Interesting/Helpful Information Concerning Bluetooth Connectivity

[Therealeinn]

Hello everyone!

I thought I would pass on this knowledge to everyone that I learned from Microsoft's tech support. This may already be known or shared, but I didn't see it when looking through the forums here.

Apparently if you have a windows phone with 8.1 (Cyan; unsure if this applies with Denim), your phone and Band will only show the Bluetooth connect symbol when it is actively syncing through the app or pushing a notification - it is not supposed to show the symbol or say "Connected" under the Bluetooth menu. This is apparently to save battery life.

After countless times of me manually trying to 'force' the connection and going from "Paired" to "Connected" back to "Paired" in under a second, I called Microsoft's tech support phone number after registering my Band and the agent (I believe his name was Ken) informed me of how it worked.

I hope this helps anyone else who was having issues!

 

[Likwidz]

I was wondering if that was what was happening with mine. I noticed it wasn't staying connected, but for the most part I still seemed to get all my notifications when they came. Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[lostlogik]

I noticed that previously after the first DP update when connecting my Pebble to my Lumia - the BT symbol would go off and the Pebble would just show as paired. After the last update however my Band is showing as connected on my 1020. Maybe something they've been playing with.

 

[James8561]

After countless times of me manually trying to 'force' the connection and going from "Paired" to "Connected" back to "Paired" in under a second, I called Microsoft's tech support phone number after registering my Band and the agent (I believe his name was Ken) informed me of how it worked.

Why would you try to fix a problem when there is none??

 

[Therealeinn]

Well, I originally discovered the issue when I tried getting Cortana to work on my Band. It kept giving me an error saying that I needed to check the Bluetooth connection to my phone as it was unable to be found. Upon opening Bluetooth menu on my 920, I realized "huh... It's showing it's not 'Connected'", thus beginning this entire charade.

I uhh... didn't read the fine print concerning Cortana only works with WP 8.1 with Denim, though, and was informed by Microsoft tech support that my phone wasn't able to do that yet. He did tell me if I downloaded the Developer Preview, I could have Cortana working right now, but I don't mind waiting for AT&T pushing out Denim when it's ready.

 

[DynaDog]

I discovered something today that might be interesting and it might be helpful! Perfect thread for this! I think I've found something that will keep the Bluetooth connection solid.

First, my story. I bought the Band first day and paired the Band with my 635. Rock solid, on all the time, no problems. The connection would always show on the Band itself and the phone. (I will note that in order to get Cortana, you need the 8.1 Update 1 (or whatever it's called) through the DP, not Denim.)

Then I dropped my 635 a few days ago and messed up the digitizer, so I switched the Band over to my 1520. I reset the Band and paired it to the 1520 and the BT connection was dropping quite a bit, I wasn't getting notifications in a timely manner. Notifications would come in bunches, whenever the connection would kick in. Not nearly as useful as before. Also, the BT connection would not show on the Band, and would usually just show as paired on the phone, not connected.

Then I noticed that the Band would show on the phone's Bluetooth settings page as Msft BAND, followed by the four character identifier, and not as the name I had given the Band --Bandido. So I deleted the Msft Band Bluetooth connection. Then I went to Bluetooth settings on the Band, changed it to Pairing. Now the connection was showing as Bandido on the phone's Bluetooth page, I paired it, and it's been a perfect connection for the last six hours or so (TWSS).

So my experience has been different from the OP and I think he may have gotten a bad steer from Microsoft support. I believe the connection should show on your phone and Band all the time. If it's not showing, make sure that the Bluetooth connection on your phone's Bluetooth settings page is showing your specifically named Band before you pair. I hope this helps someone!