IPhone 4 Bluetooth Issues

A year after the first message on this thread was posted Apple still has to address this problem. I got an iPhone 4 on July 30 and it is almost impossible to use it with the handsfree in my car. I can only manage to make calls about 30% of the time. I may get a few words through and then the bluetooth disconnets and the car will not be able to recognize it. I sometimes have to pull over, turn the engine off and then on in the hopes that the phone will feel like working with the handsfree. It is a if the iphone were an extremely moody person who would sometimes talk to this guy he knows depending on his mood. They know each other, hey have talked before, WHY NOT TALK EVERY TIME?This is extremely frustrating since I make all my phone calls from the car. It is inadmissible that Apple has not addressed this after a full year since the iPhone 4 was released. I am seriously considering going back to my BlackBerry or moving on to a droid. I will certainly think twice about buying another product from Apple even though I have been a devoted, heavy user for over twenty years. NOT COOL!!

I returned an iPhone4 due to bad bluetooth, then my new one worked -- then stopped working. It turned out that something in the software was screwing the bluetooth up. I backed it up, wiped it clean, then reinstalled, and now it works again. So there's something funky going on with some program that's making it stop working.

Hope it helps

I have had my iPhone replaced due to another problem and the issue remains the same. I have had several different headsets and each have simliar issues. With the Jawbone, i know if i pair the headset and the battery indicator does not register with a battery level the connection will not work worth a darn. I can choose the headset and I hear nothing until I go back to speakerphone. I then have to either turn off the headset and tuen it back on or I have to turn off bluetooth on the iPhone. The latter works best and most reliably.

It's a joke how bad the bluetooth is on the iPhone 4 vs my 3GS and 3G.

I learned a neat trick. I'm not sure if it will solve your problem or not, but I realized this. If your does not detect or discover your Bluetooth device, try this. This has worked and it's not the iPhone 4, nor is it your device.

When your iPhone 4 cannot discover your device, simply power off the Bluetooth device. Second, make sure your iPhone is still in discovery mode. Next, when you turn on your Bluetooth device, don't just press the power button, but after you turn it on, HOLD the power button. You will see your Bluetooth device flashing the blue light more frequently indicating that it's making itself visible. Keeping holding the power button and presto-- the iPhone 4 will discover your Bluetooth device. It has ALWAYS worked for me.

Now you try it! I hope this clears up everyone's frustration. Enjoy your day...or night!

All the best,

Jesse

sonic5d@yahoo.com

Oh yeah, also, again, there is nothing wrong with the iPhone 4, nor the Bluetooth device. Just make sure your Bluetooth device is fully charged before you perform the steps I described. Another reason the devices aren't pairing could be simply because your Bluetooth device was not sufficiently charged. The battery indicator is usually not on the Bluetooth device, so you don't even know if your device needs charging or not. It's just something to think about. I felt so bad reading all the post with frustration. In the instructions manual, nowhere did it say that one should hold the power on the Bluetooth device after powering it up to make it discoverable. By the way, I use the UNEEDS 2000S Wireless Headset and I was 2 minutes away from throwing them in the trash. So, I went back to the store where I purchased them, and they should me how to MAKE my iPhone 4 discover any Bluetooth device.

If everyone in this thread was facing the issues you are and managed to fix them by charging and re-pairing the devices, then we should all throw ourselves from a clif or something. That said, you could take for granted that we 've already tried what you propose... a few YEARS ago, actually!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Everyone has trouble with Bluetooth and "Bluetooth Org" and companies that build products using it know it, but it is good enough and not worth fixing. Get used to it! Inside a car any quality brand name device should work ok unless an alien space ship is overhead, whether in headphone or headset mode.

2. I'm a 140 yo retired EE and audiophile. The world is still analog where it all begins - with a binary "decision point". The digital side needs to thoroughly understand this when writing the software, and how both worlds interact, which they increasing don't.

IPhone 4 & S9-HD SPECIFIC

3. I live in a valley within "Silicon Valley,", in a retirement park where most are waiting for god, so very little EMI except for a few WiFi signals. I get a solid 10' and up to sporadic 30' feet even if I left my iPhone 4 in the car. I wear my iPhone hoizontally on my belt and us a Motorola headset S9-HD. Also the same when in my black hole Gold's Gym.

4. I walk my dog AM & PM in the hills surrounding my black hole, which is full of communication towers of all kinds, where dropouts are frequent and long. When walking I must use wired head phones OR move my iPhone to my back on my belt roughyly in line with my spine and in line with the S9-HD electronics. Then I get only 1 or 2 drop outs at most when listening to music. People stop and ask me how I can use bluetooth in the area.

Good for you! Obviously there is something special about you, your environment or you did not do a spreadsheet ;-) I had a 3g and had problems with Apple's bluetooth, Jawbone and Plantronic 655 and 665. Here is a link to a HP PDF on the subject where they tell you in corporate double speak that they it is not going to be fixed: http://www.hp.com/rnd/library/pdf/WiFi_Bluetooth_coexistance.pdf The reason for Dect 6.0 wireless phones was to get away from 2.4 Mhz which is used for way to many common items that consumers use.

Hi Jesse,

You method really did work.

For clarification, it wasn't the under-charged headset problem Thanar referred about you, but the very first trick you mentioned on your earlier post: keep pressing the power button on the headset.

What it did to my Plantronics 665 was that the red light kept blinking, meaning the headset was continously sending signals. My iPhone detected it after about 5 seconds. Prior to this, I've left my phone to discovery mode for 5-10minutes but it didn't get anything.

This might not be applicable to other units, but it worked for mine!

A thousand thanks!!!

Bluetooth should work no matter what, you shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

Ford MySync, I should be able to get in and connection without doing all this stuff.

This is very frustrating.

Add me to the list of Ford users who are very, very, very disappointed with the Ford MySync system. It is AWFUL at best.

The GPS is worse than the 2007 Ford Explorer i turned in, the Bluetooth syncing with my iPhone is very, very undependable.

The SD Card goes "unreadable" at least once-a-week.

Ford is a very, very good company and I have been using Ford for 30 years, but after purchasing a $40,000 Ford Explorer with an AWFUL FORDMySync system the S---ks, this could be my last Ford.

Apple users beware, I have been told that the reason for my problems on the Ford MySync system (Made by Microsoft!!!) is that it is not compatible with iPhone...

I have read through a lot of the complaints here. My issue is with the iPhone 4. I've used the Plantronics Voyager for years, through the various model improvements. Fortunately, I've bought at Best Buy with the protection plan, so everytime one breaks or has issues, I've been able to replace/upgrade. I've had an iPhone since the original 8gig model. My bluetooth has always worked flawlessly, even from the other end of the house, through walls. That is, until the i4. When I connected my bluetooth to my new iPhone 4, it continuously disconnected and my outgoing signal was garbled and fuzzy according to those I was speaking to, most of which were used to me coming in very clear. I returned the earpiece for a new one, but it did not correct the issue.

Here's the wierd thing: It is not always consistent. Every once in a while, it gets great distance and clarity. A week or so ago, it was working exceptionally well. Then this past week, it went back to being fuzzy or disconnecting if it's more than 2' or out of line of sight. If I set my iPhone 4 on the left side of my desk, (just to the left of my left elbow while typing on my laptop) with my earpiece in my right ear, it will disconnect. While driving in my car, if I don't hold the phone in the air, within 2' of my right ear, my outgoing voice gets fuzzy and digitally garbled to the recipient, even though I can hear them perfectly clear.

I've had an iPhone 8gig, 3gs, and now the 4. It is most definately an issue with the 4. I've paired my earpiece back with my old 3gs (my son has it), and it works just like it used to: long distance with no fuzz. My only thought is that it is possibly linked to the internal antenna issues that apple already knows about. I've got so much invested in the iPhone platform that I'm not about to switch to another, but it is terribly inconvenient not to be able to leave my phone in the holster, on the same side of my body as my earpiece, and be able to clearly communicate with someone. (And yes, I've tried a great number of holsters, covers, lack of covers, etc., with no difference in functionality.)

I really do hope this issue will be corrected with the i5. I will try it out with someone else's before I buy. If the bluetooth issue is not corrected, I will not buy another iPhone until it is.

I have an iPhone 4 using 3G service (grandfathered on my unlimited data plan, will NOT upgrade network service unless they give me unlimited data), and had been using a Plantronics bluetooth for roughly a year without any problem. About two weeks ago, I began having a lot of dropped connections between the bluetooth and the phone, and also a lot of caller complaints about me sounding "far away" or "muffled." It got progressively worse, and I figured it was the bluetooth--so I got a new Plantronics, and tossed the old one. Same problem. CONTINUED to blame the bluetooth, returned it, got a Motorola. SAME PROBLEM.

Stopped blaming the bluetooth. Looked at the thread here. Despaired of any solution.

Synced and updated my iPhone--now running 4.3.5. Problem stopped IMMEDIATELY, and COMPLETELY. Its been all day after updating the iPhone, and the lost connections have stopped altogether, and not a single caller complaint all day. I think Apple got it fixed.

Congratulations and wonderful for you. I have been running the 4.3.5 since it came out. I have also been to Genius Bar many times and taken everything off of my Iphone twice. I continue to have incredible difficulty syncing the phone with my car bt even though the 3 worked perfectly.

For me after much effort nothing is really fixed. No connection on start up. Fizzed out calls. Unpredictable performance. At least there is baseball and football to watch to forget my phone problems. Not fixed.

For me, there has been no once and for all fix. It really has been a sporadic issue. Some days, or even weeks, the bluetooth issue causes dropped connection if the phone is more than two feet away in direct line of sight. Some times I get other-end-of-the-house-through-walls-clear results. All of this without updating, synching, changing plans, changing earpieces, etc.. I thought maybe it was the early release of the i4, so I recently bought another one for myself, and one for my production manager at the same time: One 32g, one 8g. I have discovered that both of our phones have the bluetooth issue at the same time, (same days/weeks duration). Mine is doing much better for the moment, but so is his. Neither one has done anything in any way, other than use the phone, to give it a reason, much less, at the exact same time. I've tried a number of the "fixes" suggested on this stream. None really seemed to work, (some temporarily till the issue came back again), and have spent alot of time doing it. I really believe at this point, that it is some sort of possible combination between hardware and software, and that it is across the board. I am curious to see if people on this thread go out and buy the new i4s and it works. Personally, I've learned to walk around holding my phone in the air with my hand. At least I'm not holding it to my face. I didn't realize how bad it was until I started talking to my project manager with him using his bluteooth and heard first hand how horrible it was, and how hard it was to understand what he was saying. I started apologizing to people I speak to regularly! At the moment, it's doing good. Hopefully it never goes bad again. I'm not holding my breath though. I also won't buy another iPhone until I am convinced it is permanantly fixed. Maybe with the i4s or the i5..........