Hi all!
When I bought my Gear 2 Neo to use with my HTC One M8, I knew it was not officially supported, but I read some encouraging posts here on XDA, so I decided to give it a go. So far, my overall experience has been completely dreadful:
Battery Life! When I saw 30% per hour drain on my Gear 2 (with not too much of "display on" time), I thought I've got a defective device. However, things came immediately back to normal when I disconnected the Gear from the phone. Did anyone else have such experience? Solved, issue with the specific custom ROM.
Using in conjunction with Bluetooth earpiece is a complete nonsense. I don't want to receive calls on the Gear when I have the earpiece connected to the phone. But guess what, you can't have them connected at the same time! WTF?
Where are the apps? All pre- and post-release materials suggested Gear 2 comes with plenty of useful apps, but where are they? I'm particularly interested in Runtastic, but, according to their Facebook page, their Gear 2-compatible app hasn't been released yet, and no ETA so far. Runtastic claims Samsung didn't ask if their app was available before putting its name on the press release. WTF?
No alarm functionality on the watch itself without a need in the phone, and non-Samsung phone alarm doesn't get propagated to the Gear.
I'd really appreciate if other Samsung and non-Samsung phone users could share their experiences with regards to the areas above.
Thanks!
mpogr said:
Hi all!
When I bought my Gear 2 Neo to use with my HTC One M8, I knew it was not officially supported, but I read some encouraging posts here on XDA, so I decided to give it a go. So far, my overall experience has been completely dreadful:
Battery Life! When I saw 30% per hour drain on my Gear 2 (with not too much of "display on" time), I thought I've got a defective device. However, things came immediately back to normal when I disconnected the Gear from the phone. Did anyone else have such experience?
Using in conjunction with Bluetooth earpiece is a complete nonsense. I don't want to receive calls on the Gear when I have the earpiece connected to the phone. But guess what, you can't have them connected at the same time! WTF?
Where are the apps? All pre- and post-release materials suggested Gear 2 comes with plenty of useful apps, but where are they? I'm particularly interested in Runtastic, but, according to their Facebook page, their Gear 2-compatible app hasn't been released yet, and no ETA so far. Runtastic claims Samsung didn't ask if their app was available before putting its name on the press release. WTF?
No alarm functionality on the watch itself without a need in the phone, and non-Samsung phone alarm doesn't get propagated to the Gear.
I'd really appreciate if other Samsung and non-Samsung phone users could share their experiences with regards to the areas above.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that's a lot. Let's see if I can come up with some answers..
1. I hear that battery drain is a known bug when connected to the HTC one. Not sure why it happens but it's been reported for mostly that device.
2. I'm pretty sure in order to use the Bluetooth earpiece with the Gear you need to connect the gear to your phone, go into Settings on your Gear 2, Go into Bluetooth, and connect it there so instead of having both attached to the phone, you have it Phone>Gear>Bluetooth (IE NOT Bluetooth>Phone<Gear|)
3. Samsung Apps store is not available on NON Samsung devices.
4. This is true and many people are looking for a fix. Nothing can be changed right now.
CarbonWyre said:
Wow that's a lot. Let's see if I can come up with some answers..
1. I hear that battery drain is a known bug when connected to the HTC one. Not sure why it happens but it's been reported for mostly that device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange indeed. Could be related to the Sense flavour of BT stack. I have a spare Google device (Galaxy Nexus), will try the Gear with it to see if the battery drain issue is cured.
CarbonWyre said:
2. I'm pretty sure in order to use the Bluetooth earpiece with the Gear you need to connect the gear to your phone, go into Settings on your Gear 2, Go into Bluetooth, and connect it there so instead of having both attached to the phone, you have it Phone>Gear>Bluetooth (IE NOT Bluetooth>Phone<Gear|)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to the process described here, the audio device needs to be paired with the phone and not the Gear, while the Gear is somehow able to make the phone switch between the phone audio coming through it to the earpiece. There is also this video describing how it works from the user perspective.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way with my HTC One M8. It looks like it uses ONLY the "Phone Audio" profile while connected to the Gear, which effectively disables any other device relying on the same profile (e.g. the earpiece) to connect to the phone. If, nevertheless, you force the phone to connect to the earpiece, the Gear gets disconnected. I suspect, on Samsung devices, a different BT protocol (probably BLE) is used for communicating to the Gear, so it can stay connected to the phone while the "Phone Audio" is taken by another device. This could also explain the power drain above, as BLE is supposed to be much more energy efficient. The question is, of course, how to make HTC One to use it (BLE is obviously supported by the device).
It is possible to connect my earpiece to the Gear, but only as media device (my earpiece supports this profile as well). In that case it can be used for listening to music played on the Gear. But it doesn't help in the phone call scenario. In any case, the "transfer to earpiece" operation described in both tutorials (you can see the corresponding icon on the right side of the Gear screen in the video above) is not available, no matter if the earpiece is paired to the phone or paired/connected to the Gear directly (the icon is greyed out).
Again, I'll try to put a custom BLE-enabled ROM on my Galaxy Nexus (standard ROMs don't enable BLE on that device, despite the fact the hardware is present) to see if it behaves any differently.
CarbonWyre said:
3. Samsung Apps store is not available on NON Samsung devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true, but there are good people around who can make them available for outsiders like us... The problem is Runtastic app for Gear 2 or Fit (not to be confused with Gear 1) is not available yet, according to Runtastic themselves, and no ETA so far. This is despite Samsung press releases. Had I known this before buying my Gear, I would have given it second thought...
CarbonWyre said:
4. This is true and many people are looking for a fix. Nothing can be changed right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is particularly annoying. What I really don't understand is why any other app notifications do get to the Gear, but alarms (even from 3rd party apps) don't. I'm completely baffled by that!
I have my gear connected to my HTC m7 and I got three days of battery out of a single charge
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
thesparky007 said:
I have my gear connected to my HTC m7 and I got three days of battery out of a single charge
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that w/the GEAR2/NEO or,w/the original GALAXY GEAR?
KOLIOXDA said:
Is that w/the GEAR2/NEO or,w/the original GALAXY GEAR?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gear 2 neo
thesparky007 said:
gear 2 neo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THX,that's encouraging to hear. :good:
One thing I've noticed w/my M8 & GEAR FIT:
If I'm not using the FIT (leave @ home etc...., out of range), the battery life takes a little bit of a hit. Otherwise, yesterday for example, battery life was stellar, still @ 50% after 18 hrs of total phone on-time.
Apparently, the FIT MANAGER app cannot be force closed, only disabled, so, I'll just do that when not using the FIT.
As for the GEAR MANAGER (for GEAR/GEAR2/NEO) it can be force closed.
So,I'm remaining optimistic regarding battery life once my GEAR2 arrives, especially since such is a YMMV, not only w/this discussion, but battery life in general.
KOLIOXDA said:
THX,that's encouraging to hear. :good:
One thing I've noticed w/my M8 & GEAR FIT:
If I'm not using the FIT (leave @ home etc...., out of range), the battery life takes a little bit of a hit. Otherwise, yesterday for example, battery life was stellar, still @ 50% after 18 hrs of total phone on-time.
Apparently, the FIT MANAGER app cannot be force closed, only disabled, so, I'll just do that when not using the FIT.
As for the GEAR MANAGER (for GEAR/GEAR2/NEO) it can be force closed.
So,I'm remaining optimistic regarding battery life once my GEAR2 arrives, especially since such is a YMMV, not only w/this discussion, but battery life in general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was quite surprised and satisfied with it as well!
I downloaded the sdk and was able to view the log of the gear and I can see there are a lot of errors for s health and other samsung services so if official support comes through from samsung, id imagine battery life will get better.
OK, reading all the replies, it is apparent nobody else has the same kind of dreadful battery life. So it must be the custom M8 ROM I'm using (Insert Coin). I'm going to reflash a different one (will try Android Revolution HD, as this one is supposed to be as close as possible to stock) and see how it behaves.
I did try flashing a BLE-supporting ROM to my old Galaxy Nexus, but it couldn't connect to the Gear. The Gear Manager was stuck forever while attempting to connect.
OK, with Android Revolution HD 5.0 for HTC One M8 the battery life is MUCH better, I think it'll stretch to 2-3 days the way it's going now. So one annoyance is solved.
However, the others are still pending resolution. The one I'm particularly annoyed by is the issue with Bluetooth earpiece. I just can't use the Gear if I have to answer the phone on it or on the phone, as I've been using Bluetooth earpieces for the last 12 years (since they appeared on the market more or less) and don't see myself changing it just because of this Gear stupidity. I'm investigating possible solutions (e.g. using Tasker or similar apps). Will post results here.
Another update, just found what seems to be a perfect way around the Bluetooth earpiece problem. A combination of Tasker and Secure Settings allows me to switch from Gear to my earpiece on incoming or outgoing call and then back to Gear when the call is finished. Seems to be working very smoothly! At least now I can wear the Gear throughout my workday and handle phone calls normally.
Looking for resolving other outstanding issues, the next most pressing one is alarm notifications.
Hoping to get working Runtastic when the company releases the app.
Last, having all these health functions (sleep tracker/pedometer/HR) and not being able to use them on the phone is pretty annoying. Hoping to get S Health eventually working on non-Samsung phones...
have anyone try the gear 2 with xpeira z1 or z2
iread in some website that the z ultra is work
but ineed the z1 or z2
can someone try it
bluetooth switching
mpogr said:
Another update, just found what seems to be a perfect way around the Bluetooth earpiece problem. A combination of Tasker and Secure Settings allows me to switch from Gear to my earpiece on incoming or outgoing call and then back to Gear when the call is finished. Seems to be working very smoothly! At least now I can wear the Gear throughout my workday and handle phone calls normally.
Looking for resolving other outstanding issues, the next most pressing one is alarm notifications.
Hoping to get working Runtastic when the company releases the app.
Last, having all these health functions (sleep tracker/pedometer/HR) and not being able to use them on the phone is pretty annoying. Hoping to get S Health eventually working on non-Samsung phones...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi may i know which tasker application did u use to resolve this?
thanks
---------- Post added at 03:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 AM ----------
dericion said:
hi may i know which tasker application did u use to resolve this?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
btw i m using xperia z ultra
mpogr said:
Another update, just found what seems to be a perfect way around the Bluetooth earpiece problem. A combination of Tasker and Secure Settings allows me to switch from Gear to my earpiece on incoming or outgoing call and then back to Gear when the call is finished. Seems to be working very smoothly! At least now I can wear the Gear throughout my workday and handle phone calls normally.
Looking for resolving other outstanding issues, the next most pressing one is alarm notifications.
Hoping to get working Runtastic when the company releases the app.
Last, having all these health functions (sleep tracker/pedometer/HR) and not being able to use them on the phone is pretty annoying. Hoping to get S Health eventually working on non-Samsung phones...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please do a step-by-step guide on this mate? Just like me, there are many of us non Sammy users who are facing the same dilemma. Cheers.
HTC M8 & Gear2
HTC ONE M8 and Gear2 neo
flyguye said:
Could you please do a step-by-step guide on this mate? Just like me, there are many of us non Sammy users who are facing the same dilemma. Cheers.
HTC M8 & Gear2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So does anyone have a doc'd process and prerequisites on how to make these two devices even work. I have seen countless youtube videos with people walking through what the thing does and even paired to a htc one m8. I have done all the side loading of the APK's etc. Staging stuff where they suggested and so on. Still coming up with it not working. There is some magic that I am missing some where.
so far I have done:
Installed the Stubpak.apk one by one. Then installed Gear Manager, The phone see's that gear2 then pops up a Parsing Error and goes into the gear manager app pairing screen for ever. Nothing happens after that.
If anyone can shed some light that would be great.
Thanks in Advance.
how do you do it?
mpogr said:
Another update, just found what seems to be a perfect way around the Bluetooth earpiece problem. A combination of Tasker and Secure Settings allows me to switch from Gear to my earpiece on incoming or outgoing call and then back to Gear when the call is finished. Seems to be working very smoothly! At least now I can wear the Gear throughout my workday and handle phone calls normally.
Looking for resolving other outstanding issues, the next most pressing one is alarm notifications.
Hoping to get working Runtastic when the company releases the app.
Last, having all these health functions (sleep tracker/pedometer/HR) and not being able to use them on the phone is pretty annoying. Hoping to get S Health eventually working on non-Samsung phones...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I'm new to tasker just wondered what the steps were to make it do this phase thanks so much
I tested on HTC One X running CM 11. Battery drain is like 40-50% in 6 hours.
fibs said:
I tested on HTC One X running CM 11. Battery drain is like 40-50% in 6 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look at this thread.
matthot69 said:
Hi I'm new to tasker just wondered what the steps were to make it do this phase thanks so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look at this thread.
mpogr said:
Have a look at this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I thought your "solution" was a different custom ROM? Even if I sync an account with few (10) contacts it's the same issue for me...
dlog_system only shows Power Manager messages all day e.g.
06-04 13:05:36.359 303 303 I POWER_MANAGER: core.c: default_trans(1381) > S_LCDOFF -> S_SLEEP : check fail
Just got my Note Edge yesterday and I love it. But I can't get it to work with my Gear S watch? Very frustrating and I can't figure it out unless they just aren't compatible. Can anyone help?
I have a Note Edge paired with the Gear S that works great. I can use the Gear S via Bluetooth or cell. When you said that you just got the Edge, it makes me think that this Gear was set up with another phone prior to the Edge. If so, you'd have to factory reset the Gear.
My Gear Neo 2 is really finicky with the Edge. I think it is the flakey bluetooth on the entire Note 4 line. Every once in a while (maybe twice a week or more), I have to restart the watch to get it to talk to the phone again. I am totally awaiting the official Lollipop update for my Verizon variant as there are a large number of bluetooth changes in it. I am getting a bit concerned that Lollipop doesn't appear to be on the immediate radar for Verizon now that the S6 is out there
Anyway, I would try and factory reset the watch and start the connection process over. A bit inconvenient but I bet it will work.
i've got both and they're work very well. the bluetooth connection is stable and the reconnection after a disconnect is very fast. i see no trouble
Gregdec said:
Just got my Note Edge yesterday and I love it. But I can't get it to work with my Gear S watch? Very frustrating and I can't figure it out unless they just aren't compatible. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
download Samsung Gear Manager from galaxy apps..
So I have been struggling with this since opening day!
When the watch is connected to my 6P (and my Nexus 6 before that - which was not Marshmallow) I can answer and make calls from the phone, but the audio and mic always default to the watch. This is super annoying. Verizon sent me a new watch which does the same. Samsung says it's a Marshmallow problem. Google says its a Huawei problem. And they send me back to Verizon.
So, what I have resorted to is waiting for the call to connect and then on the phone override the BT audio to handset prior to talking. What a hassle!
If you override the BT audio on the phone's BT setting for the S2, then you are no longer given the option to take the call on the S2 (of course).
Anyone have a similar experience? What to do next?
I have the same exact problem with the S2 3G paired with the Nexus 6P. I unchecked phone audio in the phones bluetooth settings but as you said, it disables the option to use the S2 as a phone. Hope there is a solution soon.
Seems to not be fully compatible with marshmallow yes
I have this issue as well. Also when I make a call with my phone (Nexus 6) the call is always completed on the watch via Bluetooth connection. I have to switch back to the phone on the watch during the call.....
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
Update - Sammy Boo
Spoke with Samsung again. I thought the Gear Manager update yesterday would fix this - no deal!
Samsung is now claiming this is a software upgrade with the Gear S2 and is intentionally programmed functionality! Really?
I requested an escalation to their development team as a software enhancement to revert to prior functionality - they assured me that would happen, and they'll send me a notification from their team; problem is, they did not take any of my contact info!
I'm having an issue with CM13 on a Note 4 with a Gear S2. I changed the build.prop from Samsung to HTC to allow the Gear app to function (it doesn't like CM on Samsung phones) and all seemed well. When I try to click send to take a call, nothing happens. When I receive a call I only have the option to reject it from my watch. My watch is not activated, I don't need 2 numbers.
After spending hours on the phone with Verizon and Samsung I flashed a TW based rom and calls instantly worked. I'm pretty happy with my CM rom and I'd like to find a way to get it to work with that rom.
Did this ever get resolved?
I had Samsung Gear S2 with my Note 7 and life was awesome! Then tragedy struck and my life with a good phone is put on hold for at least 6 months, until the S8 series releases in Feb?/March?/April? of 2017. Until then, I decided to limp along with a somewhat cheaper Nexus 6P. The problem is, it throws all my incoming calls over to my Gear S2 instead of picking up on the phone handset. I then have to choose the drop down option to use my handset instead. This is NOT the intended operation. If I wanted to answer the call on my watch, I would answer it on my watch. I don't want to answer on my phone and then have my watch pick up. There is no way that I have found to correct this. This is terrible functionality for an otherwise very promising piece of technology (the watch, no the phone).
I have the same issue on 6p on ATT. What I normally do is like said above is uncheck the Bluetooth handset under Bluetooth settings. Then just turn call forwarding on..Therefore when I want to take calls on the watch I just wait about an extra 10secs. Or of course answer on the phone.
BTW when i had a samsung S6 this was not an issue...
Hello, I have the AT&T Gear S2 SM-R730A with the recent update that just came out yesterday. Anyways, i have been using it at work and I have to leave my phone in my locker so the watch isnt connected via Bluetooth. It will last only 5 hours this way and this is with a few texts and emails and no calls. I tried shutting Bluetooth off and still same drain. I also shut off gps still same. Wifi has never been on and neither has NFC so its not that. Any suggestions?
Oxicottin said:
Hello, I have the AT&T Gear S2 SM-R730A with the recent update that just came out yesterday. Anyways, i have been using it at work and I have to leave my phone in my locker so the watch isnt connected via Bluetooth. It will last only 5 hours this way and this is with a few texts and emails and no calls. I tried shutting Bluetooth off and still same drain. I also shut off gps still same. Wifi has never been on and neither has NFC so its not that. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something after the update killed my battery overnight (less than 4hrs). I decided to quickly do a hard reset before going to work in an attempt to figure out the issue. Additionally, it’s overheating on both chargers I have. I removed a few apps & watch faces I haven’t used since buying the watch. Battery life is back on par. I’ll probably attempt another hard reset this evening & not rush it.
(at&t Gear S2 SM-R730A)
Silverexp said:
Something after the update killed my battery overnight (less than 4hrs). I decided to quickly do a hard reset before going to work in an attempt to figure out the issue. Additionally, it’s overheating on both chargers I have. I removed a few apps & watch faces I haven’t used since buying the watch. Battery life is back on par. I’ll probably attempt another hard reset this evening & not rush it.
(at&t Gear S2 SM-R730A)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im packing this piece of garbage up and selling it. I had for a week and the battery life is horrible.
Another HD reset and better selection of notifications cleared the battery drain and over heating.
I shouldn't have to deal with all this for the price you pay for a watch. I'm paid for it out right I've only had it for 4 days I'm taking it back and buying the LG Google watch
Just picked up my Gear s3 Frontier and it is going into a overheating/cool down mode frequently. Is anyone else having any issues like this?
I don't have any 3rd party apps. I notice it even just playing with settings but especially while making calls and things of that nature.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
i Would bring it back
rocketman155 said:
Just picked up my Gear s3 Frontier and it is going into a overheating/cool down mode frequently. Is anyone else having any issues like this?
I don't have any 3rd party apps. I notice it even just playing with settings but especially while making calls and things of that nature.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just picked up? Was it charging? I only noticed once or twice the watch getting hot when i left it on the charger after it is fully charged. Never saw cool down mode tho.
Mine just warms up a bit when charging.
Sorry...by picked up I mean purchased.
It wasn't directly after purchase. I got it at a T-Mobile store not that they are network specific. I was using it for a call because my phone had died and it was on LTE/standalone. It kept dropping the call and went into powersave mode. After a minute it would change back into the standard mode and say that the device had cooled down.
I rebooted it this morning and used it on standalone for about half of the day and it didn't go into this overheat prevention mode but I also didn't make any calls. I just wondered if this was a known issue. When it happened, it kept happening everything I used it again even after 10 minutes or so had passed.
Thanks!
It's happened to mine a few times but definitely not frequently. The funny thing is that it's happened while the watch was just sitting on my wrist with no apps in use. I've only noticed it because it vibrates as if a call is coming in only for me to see that it's overheated. It doesn't feel physically warm when it happens so I guess that's a good thing.
rocketman155 said:
I was using it for a call because my phone had died and it was on LTE/standalone. It kept dropping the call and went into powersave mode. After a minute it would change back into the standard mode and say that the device had cooled down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never been able to overheat my S3. And I live in a hot climate (ie. 81 today). And I routinely have long phone conversations in standalone mode. The watch has never gotten more than slightly warm.
Mine has a issue where every time I connect Bluetooth or just have it on it gets really hot and "cools down" won't stop until Bluetooth is off. Samsung gear s3 at&t
Jdeore said:
Mine has a issue where every time I connect Bluetooth or just have it on it gets really hot and "cools down" won't stop until Bluetooth is off. Samsung gear s3 at&t
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the AT&T variant. That's not normal. Take it back to the store.
It happen to me from day 1..overheat until day 3..on day 3, i found backup setting is the issue..samsung account back up and google account backup turn on..i disable it..and no more heat on day 3 ..please try disable it..
Sent from my SM-N9208 using Tapatalk
Where did you change these backup settings, on the watch?
My interim solution for Samsung Gear S3 Overheating
Hi,
I had the same overheating issue too.
But I am using an interim solution personally to get my Gear S3 Frontier to full charge.
When I want to charge my Gear S3 Frontier, I turned my Gear S3 to airplane mode.
In 3 occassions, I can get to 100% charge without getting the overheating notification.
However, in one occassion, when it gets to 100%, the overheating notification does pop up.
Note: I am still observing this method. Would be glad to hear from you if this method works, assuming you choose to use this.
My explanation:
If you are charging your Gear S3 while you are moving around, your Gear S3 is continuously scanning for your phone, and also receiving signal via GPS, Bluetooth & WiFi. So it is still doing a lot of work in the background.
Why airplane mode:
Turns off all tranceiving & receiving of signals. Minimize the stress to the Gear S3.
Logically, when you are charging your Gear S3, you will not be using it, right? So, no harm turning to Airplane mode temporarily. A bit troublesome, but for me, it solves the problem of not getting to 100% charge.
On the other hand, I do believe the overheating notification serves as a signal to the Gear S3, to stop the charging process due to whatever reasons. It might be a safety feature.
Just my personal opinion.
Thanks.
From, Ronald