Bluetooth issues on my iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 17.0.3

@michalski17

PM me those 2 VIN's, of your late model Toyota and Chevy, if that's even possible on this site? Let's see who made those head-units. If not, see if you can figure it out for me. We're going to find something in common, without question.

Thanks for the post @TheBelcherMan, look forward to hearing more.

I'm also an Electrical Engineer with a background in telecoms/defence, but did spend some time working on RF and more recently IoT devices, which require BT connectivity. So know something, but not a lot.

From my experience, and what I've read here and online, I suspect a backwards compatibility issue at initial connection to older bluetooth chipsets (e.g designed to run BT specs 2 to 4) such as those found in older cars and most likely recent consumer electronic devices (older chips are probably abundant in supply chains and cheap to procure). I haven't yet managed to find a tear down comparing the BT/WiFi chipsets in the 15Pro/ProMax with older models i.e. XR through 14 Pro Max but the specifications across the 15 range does say BT Core Spec 5.3 which should be backward compatible.

In my use case, more often or not my iPhone15Pro gets kicked out in my 2013 Audi AMI at or around 40 seconds which correlates back to a specific timing point in the Bluetooth Core Specifications re loss of connections. I have no issues in a 2015 Mini or a 2018 VW Polo.

What I can't reconcile is why, after reconnection, the bluetooth connection remains stable. Its almost like the phone recognises that there is a compatibility issue and reverts to an older protocol. I can invoke the connection failure by asking siri a question, thereafter fully able to make calls.

Final point from me, it would appear to affect more devices that would use a lower data rate e.g. handsfree rather than streaming data rates e.g. A2DP. Which makes me wonder if the newer phones are trying to invoke data streaming protocols via bluetooth (i.e. CarPlay) only to default to low data rate BT on failure - ref back to previous paragraph.

Speaking of Mini Cooper's, I've not tested it on my R52. Long replaced that head-unit, but I still have it. I'll get it on the bench and see how it behaves. Be the perfect test environment, if it give me problems.

I'll start a new thread. We need a place of our own to work this out.

Let's see if this works,

Bluetooth Technical Thread