IPhone 4 Bluetooth Issues

I've just bought an iphone4 from vodafone and thankfully I haven't experienced some of the more serious issues listed below. However, the bluetooth on my iphone4 does not work properly. I have a brand new state of the art top spec iMac, a Dell netbook and my old Nokia all paired with the iphone4 but no matter how many times I try to connect using bluetooth I keep getting a message back saying the devices could not connect with each other. I have got the iphone to "forget" the 3 devices and restarted from scratch by pairing them all up again but when you press the "connect" to the device nothing happens and the error message appears again. Vodafone support blame Apple and Apple support don't seem to have an answer. Any ideas as to where I may be going wrong?

I think I will just give up. Many people seemed happy with the 4.1 update, which Apple techs said fixed the bluetooth problem that Apple never even acknowledged existed. However, it still does not work with my Pioneer in my car. I went to Apple Monday and the tech reset the phone and said this will work, or it's the phone. (This is already my second I Phone 4.) I did all they said and it did not work. So, I went back and they gave me a new phone. It too, does not stayed paired with the Pioneer that has worked with all previous I Phones. So they are now convinced it is the Pioneer! So, I asked them to sell me a bluetooth head set to use in the car. They said all their store had was "older" blue tooth sets and they would not work well with the I Phone and I should search the web for some headset that the manufacturer was sure with work with the latest software version! I never expected this type of treatment from Apple.

I purchased my iPhone 4 less than a week ago and this is my third headset. The first headset had a valid issue;it wouldn't stay charged. The second headset was a Jabra Stone. Once I got the fit right, I couldn't take more than 5 steps away from my phone or I would cut in and out to the person on the other end of the call. I returned the stone and now have a Blue Ant Q2. I am still having the SAME ISSUE with distance. As a matter of fact, I was wearing my iPhone in a holster on my belt and my earpiece told me once that there was no phone attached and then immediately said phone connected. I'm not sure what I should do seeing as I just purchased this phone. I have the new software. I haven't reset anything yet. What should I do?

Sure do. I did state that I had the new software, sorry for not being clear. That could have been on the bluetooth ear piece as well but yes, I did mean I have the 4.1 version on my iPhone. That was the first thing I did when I got the phone home and the jabra stone that I returned and the blueant Q2 that I have now were both paired with the phone in store which was after the 4.1 had been installed so while I could understand the distance issue with the first headset I purchased, I can't understand it with the last two :-/ very frustrating! I can't remember if I stated previously but I haven't tried doing the reset to factory default settings but I was under the impression that doing that would only fix any issues with muffled voice which I do not have.

I have had slightly better quality with 4.1 than 4.01 with my V-tech BT home phone system and Iphone 4, but at times it just is really unintelligible to the other end. I had exchanged by Iphone 4 for another Iphone 4, which helped as well, but there seems to be an inconsistancy each time it connects. I have tried to kill all apps, disconnect and re-connect BT, and it never is the same. Once the quality was exceptional (for BT - if that's possible), and for most times it is ok, and other times it just terrible. I've tried moving the Iphone closer and farther from the base of the V-tech BT, and even once it worked almost 30 feet away. Now if I move the phone that distance, it disconnects.

The funny thing is that it seemed to work fine up until a couple of days ago then all of a sudden it became very intermittent and got worse over time litterally connecting and disconnecting every few seconds. I tried something and it seems to have worked at least for the moment. Here's what I did:

1. Update to the latest iOS.
2. Go to settings, General, Reset
3. Reset All Settings (don't erase content and settings)
4. When the iPhone reboots, go back into Settings -> General -> Bluetooth. It will have the mac address of your head set listed. Tell the phone to forget it.
5. Put your headset in pairing mode and the iPhone should find it.
6. Pair and connect the headset
7. Set all of the other configurations that were lost (network, passcode, etc.)

That seems to have cured it for the moment. I won't declare it fully fixed for a few days.

I must agree. I thought it was my Jawbone 2, purchased new Icon. It does the same thing. I have a new theory. It has to do with temperature. Mine works fine in the cool mornings and evenings. Starts acting up in the heat of the day and when in pants pocket. I am testing my theory by cooling in AC when it is at it's worst.

I have a theory that it is a manufacturing issue. I believe the problem is that some component manufactured in a particular plant (I suspect the bluetooth chip) is out of spec so some phones (3G, 3GS, 4) experience this problem because they were built with the defective part. The part is not in spec for the bluetooth 2.1 addendum 1 specifications and the combination of out of spec hardware and bluetooth firmware is causing this problem.

I speculate that previous iphone versions (prior to 4) used bluetooth 2.1 or 2.0; the addition of addendum 1 exploits the out of spec part of the bluetooth chipset. This would explain why only some phones experience this problem (ones that happen to have the bluetooth chipset that is out of spec built by a particular plant). It could be a particular "batch" of the bluetooth chipset but that wouldn't explain why some iphone 4 and older iphone 3GS phones have this issue.

I say that because I took my 3GS phone to Apple because I was having this exact problem and they replace it with a refurb and I restored my back onto the "new" phone and I don't have a problem on the new refurb (going on two months).

/end conspiracy theory

One other point. The fact that I installed (by restore) the same OS on a new 3GS phone and the new phone didn't have the bluetooth problem of the old 3GS. The only variable was a different 3GS phone (different hardware same OS so it points to hardware as the problem not software).

It's probably a combination of both. My bet is the driver code for the 3GS chipset is different than it is for the 4 chipset. The code for the new chipset is buggy while the old code for the old chipset works fine.

I've been running for 24 hours now since I reset the entire phone with no problems. My Jawbone Icon stays connected and the audio is greatly improved.

o.k. so it's not so much as a conspiracy as it is a manufacturing defect unless of course Apple knows about the defect but isn't willing to admit the problem. Then again this could all be a red herring.

Heat doesn't seem to be the problem at least not with me. Resetting the phone seems to have worked. I'm still hesitant to call it fixed though only because it worked fine for a while before then all of a sudden it didn't work anymore.

I thought I would respond to the discussion, just to show Apple how many dissatisfied customers there are out there. The should know that many competitors are now catching up with them, and if they do not respond to these issues people will go elsewhere.

I too have not had a problem with my iPhone 3 connecting to my car by Bluetooth. But my new iPhone 4 has to pair each time I start the engine, which is completely unsatisfactory, if it is a hardware problem, then a recall is the only answer.

I too have had issues with bluetooth connections on my Iphone 4. It is nearly impossible to maintain connection with any bluetooth headset. I thought it was fault of headset, so I tried three different manufacturers with same results. Sound quality seems good, but connection will not maintain if phone is in pocket. If phone is laid on counter nearby, connection seems to stabilize. Hoping for a solution soon.

have had original iPhone then 3GS, bought iPhone 4 today to be able to multitask and use facetime while away from family.
got in my 2011 audi and couldn't connect to bluetooth.
my 3GS has connected since the day i got the car.
read thru this forum and can't believe that i have to go back to the apple store for a replacement. -- come on apple, seriously?