So I’ve rigged my iPhone 6, Apple Watch and Dexcom G5 to work together. When they work together, it’s a thing of beauty. However, I am getting unexplained signal loss. I wear my transmitter/sensor on the outside of my thigh, and I had my iPhone 6 in physical contact with the transmitter but for the layer of my pocket in between them. Yet I still encountered hours of signal loss today. My transmitter is only a few weeks old.
Has anyone else encountered similar problems or have suggestions about how to fix this?
If the phone is always with you and you still experience missed BG values you might want to try this.
First, take an inventory of all the Bluetooth connections you have setup on your iPhone. Are there any you can disconnect or just delete? The fewer the better, in general.
Second, when you get a new iphone model, do you just restore your backup from your old iPhone or do you set it up as “New” ? I recently did away with restoring my backups and treated my 6s as brand new. This fixed several unrelated issues for me.
Try it if you don’t mind setting up your phone as new.
Note: I’m only talking about the G5 app on your phone. The Follow app and Watch have a slew of problems so I won’t even address that here.
I’ve had a lot of problems with lengthy G5 dropouts on my iPhone. The connection to my receiver seems much more reliable. Mine is an upgraded G4, not a brand new G5, dunno if that matters.
In general I’ve found Bluetooth devices can be a little wonky about staying connected even when the distance between the pairs is close and unobstructed. E.g., I have a “magic mouse” for my iMac at work, and part of the magic is that it suddenly loses connection all by itself for no particular reason. My impression is that these things can be disrupted when there are just too many other signals flying around.
On edit:
Here’s this, from the Motorola tech support pages:
If you are using the phone indoors, other wireless equipment such as wireless internet, cordless phones, or monitors, that operate on the 2.4 Ghz frequency may cause interference, and contribute to a dropped connection.
If you are using the phone outdoors, the Bluetooth signal may be affected by the environmental conditions.
I had a two-hour disconnection this morning. Again, despite the fact that the phone was virtually in physical contact with the transmitter.
Good idea about disabling other BT connections on my phone, but the only other BT connection I use is with my car. I also set up my iPhone as new. I find the Apple backups from prior iPhone iterations problematic.
Totally agree about the “magic” of the Apple Magic Mouse. Mine cuts its connection randomly as well.
My longest G5-iPhone dropouts have been overnight, most likely due to me lying on top of the transmitter (sorry Dexcom, but I can’t sleep on one side the entire night). Doesn’t seem to affect the receiver, though, just the iPhone. Something more robust about that connection–I don’t think the receiver has ever dropped it unless I’ve walked out of range. I did notice last evening that when I connected to BT speakers from my phone I immediately lost G5 connectivity, so yeah, there’s something to that. But like the Motorola link indicates, dropouts can be caused by anything broadcasting on the same frequency–doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with any of your own devices.
Would you please explain to me exactly how you’ve connected the G5, iPhone (I have a 6s) and the Apple Watch to work together? I have just ordered the G5 without the receiver + the sensors for some 520 EUR and will have to put out additional 400 EUR for the Apple Watch in order to have everything working, so I would appreciate any help I can get.
I’ve been on my G5 for a couple weeks now. I’ve noticed that the radio setup in the G5 is noticeably weaker than the G4. Personally I thought the G4 radio was amazing to begin with anyway. Well the G5 uses an industry standard Bluetooth style radio, one of the newer types too where it’s much lower power and doesn’t require pairing. Lots of new IoT (Internet of Things) gadgets use this new Bluetooth setup. So, yes, there is a LOT of interference in the air. But overall it works well enough.
