, but it would make sense. If all things were equal and it worked fine on the S24, logically, it should work on the A55.  But, in this instance all things are not equal.

[realaud]

The A55 is a lesser featured model than the S24, which may be why it works better on the S24. For the price point of the A series phones, you don't get as many features as the S series and also the hardware is not as robust or advanced.  That could be the crux of the issue. Just guessing here on the why, but it would make sense. If all things were equal and it worked fine on the S24, logically, it should work on the A55.  But, in this instance all things are not equal. You may have already hit upon the fix by adjusting the "when routine ends" parameters to not turn off the hotspot. The tablet should remain connected to the hotspot when the BT link is severed.  The hotspot will time out when nothing is connected to it for a period of time after you turn off the wi-fi on the tablet.  You can adjust that period in the hotspot settings.  I think the default is 20 minutes, but there are lower values - 5 and 10 minutes.  Settings/connections/mobile hotspot. Tap on the hotspot network name, scroll down, tap "advanced" to expand the options. Tap "turn off when no device connected for" and select the timeout period. This way your phone won't waste energy waiting for something to be connected. Although, I think it only uses energy when it's actively in use and data is going through it.

Sorry for all the edits, but I just had a thought.  Perhaps don't use BT tethering and just connect the tablet to the phone via BT normally, since it appears the tethering may be the issue.  If the tablet connects to the phone via BT and the hotspot is on, it can still connect to the hotspot.  Technically, the tablet does not have to be connected to the phone at all to use the hotspot, just be in range of the hotspot network.  I assume you are just using BT connectivity to trigger the hotspot turning on so that you don't have to take your phone out of your pocket to turn on the hotspot manually.

PS.  The Members app should have been installed on your phone by default, if not, you can download it from the Galaxy store.