Bluetooth issues on my iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 17.0.3

I have to disagree with you. I had an iPhone 12 ProMax that worked perfectly until I updated the IOS TO 17. Once updated, the problem started. I had been contemplating upgrading the phone itself anyway, so I bought a 15 ProMax. The 15 ProMax came with the same version IOS and had the same BlueTooth issues. I’m certain it’s the software.

Today decided to do some testing:

iPhone 15 Pro w/ 17.2.1 and Beats Fit Pro

Turned off Noise cancellation and had zero disconnects. Tested this for half the time I was at the gym then turned on noise cancellation back on for the remainder and never had any disconnects of audio today at all. Very odd because I normally had issues within 5 minutes of being at the gym and using the headphones. Will test again tomorrow.

PLEASE FILE A “BUG REPORT” TO APPLE!

They are not going to fix it unless they realize how many people this affects.

You can use this link, or find the link yourself in the Apple Support app.

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/

Disregard my post everyone. I have now confirmed that I am not having any Bluetooth issues with my iPad mini 6 and iPad OS 17.2. The battery in my Philips headphones gave out with no warning. It would no longer hold a charge or in fact charge at all. I replaced the battery and now I no longer have any disconnections.

OK, Building on this, I logged a ticket with Apple support on the phone.

Very helpful and understanding.

The fact that the car headhunt had been replaced and validated was significant.

All the following refers to iOS 17.2.1 on iPhone Pro 256MB.

She made a Genius appointment for me at my (not so) local Apple Store.

So, full diagnostic on phone. Fine.

Full BlueTooth check. Fine.

Suspect software issue with the cause being in an unidentified setting. Ok.

Great.

What next?

Back up phone.

Full wipe.

Base restore WITHOUT loading my data. So I basically have a virgin phone.

I return to car to test. (There is no way known the Apple staff member will accompany me to the car park, 2 minutes away).

Groundhog day.

Issue identical.

They offer to replace ALL the inner workings of my phone within 1.5 hours.

I ask if we can cut to the chase and just replace the phone.

Back room conversations.

They replace the phone.

Other phone stuff happens.

They are supportive and helpful.

I try to connect with new virgin phone.

My own data not yet loaded.

The Groundhog says hello again.

I update all my data.

Try the car connection again.

It still fails.

FWIW - the immediate tell tale sign, is that when I dial out, the car stereo continues to play. The music doesn't stop. EVERYTIME.

I return to store.

This time the senior tech comes out.

She is very empathetic and helpful.

Offers to continue replacing my phone.

Suggests this is a software issue - which I now agree with, due to this experience and other comments here.

She says these forums are monitored.

Continue posting.

Tells me that Apple doesn't not acknowledge such issues.

They just issue the fix with a software update and release it.

Keep up to date.

Basically, continue to tolerate the situation and stay in touch.

I now consider that this is stuffed.

There is no current solution apart from praying to the great Apple Gods that a software release fixes this.

I am not holding my breath.

I am too deep i the ecosystem to go Android.

My old phone was traded in.

The car dealership is going to swap the phone module i my car under warranty, but I believe this will have no effect. (Porsche have been amazing). I intend to contact a couple of high end car stereo/technology upgrade specialists.

But suspect ROI would be poor.

The good news is that the September iOS and phone upgrade is only 8 months away.

That's my best chance.

Good Qs.

I'm in Australia. I only have a physical SIM.

So it's not that.

I am seeing some recent posts that each mention vehicles around 2012/13 vintage, and there is commonality of Porsche/Audi/VW, but the sample size is too small to be meaningful.

The Apple technician felt there would be a conflicting setting, if in fact there is anything to be done prior to a miraculous software update.

I've found some people suggesting that wiping and restoring Network Settings specifically on the phone may do help.

See stage 3 here: https://www.tenorshare.com/ios-11/how-to-fix-iphone-bluetooth-issues-on-ios-11.html

I am yet to do that, but have done full phone erases and then restored on a new iPhone 15 Pro on iOS 17.2.1 and it did not assist.

But the disconnection pattern has altered somewhat. But it's still crap.

Bottom line; it's not eSIM's or UK network dependent.

The plot thickens 🙄 I’ve arranged to return my iPhone 15 Pro Max to Costco due to the Bluetooth issues and as they wouldn’t do a replacement they advised me to just buy another phone.

My new phone arrived I setup the new phone by doing a direct transfer from the old phone to new phone and tested a Bluetooth phonecall in my car (2013 BMW 320d E92) and it worked!!! I need to do more testing as one phone call while stationary doesn’t give me 100% confidence but it wasn’t working with the previous phone which had the EXACT same installation.

If this is the case then it was clearly a hardware issue with the old phone 🤔 I’ll keep you posted how I get on over the next few days.

I have performed more testing on my replacement iPhone 15 pro max today with several phone calls and it’s working absolutely fine… my issue must have been a hardware fault on the previous device, as it’s running the same (latest) iOS version and the same installation.

I did go for the black version rather than the titanium version with the intent of getting a phone from a different batch.

Not saying this applies to everyone’s problems, but my issue was clearly hardware related rather than software 🤔

I reported my issues in this thread prior, but have noticed a few additional patterns. I get a 2-3 second music streaming dropout consistently with Pandora and Apple Music, within 15-30 seconds of almost every new song starting to play. I get other dropouts inconsistentlyduring plaback. I also listen to music on my bike rides, and have noticed dropouts at the same points during my rides.... when I pass certain houses, for example. I wonder if the phone is scanning for wifi networks at these points, and thta is somehow interfering with BT? Or maybe there are strong BT signals being broadcast? There are certain, usually more recent model year, cars that also disrupt my BT connections when they pass by - I see the interruption on my bike computer connection to sensors on the bike, as well as the connection to my airpods (music drops out for multiple seconds). This tells me it is the phone, not the connected devices. I noticed this on my prior iphone 14 pro max, as well as my iphone 15 PM. So this tells me likely not a hardware issue, but a software issue with the later IOS. My iphone 14 did not always have the issue, only after I had it about 6 months, and same issue with the 15 since new, so I suspect IOS 17.

O stress está no IOS e não no telemovel. A minha filha tem o Iphone 11 pro com IOS 17 e tem o mesmo problema, a minha mulher tem o 12 pro...tambem o mesmo problema. Fiz questão do suporte da apple aceder aos 3 telemoveis para ver o mesmo problema a acontecer.

What car do you have? This is exactly what happens on both of my 2011 BMWs.

The chip used in my bluetooth modules is based off of a standard bluetooth chip design known as “BlueCore 6”.

Seems to be a pretty widely used chip design, especially for older cars that were on the cutting edge with Bluetooth streaming. It’s entirely plausible that the issues on this forum can all be traced to the way the iPhone 15 Pro’s bluetooth chip interacts with this particular chip design. Which is still something Apple needs to fix as it’s a widely used design.

To all others - anyone experiencing issues with other kinds of audio devices, such as hearing aids, older bluetooth headsets, etc? Saw the post about AirPods a few posts back.

Issue still persists with iOS 17.3

Meanwhile had outages with these devices:

• Beats fit Pro from 2022
• BMW i4 eDrive 40 with CarPlay from 2023
• Oral-B iO5 smart toothbrush from 2023

So it doesn't seem to be dependent on device ... seems to be a clear iPhone 15 Pro issue. Mine is from the first bunch which was shipped at release date.

I hate to burst the proverbial bubble but this is not a vehicle specific issue. It is across the board and is a hardware software issue. At least in my case with the dodge connect the Bluetooth will error out and the system says error and then reconnects a short time later on its own. As for all my other Bluetooth devices I have an issue with the connections doing the same thing. Song keeps playing on phone but skips in the sound being played out loud. Bluetooth is losing connection. I have tried everything apple has suggested. Currently up to date on 17.3 as it just came out. Nope problem persists. Only an issue when I upgraded to this $1900 phone should have stayed with my 13 pro max. Apple says that they don’t have an issue. The techs say my 15 works fine. When I asked if it was a pro max she stated it was a 15 then rudely disconnected. The same way apple has with its new philosophy that the customer doesn’t matter and we can use them to find the bugs. Let’s just take their money. I wish I had found this within the first 30 days, but my first response was it must be something with my receiver. I have replaced receivers adapters and such. One common issue and price of equipment. The 15PM. Have the same issue duplicated across 8 vehicles ranging from 2020 to 2024. Dodge to Chevy to Nissan and even a Kia

@Hoody007 & @DaveOJr

Odd thing happened today - made 3, yes THREE calls without disconnection.

Was thinking about what Hoody007 and I were talking about over the weekend : possible stack overflow in relation to the phone books.

I turned off phone book sync in the Bluetooth setting on my phone but this had no impact.

I then had a look through the menus on the car and found an option to swap between “TEL” or “TEL & SIM” which presumably changes what the car looks for and tries to sync over Bluetooth.

I don’t have any data stored on my SIM card so wondering if toggling the setting might have reset how the phone and car share interact with data.

I had noticed, but discounted, that the phone book in the car is quite often scrambled, for example instead of HOODY, it might show @HOODY@/home, so clearly there is some data sharing issue.

The only other thing that I’ve done is sit in the car with a Bluetooth scanner app. Nothing interesting happened other to say that thereafter I made three successful calls.

Have a look in your own vehicles and see if you can see anything.

NOTE: I have the 2 Gen Audi Multimedia Interface (AMI) in the car which is quite basic. As stated in other posts, it doesn’t support media streaming via A2DP without an aftermarket peripheral plugged in, in my case a ViseoO Tune2Air.

I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max on iOS 17.3.1. I have been having horrible connection issues with Bluetooth and it’s not just with my car. Here are the list of devices that all have had connection issues:

Bose QC Earbuds

Beats Fit Pro Earbuds

Anker Sleep A10 Earbuds

Otto Car Wireless CarPlay Adapter

Alpine ilx-650 car stereo

2023 Mazda CX-30 car stereo

Ryobi Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Larksound Speaker Bar

Alexa Echo Dot and Echo Devices

Every Bluetooth device I have linked my phone too always cuts out. Sometimes it’s after 2 minutes sometimes it’s after 20 minutes. I had the 12 Pro Max before this and used ALL of these devices with it with out any issue. Since moving to the iPhone 15 Pro Max I have had horrible connection issues. I have used most of these devices with my iPad Pro and my Apple Watch Ultra 2 with NO connection issues. There is something up with these phones and a fix needs to be found SOON.