Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 anyone?

[dudwell]

If you have one can you tell me if you can make Bluetooth work? Mine pairs readily with my laptop and each can see the other but then it appears that Bluetooth drivers are missing from the phone. I have contacted Samsung support but there's no reply yet.

[Glenn]

This any use? http://www.samsung.com/au/support/skp/faq/1074812

http://www.teamandroid.com/2016/01/08/samsung-galaxy-a3-2016-usb-drivers-download-now/

[Technical Ben]

What are you trying to do? I did not realise phones need "drivers"?
What are you trying to get working over bluetooth?

[dudwell]

Thanks Glenn and Technical Ben. Yes, it seems that smartphones do indeed need drivers.

I thought that Bluetooth would be an elegant way to send photos from my new smartphone to the laptop where I can edit photos better than on the phone itself.

The phone offers several ways to share photos. Besides Bluetooth there's “Simple sharing” which I find anything but simple and anyway delivers only a cut down and hugely compressed version. Then there's emailing to myself which seems a mite clumsy. I don't understand Android Beam. I've tried Wi-Fi Direct but although the phone appears to “see” the laptop the laptop doesn't appear to “see” the phone.

So back to Bluetooth which I've made to work from laptop to an amplifier in the past (but sound quality was poor). No trouble in pairing. Both laptop and phone “see” one another. But in "Devices and Printers" the phone icon has a yellow warning triangle alongside and troubleshooting is recommended – which leads to “The driver for Bluetooth Peripheral Device is not installed....”. Unsurprisingly photos don't send.

I'll await response from Samsung support before tinkering further but surely the phone really ought to come with all necessary drivers pre-installed ?

[Glenn]

Save to a Google drive then access it from the laptop

[Technical Ben]

Sorry I may have misunderstood your post. Are the drivers missing for the phone, or from the phone? I've never needed to install drivers into the phone, but do need to install them into Windows.

Personally I use dropbox and it syncs automatically when I get wifi back at home (or anywhere with wifi, but I can limit it to waiting until I charge).

I have used bluetooth in the past, it's just that Windows may need drivers. What version of Windows do you have?
One method is shown here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNPO1gMcoA
(Or here. Seems poor audio though)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-MueRYzLIM

I use to have to use "Blue Soleil" back in the day, but that came with my bluetooth adapter. I assume your PC/laptop seems to have the hardware, but is missing the software (a bit like the old days when buying a CD drive did not guarantee getting MP3 software in the box  ).

[dudwell]

Glenn. Yes, that works OK!
Technical Ben. It's Windows 7. I'm getting into unfamiliar territory here and some of the proposed solutions cost dollars! I think I'll give Bluetooth driver problems a rest for the present.

Thanks both of you.

[dudwell]

Aah! I had it back to front. It was the laptop which was missing the Bluetooth driver. Now that I've put that right, thanks to Technical Ben's first YouTube suggestion, laptop and phone not merely pair but connect as well. Photos still refuse to send from phone's album to laptop though. Never mind, I'll follow Glenn's way and use Drive instead.

Thanks again!

[Technical Ben]

Thanks Dudwell. You are right. Microsoft never really got things done well, and sadly most Laptop or Dongle providers don't set their software correctly either.
But I find Android/iOS phones do great with connections and it is usually the PC/Laptop to blame (though iOS works wonders with Macs of cause!  ).
Glad you found a solution! 

[colirv]

You probably don't need another option, but my wife and I share files on our PCs via a couple of network drives. We both have ES File Explorer on our phones and use it to copy files over the network.

[dudwell]

Apologies for reviving this old thread but at last I've found the answer to sending photos from phone to laptop via Bluetooth and it was lurking there all the time.

"Search programs and files" for fsquirt, open and set it to "Receive files" - problem solved!

[Simon]

 

[Technical Ben]

Yep, bluetooth is a strange beast... it requires setting up ready for send/receive. Not to mention, many devices just simply don't support certain actions (like mic/headphone/speaker), just because they never set them in the software. :/