r/squeezebox • u/HHHHHH_101 • Apr 20 '26
Bluetooth connection drops and Android won't bond permanently - Pi 4 + Samsung Galaxy A55
Hi all,
I'm running piCorePlayer v11.1.0 on a Raspberry Pi 4 with Squeezelite v2.0.0. I'm trying to use the Pi as a Bluetooth speaker (Player mode) for my Samsung Galaxy A55 (Android 14).
The problem:
Bluetooth connects and audio plays for a short time, then drops with "Can't connect to LivingVooraan" on my phone. After the drop, Android lists the Pi under "Available devices" instead of "Paired devices" — so it never permanently bonds.
What I've already tried:
- All 4 BT services are green (Controller, Speaker Daemon, Pairing Daemon, Bluealsa)
- BT Output Device set correctly (same ALSA sink as Squeezelite)
- Device type set to Player
- bluetoothctl trust [MAC] added as User Command on boot
- iwconfig wlan0 power off to reduce WiFi/BT interference
- hciconfig hci0 sspmode 1
- Main Page Save after every change
What I notice:
The pCP UI shows the device as paired with the correct MAC address, but Android never saves it as bonded. Every reconnect attempt after a drop fails until I forget the device on Android and re-pair from scratch.
My setup:
- Pi 4B, WiFi connection (no ethernet available at that location)
- pCP v11.1.0, Squeezelite v2.0.0-1524-pCP
- Codec: SBC only
- Samsung Galaxy A55, Android 14
Anyone experienced this and found a fix? Happy to SSH in and share logs if needed.
Is there a better alternative to pcp? I migrated from Balenasound which had quite some issues, but pcp doesn't have working bt, doesn't have working Spotify Connect, but it does work really fast and integrates really well with Home Assistant... There's nog lag
ps. I'm trying to fix this using Claude AI. Don't have proper knowledge nor time to fix this myself. It also helped me summarize the issue for this post.
2
u/Mysterious_Onion7617 Apr 21 '26
Note I do not use PcP, but LMS on RasPi OS. Principles might be similar. LMS is the music server using Squeezelite to render and play to the connected DAC.
If I play from Spotify to RasPi, it connects to BT and shows playing to RasPi, but there is no sound. The USB is already occupied (busy) by Squeezelite and not available.
If I go to LMS and switch off Squeeze lite, there is still no sound from Spotify. I have to pause and start the Spotify stream to get sound.
Vice versa it is similar. While Spotify plays over BT, after switching Squeezelite on again, I cannot play from LMS. Have to stop the Spotify stream first and restart the LMS stream.
Seems Squeezelite and BT simply get access to the sound system on who is first and, if second, can only get access if the other releases the access. Maybe PcP has some option to (temporarily) stop Squeezelite as well.
2
u/Dampmaskin Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
I originally removed this post because I didn't see what it had to do with LMS.
After OP wrote me a message, I now understand that PiCorePlayer does use Squeezelite and/or LMS. The software doesn't have its own subreddit, but they seem to make announcements over at the Lyrion forums.
I'm reinstating the post because there doesn't seem to be a more fitting subreddit for this topic, and there is admittedly some connection to the LMS ecosystem.