Unknown Bluetooth connection on my phone

I happened to look at my Bluetooth device list on my iPhone and a “Ty” appeared on my list. I don’t know anyone or own any devices that I’ve named “ Ty”, what I do?

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Oct 21, 2021 5:41 PM

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Posted on Oct 21, 2021 6:34 PM

If you see this under "MY DEVICES" you can first see whether it is "connected" or "not connected." Either way, you can tap the blue "i" and then select "Forget This Device" to remove it from the"MY DEVICES" list.


If you see this under "OTHER DEVICES" it is not connected to your phone. This just indicates that there is another Bluetooth device somewhere that is discoverable. It cannot connect to your phone unless you specifically connect it to whatever the device is. Its not unlike seeing many Wi-Fi network names when you open the Wi-Fi menu - they are not connected but your phone detects that they are active.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 21, 2021 6:34 PM in response to gwenzelle

If you see this under "MY DEVICES" you can first see whether it is "connected" or "not connected." Either way, you can tap the blue "i" and then select "Forget This Device" to remove it from the"MY DEVICES" list.


If you see this under "OTHER DEVICES" it is not connected to your phone. This just indicates that there is another Bluetooth device somewhere that is discoverable. It cannot connect to your phone unless you specifically connect it to whatever the device is. Its not unlike seeing many Wi-Fi network names when you open the Wi-Fi menu - they are not connected but your phone detects that they are active.

Nov 12, 2021 3:47 PM in response to Jamn78

Thank you so much for posting your reply. You are right, I have the Tuya Smart Life app which I use to manage my various brands of smart light bulbs that are all rebranded Tuya products. However, all of my products are Wi-Fi based so I didn't even think that the Tuya app could be the culprit.


But after I saw your post, I looked in the Smart Life app and couldn't find any settings relating to Bluetooth, so I went to my iPhone settings, searched for the Smart Life app and there it was....a Bluetooth option which was turned on. As I have no bluetooth products that use Tuya, I turned it off.


Interestingly, I have noticed that the connection wasn't always active. It seemed to connect at random times. In recent days I have purchased an Amazon Eero 6 Mesh WiFi system and the Eero app uses Bluetooth to communicate with the devices during setup. I noticed that it also lists the Bluetooth connection in the same way (with no ability to disconnect), but the connection is actually labelled "eero" so you know what it's for.


Also, you don't have to physically pair your phone to the eero device as you would with a car or bluetooth speaker etc. During the app setup it presents a Bluetooth permission request along with the multitude of other permission requests that we all just "Allow" without too much thought. I think this is probably how the Tuya/Smart Life apps do it as well, which is why people aren't recognising the "TY" in their bluetooth settings. I think it would be less of a mystery if you had to go through the normal pairing process.


Given the country that Tuya is based in, and the controversy around other tech companies in that country (Huawei), it certainly makes you very suspicious, especially when they're purposely hiding the name and just using an abbreviation.


I've turned the bluetooth connection off for this app and although it's only been a few hours, everything still seems to be working fine, which makes me even more suspicious as to why it needed Bluetooth access to begin with.


Thanks again.

Mar 4, 2022 9:09 AM in response to gwenzelle

I have just discovered that when I turn off WiFi router in my home and open Tuya (or Smart Life) App, the “Ty” will be appeared in my BT screen. Then, I can turn on/off Tuya’s WiFi plugs which “actually can be Bluetooth plugs” when there is no active WiFi signal in area.


However, when you turn on WiFi router, the “Ty” on your screen will be disappeared and you have to use WiFi together with Tuya (or Smart Life) App to turn on/off Tuya devices.


That’s it. I have already tested in order to confirm my answer.

Nov 15, 2021 4:25 AM in response to Brendanknowles

Thank you very much. Turning off the Bluetooth button in the settings of the app Smart Life (or Tuya) made 'TY' disappear from the connected Bluetooth Devices on my iPhone, indeed. Furthermore, I have not encountered any (performance) issues so far, when using the app or connecting new Tuya devices that work with WiFi exclusively or both with WiFi and Bluetooth.

Jan 28, 2022 12:06 PM in response to gwenzelle

i had this same question and figured it out. I couldn’t disconnect from “TY” and had non option to view information on it to the right as there was no “i”.


I have an automatic cat feeder that is set up to wifi and connects to my iPhone via Bluetooth when I use the app. I don’t get the choice to add it as I’ve already added it in the app and it doesn’t stay on my Bluetooth list, only when it’s active. My app is called “Smart Life”. Hope this helps!

Feb 3, 2022 5:15 PM in response to gwenzelle

I have Ty in my Bluetooth settings too, i have smart plugs that connect through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, if I turn the plugs on or off via the app that comes with the smart plugs Ty appears in the Bluetooth menu. If you turn off Bluetooth then back on again Ty will disappear until the next time you use the smart plugs via the app then it reappears

hope this helps

Nov 12, 2021 10:31 AM in response to jdhorner02

I figured what TY is. If you have TUYA on your phone, the TY bluetooth network shows up. For me it was Tuya Developer. I have Tuya Smart and the TY is not listed. I assume there is a setting I would need to toggle in Tuya Smart. I do not need Tuya bluetooth so I am good without it.


I have TUYA devices that seem to have connected or registered through my wireless carriers IP address based on logs inside Tuya Developer. It is something I have been wondering how that happened. This discovery leans me to think that TUYA will use bluetooth to connect back to their cloud environment in addition to any on-prem ISP service you have.

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Unknown Bluetooth connection on my phone

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