Tethering popup when connecting to car

[AA12345]

Hi, 

Since one or two weeks, Android is showing a popup notification whenever I connect to my car over Bluetooth. It will ask me whether I would like to allow Bluetooth tethering. 

The message is something like tethering bluetooth detected. Allow or deny. 

It is really annoying.  And the strange thing is, my car doesn't even support bluetooth tethering. I've tested it with multiple cars, and for all it behaves the same. So I guess something changed in my phone. 

Can anyone help me out with getting rid of this annoying pop-up? 

[emeles]

I get the same pop up but my car does have sat nav with traffic alerts which need a data source to provide. If I have switched off tethering it pops up when starting car to remind me.
Does you car have built in sat nav or are you using a sat nav device which needs a data connection?

[AA12345]

Hi emeles, my car doesn't.  Only features to call or play sound from my phone. 

[AndrewL]

@AA12345: If Bluetooth connectivity isn't available in your car, then I recommend heading to Settings > Apps > Android Auto > Permissions > Nearby devices > Don't allow. Let me know if this helps. 

[emeles]

🤔

[AA12345]

Hi Andrew, I tried it, but it did not change behavior. 

[jjost]

I too have the same issue with my s21 ultra 5G that has the latest system updates. I am using an android-auto/carplay wireless adapter and it uses bluetooth to communicate with the phone but it makes tethering requests too but does not really need the tethered data to work. My carrier plan (ATT in this case) does not support tethering so my only option is to deny, however the pop up keeps coming up about every 30 seconds or so. Working with the Chinese supplier of the device is maddening and going no where mostly due to lost in translation issues I think (even with pictures...). So I would just like to disable this type of notification completely from the phone side so that the pop ups stop and my battery is conserved (even in lock, the screen turns on). The samsung android notifications controls seem more geared to app notification control versus this type of system notification and, are so convoluted to begin with its hard to know if this can even be shut off. 

[Members_17xDxlY]

Like you all I am having this problem. My phone is an S21 and my car is a Volvo with built in satnav. The satnav use the Bluetooth tethering to access the internet and get traffic reports. For this to work I have to turn Bluetooth tethering turned on, on my Samsung S21 phone. The only problem here is that after two possibly three days the Bluetooth tethering turns off. This is a bit of an annoyance but I can live with it.

However. Samsung have recently done an update to my phone. Now if the Bluetooth tethering is turned off on the phone, I get a message saying “Do you want to turn Bluetooth tethering on” and I am given the option to accept. If I do nothing at this time I start to get an annoying alarm/notification every 30 seconds.

Now the problem here is that when I get in the car my phone is usually in my pocket! This means that to turn of the alarm/notification I either have to stop the car and retrieve my phone or put up with the alarm going off every 30 seconds.

Is there a way to 1) keep Bluetooth tethering on all the time? Or 2) Disable the alarm/notification? Or 3) Stop getting the message that the tethering needs to be turned on?

[jjost]

Hello Andrew.

Any updates on this from the Samsung phone side? Seems like the simplest solution should be a way to shut off the tethering request notification pop ups. Perhaps that is more of an Android issue but since Samsung highly customizes Android for their own use it would seem like this is doable. Or give us all root access to let us do it ourselves (JK that wont happed!). Thank you!   

[Blueflame192]

I think I've figured it out after nearly losing my mind with these messages. For me it was that when my phone connected with my vehicle, it included internet, sound, and calls. I was able to change the default connection to exclude internet and the notifications have stopped.  FYI for others, disabling Bluetooth tethering on the phone does not work to stop the requests. Good luck!