Android version 9 cannot find my device

[Jenzo]

I am using  nRF52832 on my device. I have used SDK13 and softdevice 4.0.5.

On any iOS devices I can scan and connect in the nRFConnect app.

On an older Samsung Galaxy S5 running Android version 5, I can find my device during scan and I connect with the nRFConnect app.

However on a Samsung A20 with Android version 9, I cannot find my device in the nRFConnect app. I have turned on location service and given other necessary permissions, but my device is not being scanned!?!

I am running the latest versions of the nRFConnect app.

What could be the issue?

[Ivan Herrera]

When you open the nRFConnect app, press the top left drawer button and click on "Device information", does it indicate that you have support for most of the features with a green YES? 

[Jenzo]

yes

[Ivan Herrera]

Bluetooth 5 is backwards compatible. Have you checked if you can scan other BLE devices such as a smartwatch? 

[Jenzo]

Yes, I can scan a smart watch, a loud speaker, etc. Just to recap - I cannot scan my device on a Samsung A20 with Android version 9. But I can scan my device on HUAWEI P Smart with Android version 9. What is wrong?

[Jenzo]

Hallo! Could you please follow up on my answer.

[Aleksander Nowakowski]

Hi, do you have Location enabled in the Quick Settings on your Samsung phone? If so, try denying and granting again the location permission to nRF Connect in Settings -> Applications.

[Aleksander Nowakowski]

Ok, I see you did have enable it. Can you see other devices, but only yours is not showing up there? Or the app does not list any devices?

[Aleksander Nowakowski]

If you do see other devices, I can imagine only 2 possible reasons:

1. Your device is bonded with the other phone and is advertising directly to it, so the A20 ignores this advertising.

2. Your devices advertises with invalid data, and the A20 is discarding the packet as invalid, but the other phone is simply ignoring it, while still delivering the packet to the app.

You may also check your settings in nRF Connect -> Scanner. Are they all default? Did you enable Offloaded batching, or anything else there?

Are you able to see your device using some other scanner app, like BLE Scanner, etc?