I cannot pair my PHONAK hearing aids after I upgraded to iOS 16.5 on my iPhone Xr a couple of days ago

Just paired mine with the new iPhone 15 Pro and noticed that the Left and Right elements no longer show up in the Bluetooth list. Only the R-KS hearing aid element shows as connected. Attempting to connect via Phonak says they're not compatible. Easy Line Remote only shows the R-KS hearing aid in Bluetooth and not the Left and Right as it did with the iPhone 12 Mini.

Easy Line Remote just keeps spinning trying to connect. As a result, with my new iPhone 15 I cannot adjust features of the hearing aids with iOS 17.1.1.

Is an update coming for Easy Line Remote?

My hearing aids have been paired with my iPhone only, for over a year with no problems. I never tried to pair them with the iPad (before today) because I don’t believe they can be paired to more than one device. My iPhone is the XS. I do have the app for the hearing aids—Jabra Enhance Pro.

Thanks for the additional info. That was very helpful. These are the steps my husband had to follow when he had trouble pairing his hearing aids to both his iPhone and his iPad. I’m copying the advice I offered in a previous post … but with a couple different additions. I’ll make those bold.

• Turn off Bluetooth on your iPad and move it a couple rooms away.
• On your iPhone, delete the Jabra app.
• Turn your hearing aids OFF completely. Power your iPhone off.
• Reinstall the Jabra app, then on your iPhone, follow these settings to set up the hearing aids again: Use hearing devices with iPhone - Apple Support. I’ve copied the pertinent information below.

Pair a hearing device with iPhone. Note, this is NOT done thru the Jabra app.

1. Open the battery doors on your hearing devices.
2. On iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth, then make sure Bluetooth is turned on.
3. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices.
4. Close the battery doors on your hearing devices.
5. When their names appear below My Hearing Devices (this could take a minute), tap the names and respond to the pairing requests.
6. Pairing can take as long as 60 seconds—don’t try to stream audio or otherwise use the hearing devices until pairing is finished. When pairing is finished, you hear a series of beeps and a tone, and a checkmark appears next to the hearing devices in the Devices list.

This should pair your hearing aids to your iPhone. Before you bring the iPad back to the room, turn it back on then turn Bluetooth OFF.

Now here is the tricky part —- Your hearing aids can only connect to one Apple device at a time. Most often, my hubby wants his hearing aids connected to his iPhone so he leaves Bluetooth on for that device. But when he wants to watch videos or anything else with sound on his iPad, he has to turn off Bluetooth on his iPhone so the iPad will automatically take over. (One a side note, you can pair your iPad to your iPhone so calls and messages will come thru on your iPad.) To switch back to the iPhone, turn Bluetooth OFF ON THE IPAD, then turn Bluetooth back on for the iPhone.

It’s a bit of a hassle, but the logic will soon click for you. It did for my husband. He automatically switches back and forth between the two devices. I hope this is not too confusing. Please let me know if you get this to work or if you have any more questions.

The better question is probably how can you fix this. It is possible that PHONAK has not caught up to the latest iOS upgrade. In that case, you would want to contact them for help.

But please try this first. It may put everything back in sync.

• Delete the PHONAK app.
• Turn your hearing aids OFF completely. Power your iPhone off.
• Reinstall the PHONAK app then on your iPhone, follow these settings to set up the hearing aids again: Use hearing devices with iPhone - Apple Support

I’ve copied the pertinent information below.

Pair a hearing device with iPhone

1. Open the battery doors on your hearing devices.
2. On iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth, then make sure Bluetooth is turned on.
3. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices.
4. Close the battery doors on your hearing devices.
5. When their names appear below MFi Hearing Devices (this could take a minute), tap the names and respond to the pairing requests.
6. Pairing can take as long as 60 seconds—don’t try to stream audio or otherwise use the hearing devices until pairing is finished. When pairing is finished, you hear a series of beeps and a tone, and a checkmark appears next to the hearing devices in the Devices list.

You need to pair your devices only once (and your audiologist might do it for you). After that, your hearing devices automatically reconnect to iPhone whenever they turn on.

I finally got to try your suggestions. Unfortunately they didn’t work, at least not entirely. Using your tips I did get my hearing aids to pair with the iPhone, but as soon as I reinstalled the Jabra app, pairing ended. There appears to be a conflict between iOS and the Jabra app. So for now, I have deleted the Jabra app and my hearing aids remain paired to the iPhone. I have set up triple click to get to the heading device settings, so I still able able to easily access setting for the devices. The only thing I will miss from the Jabra app is the ability to have the “Find my hearing devices” feature available. Thank you for your help!!

I’m afraid I have no other advice to offer. It is always up to any third party to make their device/app compatible with Apple and its updates. You may want to at least try this:

• Open Bluetooth and “forget” the hearing aid.
• Power your iPhone off. (Settings > General > Shut Down) Wait 5 minutes then power it back on. (Press the side button.)
• The try again to pair your phone/hearing aids using these Apple instructions.

If this does not work, then the solution lies with the hearing aid manufacturer.

Every time Apple do an upgrade it creates a problem with something on my ipad/iphone/hearing aids etc. I do all the prescribed switching on and off, removing and reinstalling etc after the installations but no joy. I now have an ipad which will not pair with my hearing aids, a password screen that has to switch to off and I have to press home button before I can enter my password and a Guardian app that removes stories on the left hand side of the screen - I kid you not. I have removed and re-uploaded apps as well but this is getting tedious. Perhaps Apple needs to look “outside the box” a bit more and test these updates more thoroughly before launching them. They are creating more problems than helping.

I’m unable to connect my Phonak hearing aid to my iPhone 14 Pro Max

Hi Not_happy-16-5. Have you tried any of the suggestions I’ve posted above? I’ve copied the pertinent part below. Please follow the directions closely. Then if this does not help, let us know.

But please try this first. It may put everything back in sync.

• Delete the hearing aid app.
• Turn your hearing aids OFF completely. Power your iPhone off.
• Reinstall the hearing aid app then on your iPhone, follow these settings to set up the hearing aids again: Use hearing devices with iPhone - Apple Support

Pair a hearing device with iPhone

1. Open the battery doors on your hearing devices.
2. On iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth, then make sure Bluetooth is turned on.
3. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices.
4. Close the battery doors on your hearing devices.
5. When their names appear below MFi Hearing Devices (this could take a minute), tap the names and respond to the pairing requests.
6. Pairing can take as long as 60 seconds—don’t try to stream audio or otherwise use the hearing devices until pairing is finished. When pairing is finished, you hear a series of beeps and a tone, and a checkmark appears next to the hearing devices in the Devices list.

You need to pair your devices only once (and your audiologist might do it for you). After that, your hearing devices automatically reconnect to iPhone whenever they turn on.

It was my pleasure, walterfromoakham. Hearing aids can be very tricky as my hubby and you … and others … have discovered. Glad you got it figured out.

Did what you suggested and it doesn’t work. It briefly shows connected but the sound doesn’t come through my hearing aides. I’ll go to the Bluetooth setting and it shows disconnected again.

I cannot pair my mfi hearing aids with my iPhone after updating to iOS 16.5. However I can pair them to my iPad which is also running iOS 16.5. But I don’t want to lug my iPad around everywhere I go, I want them paired to the iPhone. I’ve tried all the steps for pairing that came with the hearing aids, and I had no trouble pairing before the latest iOS update. Help!!

Hi walterfromoakham. Were your hearing aids paired successfully to both your iPhone and your iPad prior to the updates? Do you have an app for “mfi”? Which iPhone do you have? I have an idea on how to fix this but need the answers to these questions first.

No problems until the most recent iOS update. While I can pair my hearing aids to my phone after deleting the manufacturers app, I have to re-pair them every morning after taking them out of the charger. (The charger turns the devices off while charging and then on when I take them out.)

The last bit did the trick. I connect the aids to two iPhones. After spending several hours getting the second to connect unsuccessfully, I shut down (not just turned off which it had been) the one that had already connected and the second phone connected through each step nearly instantly! Thanks for that tip.

Just to note, I also had deleted the app on each phone and re-downloaded it again, and I deleted each of the hearing aids from the bluetooth menu on my phones before being successful. Not sure that was necessary or not since I had done that prior to shutting down the phone that had already connected.