Bluetooth Stuttering Issues | iPhone 11 Pro Max | iOS 13

My audio (from all apps) playback on Bluetooth devices is stuttering making it sound kinda like static. Currently on iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13. My prior iPhone XS Max on iOS 13 worked perfectly. So it's either the iPhone 11 Pro Max or iOS 13 on it in particular. Anybody else experiencing the same issues? Thanks!

Posted on Sep 23, 2019 8:39 AM

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Posted on Nov 26, 2019 4:43 PM

Yes, confirmed, turning off Hey Siri makes the crackling problem go away for me, after the first couple of seconds at least. I do still have random Bluetooth connection partial or full failures in the car however. I think that is connected to the general BT issues with iPhone 11, but also separate from the crackling problem. Given how slow/useless Siri is with this new phone it isn't too much of a loss to have to turn off the Hey Siri function. But yeah, they were able to make those two co-existing in all previous phones (since Hey Siri was introduced) so you'd hope they can fix this issue also.

197 replies

Dec 19, 2019 10:32 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I have had this same issue on my 11 Pro Max since purchase, I saw some threads that 13.3 fixed the issue but it did not fix it on my device. I just spent a rediculously long time on the phone with support and they are sending a new device even though it may or may not fix the issue. This is not a problem according to apple's engineers, at least not big enough to call it one on their end according to the specialist I spoke with. Disappointed in Apple on this one for a $1300 phone...I can barely use a lot of the time.

Jun 12, 2020 3:33 PM in response to CCAPPL

I really hope more people post to this discussion thread to look into it deeper because I’m seeing a lot of different theories on how it’s effected. Like one person in the thread above posted a video of their issue and the audio was more of a garble rather than a stutter from what I heard. Some people fixed their problem with turning off notifications, turning off hey Siri, unpairing iwatches. Some others the problem followed them no matter how many new iPhone devices they got. I myself got a new iPhone and the problem went away but it’s only been day 3 and I don’t have nearly the same amount of apps that I originally had. I’m almost wondering if it’s a combo of hardware and software. Potentially any cross or near wiring of the Bluetooth chip after causes stress on the Bluetooth or connection and makes the audio garbled. Also with wireless charging the phone does get a little more warmth than it otherwise does in wired charging. Maybe the constant heat may have affect on Bluetooth chips or connections? Also potentially a combo of corrupted cloud accounts, for those whose issues followed them with all iPhone devices, which is a bug that happens in all devices even outside of apple. I heard somewhere that apple is discontinuing it’s contract with the Bluetooth chip supplier they currently have and are going for someone else. Hopefully we could see a difference in performance after the current models and after a few updates as well to accommodate the new Bluetooth chips?

Jun 26, 2020 11:07 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Just want to throw in with all this that I have horrible stuttering issues. I can connect the same headphones to any other device than my iPhone 11 Pro and have flawless playback. When I connect to the iPhone 11 Pro I cannot even stand to listen to music it is so bad. This problem started around 2-3 weeks ago and I feel it has progressively gotten worse.


I have:

reset network settings

removed and re-added Bluetooth devices

done a hard reset of the phone

I even updated to the beta iOS version (13.6)


Sometimes turning Bluetooth off and on again helps for maybe 15 minutes and then it is bad again. I’m going to try and get in touch with Apple support tomorrow. I don’t want to have to try the restore to factory settings, especially since people don’t find that that helps.


if anyone has come up with something, please post it so we can try the fix.

Nov 14, 2020 2:03 PM in response to lefty175

Playin a Bose Color till the battery died. Plugged it into the charger and grabbed the Soundlink Mini. Sounded like a short in the Bluetooth connection; very intermittent. Tried the Revolve.... same issue. Reboot phone, turn off Siri, turn off all other radios; cell, WiFi... same. I forgot to turn off the Color when I plugged it in for a charge. A really long distance away...... guess it was still JUST pinging. Make sure all other Bluetooth devices are either off or well out of range. Weekend fer me....🤪

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Bluetooth Stuttering Issues | iPhone 11 Pro Max | iOS 13

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