Blocking BT Connections to a Samsung TV - QN49Q60RAFXZA - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 04:54:28 am
content: Hey All,I just bought a new Samsung TV and I can't for the life of me find out how to block random BT connections to it. Hopefully, someone here might have already solved this issue.The situation is that someone in my neighborhood has a BT range extender (identifies as a Miccus Home RTX 2.0) so every few minutes it pops a dialog up in the upper-righthand corner asking if we'd like to connect to it. There appears to be no way to turn this off and the only suggestion I've seen is to go into the engineering menu and turn off BT completely. I haven't tried this as the same people saying you turn off BT also say that this will disable the TV remote.I've tried looking at the device manager, input manager etc but it doesn't list this device name ever so I can't block it. It's getting to the point where I may even have to return the unit as it is really annoying.Anyone have any ideas on how to address?Thanks,TonyG

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 05:21:15 am
content: Did you at one point accidentally select that BT device in the TV OSD menu? Even if you didn't pair to it you will have added it to the internal cache of BT devices.Usually you don't get popups like that except for BT devices that you have (at some point previously) tried to connected to.The assumption being, if you have tried to connect previously then that is a BT device you must own.So when the TV sees that device again, and it is advertising for pairing request, it assumes you are trying to pair a BT device you own to the TV.My advice is to try doing a factory reset on the TV.That should clear all the cached BT devices and start fresh.If the TV has never connected to that neighborhood device it should ignore it entirely. Even if it's advertising a pairing request.EDIT:Even if you never tried to connect to that BT device i definitely recommend doing a factory reset.For all you know the new TV you just bought was actually bought by your neighbor 3 weeks ago and then returned to the store. but not before they paired it to their BT device!!

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 05:27:32 am
content: Thanks - I'll give that a try - I don't believe that we connected to it at any point but you never know. The annoying thing is that if we did I would expect the device manager to list the device but it doesn't.TonyG

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 05:29:59 am
content: If you still have the problem after a factory reset i would return the TV to the store and explain the issue (maybe make a video to show them).Either get a replacement of the same type and hope it doesn't do the same thing, or get a different brand.That is not normal behavior for a Smart TV.

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 06:43:53 am
content: Is the firmware up to date? I see a new version came out Feb. 3.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 07:44:17 am
content: On the older Samsung TVs, the Bluetooth module was an internally separate part, mounted elsewhere in the case, presumably for RF performance. I have disconnected it before without ill effect, the TV simply displayed an error when trying to scan for Bluetooth connections.

author: SilverSolder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 12:18:32 pm
content: Yet another reason to avoid "smart" TVs...Give me dumb every day, and a cold beer.

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2020, 02:23:00 pm
content: If there is no decent s/w optionto disable BT, how about wrapping the BT antenna in tin foil?

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 12:51:42 am
content: I would contact Samsung if the not work I would send them in for a "repair".If the not get fixed I would claim it for "death on arrival".

author: Deodand2014
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 01:21:41 am
content: Quote from: SilverSolder on March 02, 2020, 12:18:32 pmMy mother is saying much the same thing, it takes too long to start up (Company logo + animated Android logo), somehow she's managed to delete the hdmi channels (It's a TCL S6800) and she's seriously talking about finding a 'dumb' TV to replace it.

author: angrybird
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 01:31:13 am
content: My experience with this at local restaurants is that on many TV's, the bluetooth functionality does not appear to be able to be disabled, and pairing attempts are always displayed on the screen. This is how you say hello to your friends, set the name of your device to your message, and attempt to pair

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 02:29:16 am
content: I find that outrageous but I knew it was bound to happen one day.https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/TV/Disable-Wireless-amp-Bluetooth/td-p/625115QuoteIt looks like they had to buy other universal remotes as the Samsung remote uses bluetooth for some buttons.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 03:01:03 am
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on March 03, 2020, 02:29:16 amWhatever is "smart" about smart TVs, it's certainly not the designers...!

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 10:49:03 am
content: Quote from: amyk on March 03, 2020, 03:01:03 amQuoteI can't stand it when they think they know their users better than themselves and I'd return it too.Quote

author: SilverSolder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 12:56:30 pm
content: Quote from: Deodand2014 on March 03, 2020, 01:21:41 amWhen you've grown up with equipment that starts more or less instantly when you throw the switch, it can be hard to get used to slow startups from what you think of as an appliance.My solution with the TV was to dump it completely around the millennium.20 years of saving $150 a month in cable subscriptions adds up to $55,199 (assuming 4% interest)

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2020, 04:11:04 pm
content: Why not use Sat? I never pay for anything on Sat. Cable is crap. Lower resolution and crappy codeq. In the most European country you have to pay a TV tax and in some even when you have internet only.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2020, 10:33:56 am
content: This is beautiful. I love seeing other people struggling with entirely predictable horrible consequences of 'smart' products. There's ALWAYS a combinatorial explosion of stupid, that's generally unacceptable. TVs and cars are two things that especially should not have any complex software or connectivity in them. Nothing that can decide to perform any spontaneous actions or reconfiguration on its own, anyway. Certainly nothing that can interact in any way with external wifi entities.Oh and water heaters... my daughter was struggling with a psychotic water heater at her rental place for a while. It would randomly turn off and on during showers. Why was there a CPU and software in a water heater at all? Eventually the heater had to be replaced.I have a simple rule, much like 'don't take up smoking cigarettes'. NO wifi, NO 'smart' anything, apart from actual computers that I want to interact with the www. Even cell phones... there seem to be many advantages to using a very simple dumb cell phone.Also, Samsung are evil. I won't bore you with justifying that statement, but I figured that out about 10 years ago. Related to buying a Samsung flash memory music player. It was gorgeously styled, but I'm never buying anything from Samsung ever again.They very likely made the TV remote control dependent on BT, specifically so you have to leave BT enabled. Justifying absence of a BT disable option. Now why would they wish their TVs to always have BT enabled? I leave this as an exercise for the reader.

author: ConKbot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2020, 07:43:09 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on March 04, 2020, 10:33:56 amI wonder if they send the telemetry of which BT devices are nearby while whichever programming is on back to samsung HQ encrypted or in the clear.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2020, 08:54:48 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on March 04, 2020, 10:33:56 amYeah, but this is a much cheaper way of doing planned obsolescence. The old way they had to size components to break after a while, now they just can push a button on the mothership and disable Youtube, make the software crash every now and then or make your device unusable in some other way.Same with cars.Mercedes recently soldered a regular lightbulb into the LED headlamp assembly of one of their cars. The damn thing would break after a few years, and since it is soldered, the entire assembly needed replacing. And since it had CAN connection, with serial number, there was no way to replace it with anything else, even one from the junkyard. Now with the GSM connection in the car, they can just trigger a route to the service whenever they feel like.And the dumb sheep replaces their thing willingly, because the new and shiny has Android auto (barf) and bigger screen in the middle.

author: angrybird
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2020, 03:00:28 pm
content: Quote from: ConKbot on March 05, 2020, 07:43:09 amI believe someone already established this was happening with wifi devices, so BT would make sense, all smart phones/windows 10 PC's/MAC PC's/etc are doing this as well, so it would only make sense!