Completely Broken and Fails to Set All Adjusted Device Volumes [Pro Version]

[JakFrost]

Current App version: 3.0.3-rc0 eu.darken.bluemusic

Device: Google Pixel 6

Android OS: 16
Build Number: BP3A.250905.014

This applies to all past versions also. Loss of functionality for the last few years. And with the Android 16 update to the phone which is a OEM Google Pixel 6 with no modifications and stock Android OS this app is now so inconsistent that it hardly ever works. There's some fundamental, incompatibility or breakage in this app with the last few Android OS upgrades because you end up with volumes from one device being applied to another device. Bluetooth devices to the car device to the phone speaker device. Not enough, the volumes are ever consistent.

The last 5 years, this app couldn't even launch the music player Musicolete and it could not even send the plate button consistently. Don't blame the music play app. I've tried all types of delays, increasing them to up to 10 seconds and none of the play or play pause buttons. Whatever transfer.

This app is so inconsistent and that it is now useless. You end up having volume supplied from other devices to whatever the current device is and if you disconnect a Bluetooth device you end up with the volume set the same way as your last device. Blasting your music through your headphones from the phone device, speaker or vice versa. Being having the volume on the Bluetooth device is being completely quiet as it is on the phone device speaker .

I've tried playing with every single setting and every single delay in the last few years. I even tried volume lock which is comically broken because it'll 'll set a different volume in the app than what the volume is shown in the OS and then it won't let you adjust the volume in the OS at all by blocking and volume up and down buttons and then not remembering when you increase the volume in the app to maximum. After reconnect, it goes back to that previous Volume.

It's a complete and outer crap show. This app now is so broken. It is like working with a mentally challenged person that has Alzheimer's or Dementia because it does not remember anything and puts the wrong settings on the wrong devices all the time consistently.

Pretty much you get random volume set from random devices no matter which Bluetooth device is connected or disconnected. Your device phone speaker will just end up with some random volume set from some other device.

I paid for the Pro version of this app. Probably more than half a decade ago if not longer and it used to be functional but now it is absolutely broken.

eu.darken.bluemusic_30003000_2025-10-19_06-17-05-404.zip

[d4rken]

This applies to all past versions also. Loss of functionality for the last few years. And with the Android 16 update to the phone which is a OEM Google Pixel 6 with no modifications and stock Android OS this app is now so inconsistent that it hardly ever works. There's some fundamental, incompatibility or breakage in this app with the last few Android OS upgrades because you end up with volumes from one device being applied to another device. Bluetooth devices to the car device to the phone speaker device. Not enough, the volumes are ever consistent.

I'm sorry to hear that. Fundamentally you need to be aware that what this app does isn't an exact science. There are no official ways to do what it does, all functionality is based on timings and creative solutions. This just can be buggy in some cases, which is why the timing values can be adjusted. That being said it should behave fairly well on a Pixel device, as this is what I use the app myself on.

The last 5 years, this app couldn't even launch the music player Musicolete and it could not even send the plate button consistently. Don't blame the music play app. I've tried all types of delays, increasing them to up to 10 seconds and none of the play or play pause buttons. Whatever transfer.

This is unfortunately something that really got worse with the Android updates and there is not much I can do about it. With each newer Android version, the OS has restricted more and more what an app can launch from the background. If no app was launched, and if no music app recently had audio focus, then the media buttons don't cause a reaction.

On recent Android versions (but basically since Android 12 already) it is very important to grant the permission "SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW", sometimes called "draw over other apps", which grants BVM some exemptions from background limitations. (Also disable battery optimizations of course too).

This app is so inconsistent and that it is now useless. You end up having volume supplied from other devices to whatever the current device is and if you disconnect a Bluetooth device you end up with the volume set the same way as your last device. Blasting your music through your headphones from the phone device, speaker or vice versa. Being having the volume on the Bluetooth device is being completely quiet as it is on the phone device speaker .

I've had this a few times in cases where Bluetooth devices shortly connected, but didn't really connect and the phone then lagged behind with the Music commands. This was almost always car related for me. You open the car, to pick up something you forgot, the phone begins to connect, but you quickly exit the car again and the phone disconnects, but the events already fired and the app starts to react. I've tried this already, but it is almost impossible to fix well as there is no pattern to how and when the Bluetooth events fire if a Bluetooth connection quickly appears and is gone again.

I've tried playing with every single setting and every single delay in the last few years. I even tried volume lock which is comically broken because it'll 'll set a different volume in the app than what the volume is shown in the OS and then it won't let you adjust the volume in the OS at all by blocking and volume up and down buttons and then not remembering when you increase the volume in the app to maximum. After reconnect, it goes back to that previous Volume.

From the screens a few suggestions:

• Disable "observe changes" for the device speaker, just keep "Save on disconnect".
• Disable "nude volume" for all devices that don't have a bug with volume setting. It is rarely needed. It's not directly causing a bug, but just one more source for errors here.
• Disable "save on disconnect" for all devices that have "observe changes" active and are not the device speaker.

It's a complete and outer crap show. This app now is so broken. It is like working with a mentally challenged person that has Alzheimer's or Dementia because it does not remember anything and puts the wrong settings on the wrong devices all the time consistently.

Pretty much you get random volume set from random devices no matter which Bluetooth device is connected or disconnected. Your device phone speaker will just end up with some random volume set from some other device.

I paid for the Pro version of this app. Probably more than half a decade ago if not longer and it used to be functional but now it is absolutely broken.

It is not my fault that Android updates change how phones behave 😔.

I strongly recommend to change your tone a bit otherwise I will quickly loose interest in helping you.

eu.darken.bluemusic_30003000_2025-10-19_06-17-05-404.zip

Thank you for the log 👍
Can you describe what you did while the log was recording so I can better understand it?

I have a few of the devices in your screens (OpenShokz 🥳).
Can you narrow down the behavior to a minimal use-case? So that I could do a fresh app install, set the same settings as you for 1?2? devices and do the exact same thing that causes issues for you. This would be the fastest approach to fix anything.

[JakFrost]

Changes Made

Yeah I made all of the changes that you recommended. Basically, if a device is set to "Observe Changes" I disabled "Save on Disconnect" and only flipped them around for the Device Speaker.

Waiting on Car Return

I'm going to have to wait until I get the same car back because the problem would happen when I would change between these four devices.

Device Speaker
Car Multi-media (Toyota Camry)
OpenRun Pro by Shokz #1 & 2
Plantronics Bluetooth PLT_E50

Google Android OS Enshitification

I understand that Android has been getting crap here and more restrictive along with the Bluetooth stack becoming a lot more unstable for the last few releases .

I blame Google and the culture inside that corporation for and enshitifying the entire Android and the Bluetooth stack experience even in their flagship Google Pixel phones since they have been making changes to the OS visual layer and their material presentation and screwing everything up on the phone without delivering any new features, just moving things around and changing shapes and colors and adding check boxes or removing them and extra frames. They're making unnecessary changes for the sake of making changes to look like they are being busy so that they continue to collect their huge salaries and hope to get promoted while producing. No productive work or effort or any meaningful improvements. This has been happening probably for the last 5 years. The goal at Google is to make changes. Get promoted for those changes but never release a product that works or one that they have to support long-term. They just deprecate things and then sunset their projects. But the workers made huge salaries and bonuses got promotions and moved on to something else to work on and screw up in the same way.

The Android Bluetooth stack has gotten a lot worse since the last few versions. The Bluetooth service and driver crashes on my phone, especially when it's connected to the car multimedia and then it restarts 10 seconds later and either automatically re-pairs with the car audio or I have to pull over turn the car off, turn it back on again to let it re-pair the devices and then continue driving. Hoping for stability for another week.