Bluetooth devices disconnects during an active call

I've been frustrated by this behaviour for weeks, until finally stumbling upon this workaround:

Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Call Audio routing

If this is set to "Automatic" your phone might try switching audio when your other Apple devices are nearby. Try setting this to "Bluetooth headset" instead.

Credit: user Mikepotter1234 of these forums (thanks for being a bro and posting the solution, Mike).

My user reported that the issue started on 14.6, but resolved when he updated to 14.7

After contacting Apple support within the limited hardware warranty on the iPhone 12 Pro (512gb), a replacement iPhone was provided at no cost (no AppleCare, but will be buying in the future based on the service).

Since replacing model MGLY3LL/A with NGKC3LL/A (replacement iPhone model number), the bluetooth has been flawless. As much as I wanted the issue to have been software based, it does appear to be hardware based. This isn't guaranteed, but enough so that I opted to upgrade to the iPhone 13 Pro option this past Friday and will be purchasing AppleCare+.

Please note the 'workarounds' mentioned in this thread as of 22-September-2021 did not work for me. I strongly recommend treating this as a hardware flaw and moving forward. Having a fully functional bluetooth connection really does make or break the phone.

Concur with the above. I have the exact same issue (iPhone 13 Pro Max + Beats Flex) and following @amitinddr's comment I narrowed the cause down to my Fitbit Charge 3. As long as the device is connected, all of my Bluetooth headphones disconnect randomly during calls on all apps (never during general audio playback, just calls). After removing the Fitbit Charge 3 from the Bluetooth menu all the drops ceased. I'm not sure what's causing this, but it sounds like a software rather than a hardware problem. If it were hardware, audio playback should have been affected too.

I've just found that the problem is related to the incompatibility of AirTag and AirPods pro. After I deleted my AirTag out of my iCloud account in Find My app, it worked perfectly. Hope this help you all. 📱

I just bought an iPhone 12 and had this same challenge. What I found is that my Amazfit Stratos smartwatch was the culprit here. Whenever my smartwatch is connected, the headset/car audio would disconnect during calls. It works perfect if I disconnect my watch.

As a workaround, try forgetting all other bluetooth devices and test with only one to see if this helps.

Can confirm, I was having this issue from the moment that I updated to 14.6, and last night I updated to 14.8 and the problem seems to have resolved itself entirely. I’m typically a slow adopter of full version jumps on iOS so I’ll be waiting another week or two before making the jump to iOS 15, but I’m cautiously optimistic that whatever the engineering/development team at apple did with the newest iOS “security updates” had resolved the Bluetooth glitchyness.

Hello shafin191,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's our understanding that your AirPods Pro unexpectedly disconnect when taking calls on your iPhone 12 Pro Max. You've come to the right place! The steps in the following resource may help: Reset your AirPods

If the issue persists, let us know if this occurs in multiple locations. Please include any other troubleshooting steps that you may have tried.

Have a nice day!

shafin191,

That information is very helpful. It's possible wireless interference is causing the Bluetooth connection issues. Take a look at the following resource to help identify and resolve wireless interference issues: Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference

Let us know if this helps.

After the most recent update, this has become a recurring issue for me as well.

Device: iPhone 12 Pro

OS: 14.6

Bluetooth Devices: Bose 700, Galaxy Buds, AirPods Pro (brand new)

I've resorted to using an old lightning wired headphones in order to have uninterupted service.

I have noticed the Bose 700 & Galaxy Bud disconnects were less frequent if I rebooted the iPhone 12 Pro before use. However, I just purchased the AirPods Pro and cannot make a call without it disconnecting/reconnecting multiple times.

No disconnects are seen when using the listening devices for listening only. If using for making calls (engaging the microphone), then disconnects are aggressively encountered.

Since the release of iOS 14.8, I haven’t faced the Bluetooth issue as such. It has magically disappeared at least till now. I am yet to test it extensively after upgrading to iOS 15. Will keep you guys posted.

As of iOS 14.7.1 this is still an issue.

Troubleshooting completed confirming geographic location was not relevant. Forgetting devices and then pairing them once more was not a solution. Disabling/Enabling networking and restarting the phone did not solve the problem.

One note that I found on another forum was to avoid including spaces or special characters in the device name for the Air Pods Pro, however this really did not change anything.

I added the Apple Support app to the phone and spoke with the representative. I could not do a factory reset of the phone due to my not having another device to do a backup of the phone. And I refused to provide the phone to a customer support as they most commonly require you to unlock the phone and leave it with them to troubleshoot. Something that does not align with the privacy priority message from Apple leadership.

The end result was to continue forward with an express replacement shipped to me and I will now see if swapping phones with a new phone resolves the issue. Hopefully it does and the above notes will help others. Please note that I only have the limited support on the phone as I did not purchase AppleCare or AppleCare+.

I am thankful that the representative and supervisor recognized that a phone less than a year old not being able to make phone calls, was not acceptable and Apple's did their best to live up to their premium for which we all pay by purchasing Apple products.

Nothng Bro , this is fault in ios bluetooth update

it can easily fix through softwa update

Do you have any permanently connected Bluetooth devices other than your headphones? Smartwatch maybe?

I’m having the same issue, iPhone 12 Pro and AirPods 2, as well as the in-dash Ford SYNC module of my 2016 Fusion.

My phone automatically updated to 14.6 overnight on the 7th and now any time I try to initiate or receive a voice call the Bluetooth connection drops in and out.

Everything has been reset repeatedly with no change, and the behavior ONLY started after the update to 14.6!