I had an unpleasant experience with location tracking that I have described here.
Thinking about it, Bluetooth appears to be one culprit. My Galaxy Watch remains connected to my phone at all times over Bluetooth. So turning OFF the Bluetooth will disconnect the watch from my phone.
These are my current settings:
1. Under Location settings, WiFi Scanning and Bluetooth scanning are both OFF.
2. Nearby Device Scanning is OFF.
3. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is OFF.
4. NFC is OFF.
5. Location is ON.
Under Android settings, I don't see the option to turn OFF device visibility or discoverability. This results in my phone constantly giving away it's presence to Bluetooth Beacons that are installed by several establishments.
I don't want to turn OFF my phone Bluetooth, but I want to stop it from constantly searching for other devices or appearing on scans from other devices. Once my phone is connected to my watch (or earphones), it should stop scanning for other devices, and also stop being discoverable.
Is this possible?
Same problem here. I don't want to turn Bluetooth off, however I also don't want to show the whole world that my device is in the room. It seems that all options regarding visibility or discoverability are hidden now. :-(
taffit said:
Same problem here. I don't want to turn Bluetooth off, however I also don't want to show the whole world that my device is in the room. It seems that all options regarding visibility or discoverability are hidden now. :-(
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I think they have been removed, not just hidden. I can't find any activity, including hidden ones, that allows for disabling device visibility.
Related
Hi, I'm new to android, but tech aware. Not sure if this is android or Sensation (I'm on XE with thanks to Mike1986).
I use WiFi a lot, but also wander. I tend to forget to turn off the WiFi when I leave work/home/pub - not top of my list!
Whilst I'm wandering I often try to look something up, when WiFi's scanning, and wait for ages.
Shouldn't the 'system' failover to phone data access if WiFi is not connected - or at least ask me for an action?
As I say, I'm new to this - apologies.
Thanks
yes, it should fail over to data if it is not connected to WIFI.
Correct. If you have wifi enabled, leave the area like to work that has no wifi, then yes mobile network takes over.
But I go one above and use Llama location profiles. Where depending where are based on the conditions you set, you can trigger actions using this app. The app is free in the market and is an invaluable tool for me when I am leaving work, heading to the car with my bt and gets connected because I set my condition to look for a bt device if I am no longer connected to my wifi at work.
Gotta love Android
Hmmm. That's not the behaviour I'm seeing. Just thought it was an irritation. Should failover be auto or is there settings (or apps) to control it? I like the concept of profiles ... But you've got to be more organised than I!
nightjar56 said:
Hmmm. That's not the behaviour I'm seeing. Just thought it was an irritation. Should failover be auto or is there settings (or apps) to control it? I like the concept of profiles ... But you've got to be more organised than I!
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It's auto. Like my n1, whenever I am in range of a known wifi connection, the wifi will auto connect if wifi was left on from the prior location or out of range and back again, if that makes sense lol...
So if you go out and are out of wifi range, and you manually turn off wifi, then no wifi won't auto connect of course.
Yes, that all works fine - when I'm wandering in and out of wifi zones. My gripe/question is :
When I am out of wifi range, and wifi is on (scanning), should the phone fall back to the phone data connection? The behaviour I see is that connecting just hangs until I turn wifi off.
Thanks
On most android phones you can stop them from connecting to open WiFi, so it only connects to your home WiFi and other predefined locations.
The Z3 has an option on the Stamina page:
Location based WiFi- WiFi activated automatically when in range of a saved WiFi network.
I've played with this but i don't get it. If that's activated and I've turned WiFi off it doesn't seem to turn WiFi on, and if WiFi is turned on it'll connect anyway so this option is redundant.
The power policy makes no difference, and I've added my WiFi point to the list.
Maybe you need to turn on "background scanning" in advanced settings which checks for WiFi in intervals even when WiFi set to off.
If you leave wifi enabled the feature will automatically turn it off when you are not near the location of one of your saved networks, and then back on when you are again near that location. Don't manually turn off wifi, the feature won't turn it back on in that state.
I was wondering the same thing. I'll test this out today.
The description should say that WiFi will turn off when not in range of saved networks.
Sony makes it sound like we need to have WiFi off, and it'll turn back on automatically when in range.
Sent from my D6616 using XDA Free mobile app
shilent said:
The description should say that WiFi will turn off when not in range of saved networks.
Sony makes it sound like we need to have WiFi off, and it'll turn back on automatically when in range.
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Exactly, especially when another option, on the advanced wifi option page, says:
"Scanning always available: Let google's location service and other apps scan for networks, even when wi-fi is turned off"
because it gives the impression you can enable that, turn wifi off, but use the "location based" option to override your wifi disable to turn it back on again.
Scanning always available is a battery killer.
What I have noticed is that my Wi-Fi turns off when I leave my residence to work and stays off the entire time. It doesn't turn on automatically when you come home until something runs a scan of your location. I believe that is how it works and when it senses that you're near where your WiFi is it will turn it on automatically.
Hey, everyone. Here's a small app I made for myself and figured I might as well post it for anyone else who may want it. It's fully free, and does not track any of your information (which some similar apps out there required permissions I didn't view as necessary for this kind of app, and therefor a little fishy). I made the app to be a convenience thing and battery saver (I only want my wifi adapter to be on at home, and not turn back on again at work), so I'm open to any feature requests people may have to make it more convenient for you.
I call it Auto Wifi, here's a Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.psiincgames.autowifi
Going on the description I wrote for the Play Store:
Auto Wifi controls the wifi on your phone for you, turning it on and off as needed. This is both convenient and saves you battery life. Want to have your wifi turn on at home, but not at school or work? We can do that for you.
You have full control over how it will work, with control over everything from the scan interval times to which wifi ssid's to connect to. The optional notification setting helps keep Auto Wifi open in the background, and is as non-intrusive as possible. We hate unnecessary notifications just as much as you do.
It operates using 3 selectable modes:
"Auto on, auto off" - this mode will shut your wifi off when no signal nearby saved access point is detected, and turns it on whenever any wifi access point you've connected to before is nearby.
"Selective on, auto off" - this mode will only automatically turn your wifi on when your device can connect to an access point from a list that you select. Great for when you want your phone to connect to wifi at home but not at school or work. It will only shut your wifi off automatically when it isn't connected to anything, so you can still manually turn on your wifi without disruption.
"Auto off only" - lastly, this mode will only automatically turn wifi off, so you can have full manual control over when it turns back on again.
Description of permissions required:
"Run at startup" - as the name implies, this is needed so we can start Auto Wifi at device start up.
"Access Network State" and "Access Wifi State" - these are needed so we can check if you are connected to a wifi network. This lets us know when to turn wifi on or off, otherwise known as the 'Auto' part of Auto Wifi.
"Change Wifi State" - this is required so we can actually turn your wifi adapter on and off for you, otherwise this app would be pointless.
I've noticed that if my watch is connected to my phone via bluetooth, it will try to get location data from the phone rather than the watche's own GPS.
Under normal circumstances that's not a problem, however when I go hiking, I keep my phone in my backpack and it loses the GPS signal. That means the watch also loses location data and no longer properly tracks the hike (or any other activity where the phone might not have a GPS signal).
Is there a way to force the watch to use its own GPS even when bluetooth is on?
Turning off bluetooth on the watch fixes this of course, but then I no longer get notifications of text messages coming in while my phone is not easily accessible, which is kind of the point of the watch in the first place.
Maybe turning Off Location on phone ?
Hi there,
I'm using my old Nexus 5 for navigation. Each time when the phone is going to standby, the bluetooth connection (tethering by another phone) get lost.
Is there a solution to avoid this?
Bluetooth timeout is one of the most common reasons Bluetooth is turned off without warning. By default, after about 10 minutes of being idle, your device will usually go into "standby" mode to conserve power. This turns the screen off and removes certain connections, like Bluetooth.
Is there anybody possibility to change the timeout? I can't find this option in developers options.
Guaranteed not to be found under Developer Options.
Not all devices will let you control when your Bluetooth turns itself off automatically.
Every smartphone or device is different when it comes to setting Bluetooth connections and connectivity preferences. You can usually find instructions on how to alter your Bluetooth online by searching for your phone model.