Motorola HF850

Same problem. No answers?

I have the same exact problem with my Motorola HF850 and iPhone 3G.

The HF850 works fine with the Blackberry Pearl and Samsung phones. I can easily pair the iPhone with the HF850,... the phone indicates a successful connection.

However, when I try to answer a call, the audio does not work at all. I had hoped that Apple would have corrected the iPhone OS in the latest 2.2 version, but doesn't appear to have fixed the problem.

If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

I've got the same issues. Sorry for cross posting.

Running iPhone 3G v2.2
Motorola HF850 Bluetooth Car kit
Mazda3 OEM audio connector (Music, control and charging)

Everytime the iPhone appears to be connected properly to the carkit with the bluetooth icon lit up on the iphone top left and lights and an audible tone on the carkit indicating connection. I always answer the phone by pushing the answer button on the carkit not the iphone:
1/4 of the time - Works fine. Music stops on stereo and I can hear the other party and they can hear me fine.
1/4 of the time - I can hear the other party fine but they can't hear me.
1/4 of the time - It decides to use the mic and speaker on the iPhone instead of the carkit as if you were using it normally.
1/4 of the time - Music pauses on car stereo but once I answer the call it starts playing through the motorola's speaker hidden in dash. I can't hear what the other party is saying on the phone due to music and I can't stop it either as you can't play around with the ipod functions of the phone while it is connected to a car stereo. Also, I didn't think you could listen to music on the iphone via bluetooth anyway?

Another problem is there is a long pause (10sec) from the time you press the answer button to the time you can speak with the other party. There was a smaller but still noticeable pause with my old Sony Ericsson K800i of a few seconds but it was manageable.

I've unpaired and repaired the phone and kit several times with no change.
I've restored the iPhone via iTunes several times with no change.

I thought it may be a problem with the OEM audio car kit but even if I disconnect (unplug) the iPhone from the kit so it is only connected to the bluetooth phone carkit it still has the same issues.

At this point I'm am really frustrated and annoyed about this and it's got to the stage where I don't trust the bluetooth connection at all and will soon stop using the phone in the car at all. This really isn't an option for me.

Any help appreciated.

Same here;

The functionality was bad under v2.1, but is unuseable under v2.2.

I would just chalk it up to hardware compatibility if it wasn't for the fact that staff at both the Rogers store and the Apple store swore that there would be no problems since "Bluetooth is just Bluetooth."

This is the only phone that I have owned which will not work in the car, it's apparent that the problem is with the iPhone.

I use this mostly in the car and since it is now illegal to use a phone in the car here without hands free (as it is in Cupertino Calf Apple!) I hope that someone from Apple will respond and tell us when this will be fixed.

This is not the first issue I've had with this thing. I'm beginning to think that I mistakenly bought myself a toy a opposed to a business tool.

yes I agree - with v2.2 the phone's bluetooth connection got a whole lot worse.

I have the same BT in my car, and I do not recall any problems. I do not drive this car much as it is not a daily driver. Now that I have read this thread, I will investigate further and see if I can reproduce this problem. MY 850 seems to work perfect with my 3g 2.2 firmware.

I just realized I have MT IHF1000. I do not know if there is a big difference or not but again I will check this issue with this setup.

Join the parade

Apple just doesn't seem to really care about this. I had horrible issues with the HF850 and my first generation iPhone when I first got it. Worked perfect with my Nokia, RAZR, SLVR and Blackberry Pearl, never an issue. Iphone was just unreliable as ****.

I finally got to someone at Apple who told me that it wasn't their problem and that since the HF850 wasn't being sold anymore that they didn't support it. They said that I should go get a new kit.

So I did, I got the iHF1000 that is advertised to work with the iPhone. It doesn't. It almost works, most of the stuff works but you can't (1) answer calls from the HF1000 control module (it hangs up) and (2) can't listen to voicemail when the HF1000 is connected to the iPhone.


This is clearly a problem with teh way that Apple deals with the Bluetooth stack, but they won't admit it.

please fix this apple! I've now spent a good bit on two hands free kits for my car and two professional installations only to have it not work ONLY for the iPhone.

(iphone 1st generation, updated to 2.2 firmware)

I have a Moto HF1000 and the iPhone 3G (2.2) paired just fine, but if a call came in and I tried to answer the call was immediately cut off. I love the iPhone, but with regards to Bluetooth Handsfree Windows Mobile beats the iPhone.

Apple should be embarraased by this fact. If Apple want to compete in the power user phone market they had better get this fixed. I have been usung HF kits in my cars for years, because I don't want to be one of those stupid distracted holding the phone while driving people 🙂

so on a whole:
1) calls out with hit kit....good or bad?
2) calls in im reading isn't very repsonsive (time wise) and glitchy at best. what percentage would everybody say
3) any guesses why apple wont revise their stance on connectivity?
4) any other problems people want to share?

From my experience

1) Calls OUT are OK but with wifi disabled
2) Calls IN are OK (again only with wifi disabled) but it takes about 5 seconds for the call to be transferred to the bluetooth device (during which the caller thinks you are not there and very often hangs up).

For both IN and OUT calls, the person at the other end cannot hear you very loud (this is the biggest problem for me).

The new firmware v3 (still beta) has introduced some new bluetooth functionality so lets hope that it has addressed these problems.

My experience... Just bought a CostarTech Bluestar unit and installed it yesterday.

First call in or out: works like a charm.

Subsequent calls: no audio in or out, even though the call shows being connected on both the car kit and the phone. No way to xfer to iPhone/speaker. No way to handle other calls aside from unpairing and starting over.

Naive me - I read about issues before buying but thought for sure they would've been resolved by now. FYI - wifi disabled on my end. Hopefully v3.0 offers a fix.

Does anyone know if the problem with the HF850 has been fixed?

I have bought one off eBay very cheap and wonder if its worth putting it in the car or just selling it to a mate?