iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 and PowerBeats Pro EarPods will not stay paired or play sound

Question

iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 and PowerBeats Pro EarPods will not stay paired or play sound

Dear Support,

I bought my wife a pair of PowerBeats Pro bluetooth EarPods for her to use at the gym with her iPhone 6s. The official seller told me they worked fine with the iPhone 6S iOS 13.3.1.

Checked the Beats website and also confirmed this was true (checked the compatibility). Its states they will work with any apple device with at leats iOS 12 installed.

Once home tried to pair the pods to her iPhone 6S with iOS 13.3.1, and the pods will not stay paired and when they do, they do not transmit any sound.

At best, we have been able to hear less than 1 second of sound from Spotify in her phone with the pods. After that, the sound cuts, they give the disconnect tone, and then reconnect again, but no sound afterwards.

To check it wasn't some issue with the song, we cycled through the playlist streaming, and checked using local (downloaded) playlists. The results is the same.

I checked the website and followed the unpairing/forget process tutorials, the reset bluetooth process on phone apple and beats tutorial on the support articles, rebooted the phone, etc. All the online support articles have been read and tested before this post.

Finally after some searching on the Beats online support, I found and article stating you may need to update the pods software, so I followed all the instructions and updated their software.

Unpaired the pods, paired them again, and still no solution whatsoever.

The pods will not produce sound and will constantly unpair and pair again (the tone for pairing and unpairing is heard) from the iPhone 6S, with iOS 13.3.1.

To test if it was a Bluetooth malfunction on the phone (hardware or firmware compatibility), I performed connection tests to other apple products at home, the result was this:

Her iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 will pair effortlessly with her Mac book air 13 (late 2015, Catalina OS, latest) and works (hear music, use built in micro);

Her iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 pairs effortlessly with her Apple Watch 5th Generation and works (hear music, use built in micro);

Her iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 pairs effortlessly with my MacBook Pro Retina 15.4 inch also running Catalina (latest) and works (hear music, use micro)

Her iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 pairs effortlessly my iPhone XR (latest iOS);

Her iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 pairs effortlessly with a Sony Sound-bar via Bluetooth and is able to play music;

To further debug what was happening, I tried to pair the pods with other apple devices, with the following result:

Able to get them paired (and hear music, etc) with MacBook Air 13 (late 2015, Catalina OS, Latest version)

Able to get them paired (and hear music, etc) with MacBook Pro Retina 154.4 (Catalina OS, Latest version)

Able to get them paired (and hear music, etc) with iPhone XR (latest iOS).

So I'm stumped.... they only fail when used with the iPhone 6s and iOS 13.3.1

Could you please be so kind as to try and help me understand what is going on here? Is it a bug in your Software Apple iPhone 6s running iOS 13.3.1 and (Apple owned) Beats PowerBeats Pro?

Thank you in advance.

iPhone 6s

Posted on Mar 7, 2020 6:53 PM

Reply

Answer 1

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Mar 8, 2020 11:45 AM in response to AggrovatedUser

Hello AggrovatedUser,

If I'm understanding you right, your Powerbeats Pro headphones do not stay connected to your wife's iPhone 6s running iOS 13.3.1. I have some steps I'd like to give you that may help get things working.

You've done some great troubleshooting so far! Next I recommend turning Bluetooth off on the iPhone, powering the iPhone off and back on, and then turning Bluetooth on again. Make sure you're turning off and on Bluetooth in the Settings app and not in Control Center. Try pairing your Beats again and test them by playing music from the Music app. If the issue persists, check to see if this is related to some sort of Bluetooth interference by reviewing this support article: Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference. Remove any case currently on the iPhone, disable Wi-Fi in Settings > Wi-Fi (not Control Center), and make sure the Beats and her iPhone are close and have direct line of sight.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. Respond back if you continue to experience issues with her Beats.

Take care.

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Answer 2

Mar 8, 2020 3:45 PM in response to CarlAVII

Dear PsyDye,

Thank you for your reply...

Tried what you suggested already, as that is one of the articles I read before posting my question. So that solution was also out of the table at the time of posting my first post as explained. I read and tested all tutorials and support info available online on Apple or Beats sites.

Went this afternoon to the shopping centre where our local Official Apple Partner is located to talk to the Apple Tech support there. As a last resort they suggested that I proceed to reset he iPhone 6S to factory default. Followed all the instructions, and performed the full factory reset.

On a ground zero setting (no apps or personal settings), I tried pairing the EarPods and then use Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. The result was the same. The EarPods do not stay connected to the iPhone 6S.

I would like to point out that they immediately paired with the iPhone, but after that the problem starts again.

We get the connect tone, and one second later the disconnect tone. No music whatsoever or any sound with Spotify, YouTube, or even Netflix.

Further testing was called for, so I dug out my wife's old iPhone 5 SE, and tried and pairing them to further try. It had the last iOS that was made available for iPhone 5 SE.

They paired nicely, and we could use Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube as well as the Netflix without any issues.

It would seem there is a definite issue here between the iPhone 6S and the PowerBeats Pro EarPods.

Everything else works, as the connection to her iWatch Series 5 can attest to.

I suppose only thing that is left, as the iPhone has a valid warranty, is to send it for repair.

I have a feeling the Bluetooth module may be faulty in some way, as it is the only option left that would make any sense.

Possibly due to a firmware malfunction caused by some bug occurred in the update of iOS to iOS 13.3.1 that is downloaded from Apple. Firmware updates are notorious in the IT business for going wrong whether they are BIOS updates or for any other hardware type.

Please consider checking that update's firmware code for European countries (Portugal in our case) and investigate. I have seen many more posts here with similar issues between these two pieces of hardware and it would seem it is a bug which must be corrected for the users of all phones.

Thank you in advance.

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Answer 3

deggie

Level 10

167,629 points

Mar 8, 2020 8:13 PM in response to AggrovatedUser

Apple doesn't really do firmware updates, they update the OS which is not the same thing. And the BIOS statement is a non-sequitur. This is a nitpick but they aren't Powerbeats Pro EarPods, they are just Powerbeats Pro.

I know people who are using the PB Pros with iOS 13.3.1 so if it was a malfunction caused by a bug they would be having the same issue. You issue is more likely to be interference or a hardware failure on one of the two devices. I would suggest getting them tested.

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iPhone 6s iOS 13.3.1 and PowerBeats Pro EarPods will not stay paired or play sound

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