Stop Automatic Bluetooth Pairing on Android: A Simple Hack

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Bluetooth auto-connect can randomly switch your phone’s audio to nearby paired speakers or headphones. It does so without prompting you first and it can get pretty annoying. There’s no obvious way to stop this “feature” either. But there are workarounds.

When Bluetooth Gets On Your Nerves

To me, auto-connect and autoplay are bugs more than features. You would think that auto-connect wouldn’t connect to another device while you’re on a call or playing audio. At least request if you’d like to switch Bluetooth devices, right? But that’s not the case.

If my phone is connected to my headphones and I walk into a room with a paired Bluetooth speaker , the audio will jump to that speaker for no reason and without warning. The same thing happens when I’m in the car. Bluetooth just automatically connects to the stereo without a prompt. Even turning Bluetooth off and on doesn’t work every time. There’s no telling what device the auto-connect is going to take over next. For a long time, I put up with it by just unpairing Bluetooth devices and pairing them again when I needed to switch.

The issue can be easily fixed if developers add a dedicated auto-connect switch next to every paired device. I couldn’t find any settings (hidden or otherwise) that disable Bluetooth auto-connect. But I did figure out a workaround that does the job using Android’s Developer Options. You don’t need a third-party app for it—just the Settings app on your Android device will do.

Alternatively, you can create a simple automated routine to keep devices from auto-connecting to your Android while it’s playing audio. I’ll show you how to do that using the MacroDroid app.

How to Disable Bluetooth Autoconnect on Android

Sadly, the setting we need to disable Bluetooth auto-connect is hidden by default. Developer Options are a bunch of hidden Android settings that allow developers to test and debug their apps. As such, they give you greater control over your device settings than the regular Settings app.

The title and location of the developer options vary between manufacturers. Check out our full walkthrough to enable Developer Options . When you’re done, open the main settings page and scroll all the way down to find Developer Options. Sometimes, they’re tucked away under “Additional Settings,” too.

Open Developer Options and scroll down to the section with all the Bluetooth options.

We don’t need to worry about all the technical options because we only want to change a single setting. Tap “Maximum Connected Bluetooth Devices.” The system default is “5,” but you should change it to “1.” That’s it.

It’s rare, but some old phones even have a dedicated Bluetooth auto-connect toggle in the Developer Options, but it won’t be available on most devices.

After you’re done, you have to restart your phone , and it should stop auto-connecting.

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Set Up Automation to Stop Bluetooth Auto-connect

If the “Maximum Connected Bluetooth Devices” is grayed out in your Developer Options (sometimes it is, depending on the manufacturer), you can try setting up a routine that disables auto-connect for specific paired devices.

To create an automated routine, you can use Bixby Routines (if you’re using a Samsung) or a third party app like Marodroid or Tasker . I’m using Macrodroid for this demonstration. But you can implement the logic in any automation app: when a specific device connects via Bluetooth, disconnect that device if playback is active.

The routine will keep disconnecting any device that tries to connect while playback is active automatically.

Install MacroDroid from the Google Play Store and tap through the first setup.

Turn off battery optimization for the MacroDroid app to make sure Android won’t kill the app while it’s running in the background.

On the MacroDroid home page, tap “New Macro” and select “Trigger” (tap the plus icon on the Triggers bar). Expand “Connectivity” and tap “Bluetooth Event.” Pick “Device Connected” from the options and tap “OK.”

MacroDroid will ask permission to turn Bluetooth on and show a list of paired devices. Here, pick the Bluetooth device you want to keep from auto-connecting. And tap “OK.”

Now that we’ve set the trigger, we just have to bind it to an action. Tap the plus icon on the “Actions” bar. Expand “Connectivity” and tap the “Bluetooth Configure” button. Select “Disconnect Audio Device” and tap “OK.” Once again, pick the device you want to keep from connecting and tap “OK.”

Repeat the same steps for your other paired devices (you can create multiple triggers and actions using the plus buttons).

Finally, we’ll add a constraint that only triggers this routine when your phone is playing media. That way, you’ll never have to worry about your audio jumping between Bluetooth devices. To add a constraint, tap the plus icon on the Constraints bar and expand the “Media” section. Select “Music Active,” then “Music Playing,” and hit “OK.”

Give your macro a name and tap “Test” from the three-dot menu to check if it’s working fine. You’ll see the newly created macro under the Macros tab.

Until developers officially ship Android with an option to disable Bluetooth disconnect, you can automate the process or restrict the number of connected devices.

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Stop Automatic Bluetooth Pairing on Android: A Simple Hack