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forum
Anyone else got Bolt B'tooth problems?
So, my Wahoo Bolt v1 disconnects from my phone after 20 odd minutes, repeatedly. Which makes Livetrack, which I need for safety, unusable.
Never had a problem with my iPhone, but now have a new Android phone, Poco X3 Pro. Have turned all Battery Optimisation and background app killer features off, granted all permissions the app requests, and been through Wahoo's fairly extensive Bluetooth problemshooting (both Help webpages and Support desk). Have re-set Bluetooth settings, cleared phone cache etc, and now I've even got a new Bolt v1 off them, but it suffers the same problem.
I'm convinced it's the app, the Wahoo Elemnt Companion, but that falls on deaf Wahoo ears naturally. The Wahoo Fitness app (which is different of course, but which you need to update firmware on heart rate monitors, for example) actively brings up a screen notification stating it's searching for saved connections (ie HRM), and I've never had it fall away, but the Elemnt app does not do this. My gut instinct was previously that the phone-Bolt connection falls away when the phone doesn't have mobile coverage (I ride rural hills), could that affect Bluetooth settings as Android insists you have Location on to activate Bluetooth, or is that irrelevant? I'm not so sure of that now as had it happen three times yesterday when wasn't out of coverage.
Wahoo Support said that it'll be the phone's Bluetooth which is at fault. I've never had any other Bluetooth problems with it though (car audio, UE Megaboom speaker etc). I'm not that tech so accept there could be something obvious I'm missing (eg I've no idea about ANT+). I'm not sure that a new powerful smartphone topping the mobile charts and reviews would have this sort of undocumented problem, I can't see reference anywhere to a known problem and emailing the Poco helpdesk results in 'message undeliverable'.
Very grateful for any suggestions, or tales of similar experiences. It's ruining my enjoyment of the Bolt, which is excellent, and I ain't changing to a new computer or phone!
Thank you.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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Thank you for the replies. Very interesting to hear about those other problems, and the 4g 3g idea, thanks for replying.
If you think it is the mobile connection, then try forcing your phone to use 3G in the mobile settings, if that's no better, then you could even try 2G - location data is a very small payload.
I recently dropped my phone back to 3G as they were working on the local 4G mast. What a revelation! It seems nobody uses 3G anymore, so whilst it might technically be slower than 4G, the lack of contention with other users means it's actually very fast (especially latency). It also uses a bit less battery and has a slightly longer range. I'm staying on 3G now until they turn it off!
Had all sorts of issues with Lezyne Mega XL... it would connect then disconnect with my then Huawei phone, yet a 5 yr old Samsung on an earlier version of Android and BT it was good....as it was when connected to an iPhone. Turns out the Lezyne app is optimised for iPhone....I got a Bryton unit and all was well with the Huawei and subsequent Samsung replacement...can't pin point whether the app or unit was the fault with mine but it appears the BT link was being disconnected even with android optimisations...
I sometimes have a problem with my phone (Redmi Note 9s) not connecting to the Bolt - this is after a ride and just to transfer the ride from the Bolt to my phone/Strava. I found that quitting the Elemnt app and restarting it fixes it, so I think it's a problem with the app rather than the phone. However, the Poco phone is very similar to the Redmi Note 9s, so that doesn't necessarily prove that it's not the bluetooth chips.
I haven't got LiveTrack to work successfully, so I instead use Google Maps and share my location that way instead.