Bluetooth on Win10 is a PITA, esp. file transfers...

Bluetooth handling on Windows 10 in general is greatly annoying IMHO and lacks a decent control-panel or -app but File transfers are a special PITA!

Whenever I want to transfer a couple of files (typically pictures) from my phone to my Surface Pro 4 I can rest assured that this will work in less than 25%! Meanwhile I learned that I have a slightly better chance, if I transfer the files one by one (what a joy if I want to transfer a dozen or so!) but even then the transfer will frequently hang somewhere between 50% and 100%.

Why do I have to prime my laptop each time before receiving a file by selecting "Receive a file"? Why can't this thing not simply receive those files (or at most pop up a dialog "Accept file <...> from device <...>?" that one could simple and quickly accept by just hitting "Enter"?)
What's the purpose of having to "pair" devices first, if I then don't trust them when sharing/sending files? And why is this so darn unreliable?

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S7 and has seldom problems connecting with or transmitting file to/from other devices, but Win10-devices are a special case... :-(

Sounds as if your tablet is having an issue with its Bluetooth adapter. Have you discussed this with the manufacture Support service? You May need to use a driver other than the native windows driver for full function?

Personally, I use USB for file transfers much more bandwidth for larger files.
Another suggestion I use is Dropbox free my phone uploads to Dropbox and my notebook downloads from Dropbox I have it set to transfer on wi-fi only, very convenient and good backup and Sharing for pictures and other files.

Clintlgm said:

Sounds as if your tablet is having an issue with its Bluetooth adapter. Have you discussed this with the manufacture Support service? You May need to use a driver other than the native windows driver for full function?
...

It's a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. So I would guess/expect that I has all the right and/or latest drivers simply by using regular Windows Update (which typically it has, I would claim from experience). But the BT adapter in the SP4 is indeed pretty weak. E.g. with a Bluetooth headset I can't go away for more than 3 meters from the device. But that's probably a series defect - another Surface I owned had the same weak reception. And of course the same annoying UI...

yes actually Bluetooth was never intended for transferring large files, more for connection of low bandwidth devices headphones etc and it sounds like the adapter in the Surface Pro may be a weaker setup that some others. Your charging cable should be all you need to connect USB most devices can be set up to auto download photos when connected I would never set it up that way but transferring files is quick and easy just drag and drop using windows explorer

Can you not use WiFi direct?

Clintlgm said:

...Your charging cable ...

Infrasonic said:

Can you not use WiFi direct?

Sure one can use other means of transferring files. But the point I was trying to make: Why do I have to carry additional cables with me or have to reconfigure my networking or first create DropBox/OneDrive shares and what not?

Why can't this be as simple as sending a picture from one phone to another? Share => BT => <pick device> => sending...

Hi there
Bluetooth is a PITA anyway for file transfer (on any device(s) ) and the only thing it's any good for is bluetooth headphones and wireless speakers -- even here it's still lower quality (by far) than using Internet or direct phone connection.

For maybe music on the move or the convenience of wireless speakers - especially with things like TV sound bars it's OK but for real Hi-Fi music - with things like Studio reference high quality speakers --forget it.

Unless you have tiny files or a small amount of data absolutely forget Blue tooth for transferring files -- simplest way is simply use wifi and phone or USB devices.

Cheers
jimbo