Solved Pro 3 "Surface" pen-customizing app cannot connect to pen

[Randy31416]

The Microsoft Store has a "Surface" app that is supposed to allow customization of the pen -- the pressure sensitivity and the top button in particular. On my fully up-to-date Surface Pro 3 (i5 256G), the Surface app fails to connect to the pen, and instead shows a message on each of the screens designed for customization. The message says: "The Surface app could not connect to the pen device. There may be a problem with device metadata or driver may be open by another application. From the Start screen type Devices, tap or click Devices and Printers, then tap or click Refresh three times (circular arrow next to Search box).". This does not change anything, cold boots don't change anything, refreshing from Device Manager doesn't change anything.

I called Surface support and had a 1.25 hour chat with Surface support, and neither place has any idea what might be causing the problem. (All I got was a case number.)

Over time, I've tried deleting the pen entries in device manager and bluetooth and rebooting, and I've tried reinstalling all the firmware and driver updates, but not found any change. (After each such excursion I restored an image of the system before I tried all of this ad-hoc fiddling.)

Does the Surface App actually work? (Probably for most it does.) If so, have you any idea what I might try to make it work on my machine?

 

[Tsurugaya]

If you delete and reinstall it in Bluetooth you need to re-pair the pen to the Surface.

 

[Randy31416]

The pen has been repaired many time. The Surface machine itself sees the pen; it works as a mouse and draws in OneNote. The button on the top summons OneNote. But the Surface App refuses to connect to the pen, showing instead the message described in the original post.

 

[Randy31416]

The thread at http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/2os33j/to_all_sp3_owners_who_still_cant_get_surface_hub/ has the answer. In spite of the fact that my Surface was fully updated, software and firmware, according to Windows Update, there must be secret hidden updates that are only applied if the computer properties, in Devices and Printers, are changed to allow "automatic" downloading of icons and updates. As suggested in the linked thread, I did this (I had disallowed automatic driver updates because Windows downloaded broken drivers for my printer), and now the pen connects in the "Surface" app.

 

[Tsurugaya]

Good to know, never heard about that one before.

 

[cmergel]

I am getting this now on my Windows 10 Build and can't resolve. I even did a reset and still doesn't work. I also tried the suggestion above but still not working.

Error
The Surface app could not connect to the pen device. There may be a problem with device metadata or driver may be open by another application. From the Start screen type Devices, tap or click on Devices and Printers, then tap or click Refresh three times (circular arrow next to Search box).

The Surface icon in devices and printers is incorrectly showing as a laptop instead of tablet. Metadata somewhere not correct.

UPDATE:
I restored back to 8.1 pro with downloaded recovery image and it was working correctly. I re-upgraded to Windows 10 and it is working. Trying to recall if previously I ran the setup from a Windows 10 ISO or through the Windows Update. Any way I am working correctly now and have the Surface app properly recognizing the Tablet and Pen.

UPDATE:
Ran into this again on two recent fresh Windows 10 installs on Surface 3 device. I found the following resolved.

How to fix Surface App and pen issues on the (non-pro) Surface 3 • /r/Surface

Basically copying a file into the DeviceMetadataStore, which then creates the correction information about the device. I was then able to get the pen to properly work through the Surface hub application.