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

Picked up a SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 about three months ago and it's been brilliant overall — running a 200W panel on a 100Ah leisure battery in my Transit conversion. Bulk/absorb/float all doing what they should and the battery's staying healthy. No complaints on the actual charging side of things.

The problem is the Bluetooth. I'll open VictronConnect on my Android phone (Samsung A54, Android 14), get a solid connection, watch the live data for a few minutes, and then it just drops. Sometimes after 2 minutes, sometimes after 10. The controller carries on charging fine — it's purely the app connection that falls over. Reconnecting works, but it drops again shortly after.

I've tried clearing the app cache, reinstalling VictronConnect, and making sure Bluetooth and location permissions are all enabled. Firmware on the MPPT is up to date (v1.61). Someone on a Facebook group mentioned it could be interference from a nearby inverter, which is a Giandel 2000W pure sine sat about 40cm away from the controller — not sure if that's plausible or just a red herring.

Has anyone else seen this? Wondering whether it's a known Android 14 compatibility issue, a distance/interference thing, or whether my unit might actually be faulty. Keen to rule out the obvious before I contact the supplier.

Reply by Foggy:

@Will1961 Had this exact issue with mine last year. Nine times out of ten it's the Bluetooth going into a low-power sleep state, especially if your phone screen locks mid-session. Worth checking your phone's Bluetooth settings and disabling battery optimisation for the VictronConnect app specifically — Android is particularly aggressive about killing background Bluetooth connections.

Also make sure you're on the latest firmware for the 100/30. There was a patch a while back that addressed some BLE stability issues. You can update through VictronConnect itself when you do manage to hold a connection.

If it's cutting out within seconds of connecting rather than mid-session, that's a different beast — could be interference from the inverter or other 12V kit nearby. What else have you got running in the van?

Reply by SilverCaptain:

@Will1961 Worth checking whether your phone's location permissions are fully enabled for VictronConnect — sounds daft, but Android in particular gets funny about Bluetooth scanning without location access granted, and it can cause exactly the sort of mid-session dropout you're describing. Also, if you're running any aggressive battery saver mode on your phone, that'll kill the BT connection pretty sharpish. Try whitelisting the app from battery optimisation and see if that helps. I've got a 100/20 in my camper and had similar grief until I sorted those two things — rock solid ever since. What phone are you using?

Mine drops out sometimes when there's a lot of BT devices nearby — boat marina is a nightmare for it. Noticed it's worse when the phone screen locks mid-session too.

One thing that actually helped me was going into the app settings and disabling the "stay connected in background" type behaviour, then reconnecting fresh each time. Bit annoying but more stable.

Also worth checking if there's a firmware update pending on the unit itself — had a dodgy few weeks on my cabin setup until I updated through VictronConnect, seemed to tighten things up a bit.

Reply by TerryWatson:

@Will1961 One thing nobody's mentioned yet — check the firmware on the MPPT itself. I had persistent drop-outs on my 75/15 and updating via VictronConnect sorted it completely. Connect while it's stable, go into the device settings and hit "Product info" — if there's an update available it'll show there. Also worth trying the "Forget device" option in VictronConnect and re-pairing from scratch. Sometimes the Bluetooth stack just gets itself in a muddle, especially if you've connected from multiple devices like a phone and a tablet. Give it one "owner" device and see if that helps. Transit conversions can also get quite warm — if the controller's running hot it can affect BT stability, so make sure there's decent airflow around it.

Reply by EllaDavies:

@Will1961 Just to add something different to what's already been covered — I had a similar issue and it turned out my phone was aggressively killing background processes to save battery. Android in particular can be quite brutal about this. Going into your battery/power settings and whitelisting the VictronConnect app so it's excluded from any battery optimisation made a noticeable difference for me. Also worth making sure your phone's screen stays on while you're mid-session if you're logging data — some handsets drop the BT connection almost immediately when the display times out. Bit annoying but easily sorted once you know. What phone are you using?

@Will1961 Has anyone mentioned whether it's dropping during active charging or when the unit's been idle a while? Mine does something similar on the static caravan setup — I think it's the MPPT going into a low-power state when demand drops off and Bluetooth sort of hibernates with it.

Also worth checking: are you connecting via phone Bluetooth directly, or through a GX device? I've been looking at adding a Cerbo GX to keep a persistent connection rather than relying on the direct BT pairing, which seems flakey at distance.

What iOS/Android version are you on as well? There was a thread on the Victron Community forum suggesting certain Android 13 builds have handshake issues with VictronConnect.

Had this exact same grief on my boat build. Turned out my phone's battery saver mode was killing the BT connection in the background — Android is brutal for it. Whitelisting VictronConnect in the battery optimisation settings sorted it completely.

Also worth checking if you've got another Victron device nearby (BMV, inverter etc.) — sometimes the app seems to get confused about which device it's supposed to be talking to and just drops rather than switching cleanly.

@TerryWatson makes a good point on firmware too, that's always step one really.