Bluetooth turning off (being disabled) automatically

Just saying I have done everything mentioned. Factory Reset, Google Play Services Update, all of that stuff and Bluetooth connectivity is still unreliable. 

Yet the hundreds of other folks with the same problem trying over and over to blame it on an app and finding out it's NOT an app causing it are mistaken?   I haven't added any new app since early February, and most certainly didn't add anything new in the past couple weeks.  Though I do have apps updating through Google Play at any random time.  

Seriously, hundreds of others ....  over and over proving it's not an app issue .... and the bug has been identified...  so...?

woodinthewoods and others, thanks. I hadn't come across the suggestion to turn off Bluetooth scanning until the recent flurry of messages about it. I'll give it a go. It doesn't help that that setting is in an unexpected place(i.e. under location rather than under Bluetooth) Makes you wonder if there are other settings to do with Bluetooth scattered around the settings menus. Sadly, the relatively sensible arrangements of 'settings' on Android were one of itsjoys (compared to various other OSes).  BTW, the reference to FDR means Factory Default Reset, I guess?

I'm sure the delay has something to do with Verizon.  I believe Google had to negotiate an update schedule with them, so even if you are not using them as your carrier, the phone updates are on their schedule unfortunately.

Thanks all for the continued discussion.  I have a Love/Hate relationship with my pixel as it's now the Best/Worst phone I've ever had.  To say that I am disappointed in Google at this point is comical.  The DND issue is not even being addressed.   My worst fear is that this is all a hardware issue.   

 Question, does doing a reset and going back to the January update resolve issues?  I am loathe to update to March as my BT works without fail with certain devices, and 100% not with others.  I don't want it to impact the stuff that's working. 

So it seems (to me at least) the issues started with the February patch... perhaps the March patch will fix it but I am not holding my breath...

From what support says there are basically two choices 
1) Factory Reset and dont apply any security patches

2) Wait

(I will add - choice three - return the damn device)

Support says its not a bug but an inconvenience ... and that blue tooth is not a 'core function' of the device? Really? I guess they dont live in an area where handsfree is required by law in a car, do not own any accessories etc... 

This is getting a bit rediculous IMNSHO

Yes, but QC is becoming an issue. Do Not Disturb has been broken for a couple of months now.

Pretty damned unacceptable. This is a bug that is affecting every pixel on the planet that uses Bluetooth. The price we paid for this phone was at a level where proper customer support would be expected. Not 'we will fix it in a forthcoming release', no time frame, no apology.

@Orrin,

FYI the support staff is still claiming that there is no fix in the works.  This was received this morning after again showing them this thread and your 2/23 update.

Thank you for writing back to us. My name is Bob, the Google support specialist. I’ll be taking over the case from here.

I understand your concern. We're currently investigating this issue, however we do not have any resolution at this time. Google is committed to continually making improvements to our devices and regularly provides free software updates to customers.

 If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reply directly to this email for further assistance.

Thank you for your patience.

Thanks!

Just spoke with Google support. They acknowledged that they are aware of the issue and the support guy (who spoke to the tech) confirmed it is a software issue, not an XL hardware issue. He said that the 7.1.2 final version (obviously not the beta version I already installed) will fix the problem. He said that should push out to XL phones in March. Until then he suggested using a third party Bluetooth speaker. While I appreciate this communication, this is disappointing for a flagship phone.

Please also educate your support staff. I opened a ticket for this and was sent instructions on how to pair devices, then told to perform a factory reset. Here's the exact exchange...

"Raul, these are very generic steps.  I'm not having problems connecting to the headset.  It works fine 99% of the day.  But Bluetooth itself on the phone will be come disabled.  The headset buzzes as if it's been disconnected.  I'll look at the phone, and bluetooth is disabled.  I'll re-enable it and it'll connect and work fine automatically after that.  But the auto-disabling is happening more and more frequently.  3-4 times per day now.  Any suggestions other than a factory reset?"

Support: "These're the only steps we recommend if the bluetooth connection is lost intermittently. If factory data reset doesn't fix the issue, we'll need to look for replacement."

Sorry to intrude, but this might be helpful in diagnosing the issue. I don't have a Pixel, but the same thing has been happening on my Nexus 5 (which I use with Pebble) on the last stock firmware (Marshmallow, December release). It reproduced when I rolled back to October ROM (I think I restored settings there from the cloud, but unchecked all apps). I've also tried 7.1.1 via LineageOS and it worked OK for about two days (at that point I haven't restored any apps or settings during initial setup - just logged into my account and started clean). When I reset the phone and restored some of the apps today, the issue reappeared after a few hours.

It does seem to happen over periods of inactivity, so maybe BLE is to blame? There's total chaos in logcat, the only consistent thing is:

02-18 13:05:25.621 6055-6079/? I/bt_bte_conf: bte_load_ble_conf attempt to load ble stack conf from /etc/bluetooth/ble_stack.conf

02-18 13:05:25.621 6055-6079/? E/bt_osi_config: config_new unable to open file '/etc/bluetooth/ble_stack.conf': No such file or directory

02-18 13:05:25.621 6055-6079/? I/bt_bte_conf: bte_load_ble_conf file >/etc/bluetooth/ble_stack.conf< not found

- but AFAIK that one's just a remnant of some old code, or smth.

The problem is made worse by the fact that it doesn't reproduce for me while the phone is connected to ADB - so I can't see the error logs in realtime, I have to run to the computer whenever it happens. There doesn't seem to be anything damning on the hardware side (dmesg):

[ 1056.089851] net_ratelimit: 1 callbacks suppressed

[ 1056.089894] dhd_set_suspend: force extra Suspend setting

[ 1056.095311] dhd_get_suspend_bcn_li_dtim beacon=100 bcn_li_dtim=5 DTIM=1 Listen=10

[ 1066.378310] dhd_pno_initiate_gscan_request enter - run 1 flush 0

[ 1067.004333] dhd_pno_initiate_gscan_request enter - run 0 flush 0

[ 1327.548503] bluetooth_set_power set blocked=1

[ 1327.548801] Bluetooth RESET LOW!!

[ 1327.549857] bluetooth_set_power set blocked=0

[ 1327.580993] Bluetooth RESET HIGH!!

[ 1328.817142] bluetooth_set_power set blocked=1

[ 1328.817224] Bluetooth RESET LOW!!

TL;DR: Also happens for Nexus 5 on stock Marshmallow and LineageOS Nougat, though not restoring any apps and settings after wipe *may* help. Maybe Play Services or Connectivity Sevices, or some corrupt data in what Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings are backed up in the cloud? (A year ago there was that bug when bluetooth would crash when it had encountered and cached info of more than a couple thousand BLE beacons, but that got fixed, AFAIK)

My BT has been steady on for a couple of days now, I haven't changed anything. I'm not sure if the problem fixed itself or Google changed something on the backend or some app that was causing this got updated.

I have a Pixel XL 128GB still on the January security update and have started experiencing this issue recently in the past week.  It's random, I will turn on my Bluetooth headset and once in a while it will not connect, I will look at the phone and Bluetooth is turned off.  Has probably happened 3-4 times in the past week.

@Orrin +Orrin - It is great you opened up this thread as this seems like a very common issue in the past couple weeks. BUT then it has been mostly abandoned from Google's point of view. What is the status? Has a bug been found? Will there be a fix and when? What is the root issue - the February update or some other nebulous update that we don't even know about (which is an entirely different rant!)?

Customers want to be engaged and you asked us to report problems, which is a good start, but you need to continue interfacing with us. 

This BT bug on my $750 Phone BY GOOGLE, which I paid a premium for with expectation of A-1 experience, has rendered my $300 AndroidWear watch useless along with multiple pairs of BT headphones and my car speakerphone. I have a LOT of money tied up in this BT bug and it is really starting to rub me the wrong way with how it is being handled.