• State Verified Answer
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 6 replies
  • Subscribers 75 subscribers
  • Views 3021 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Attachments (0)
Nordic Case Info
  • Case ID: 287603
Options
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

nRF Connect Mobile fails to scan any BLE device

MDF

I'm using nRF Connect for Mobile on my Android smartphone (HTC U11, Android 9) for over a year now

It was working well so far last year, then I paused for a few weeks and when I resumed my current BLE development project recently I noticed that nRF Connect Mobile, while scanning for devices, is not finding any device, nothing, nada, void - just a blank screen with the message "no devices found"

My smartphone (Bluetooth) works well with all devices (my car, headset etc) - and another App, the LightBlue scanner works pretty well, listing all BLE device nearby, so I consider that my SmartPhone is ok.

Some devices (usually nRF samples like blinky etc) which I paired/bonded previously are still visible in the "bonded" tab and I'm able to connect to them ... but scanning shows nothing at all. Of course I tried to uninstall the App, bootet my SmartPhone and tried all the obvious things, still, no scanning results.

It happend only one time last week, where the scanning windows suddenly showed a list of BLE device, but only for like 100 msec, and then the screen was empty again.

Any ideas ? Am I the only one with this issue ?

thanks, Matthias

  • 0

    Hi Matthias,

    Apologies for the late response time. The office has been closed due to the recent holidays.

    Of course I tried to uninstall the App, bootet my SmartPhone and tried all the obvious things, still, no scanning results.

    Glad to hear that you've already tried this. If you have one available, could you try with a different android phone?

    I've asked internally if the android app team knows the answer to this issue and will reply back to you as soon as I know more. Hopefully I will get a reply within this working week (Friday).


    Kind regards,
    Andreas

  • 0

    Hello ,

    Few weeks ago we released an updated version of nRF Connect for Android, adding support for Android 12, but on older devices all features should not be affected.

    I would recommend:

    • Check if you have the latest version of nRF Connect for Mobile app, that is 4.25.3 (link)
    • Check if Location is enabled in your system. It's usually available in Quick Settings. It doesn't have to be set to GPS.
    • Check if you have the location permission granted to the nRF Connect app. You should have it, otherwise the app would complain.
    • Check if your filter isn't set to some value that excludes all devices you have. Click the X button on the right. Latest version also excludes devices from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung and Exposure Notification Service packets. This also can be changed in the filter.

    With the above, and Bluetooth enabled, the devices should show up on the list.

  • 0 in reply to Aleksander Nowakowski

    Hello Aleksander

    I checked all these things: I'm using version 4.25.3, Location and GPS is enabled, permission is granted, no filter is set ... but still "no devices found". It seems to work in 1-2 % of all cases, but usually the app says "no devices found"

    Is there any additional diagnostic I can use or run ?

    I noticed that, while scanning, there is no progress indicator, is this normal ?

    The app just shows the button "stop scanning" and thats it. When wiping on the screen downwards, I see a glimpse of the round progress indicator, but when I lift my finger off the screen, its gone.

    I experienced this morning a behaviour (as described above) that the app seemed to perform a scan. Usually devices will pop up on the screen as they are found, but in this case it took some 10-20 seconds and suddendly there was a list of a dozen devices on the screen.  In this case the RSSI graph shows some fragments, but is not updated.

    With the "LightBlue" scanner, I see a list of devices within a few seconds, so I guess its not my smartphone,

    regards, Matthias

  • 0 in reply to MDF
    MDF said:

    I noticed that, while scanning, there is no progress indicator, is this normal ?

    The app just shows the button "stop scanning" and thats it. When wiping on the screen downwards, I see a glimpse of the round progress indicator, but when I lift my finger off the screen, its gone.

    Yes, that is normal. 

    MDF said:
    no filter is set

    Mind, that the default filter excludes some devices (they are crossed out).

    One more thing. Perhaps you did modify the settings of the scanner. Try going to Settings -> Scanner.

    Ensure the Physical Layer (PHY) is set to All supported and Offloaded scan batching is disabled.

    Did you try a different phone?

  • 0 in reply to Aleksander Nowakowski

    Hello + THANK YOU

    it was the "offloaded scan batching" setting, this one was enabled ( I didn't do that )
    After disabling, the scanning works again without problems.

    The "Physical Layer" setting is grayed out, it is "all supported" - but I'm not able to change it ... is this normal ?

    Matthias

Related
Terms of service