Note10 Won’t Connect To Bluetooth Headphone

Although your Galaxy Note10 still allows wired headphone connection via a special USB-C adapter, it’s more convenient if you just use a wireless earpiece or headphone instead. Samsung is clearly following Apple in this regard by getting rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is definitely not cool. And while losing the ubiquitous jack is definitely a bad choice for them, it also brings us closer to the realization that wireless headphones are reliable and is a lot comfortable. Bluetooth headphones and earpieces are a thing now so it’s not surprising to know that there may be a lot of users encountering problems with them. In this post, we’ll help you troubleshoot if your Bluetooth headphone won’t connect to your Galaxy Note10.

Reasons why a Bluetooth headphone may not pair with your Samsung

There are several causes for Bluetooth connection issues between devices. For this specific problem, your Galaxy Note10 may be having a hard time connecting or pairing with a Bluetooth headphone due to one of the following:

Old or incompatible Bluetooth version
Signal interference
Device error
Range issues (Out of range, intermittent signal, weak signal)
Software issue

How to fix Galaxy Note10 won’t pair to Bluetooth headphone

Bluetooth connection problems are usually fixable. Oftentimes, the solution for most Bluetooth issues are simple and can be done in a few seconds to a few minutes. If you find yourself in a situation where your Bluetooth headphone won’t connect with your Samsung Galaxy Note10, all you have to do is to follow our suggestions below.

Refresh Bluetooth connection

Toggling Bluetooth connection is an often effective way to fix most Bluetooth-related problems. This is true if a Bluetooth device appears to be having difficulty pairing with another device. If your headphone was previously connected to your Galaxy Note10 and is now having an issue establishing a connection, be sure to toggle Bluetooth functionality in both devices. Some Bluetooth devices may need to be restarted to refresh the connection so you’ll want to do that. For your Samsung Galaxy Note10, simply pull down the notification bar from the top and toggle Bluetooth from there.

Try connecting another Bluetooth device to your Samsung Galaxy Note10

Before you proceed with more in-depth troubleshooting steps, you’ll want to know first if the problem is coming from your Galaxy Note10. You’ll want to do that by connecting another Bluetooth headphone (if possible). If you encounter the same problem with another Bluetooth device, the issue is most probably coming from the Note10. You’ll have to focus your troubleshooting on your phone by continuing with our suggestions in this post.

Keep in mind that as a user, there’s just a limited set of troubleshooting steps that you can do. If the rest of the potential solutions for your Note10 won’t change anything, you may have to get help from Samsung. The good news is, majority of Bluetooth issues are fixable on a user’s level, so there’s a big chance you’ll also fix yours.

Check for signal interference

Bluetooth works over 2.4GHz radio frequency, which is also the radio band used by other common wireless devices like wifi routers, microwaves, wireless phones, wireless speakers, baby monitors, wireless cameras, phones, among others. This can cause a problem if there are other multiple devices broadcasting in this frequency that’s within range of your Bluetooth headphone and Galaxy Note10.

Over the years, device manufacturers have been improving their Bluetooth devices that it’s now safe to say that signal interference between devices should now be rare. A properly designed Bluetooth device should be able to fend off signal interference from other devices relatively easily. Thanks mainly to spread-spectrum frequency hopping, interference can be negated by a device as it randomly rotate between 70 frequencies within its range. This rotation happens very fast every second (changes 1,600 times every second) so it’s almost impossible for any two Bluetooth devices in range to actually interfere with each other. Other devices may use a different way to avoid interference by using a technology called Adaptive Frequency Hopping or AFH. The point is, it’s highly unlikely that Bluetooth devices will interfere with each other at this time but the problem is not totally impossible. To check if you have a Bluetooth signal interference, these are the things that you can do.

Fix Bluetooth signal interference

Check for physical barriers. Thick, steel-reinforced walls can block wireless signals. Since Bluetooth devices usually broadcast weak signal at 1 milliwatt only, it’s possible that your Galaxy Note10 won’t connect to your Bluetooth headphone if there’s a barrier between them. Glass, metal, concrete, or thick walls may be diminishing the signal so be sure to keep the devices close to its other.

Select another router channel. Some routers may interfere with another Bluetooth device if they happen to be broadcasting in the same frequency. To see if that’s the case, consider changing the channel of your router to a different one. If you don’t know how this is done, get help from your Internet Service Provider, or consult the router documentation.

Stay away from microwaves. It’s unlikely that this may be the main reason for your problem, but if you noticed that you only seem to be having an issue when you’re in the kitchen or any particular room or location only, there may be a third party cause for it. Move away from sources of microwave energy or fluorescent lighting.

Reboot Galaxy Note10 and Bluetooth device

If your Samsung Galaxy Note10 still won’t connect to your Bluetooth headphone at this time, consider rebooting both devices. For your Note10, you can reboot it in a few ways. Restarting is a common fix for networking troubles so you’ll want to do this if none of the suggestions have helped so far. This can work if the cause of the problem is a temporary bug that causes the system to freeze or become unresponsive. If you haven’t tried this yet, be sure that you do it this time. Try restarting it normally first by pressing the Power button to access the boot menu. Then, select Restart option and see if that works.

Another way to restart the device is by pressing and holding the Volume Down button and the Power key at the same time for 10 seconds or until the device’s screen turns on. This simulates the effect of having disconnected the battery from the device. If this works, this may unlock the device.

If doing the regular restart won’t help, then try this:

Press and hold the Volume Down button first and don’t release it.
While holding it down, press and hold the Power key.
Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.

The second restart procedure tries to simulate the effects of removing the battery pack. On older devices, disconnecting the battery is often an effective way in fixing unresponsive devices. If nothing changed though, proceed to the next suggestions.

Rebooting your device regularly at least once every week can be beneficial. If you tend to forget things, we suggest that you configure your phone to reboot on its own. You can schedule it to do this task by doing these steps:

Open Settings app.
Tap Device Care.
Tap the 3-dot at the top.
Select Auto restart.

Clear all paired Bluetooth devices

Refresh your Galaxy Note10 by erasing all Bluetooth devices that were previously paired to it. There’s a chance that the Bluetooth list may include a device that you’ve only connected once before so it’s good to remove that. It’s also not a bad idea to refresh Bluetooth pairing on your device and only allow a headphone to connect your Galaxy Note10.

Delete a Bluetooth pairing on your Galaxy Note10:

Open Settings app.
Tap Connections.
Tap Bluetooth.
Under Paired devices section, tap the Cog icon for a particular pairing.
Tap unpair.

Make sure to delete all paired devices using the steps above.

Turn off Dual audio Bluetooth feature

It’s also good that you check if your Galaxy Note10 is having an issue with your Bluetooth headphone because of Dual audio feature. This feature allows two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. It’s possible that you may have lowered the volume of the Bluetooth headphone only. To check, simply turn the feature off. Here’s how:

Open Settings app.
Tap Connections.
Tap Bluetooth.
Tap Advanced at the upper right.
Turn off Dual audio.
Connect your Bluetooth headphone to your Galaxy Note10 and check for the problem.

Troubleshoot Bluetooth app

In some cases, you’ll have to directly troubleshoot the Bluetooth app on your phone to fix an issue. If your Bluetooth headphone still won’t connect, you can deal with the app on your Galaxy Note10.

Force quit Bluetooth app. You’ll have to force reboot the Bluetooth functionality if necessary. Like any other app, the Bluetooth app may develop bugs. Here’s what you need to do:

Reboot app using App Info menu

To force close Bluetooth app, go to the app’s settings itself. IYou want to use this method if you plan on doing other troubleshooting for the said app like clearing its cache or data. Here’s how it’s done:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
Tap Show system apps.
Find and tap Bluetooth app.
Tap Force Stop.

Clear cache. Deleting your Bluetooth app’s cache is also a good idea. You must do this if none of our solutions have helped so far.

Go to the Home screen.
Tap Apps icon.
Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
If you’re looking for a system or default app, tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap the appropriate app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Cache button.
Restart the device and check for the problem.

Clear data. Should clearing of the app’s cache won’t make a difference, try to also reset its settings to defaults. To clear an app’s data and return it to its defaults:

Go to the Home screen.
Tap Apps icon.
Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
If you’re looking for a system or default app, tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap the appropriate app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Data button.

Update your Galaxy Note10 and Bluetooth headphone

Sometimes, all it takes to fix an issue is simple: install a system update. Your phone may be due for an update at this time so you want to check if that’s the case. There may be a particular bug that causes Bluetooth pairing issues. Updates may fix other issues as well so you want to make sure that you install them as soon as updates become available. In general, system and carrier updates are pushed automatically to your device and all you have to do is to confirm. However, if you want to manually check for a system update, follow these steps:

Open Settings app.
Scroll down to the bottom and tap Software update.
Tap Download and install.

Update your Galaxy Note10 apps

One of the beauties of Android is that you can customize a lot of things, including the fact that you can directly install apps from other sources. When it comes to Android, there are two types of apps that you can get. Normally, you should only get apps from Google Play Store but you also have the option to download apps from outside the Play Store.

To check for Play Store app updates on your Galaxy Note10:

Open Play Store app.
Tap More settings icon at the upper left (three-horizontal lines).
Tap My apps & games.
Tap Update or Update All.

If you are on Cellular Data connection, we suggest that you update via wifi only to avoid additional charges. Here’s how:

Open Play Store app.
Tap More settings icon at the upper left (three-horizontal lines).
Tap Settings.
Tap App download preference.
Select Over wifi only (select Over any network if you don’t have wifi).
Tap Done.

Make sure to also keep your apps updated all the time by enabling auto-update option.

Tap Auto-update apps.
Tap Over wifi only (select Over any network if you don’t have wifi).
Tap Done.

Update your Bluetooth headphone

Some Bluetooth headphones and earpieces like the Galaxy Buds receive software updates from time to time to iron out bugs as well as to improve performance. Make sure that you check for such updates if possible. Some Bluetooth audio devices such as the Galaxy Buds can work with other non-Samsung devices but when it comes to updating the software, it requires its own proprietary app that is only available on Samsung Galaxy devices. The same may be true for other non-Samsung Bluetooth headphones. Be sure to check the documentation on your device so you’ll know how to update its software.

Connect Bluetooth device on Safe Mode

If your Samsung Note10 won’t connect to Bluetooth headphone at this time, the next good thing to do is to check if a bad third party app is involved. This troubleshooting step is meant to let you check if a bad third party app is behind the issue. Some apps may interfere with Android OS or with other apps. To see if there’s an installed third party app that causes your Bluetooth headphone to fail to pair, restart your Galaxy Note10 to safe mode. Here’s how to do that:

Press and hold the Power button until the Power off window appears then release.
Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
To confirm, tap Safe mode.
The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete.
Upon reboot, “Safe mode” appears in the lower-left of the home screen.

Remember that third-party applications are disabled in this mode so what you can use are pre-installed apps. If the touchscreen issue won’t appear on safe mode, that means that the problem is due to a bad app. Uninstall the app you recently installed and see if that will fix it. If the problem remains, use the process of elimination to identify the rogue app. Here’s how:

Boot to safe mode.
Check for the problem.
Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
If your Galaxy Note10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Clear network settings

Some forms of Bluetooth problems may be caused by incorrect or buggy network setup on a phone. Try clearing your Note10’s network settings and see what happens.

On the Home screen, tap Apps icon.
Open Settings app.
Tap General management.
Tap Reset.
Tap Reset network settings.
Tap Reset settings to confirm.

Return device’s software to defaults (Factory reset)

If nothing has worked so far and your Galaxy Note10 still won’t connect to a Bluetooth headphone, consider erasing the device with a factory or master reset. Bluetooth connection problems are sometimes due to a bug in the software. To refresh everything, you want to factory reset your Note10.

Below are the two ways to factory reset your Note10:

Method 1: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy Note10 via Settings Menu

This is the easiest way to wipe your Galaxy Note10. all you have to do is to go under Settings menu and follow the steps below. We recommend this method if you have no trouble going under Settings.

Create a backup of your personal data and remove your Google account.
Open Settings app.
Scroll to and tap General management.
Tap Reset.
Select Factory data reset from the given options.
Read the information then tap Reset to continue.
Tap Delete All to confirm action.

Method 2: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy Note10 using hardware buttons

If your case is that the phone is not booting up, or it boots but Settings menu is inaccessible, this method can be helpful. First, you need to boot the device to Recovery Mode. Once you successfully access Recovery, that’s the time that you begin proper master reset procedure. It may take some tries for you before you can access Recovery so be patient and simply try again.

If possible, create a backup of your personal data ahead of time. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
Also, you want to make sure that you remove your Google account. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Bixby button at the same time.
While still holding the Volume Up and Bixby keys, press and hold the Power button.
The Recovery screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the buttons.
Use the Volume Down button until you are highlighting ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
Press the Power button to select ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
Use Volume Down to highlight Yes.
Press the Power button to confirm factory reset.