[Melman]

Since buying my Escape in 2016, I had two LG smartphones. Playing content from those phones into the radio over Bluetooth was always flawless.

I just bought a new Samsung Galaxy A23 5G running Android 13. The bluetooth connection to the car is terrible. If I put the phone on the passenger seat, it is constantly connecting and disconnecting. If I put it in the slot next to the parking brake handle, it's better but still burps occasionally. It seems better yet If I put it on the "shelf" in front of the MFT display, but I know the phone will fall off going around turns.

The phone works well over bluetooth into my ear buds and into my tv sound bar. To the ear buds, it seems to have about the same range as my previous phones did.

I've never seen any threads about this kind of issue. I don't know how to analyze it further. My previous phones worked from anywhere in the car, so I am baffled by this.

All suggestions are welcome. Is that Ford engineer still here?

 

[wiz043]

Try doing a master reset of sync if not already done. That will delete any info from your previous phones etc. also which may have been causing current issues.
You will need to pair your new phone again obviously.

 

[Melman]

I have disabled a bunch of stuff in the phone that is either stock Android or Samsung addons, that constantly scan for devices to connect to for "sharing", which is kinda frightening. That might have improved things quite a bit. I'll try master reset next. Thanks.

 

[jpohlman]

What build is your Sync 3.0 on?
When was the last time is was updated?

 

[Melman]

What build is your Sync 3.0 on?
When was the last time is was updated?

Per my signature, I have what I think is the last Sync2
Sync 2 with My Ford Touch, SYNC2 v3.10, CCPU S/W Version: 3.10.16180.EA.0_PRODUCT

 

[jpohlman]

MFT 3.10 was the last release and that hardware and fork of Windows CE supported Bluetooth v4.1, your new phone supports Bluetooth 5.x.
There may be a firmware update for your APIM which could help, I know that on our 2014 Ti the APIM firmware (calibration in FordSpeak) was update 2x before it went out of warranty in 2017, that will be a dealer visit.
After that your only choice may be to do a MFT to Sync 3 conversion.

 

[Melman]

Well my last phone was LG Rebel™ 4 LTE (CDMA) | TracFone (L212VL) | LG USA which used Bluetooth 4.2. I'm sure the devices are backwards compatible somehow. You just don't hear people saying "hey I got a new phone so now I gotta get a new car".

I'll try to ask the dealer about it next time I'm over that way, but I know I'll just get a blank stare.

 

[jpohlman]

In theory they are backward compatible, but the implementation is up to each manufacturer.
Windows CE 6.5 (which is what MFT is based on) has been out of support by Microsoft since 2015, this is the reason Ford moved to Sync 3 (which is based on Blackberry QNX).

 

[Melman]

Right, I knew that Sync3 was no longer Microsoft.

Limited evidence so far today is that disabling all the Samsung "sharing" stuff and rebooting the phone, has fixed this. I am not completely convinced yet.

 

[Lawrenc]

My phone's a Motorola, and I have found I have to forget and re-pair it about every two months. It'll start dropping out for a second or less, and then after a few weeks of this will just stop connecting.

 

[poconojoe]

I hear you.
My Samsung J7, which is an older phone, has never connected well to our 2022 SE Escape. It constantly disconnects and reconnects. I always get that white dialog box coming up on the Escape's screen stating it has disconnected and then another stating it reconnected.
I have gotten to the point where I think I'm just going to delete the phone from Sync.

 

[MCadiz]

Since buying my Escape in 2016, I had two LG smartphones. Playing content from those phones into the radio over Bluetooth was always flawless.

I just bought a new Samsung Galaxy A23 5G running Android 13. The bluetooth connection to the car is terrible. If I put the phone on the passenger seat, it is constantly connecting and disconnecting. If I put it in the slot next to the parking brake handle, it's better but still burps occasionally. It seems better yet If I put it on the "shelf" in front of the MFT display, but I know the phone will fall off going around turns.

The phone works well over bluetooth into my ear buds and into my tv sound bar. To the ear buds, it seems to have about the same range as my previous phones did.

I've never seen any threads about this kind of issue. I don't know how to analyze it further. My previous phones worked from anywhere in the car, so I am baffled by this.

All suggestions are welcome. Is that Ford engineer still here?

Clear Your Android Device’s Bluetooth Cache | Square Support Center - US

 

[DDS-029]

It seems new and old not playing well with each other, in these cases.

Mine, old phone, Samsung J-6, old MFT, 2.?, has always worked fine together, for what it's worth.

 

[Melman]

I'd been OK for several days, till last night when the car radio started burping again (not as bad as before) and my ear buds started cutting out at only about 10 feet from the phone (they are usually good to about 30 feet). I rebooted the phone yet again and things seem better. But I cannot accept that needing to reboot and/or clear a cache is required with this phone. Bluetooth is a solved problem, there is something in this phone's implementation that is wrong.