iPhone 11 on iOS 13 having Bluetooth connectivity issues

When i shut off syncing in the bluetooth connection it solved the music problems. Surprisingly it stayed good after i switched it on again. looks like there are different problems with different solutions. After the latest update i didn’t have any problem anymore.

I wear two hearing aids (Phonak Marvel 90’s) and embrace experienced issues with both the 11 and 11 Pro. The issue is especially prevalent when more than one Bluetooth device is connected. According to my hearing aid manufacturer, they (and many other companies) are working with Apple to develop a fix as this is an issue with changes Apple has made in regards to Bluetooth Classic.

So while I offer no solutions, be aware that this is likely not affecting devices with newer versions of BT technology.

If my iphone connects automatically with my bluetooth device, it cuts out after about 30 seconds, it then reconnects and the drops after 30 seconds. If I turn off bluetooth on my phone, turn it on and quickly manually connect, then it usually (but not always) will hold the connection. This may help some people hopefully whilst Apple sort it out properly.

I have the same car and it only connects 1 out of 20 times. I think we should all file bugs against this behavior. Hopefully a mass influx of tickets of some sort could get their attention. The question is what method would be the best to report it? https://www.apple.com/feedback/ or some other means (ie AppleCare case)??

Similar problems here too. 11 Pro 512GB connecting to BMW X1 via CarPlay. Spotify cuts out every 10-20 seconds, extremely annoying. Also my Mpow Bluetooth headset drops and reconnects whilst on a call. Previously both devices worked flawlessly on my 8 Plus. My wife uses the car with Bluetooth and she has cut out issues. I have re-paired my iPhone 3 times with the car, deleting and forgetting car and phone. Made no difference.

I am on 13.1.1 and it makes no difference at all, bug still there! I do hope it's a software bug or this phone it's going back to Apple!!!

Here is one final piece of info, I also had Wifi connectivity issues since getting my 11 Pro. Phone will suddenly go out of wifi even though I am at home with strong wifi signal. If I went to Settings => Wifi to see it would then reconnect again. I use Ubiquiti ACPro APs which are enterprise grade wifi mesh access points, never had problems with any of my wifi devices before. My 8 Plus would stay on wifi for hours without issues. I get alerts when I enter my wifi network via my home automation system so since getting the 11 Pro I had ton of alerts of the 11 Pro leaving wifi and joining again, sometimes every 5 mins. After some Googling found that turning off this setting fixed the problem: Settings => Mobile Data => Scroll down to the bottom after all the apps => Turn off Wi-Fi Assist. It seems to me as if Apple is aggressively and incorrectly turning off wi-fi for some reason. Maybe they are doing the same thing on Bluetooth?

I've been communicating with tech support on this for the past week plus. Best to ask to have your call escalated to senior management. I've been on the phone several times with them (in excess of 4 hours in total) and they are calling me back approximately every 3-4 days to see if there are changes and to run more tests. Apple is most definitely aware of this and working on it. I can only imagine that that want to solve it quickly as it's not good for them (or us). For the record, I have a Volvo v60 that can connect and finally work, but does drop the connection on occasion. At the beginning, it wouldn't work at all so that is progress (I think after 13.1.2). My new Costco Phonak hearing aids are still not working. I can make the bluetooth connection, but they are not picking up the sound. I've been told by Costco that Phonak is aware of the issue and working with Apple to solve the problem. While it's frustrating that it's taking some time, I also recognize that this is the challenge of being an early adapter...fun to get the cool new technology early, but it often comes with the price of being part of the ironing out of the bugs.

I do recommend calling Apple's tech support and asking to have your call escalated to senior management.

@Evosti. Try leaving the 2nd connection unpaired so that you have one and only one BT pairing (also no watch, no hearing aid,etc). If my theory is correct, The phone will hold connection.

[Edited by Moderator]

UPDATE!

Just had a chat with Apple in the Netherlands and came to the conclusion that it is probably a software bug. So submitted a feedback form.

This is what I found out via troubleshooting:

• My Casio watch was connecting and disconnecting continuously on my 11Pro with iOS 13.1.2
• Other devices did have a stable connection on my 11Pro with iOS 13.1.2
• I know for sure that when I was still running iOS 13.0 last week on my old 6s my Casio watch had a stable connection.
• My old 6s is now also running on iOS 13.1.2 and there also my Casio watch connected and disconnected continuously.

As my old 6s used to have a stable connection with my watch on 13.0 and now not on 13.1.2 I conclude it must be a software problem.

As we couldn't find any reason why specifically the watch and my car don't have a stable connection on 13.1.2 and the other devices do I conclude that it is probably a bug.

Soon 13.2 will be there. Hopefully that solves it...

Did some more googling:

Specifically for my car (Renault with R-link 2 system) there seems to be a (temporarily) solution by setting contact synchronisation off on the iPhone. I'll try that and will report back. Maybe someone can try that with another car as well....

Although the bug still has to be fixed it offers the opportunity to at least use handsfree calling and music. The only annoying thing is that you cannot reach your contacts from the car's system....

Still rock solid, not a single drop on a call or playing music, ever with my 11 Pro Max.

However, that information doesn't do anyone here any more good than those saying that they are having issues.

If you are having issues with Bluetooth dropping or refusing to pair in your configuration, contact Apple support directly so they can investigate which devices are having these issues.

The issues are not universal, and that's the quickest way they will be able to figure out what is going wrong with which devices and how to fix them and/or which vendors will need to update their firmware.

Contact - Official Apple Support

It has to be a classic Bluetooth connection issue (oversight on Apple’s part; unintentional I am sure, given they have had 3 iOS updates so far). You are able to connect to many classic connections- car bt, etc but it either drops connection or does not hold. Most devices use a classic bt connection. I’m in tech support an troubleshoot on a daily basis- this is a known issue with the iphone11 in my world. The recent iOS updates indicate they are working on it and hopefully will have a fix soon.

I went to the store and tried connecting my Phonak hearing aids with several of the phones on the floor. They worked perfectly with the iPhone X using iOS 13.1.2. They I tried several 11's and it didn't work on any of them. I've learned that the problem is that iPhone 11 does not work with "Classic profile bluetooth". Not certain where that leaves all of us. Have been working with tech support since September 27th, have several hours on the phone with escalated tech support.

Sfis, beta testers are not “chosen ones”. You too can opt in to the Beta version of iOS. I’ve been running 13.2 Beta since last week and my Bluetooth has been stable with the exception of some random “ crackling” that occurs on my AirPods, which usually goes away after a few seconds. My Bluetooth connection is stable with my 2011 Ford Escape and not enough testing to determine if my soundbar connection is stable.

I have also updated my Apple Watch to the lates OS, and I know a lot of people have a theory of the watch being a potential “culprit/factor” in their Bluetooth woes.

you can opt in to the beta for any of your devices by going here

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

I just did the recent update 13.2 and so far my bluetooth held a call for 20 minutes. This is amazing but still holding my breathe!

PS I never should of bought this phone so soon! Apple should be ashamed!

I have a Toyota Highlander 2014

LordBaelish wrote:

William, it is very clear that something in regards to BT has changed in iOS 13 and the iPhone 11. I have not seen you comment on the endless complaints about the iPhone not working with the Airpods together anymore (dropped calls, crackling sound etc.). Any comment on that? I am sorry, but if we already see issues within the communication of Apple's own ecosystem

Yes, there have been updates to BT in iOS 13. Those updates to the protocol are defined as being backwards compatible with past versions if the people who implemented BT on the client did so properly. This seems to happen with every new major release of iOS, and it usually turns out that Apple does fix some issues in their code, but far more are fixed by software updates from auto makers and companies like Alpine and Pioneer when aftermarket head ends are involved. It's not just Apple's fault because they implemented a newer version of the protocol, and that most often becomes readily observable when the next Android release comes out and Android phones cause head ends to misbehave in the exact same way because they too are following the updated standard.

If there are issues with AirPods, of course Apple will need to fix those, as the vendor of both sides of the connection; I never said they would not need to, I said the vendor of the device at fault would need to and in the case of AirPods, Apple is the vendor for both sides of the connection.

iPhone <-> Airpods), I do not think it is too far fetched that 3rd party systems (cars, headsets) might experience similar or even more severe bugs.

Once again, if the BT client is at fault, they will.

If the head end is crashing and rebooting itself, once again, that is not Apple's issue to fix.

I would agree with you if the 'reboot' issue were the only bug reported here in this forum. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Hence, we should not exclude the reboot topic anymore unless we see a stable software release which makes the BT communication in general stable with the iPhone.

Concentrate on issues (like AirPods) where either Apple is known to be at fault on one side or the other, and in trying to find commonalities among other devices.

Many different vendors use the same Bluetooth hardware chip, and issues across a range of products may be due to a firmware bug in that particular chip.

What you cannot do is assume "this broke in iOS 13, Apple screwed up."

They may have, but just that it fails to work is not enough of a data point to assume Apple is at fault.

The fact that there are numerous devices that do not have issues with iPhone 11s is proof of that.