MyPhoneExplorer via Bluetooth: phone could not be indentified and parameter incorrect

Chances are that you are trying to have your Android phone sync with Outlook via MyPhoneExplorer, but whatever you do won’t work, since as soon as you try to connect, the procedure stops at “identification” and MyPhoneExplorer pops up a “phone could not be identified” error.

Syncing via USB cables works though, but you are not going to settle for something as annoying and remembering to plug in your cable everytime.

Update: try this first:
Chris, in the comments below (thank you, Chris), suggests doing this, which is apparently working in Windows 7 (Windows 8 doesn’t have such possibility):

Easier if you just go to control panel > hardware and sound > devices and printers > bluetooth devices

Then right click on the device you’ve already paired. Go to Services tab, and under Bluetooth Services there should be a checkbox for Serial port(SPP) ‘MyPhoneExplorer’.

Check it, apply, done…

If that doesn’t work, continue reading!

Compared to the first version of this article, when I was on Windows 7 + Ice Cream Sandwich, now I’m on Windows 8 + Lollipop, and started having this problem a short while after upgrading from KitKat. The solution was to open MyPhoneExplorer settings, select bluetooth in the connection tab, and choose, from the dropdown menu, the other Bluetooth port that was not selected before, and try again to connect, in my case it went by as normal.

If this doesn’t work as well, then proceed with the very first guide.

So let’s start by saying this out front: this is black magic.

You may have tried to go into “change bluetooh settings” in your control panel, then open the “COM Ports” tab, and manually add incoming ports and trying them out one by one in MyPhoneExplorer… this should not work, no matter how many times you reboot your phone and/or unpair/pair again with your PC.

The procedure I am going to illustrate may work for you, or it may not. It may do nothing on a sunny day of April, but deal impressive results in a foggy evening of november.

I tried to replicate the same method previously, but it worked for me just a few minutes ago as a blessing (and this is why I rushed to write an article about it) while it didn’t at my previous attempts, so these are the steps (keep in mind I have ICS on my phone, and Windows 7 x64 on my laptop, the BT sync worked before, but had stopped working after I upgraded from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwitch on my Galaxy Note)

  1. Find your phone entry in bluetooth devices in Windows, click it and remove it
  2. Unpair with your PC from your Android phone
  3. If there are any remaining, remove every reserved port in “COM Ports” tab of bluetooth settings (unless there are other ports being used by other BT devices you own, leave those alone)
  4. Reboot both your PC and your phone, preferably at the same time (black magic, remember?)
  5. Pair the device from Windows (go into bluetooth panel, “add device”, then proceed with the pairing)
  6. Your aim here is to have Windows itself add the COM ports, you should end up with two COM ports, one Incoming, and one Outgoing, they should both carry the BT name you have given to your phone, and the Outgoing port should also say “MyPhoneExplorer”
  7. You should set MyPhoneExplorer to use the Outgoing port among the two, but if it doesn’t work for you, also try the Incoming port (black magic)

Good luck!

9 thoughts on “MyPhoneExplorer via Bluetooth: phone could not be indentified and parameter incorrect”

    1. Happy to know about it… it still happens to me from time to time on my Note I, without any apparent reason. Now it’s just a big hassle of wasting time rebooting.

  1. Not really “black magic”. Easier if you just go to control panel > hardware and sound > devices and printers > bluetooth devices

    Then right click on the device you’ve already paired. Go to Services tab, and under Bluetooth Services there should be a checkbox for Serial port(SPP) ‘MyPhoneExplorer’.

    Check it, apply, done…

    1. Since this article was written, MPE has gotten a nice functionality where you can pair/associate the phone directly from MPE itself, yet I wouldn’t be able to provide further support I’m afraid!

Leave a Reply to ephestione Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *