Does Xperia M support Bluetooth BLE ?

[Romric]

Hi,

Now updgraded my Xepria M to android 4.3 but it seems that BLE is still not supported...

Is the Xperia M hardware capable of that? Any plan for having BLE working on Xperia M?

Thanks

[leicameter]

I was thinking about to purchase a Z3 compact, but sony support seams not to be relyable......

[pm_cz]

OK, just a basic info how to fix this problem for those who want to do so themselves and

1. Have root with remount fix, which allows to mount /system read-write
2. Are technically capable to do so without bricking their device.

The problem is a missing permission file in /etc/permissions

The mising file name is /etc/permissions/android.hardware.bluetooth_le.xml

Short instructions how to fix the issue:

1. Remount the system partition read-write
2. Paste the content of the spoiler (Without the "Spoiler" text!) into abovementioned file
3. Change its permissions to 644 after saving if necessary and reboot the phone.
4. After restart, you should have the BT LE available (tested with both the BLE Checker and VIFIT BLE device)

Spoiler

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Copyright (C) 2013 The Android Open Source Project

     Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
     you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
     You may obtain a copy of the License at

          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

     Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
     distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
     WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
     See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
     limitations under the License.
-->
<!-- Adds the feature indicating support for the Bluetooth Low Energy API -->
<permissions>
    <feature name="android.hardware.bluetooth_le" />
</permissions>

Please note that this fix is really simple, so I really don't understand why Sony can't at least publish a (stock recovery-installable?) patch to fix this issue if not the promissed firmware update

[theperson333]

A "stock-recovery" patch isn't possible. With Xperia smartphones, there isn't a recovery mode. For recoveries like clockworkmod, a custom dual stage boot image is used.

They would have to send an update.

[Katka]

Hi, I just bought a smart wristband. On the other forums they say that: 1. It is compatible with android 4.3 and above. 2. That sony xperia m (c1905) does support BLE. But even though i can see the device detected by my phone, the application says it cannot be paired. Do i need to root it? So BLE will ve unlocked? How shall i do that some easy way?

[brunoa]

You are not alone to have the surprise to get a smartphone which is BLE compatible but which is not working because of Sony.

I get a BLE device and to be able to use it with my Xperia M I used an alternative ROM from XDA (with all risks using an alternative rom, I hope this one is clean) : I'm running AOKP. Furthermore my Xperia M is with Android 4.4 now. All is OK and BLE work fine (I connected a misfit shine). Next time I will think 2 times before buying a sony device !

[VEF]

Thank you for this info.
I managed to enable BLE in my Xperia M by method you described. I had no idea how fix could be technically done. But i found similar post on web with simple step by step instruction (google for revealdtech.blogspot.com post on january 2015). Bluetooth LE works on my Xperia M now. Confirmed with BLE checker. Polar bluetooth smart heart rate sensor as well as data sync from Polar V800 watch to Flow works.
Now i have xperia M with BLE support, original android 4.3 and still valid warranty.

P.S. I am bit shocked that problem is so tiny that even i could fix it but Sony shows no interes to fix product as they promised.

.

[VEF]

Thanks to pm_cz

[TalkingHead]

Thank you pm_cz,

Applied  fix on a rooted C2005 with Locked Bootloader and now BLE Checker reports "BLE Supported".

No devives to test on, but happy to get this far, Thanks agin.

[AlexPeralta]

Hi,

same problem with BLE here. There's any place with a tutorial how to do it?

Have some knowledge on unix base systems but never done this before.

Dear Sony: shame on you!!!

Thanks,

Alex

[Germanicus]

There is a more detailed tutorial for what pm_cz did here:

I had the following issues while doing this:

a) I didn't have the proper drivers on my computer for the phone (c2005). This was fixed using ADB Driver Installer: http://adbdriver.com/ 

(only then, RemountRebootFix could find my phone)

b) Then, you need to have a proper ADB shell BEFORE doing all this. So download Android SDK Software in your computer

http://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-install-android-sdk-software-development-kit-21137/

(more info here: http://www.androidauthority.com/about-android-debug-bridge-adb-21510/ )

You'll need to run ADB in point 18 to be able to move the files inside the phone

c) Finally, there are two typos in point 22, you should use these below

cp /sdcard/download/android.hardware.bluetooth_le.xml /etc/permissions/android.hardware.bluetooth_le.xml

chmod 0644 /etc/permissions/android.hardware.bluetooth_le.xml

(the extension of the first name and the name of the file in the second row)

With this you should be able to get BLE working in your phone. Good luck!