Band 2 Music Controls

[vaderag]

So what an awesome new feature. I tested this out when I first got it and it works great, but now, when I actually want to use it, all I see is "Connecting..." And then it eventually disappears off the screen.

As I say, it worked initially, but not now. Have rebooted phone and band to no avail... Any thoughts??

 

[Roland Stoll]

I discovered this issue if my phone (L950) is also connected to another BT device (e.g. my car) - music control ends up trying to connect to the phone... if my band 2 is the only one connected to my phone, then it works like a charm...

 

[vaderag]

I discovered this issue if my phone (L950) is also connected to another BT device (e.g. my car) - music control ends up trying to connect to the phone... if my band 2 is the only one connected to my phone, then it works like a charm...

I thought it was that, but when I tested it I was connected to my jongo's via Bluetooth and it was fine. This was with my bt headphones tho and now its fine with them disconnected.
Not much use tho since I only use music on my phone with my bt headphones!!

 

[Roland Stoll]

I guess to get BT headphone on XMas - then I can report if I also have this issue with BT headphones... ;-)

 

[vaderag]

So i just ran an experiment and it's definitely related to having the Bluettoth headphones connected.

Headphones not connected - controls fine
Headphones connected - fails

Which kind of defeats the purpose i think... where can i report this to MS?

I also tested with my BT speakers and they work. I think the difference is when they are connected it shows "Connected (Music)" where as when my headphones are connected it just shows "Connected"

 

[Roland Stoll]

maybe because the BT headphone (as also my car) already have direct music control (via buttons, touchscreen, etc.)...
and this may "block" music control on the band 2...

...just a guess...

 

[kds]

There are a lot of W10M users having Bluetooth connectivity issues, I wonder if it's related to that? I'd be curious to hear if anyone on 8.1 has tried to connect the Band and car Bluetooth connected simultaneously.

 

[NXTwoThou]

As a fyi, I've had the same issue when my phone connects to my car. As long as there's only the band connected, it seems to work fine

 

[Bull94]

Does the music control work with the iphone?

 

[motjoo]

Does the music control work with the iphone?

Yes it does.

 

[devbent]

Hi Roland,

You are indeed correct! There is a huge write-up over on the Microsoft Band subreddit, but as a quick summary, Phones only allow one media controller at a time. In theory they could allow more, but up until now it really hasn't been a problem. On Android I've filed a bug since we can make this work pretty easily, on Windows Phone they have the same limit Android does of one media controller at a time, other team members are investigating what fixes we can do there.

iOS works because Apple has their own Bluetooth Profile for doing media controls and they implemented support for multiple controllers.

 

[tallarob]

Hi Roland,

You are indeed correct! There is a huge write-up over on the Microsoft Band subreddit, but as a quick summary, Phones only allow one media controller at a time. In theory they could allow more, but up until now it really hasn't been a problem. On Android I've filed a bug since we can make this work pretty easily, on Windows Phone they have the same limit Android does of one media controller at a time, other team members are investigating what fixes we can do there.

iOS works because Apple has their own Bluetooth Profile for doing media controls and they implemented support for multiple controllers.

When I saw that I could control my phone volume with my band I was very excited because, frequently, when I connect via Bluetooth with my phone, the media volume is too soft. I then need to try and get my phone out of my pocket while driving to increase the volume. I thought the band volume control would be the answer, but like everyone else has noted, once the car BT takes control, the band does not seem to do anything.

 

[Snoke]

You are indeed correct! There is a huge write-up over on the Microsoft Band subreddit, but as a quick summary, Phones only allow one media controller at a time. In theory they could allow more, but up until now it really hasn't been a problem. On Android I've filed a bug since we can make this work pretty easily, on Windows Phone they have the same limit Android does of one media controller at a time, other team members are investigating what fixes we can do there.

I always use a Bluetooth speaker for better sound. I'm sure many do the same. Is there any way you can ...
If I activate music controls on the band it deactivates control on the phone, thus keeping with the single controller.
Then when I stop control on the band - control resumes on the phone ?