Buds+ Ambient sound not working during calls

[Talicz]

At the beginnig of May I bought Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (SM-R175NZKAEUA).

Everything was workign fine, but after some updates, the functionality activating Ambient sound during calls stopped working.

I found some people on Reddit having the same issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxybuds/comments/fchz8z/ambient_sound_while_on_call_not_working_buds/

I have the latest SW:

Buds firmware: R175XXU0ATF2

Galaxy Wearable app: 2.2.30.20031361

Galaxy Buds+ Plugin: 1.3.20061651

Android 9

I tried to reset the Buds over the Wearable app, I cleared data and cache of the Warable app, I completely removed Wearable and Buds+ Plugin and instaled it again. None of it helped.

All the features work fine (even the Ambient sound). But when I start calling, the ambient sound is deactivated.

When stop calling, it activates again.

[AndrewL]

@Talicz: Can you try opening the Wearables app on your phone and going to Ambient Sound > On > Advanced > Use Ambient Sound During Calls > ON, to see if this helps. You can also activate Ambient sound using the touchpads on the earbuds. First, open the Galaxy Wearable app, and then tap Touchpad. Under Touch and hold touchpad, tap Left or Right, and then tap Ambient Sound. Next, touch and hold the earbud of your choice to use Ambient Sound. The touch-sensitive sensor must be clean in order for this to work. Let me know if any of the above steps resolve your issue.

[Talicz]

Hi Andrew,

The feature "Use Ambient Sound During Calls" is On. During my troubleshooting I was trying to disable, make a call, enable, make a call.. but it's still the same.

Regarding the Touchpad settings, I have the Left headphone set with Ambient sound mode. And I can enable the mode by touching and holding the touchpad. But when calling, it disables the Ambient sound AND the long touch mutes microphone instead of enabling the Ambient sound (I assume it is a correct behavior of the Touchpad).

It's purely about the "Use Ambient Sound During Calls" functionality. And I can tell you that on 11th of May 2020 when I bought it and installed the latest FW, it was working fine.

[Talicz]

Just a remark:
I haven't got chance to test it on any other phone.
Name: LG G7 Thinq
Model: LM-G710EM
HW rev: 1.0
Android: 9
Kernel: 4.9.112
Build: PKQ1.181105.001
SW verison: V20k-EUR-XX

I can also enable a Debugging on my phone and send you some traces if you tell me what to look for.
The System Tracing allows me to trace on may categories including Audio.

[Talicz]

Today I received an update of Galaxy Wearable, version 2.2.31.20061661. The issue still persist.

[alisabzevari]

I have a similar issue. Ambient sound is on but during the call touchpad does not work at all.

Additionally, sound quality is poor during the call. It looks like my earbuds switch to HSP/HFP profile during the call. I think they are related to each other.

[Talicz]

Yes it is possible, but it should be working. I expect Samsung to troubleshoot it further, there is nothing we can do I guess.

About the call quality, I am not 100% sure but it seemed to me that it differs from the phone used. My LG G7 Thinq has quite good quality while Samsung S7 Edge of friend of mine was worse. But I did not do a deeper comparison.

[Talicz]

Remark:

The issue is not related to the phone I have. There is the same behavior when I test it with other phones.

I assume that there is a problem with the Galaxy Buds+ SW version: R175XXU0ATF2

[alisabzevari]

I can confirm that it only works on one of my phones.

It doesn't work on my Oneplus 6 but works fine on LG G6.

Firmware version: R175XXU0ATF2

[Talicz]

Hi @AndrewL 

Would it be possible to report this to Samsung engineering? If there is anything you would like us to test, let us know.

Regards,

Martin