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iPhone 12 cannot pair with Homewerks Bathroom BT Speakers

I have a Homewerks bathroom BT speaker that worked with iPhones 7, 8, and 10 without any issues. This very same device cannot connect to the new iPhone 12 pro max.

There are similar threads pointing to generic BT connectivity issues with the new iPhone (e.g. ), which include procedures that worked with other BT devices. However, none of these procedures solved the issue of pairing with the Homewerks device.

My Homewerks BT speaker's model is 7130-06-BT, but the issue seems to affect all Homewerks bathroom BT speakers.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Jan 3, 2021 11:41 AM

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Lawrence Finch

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Posted on Jan 4, 2021 6:49 AM

Probably not what you want to hear, but if a problem only occurs with one device from the iPhone 12 the problem is most likely in the speaker firmware. The one change in the iPhone 12 Bluetooth is that it was upgraded to a newer version of Bluetooth 5, and the speaker may not be compatible with it. Is there a way to update the firmware on the speaker?

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42 replies

ad23 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 3, 2021 8:20 PM in response to BORg529

Yes, I had to. I actually lined up all phones and ipads close to the Homewerks BT receiver. All had their BT off. I then started testing one-by-one turning on their bt and then turning off after the testing. Between each test I also turned off the Homewerks BT.

After the first round of testing I did the software upgrades on the devices that needed and started over. As you can see from my previous post, updating the iOS did not change the original results.

Jan 6, 2021 8:04 AM in response to PetePPB

PetePPB wrote:

a friend of mine had a new samsung that did not find the homewerks either so it does sound like this latests version of BT is not tracking back to whatever Homewerks and a few other brands are utilizing :-(

Ah, that is quite telling. sometimes developers take shortcuts, and use an undocumented feature of a software interface. But undocumented features tend to go away during updates.

Feb 3, 2021 7:55 PM in response to ad23

The thing that confuses me is that I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max which has no problem connecting to my Homewerks BT speaker. My mother and sister on the other hand have the iPhone 12 and cannot connect to the speaker. The iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 both have Bluetooth version 5.0 A2DP LE. We are also all running IOS version 14.4 (The most current version) yet their 12s still can’t connect and my 11 can connect without any problem. We’ve turned off all Bluetooth signals coming from our phones, deleted any and all formerly known BT devices, turned the Homewerks speaker off and on and any and all combinations of those mentioned above. So if Homewerks Bluetooth wouldn’t be compatible with the Bluetooth versions found in iPhone 12s then the same should be the case for iPhone 11s since their BT hardware/software/firmware etc. is all the same.

Jan 3, 2021 12:07 PM in response to ad23

You have probably checked these already, but just to verify:

You previously had the speaker connected to a different phone. Does the speaker support more than one BT connection to a phone? I tried to find this on the Homewerks website, and could not. If it doesn’t you might have to reset the BT on the speaker, but I couldn’t find how to do that on the website either.
Have you put the speaker into pairing mode? I couldn’t find how to do that on the website either, unless both of these require removing power from the fan (which seems possible but unlikely to me). Or is there a control switch sequence that puts it into pairing mode?

If this is covered in the other thread I apologize, but the signal-to-noise ratio in that thread is poor. It would still be worth reviewing it in this new thread.

ad23 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 3, 2021 2:30 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Regarding the multiple devices issue, the speaker only retains the last device. For example, I would use it the most so for me it was a matter of just turning the speaker on and it would automatically connect to my iPhone 10. Then, if either my wife or my daughter would use it, they would have to do the manual pairing.

Regarding the iOS, good catch. The iPhone 8 I still have is running iOS 13. I will upgrade it and see whether it still pairs with the speaker.

ad23 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 4, 2021 7:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Yes, you said what I was fearing to hear :-)

I went through the differences between iPhone BT implementations and learned that the iPhone 12 does have a newer BT 5 version. I did think that these "dot" versions were fully backwards compatible but evidence here seems to point otherwise.

I will contact Homwecks and ask for clarification on these matters. In any case, I am a bit skeptical that the Homewecks device would be upgradable, but I have been wrong so many times that I am hopeful that this would be one of these.

I'll provide feedback in case I receive anything from them.

Jan 8, 2021 2:35 PM in response to Ennayr88

No, it would see it and not pair. For example, you can’t pair an iPhone to a computer. But if you try the phone will see the computer, but it won’t pair because the phone does not have an active device to active device BT profile.

Feb 3, 2021 7:53 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Feb 3, 2021 7:57 PM in response to PetePPB

Mar 13, 2021 5:56 AM in response to ad23

The Homewerks issue is an Apple 12 problem. I cannot pair Homewerks with my iPhone 12 mini, but had no problem pairing it to my Kindle Fire. Just spent $800 on a phone that won’t connect to my bathroom speaker. Issue needs to be addressed immediately by Apple!

Jan 3, 2021 1:39 PM in response to ad23

Do you have iOS 14.3 on the iPhone 8 that it works with? How many devices do you have paired on the 12? Do all of them work except for the speaker?

Mar 13, 2021 7:22 AM in response to Lucille1979

Lucille1979 wrote:

The Homewerks issue is an Apple 12 problem.

Then why is Homewerks replacing units that exhibit the problem, and the replacement units fixes it?

ad23 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 3, 2021 12:46 PM in response to ad23

Just to complement my post above, I have two iPhones 12, both can pair with my computer, my headphone, iWatch, etc., but not with the Homewerks speaker.

The previous iPhones connect with all the above with no issues.

Jan 4, 2021 7:48 AM in response to ad23

Very helpful and detailed response to the issues most of us are having pairing up with our new iPhone 12 Pro Max’s to HomeWerks music fans. I thought it was a clitch with Apples Sofrware in the iPhone 12 Pro Max originally. The more i’m reading about this issue the more it seems like it’s an issue on HomeWerks end. Can we upgrade the software on HomeWerks music fans if HomeWerks finds the software clitch. Not sure if you would know something like this.

Mawon234

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2021 4:50 AM in response to Groovy_gurl

I miss the music too. This really sucks, Homewerks is fully aware, they suggested another purchase that might work. This is not the answer most of us want to hear. For now I am only using a portable Bose speaker.

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iPhone 12 cannot pair with Homewerks Bathroom BT Speakers