NVIDIA Shield TV Remote (2019) constantly disconnects and reconnects on LibreELEC (x86_64)

siriusbox · November 7, 2026 at 9:40 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing persistent Bluetooth connection issues with my NVIDIA Shield TV Remote (2019) on LibreELEC x86_64.

The remote pairs successfully and all buttons work correctly, but the Bluetooth connection keeps dropping and reconnecting repeatedly. Sometimes it stays connected for around 10 seconds before disconnecting, then reconnects after a few seconds, repeating this cycle indefinitely.

I've also tested two different Bluetooth adapters and two different Shield remotes, with identical results:

Bluetooth adapters:

Onboard Bluetooth: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 (ASRock B660 ITX/ac motherboard).
USB Bluetooth dongle: ASUS USB-BT500 (Realtek RTL8761B).

Troubleshooting already performed:

Tested both onboard Intel Bluetooth and the ASUS USB-BT500 dongle.
Tested the ASUS dongle on a USB 2.0 port instead of USB 3.0 to rule out potential USB 3.0 interference.
Performed a full cold boot to ensure no residual Bluetooth configuration or state from Windows was affecting the onboard Intel adapter.
Disabled the Wi-Fi functionality of the onboard wireless card.
Tried manually pairing, trusting and connecting the remote through bluetoothctl over SSH, bypassing LibreELEC's graphical interface.
Tested both remotes and both LibreELEC builds.

None of these attempts made any difference.

Additional diagnostic information from the onboard Intel Bluetooth adapter:

USB ID: 8087:0aa7.
Bluetooth handled by btusb over xhci_hcd.
rfkill showed Bluetooth as neither soft-blocked nor hard-blocked.
Intel firmware patch was successfully loaded (patch num: 3c), with no obvious firmware or controller errors in the logs.
Kernel logs showed repeated HID device initialisations for NVIDIA SHIELD Remote (0955:7217).
During the connection failures, bluetoothctl reported Connected: no.

System:

ASRock B660 ITX/ac motherboard.
Intel Wireless-AC 3168 onboard Bluetooth.
ASUS USB-BT500 (Realtek RTL8761B).

For reference, the remote works perfectly without any interruptions under both Windows and OSMC Vero V. The problem only occurs under LibreELEC.

At this point, I'm wondering whether this could be related to BlueZ, the Linux Bluetooth stack, HID handling, or a compatibility issue with the Shield Remote itself.

Since the exact same behaviour occurs with two different remotes, two different Bluetooth chipsets and two different LibreELEC builds, I suspect this might be a software compatibility issue rather than a hardware fault.

Why I'm particularly interested in getting this remote working is the Shield Remote 2019 has both Bluetooth and IR capabilities. This combination is particularly useful in my home theatre setup. I use Bluetooth for Kodi navigation and other remote functions, while IR is used to control the volume of my audio decoder.

This makes it an ideal remote for setups where HDMI-CEC isn't available or cannot be used. It allows me to control both Kodi and my audio equipment with a single remote, without relying on CEC.

I'd be happy to provide additional diagnostic logs or run specific tests if that helps identify the cause.

Thanks!

**heitbaum** · November 7, 2026 at 2:43 PM

LE12.x or LE13?

siriusbox · November 7, 2026 at 6:12 PM

Latest official nightly and also tested with recent DV builds from CroqueMR and Hades. Xbox controller works fine too.

**heitbaum** · November 8, 2026 at 8:06 AM

Please share debug logs from the current LE13 nightlies - otherwise not much to guess at.

**chewitt** · November 8, 2026 at 8:40 AM

Quote from siriusbox

Since the exact same behaviour occurs with two different remotes, two different Bluetooth chipsets and two different LibreELEC builds, I suspect this might be a software compatibility issue rather than a hardware fault.

It's probably a Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) device and thus drops into deep sleep mode to save battery. I see the same with a couple of BT remotes that I have. Investigating how to avoid "press button to wake remote, wait, press again for the action" has been on my rainy-day project list for a couple of years, but it doesn't rain much where I live..

siriusbox · November 8, 2026 at 10:00 PM

Quote from heitbaum

Please share debug logs from the current LE13 nightlies - otherwise not much to guess at.

This could help?

Code

LibreELEC:~ # rfkill list
0: hci0: bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: wlan
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
LibreELEC:~ # dmesg | grep -iE 'bluetooth|btintel|firmware|hci0'
[    1.319174] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Finished loading DMC firmware i915/adls_dmc_ver2_01.bin (v2.1)
[    1.323434] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] GT0: GuC firmware i915/tgl_guc_70.bin version 70.49.4
[    1.323437] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] GT0: HuC firmware i915/tgl_huc.bin version 7.9.3
[    5.927048] kernel-overlays-setup: added firmware from /usr/lib/kernel-overlays/base/lib/firmware
[    7.461081] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[    7.461092] NET: Registered PF_BLUETOOTH protocol family
[    7.461093] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[    7.461096] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[    7.461098] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[    7.461101] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[    7.480322] Bluetooth: hci0: Legacy ROM 2.x revision 5.0 build 25 week 20 2015
[    7.480328] Bluetooth: hci0: Intel device is already patched. patch num: 3c
[    7.684605] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: loaded firmware version 29.0bd893f3.0 3168-29.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[    7.716951] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[    7.716955] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[    7.716958] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[    7.717924] Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.23
[  152.394883] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0003: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[  185.614621] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0004: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[  339.659466] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0005: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[  365.558769] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0006: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1405.644719] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0007: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1443.540661] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0008: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1463.764416] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0009: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1483.564551] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000A: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1505.489126] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000B: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 1857.353586] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000C: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2044.497592] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000D: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2060.222418] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000E: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2461.135385] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.000F: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2730.202496] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0010: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2814.550459] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0011: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx
[ 2828.799614] hid-generic 0005:0955:7217.0012: input,hidraw2: BLUETOOTH HID v0.02 Gamepad [NVIDIA SHIELD Remote] on f0:b6:1e:xx:xx:xx

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**chewitt** · November 9, 2026 at 6:47 PM

If you Google on the Shield's remote there's a bazillion posts about disconnects under Windows and Android and there are patches that reconfigure the BT stack to hold the connection; but this negatively impacts on battery lifespan. I didn't find much comment on Linux use, and nothing that I'd consider as a workaround (so far).

NVIDIA Shield TV Remote (2019) constantly disconnects and reconnects on LibreELEC (x86_64)

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