My son was just diagnosed with T1D and I gave him my G6 transmitter and put a sensor on him to help manage his blood sugars until his own system arrives, but it’s not working with his phone. I made sure to disconnect it from my phone, forget the device in bluetooth settings, and force quit Xdrip+ on my phone. I installed the latest version of Xdrip+ on his phone and followed all of the instructions that worked fine on my phone but it will not pair with the transmitter. Often the transmitter won’t even show up in the list of available devices, and when it does it usually will not pair. I’ve only gotten it to successfully pair once and I don’t know how or why it worked that time. It made it through the 2-hour warmup period, worked for about an hour, then disconnected. It wouldn’t pair with the “recently used devices”, I tried forgetting it, and now I’m back to not being able to even see it on the list. I can’t seem to forget the device in Xdrip+ either. Help!
@docslotnick, unusual question, any ideas?
I see that there are some advanced Bluetooth settings in the “Less common settings” section, but I don’t really know what they do and I might make things worse. It does seem to be reconnecting sporadically and getting data again, but the transmitter does not show up under bluetooth devices. Right now it has data again and the transmitter is showing up fine in Xdrip+ but is not listed in Android bluetooth devices. Do G6 transmitters just not show up consistently here on some older phones? I think it was always visible in bluetooth devices on my phone (LG G6).
@bwschulz In G5/G6 debug settings check “Allow OB1 Initiate Bonding” and “Allow OB1 Unbonding”. Also in Old G5 collector settings, just for good measure check “Scan for G5 Constantly”.
If you still cannot connect uncheck one at a time in reverse order and wait for half an hour before unchecking the last one. But don’t uncheck the first one.
And yes, on some phones the G6 transmitter only appears intermittantly.
Oops, almost forgot. in Advanced Bluetooth settings make sure “Turn on Bluetooth” is checked and “Bluetooth Watchdog” is checked.
Did you stop sensor while it was still on you?
Does stop sensor show on your phone/receiver? Transmitter may be thinking it is already/still reading from your sensor.
Stop sensor may allow to re-pair with same transmitter, but now on your son.
Thanks for the suggestions. Working fine now, but I think the problem is that the G6 transmitter only appears intermittently on his phone AND THAT IS THE ONLY INSTANT IT WILL PAIR. So I had such trouble pairing that the first time the signal dropped I was gutted. But patience has shown it to be fine.
We got the first sensor working, but it died in the middle of day 9 (sensor failed). But then when we put a new sensor in it wouldn’t start and Xdrip still says “Sensor failed 4”. I’ve restarted it, lockpicked the transmitter out and put it in the microwave for 30 minutes then restarted again, but it still has that sensor failed error. I would normally try a new sensor, but this phone has given me so much trouble that I’m afraid the problem is in the phone or possibly transmitter (55 days old, so not near EOL). I don’t want to waste a new sensor if it will just think that one is failed too. Do you think a new sensor would work or is there something else I should try first?
@bwschulz You didn’t mention what make of phone you were using, but if it’s a Pixel XL running Android 10 I would strongly recommend downloading the latest nightly edition of xDrip+ at https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases
This release addresses the connection problems with that and other Android 10 phones. And, in any event, before you give up on the phone you’re using, download the latest nightly.
Other than that I can only advise to use the Dexcom receiver to start the sensor. xDrip+ will pick up the readings almost immediately after the 2 hour warmup. You should probably also start the sensor with xDrip+ first so that it has the correct sensor code.
Sorry, it’s a refurbished Pixel XL (gen 1) running Android 9, but it does have an update waiting. Do you think updating it might help?
So you can have a transmitter connected to a receiver and a phone at the same time? That would be a nice trick to try. But I’m not sure if you’re suggesting to start the sensor with the Dexcom receiver or Xdrip+, you seem to say both in the last paragraph.
Yes, that is correct…
Either one can start, they both are communicating with transmitter. Advantage of receiver is that if it doesn’t work, it can be reported to dexcom for troubleshooting or replacement.
Once transmitter starts reading from sensor, the xDrip app can “start” again, but transmitter knows its already started.
Thanks- the Dexcom receiver worked fine with that “failed” sensor on the first try, so I’m glad we didn’t rip it off and try to start a new one! Xdrip+ still says “Sensor failed 4” though, so I tried to restart the sensor on Xdrip+ and we will see if it works on there in another 2 hours.
Yup. Xdrip+ is back up and running now after “starting” the sensor that was already running on the Dexcom receiver, even though it took a bit more than the 2 hours to do so. I’ll definitely be using the receiver to start problem sensors in the future. It does look like the phone loses the signal more often than the receiver, so we may still have other issues with the phone or Xdrip+ install on it.
@bwschulz. I downloaded the nightly last night and have the same issue. I rolled my version back and all is well. Possibly it might work for you?
I didn’t install the nightly yet- looks like that might’ve been a good thing.
I ended rolling back to the last Stable release and the transmitter repaired with XDrip about 3 minutes later. All better now.
Sorry, I misspoke. If you start the sensor from the Dexcom receiver you don’t need to enter the code in xDrip+, or even start the sensor on the phone. With native mode the phone will just pick up what’s coming from the transmitter.
Good to know that’s how it is supposed to work, because it isn’t. We had to start the sensor on the phone as well, and then the phone is dropping the signal way more often than the receiver. I think I’ll go start a new thread asking for suggestions for phones with reliable bluetooth, because that transmitter was working just fine with my phone using the same settings before I put it on him.