Surge, Moto X 2014, Flaky bluetooth connection

[j15r]

Hi all,

I've been scouring the forums for a while, and unable to find anyone describing my precise situation.

I have a Surge, connected to my Moto X 2014 (2nd Gen). I have everything "working" -- the app syncs more or less reliably, bluetooth classic for music control, voice/text notifications, and auto-unlock. But I put "working" in quotes because the bluetooth classic connectivity is extremely flaky, and has been for many months. The easiest way to see it is to use the music control -- the display switches to "Connecting.", literally about 1s out of every 5s. During that period, the "next track" button switches to "cancel", which is about the last thing you want it to do if you're trying to skip a track while running.

From what I can tell, this situation of being disconnected ~20% of the time applies to the other features as well. So, e.g., my phone requires an unlock code about one try out of every five, presumably because the bluetooth classic just happens to be disconnected. The same is true of text/voice notifications as well, rendering them unreliable to the point of being useless.

I believe I've definitively ruled out bad hardware -- I've replaced my phone twice during this period (with the same model), and I've replaced the Surge once (when I contacted support about this, they just sent me a new one without asking much; I had hoped this meant it was a known hardware issue, but now I believe it was just a shot in the dark). All of the bluetooth classic features are clearly labeled as "working" in the Android compatibility chart for this exact phone. And it's also noteworthy that this problem occurs wherever I am -- at home, work, in the car, or out running -- and I use no other bluetooth devices nearby, so it's unlikely to be interference. Finally, I've rebooted, reconnected, re-installed, and updated OS/firmware on both devices in every conceivable order.

Has _anyone_ seen a problem like this, and even better, aware of a solution? I love the _idea_ of the Surge, and the features it supports in theory are pretty much precisely what I want out of a watch, but this is extremely frustrating, and I have run out of ideas on fixing it.

Thanks,

Joel

[j15r]

For anyone else experiencing similar issues, here's the response I eventually got from support when referencing this post:

"""

We have had some user's reporting a similar experience and our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working hard to improve Bluetooth connectivity for Android devices.

We're sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we work to get this resolved. Let us know if you have any other questions.

"""

So I suppose it's the same "we know and we're working on it" that seems to have been the case for quite some time. Hopefully this will save some of you the trouble of contacting support just to hear the same thing. If anyone does find a solution to this issue, please chime in, though.

[shipo]

I wonder what changed between the Gen 1 MotoX and the Gen 2 phone; my phone is getting a little long in the tooth and I've been considering upgrading to one of the later MotoX phones.

FWIW, my Gen 1 phone works flawlessly with my Surge.  🙂

[j15r]

Good question -- what I do know is that it's definitely not a question of individual phone or fitbit hardware, as I've replaced both the phone and the fitbit, to no avail. It's really unfortunate, as the 2nd-gen Moto X is a wonderful phone, and I've been very happy with it otherwise. It's also notable that I don't have Bluetooth connectivity issues with any other devices -- Sony speakers in my house, Withings blood pressure monitor, and so forth.

This phone is definitely on the fitbit "supported hardware" list, so I assume that means they've seen it work properly, but I suppose that depends upon how comprehensive the testing was. Crossing my fingers that this will get seen to eventually, as the fitbit is wonderful otherwise.

[chris2121]

I think the bottom line is that bluetooth connection is flaky with quite a lot of android devices.  I had loads of problems with my old Nexus 4.  I now have a Mot X Play and can't really have text / call alerts and a decent sync of the fitbit.  I have to manually go into the BT settings and 'forget' the Surge about once a day on average.  

Support have some blanket responses which typically involve resetting / reinstalling everything and aren't really practical if you have to continually repeat them.  

I've found a way of working that is far from perfect (and means I have to disable some of the features) but just about works and stops me getting hopelessly frustrated.