Bluetooth has come a long way since its introduction but it can still have problems. Let’s talk about a few ways to fix Galaxy S6 Bluetooth issues if you are experiencing them.
Bluetooth connection issues on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge can happen at any time. Some users notice that their Galaxy S6 will not connect to a Bluetooth device seemingly at random after a reboot. Others have an issue reconnecting to a Bluetooth device once the connection has been lost.
There are even more people who are unable to connect a Bluetooth device to their Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge after they have applied an OTA update from Samsung or a wireless carrier.
9 times out of 10, being unable to connect to a Bluetooth device that has already been added to your Galaxy S6 comes down to corruption of some data. When you pair a Bluetooth device to your smartphone or tablet, there is some data that is stored on your phone. This data reminds Android that this certain Bluetooth device is allowed to connect to the hardware(and software) whenever possible. When applying an OTA update to your Galaxy S6, there can be a lot of data that gets moved around or changed and this can cause some of it to be unreadable. This also happens a lot to WiFi networks after an OTA update is applied to Android.
Galaxy S6 Fix Bluetooth
The first thing that you will want to try is to restart your Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge. I know, it sounds simple but you would be surprised at just how little we reboot our smartphones and tablets. Even if you are 100% sure that you’ve rebooted in the past, go ahead and do it again just you can follow this guide. Once the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge boots back up, try to connect your Bluetooth device to your smartphone and see if it works. If it still does not work then we can go onto step 2 and try something different.
The next thing you will want to try is to boot the Galaxy S6 into Safe Mode. Safe Mode for Android will disable any and all 3rd party applications while it is active and sometimes it is these applications that are downloaded from the Google Play Store that interferes with Bluetooth devices. So follow the guide linked above and then when the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge has booted back up, go ahead and try to connect to the Bluetooth device that you own. You won’t be able to test this with 3rd party applications like Spotify or Pandora, but just see if the connection can be made first, and then see if a phone call or something works with it.
Safe Mode
If Safe Mode seems to have fixed the Bluetooth connectivity issues with your Galaxy S6 then it is a 3rd party application that is the culprit. Sadly, we don’t know exactly which application it is because there are millions of apps that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. You’ll have to go through all of your applications and uninstall them one at a time to see which one fixes the issue. Go through them at first and see which applications could interfere with Bluetooth and start there. If Safe Mode doesn’t help to resolve the issue then at least we know a 3rd party application isn’t the root cause of the problem.
The next thing that I would try is to delete/unpair the Bluetooth device from the Galaxy S6 and then pair it back again. Much like rebooting, this is a step that you have probably already tried but again, it is worth trying again. There are a few things that could go wrong during the first pairing process that would need you to pair your device again. You’ll need to launch the Settings application and then dive into the Bluetooth section. From here, tap on the settings icon for the Bluetooth device that you want to remove and then tell the Galaxy S6 to unpair it. You’ll then need to go through the process to pair the device again and see if this fixed the issue.
Reset Bluetooth Share
If all else has failed, then we have two last things that we can try. Bluetooth on our smartphones and tablets is actually controlled by an application. Even though we can’t see an application icon on our home screen or our app drawer, there still an application that is controlling our Bluetooth connections. So what we’re going to do is delete the app cache and data on the Galaxy S6 from this Bluetooth Share application. If you are completely unfamiliar with this process the you can follow the linked tutorial above to get an idea of where you need to go. Basically though, we need to launch the Settings application and then go into the Application Manager section of the Galaxy S6.
From here, you’ll need to swipe over to the ‘All’ column, and then find an application called Bluetooth Share. Tapping on this application in the list will show some application details just like any other application that you have installed on the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge. Once there, you’ll see that you can clear two different things, the Cache as well as the Data. I recommend that you clear both(cache first, then data) and then go ahead and reboot the Galaxy S6. Once you are back into the Android OS, then you can try to pair your Bluetooth device back to the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge and hopefully it works properly again.
Factory Reset
If all else fails, the last thing that I can recommend is that you factory reset the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge. If you aren’t sure exactly how to do this then follow the instructions linked here and I will walk you through the process. You can pick either the hard reset or the soft reset process and both of them will result in the same thing. While normally clearing the cache and data of the Bluetooth Share application will resolve almost all Bluetooth issues, sometimes a factory reset is required. This has sometimes not helped people though and they were forced to manually flash a freshly downloaded firmware onto their device.
If you still can’t get any Bluetooth devices to connect to your Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge then I have to wonder if there is some hardware that is broken. You should still be under warranty and if you are, then it would be best to simply get a replacement from the retailer in which you bought it from. This isn’t an ideal solution for everyone, but if it is hardware related then the only way to fix it is to replace the chip that controls Bluetooth on your phone. This is extremely difficult and I don’t recommend that anyone do this unless you have prior experience.
I did all the above and the problem still exists. Verizon acknowledged the problem and offered me a “Like New” replacement. That is unacceptable since the problem has been there since day one of purchase. I was told to talk with Samsung and their only option is to send the phone in for 2-6 weeks. I cannot afford to go that long without a phone. Any suggestions would be appreciated. You would expect a basic function of the device to work exceptionally well, not be intermittently available.
The only other fix I can suggest is to do a factory reset. If that doesn’t fix it then it is likely a hardware issue and it would be best to get it replaced
Brill ! the safe mode option worked and the device stays detected when I restart the device in normal mode! Thanks a ton!!
Happy to see this worked for you 🙂
I’ll go to my setting and all of them work except for Bluetooth it will say settings is no longer working and it’s making me mad!!!
I’ve bought 3 different bluetooth earbud headsets from a Chinese company. Tried to pair them to my absolutely normal standard healthy Galaxy S6, which is used with other Bluetooth devices every day – in vain, my phone does not see them. Tried another Galaxy S6 – it does not see them either. But they paired to my computer and to Galaxy S4 Mini. What might be wrong? Incompatibility of what?
Since you have tried pairing them with another S6, it’s likely a compatibility issue. It would be easy for me to just blame the Chinese company for being cheap or lazy, but it does seem to be the case. Either they implemented the software handshake incorrectly, or the S6 just isn’t compatible with some tech that it uses
The headsets paired normally to my computer and to Galaxy S4. It means they support a certain common protocol. But there is another protocol in S6 that they don’t support. Can we find out what protocols are those? I’d really like to know.
I’m not familiar enough with Bluetooth to know, I’m sorry 🙁