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The OnePlus 8 was a balanced entry-level flagship from 2020. The phone was well-liked with a 90Hz curved OLED screen and the Snapdragon 865 SOC. It was promised three years of Android updates when it launched. It launched with Android 10 out of the box, and the phone has received the last major Android update, Android 13.
In 2021, the OnePlus 9 was launched and was comparatively much worse in value. Many disliked the phone since it had no OIS and shipped with a plastic frame. The Snapdragon 888 suffered from overheating, and there were problems with app throttling and artificial inflation of benchmark scores.
The OnePlus 9 was promised three years of major Android updates, too. It launched with Android 11 out of the box and has received its major penultimate update, Android 13. Android 14 will be the last major update for this phone.
The phone will still receive occasional security patches. It will be kept alive by the Custom ROM community since OnePlus allows bootloader unlock, and there’s still an online community where people actively create unique ROMs.
Not everything seems to be smooth with the OnePlus 8 and 9 with the OxygenOS 13 (based on Android 13) update. The phones’ performance has improved and is much faster and smoother, and gaming has also improved. However, several users have reported abnormal functioning of Bluetooth on these phones.
According to people on Reddit and the OnePlus community forums, the phone connects just fine to Bluetooth devices that are already linked. It has also been happening to some OnePlus 9R units.
But if they try to link their phones to a new Bluetooth device that the phone hasn’t previously been paired with, the Settings app crashes and a prompt appears that says Wireless Settings keeps stopping. This issue was noticed with Android 13. Since it popped up after the update, it’s a software issue unrelated to the phone’s hardware.
The good news for OnePlus 8 and 9 users is that the problem has been acknowledged by OnePlus (on 18th November), though they did not provide an estimated time when a solution would be provided to these Bluetooth woes. The problem will hopefully be fixed in the following security patch.
All basic troubleshooting methods like force closing apps, restarting the phone and clearing cache, unpairing and re-pairing devices, etc., seemingly do not help solve the problem.
According to Winkey W on the OnePlus forums, a workaround exists until a fix is released. Go to Settings, select Apps, tap on Recover system apps, and install Wireless Earphones. Once the installation ends, restart your device. You can try updating the Wireless Earphones app on the Google Play Store if this fails.
The issue is annoying since Bluetooth is used for several electronic devices like Smart Speakers, Neckbands, Truly Wireless Earbuds, and more. Bluetooth is also used for data transfer. The bug makes listening to tracks via Bluetooth impossible, so it’s understandable why people are angry and frustrated at this update.
Software quality has decreased considerably since the ColorOS merge, which was supposed to bring stable updates. It’s annoying that something as simple as Bluetooth takes a severe hit when the software updates. We hope OnePlus issues a fix as soon as possible, and more testing and optimization are done in the future to prevent such issues from surfacing again.
