Anyone else had issues with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 dropping connection to the VictronConnect app mid-season?

Mine's been playing up since about late April. The Bluetooth connection drops out constantly — I'll open VictronConnect on my Android phone (Samsung A54), get a few seconds of live data, then it just disconnects. Have to close the app, wait a bit, and try again. Sometimes I get lucky and it holds for a minute or two, but never long enough to actually change any settings without it cutting out.

The setup is a 200W panel (two 100W Victron ones in series) feeding into the 100/30, charging a 100Ah AGM. Firmware on the MPPT is 1.61, app is the latest version from the Play Store. I've tried forgetting the device and re-pairing, cleared the app cache, even borrowed my neighbour's iPhone to test — same behaviour on that too, so it doesn't seem to be a phone issue.

I've seen a few posts on the Victron community forum suggesting it might be a heat-related Bluetooth issue, and my controller does get fairly warm mounted in the back of the van. It's on a plywood panel with maybe 10cm clearance above it. Could the temperature actually knock out the Bluetooth module, or is there something else worth checking first?

Has anyone managed to fix this without sending the unit back? Keen to avoid that if possible as it's my daily driver and I can't really be without it for weeks.

Had this exact issue with my 100/30 on the garden office setup. Turned out to be a firmware thing — make sure you're on the latest version via VictronConnect (it'll prompt you when connected, even briefly).

Also worth checking: is the MPPT getting warm? Mine started throttling the BT radio when temps climbed in late spring. Mounting it somewhere with better airflow sorted it partially.

The other culprit nobody mentions — phone Bluetooth battery optimisation. Samsung's aggressive power management kills background BT connections. Go into Settings > Apps > VictronConnect > Battery > Unrestricted. Made a noticeable difference on my A53.

If it's still dropping after all that, the VRM portal via a cheap Victron dongle is worth it for persistent monitoring anyway. I ended up going that route and barely use direct BT now.

Has anyone tried toggling the Bluetooth PIN reset on the unit itself? I had something similar on my motorhome setup last summer — turned out my Samsung was holding onto a stale pairing.

Go into your phone's Bluetooth settings and forget the device completely, then re-pair fresh through VictronConnect rather than the system Bluetooth menu. That sorted it for me.

Also worth checking — is your 100/30 mounted somewhere that gets genuinely hot mid-day? Mine's in a poorly ventilated locker and I noticed the dropouts correlated with peak solar hours. Not sure if thermal throttling affects the BT radio but it seemed suspicious.

@BreezySparky what firmware version did you end up on? Curious whether the one showing in VictronConnect is actually the latest or if it needs a manual push.

Same thing plagued my van build for most of last winter. Turned out the culprit was the VictronConnect app version on Android — there was a period where certain builds had rotten BT stability, particularly on Samsung devices for some reason.

What finally sorted it for me was:

• Clearing the app cache entirely
• Removing the MPPT from the device list
• Doing a fresh pair

Tedious, I know. But it held solid after that.

Worth checking whether the issue follows the phone or stays with the unit. Borrow someone's iPhone if you can and try connecting — if it's rock solid on iOS, that tells you something useful about where the fault actually lives.

@BreezySparky is likely onto something with the firmware angle too, so tackle both at once rather than chasing them separately.

HarbourKate | 📍 South Coast | ⚡ Victron + Pylontech setup

@BevOliver I had almost identical behaviour on my boat installation last summer — Samsung phone too, which makes me wonder if there's something specific about how Samsung handles BLE connections in the background.

One thing that helped me was going into Android settings and disabling battery optimisation for the VictronConnect app specifically. Samsung's aggressive power management was killing the Bluetooth connection after just a few seconds. Settings → Apps → VictronConnect → Battery → Unrestricted.

Also worth checking whether you've got too many paired devices in VictronConnect — I'd accumulated quite a few old entries and clearing those out seemed to stabilise things considerably.

Neither fix is ideal if it's genuinely firmware-related as @BreezySparky suggests, but worth ruling out the software side first before diving deeper.

RetiredSquaddie92 | 📍 Shropshire | ⚡ Victron SmartSolar + Battle Born setup

@BevOliver Worth checking whether your phone's location permissions are fully enabled for VictronConnect — Android 12 and above requires precise location access for Bluetooth Low Energy to function properly, and Samsung's battery optimisation settings are notorious for killing background BLE connections. Go into your phone's app settings, disable battery optimisation for VictronConnect specifically, and make sure location is set to "Allow all the time" rather than "only while using."

Also had a similar issue last summer and it turned out my MPPT's firmware was a version behind — the VictronConnect app will actually prompt you to update if it manages to hold connection long enough. Try standing closer to the unit when you first open the app to give it the best chance of connecting before it drops. Good luck with it.