iPhone 15 Pro bluetooth stutter when connected to a car

Lossless audio

Choose to use Apple Lossless audio.

This option is only available if you’re signed in as a subscriber to Apple Music.

I am subscriber to Apple Music. Turning off lossless option did solve my problems with streaming music, podcasts or radio via bluetooth.

If you don’t have this option, you cannot turn it off. Hence this should not be rout cause of your problem.

Sorry.

Overall, in my opinion the issue concern the fact that iPhone tries to send more data than actual bandwidth of the bluetooth connection.

Actual bandwidth may be lower than nominal due to interference with Wifi or other electronic equipment in your car or at home.

Bluetooth bandwidth in older iPhones may simply be lower by default than in new IPhones like 15 or 14, so it matches what your car multimedia can process.

Lowering quality of sound reduces bandwidth required to streamed via Bluetooth. Maybe check, if you can change it in settings of your apps.

It has been shown that this is not an issue of being connected to a car or to a non-apple device, it also happens to connected airpods.

The issue also doesn't seem to be iOS per se, but it's apperently caused by third party apps that have access to bluetooth and try to use it in the background. Alex app has been mentioned to be the cause in a lot of threads on this website, other apps have been also found to be the reason:

solution: deactivate bluetooth for ALL apps, then start adding one app at a time and try if the stuttering still exists, thus figuring out which app is the reason.

Had the same issue with Iphone 15 pro and music streaming via bluetooth.

I changed Apple Music sound quality from lossless to AAC 256k. This solved issues not only with Apple Music but also with podcasts streaming and 3rd part radio app streaming to BT.

Bluetooth does not support lossless.

It’s annoying but the real reason you’re having this issue with newer phone and not the older phone is because of your Apple Watch. This only happens with vehicles with Bluetooth installed and not Bluetooth accessories. What I find helps 100% of the time is to have the watch off when connecting to the vehicle Bluetooth however this method is too inconvenient. Another solution is to ask Siri to do something for you and about 60-80% of the time when Siri stops listening the audio gets fixed. And another method is to get on the phone and change your audio output to phone and switch back to cars Bluetooth with out disconnecting or turning Bluetooth off.

its an Apple Watch problem and not a phone problem

I guess the watches that are connected to the phone Via Bluetooth sometimes interfere with vehicle Bluetooth because the cars safety features when connecting to a phone.

if this gets fixed by Apple, I would like a little bit of compensation for finding the root cause of this issue

Since I last posted on this issue I purchased a Wired to Wireless Carplay converter/adapter. I received it July 7 and have been using it since. I no longer have any issues with carplay in my Toyota RAV4.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D22L95RC?psc=1

Hi all, I found the following solution for the moment: my car (Peugeot 308) has 2 options to connect a device to Bluetooth: 1) as phone or 2) as audio streaming device.

Till now I connected all iPhones as phone devices and they were working fine for phone calls and audio steaming (youtube, applemusic, tiktok, spotify etc).

When I firstly connected iPhone 14 Pro as a phone it worked fine only for phone calls and stuttering on music playing (through any app). Now, I clear/wipe each device from other and re-connect the iPhone as Audio Streaming Device and not phone in car bluetooth and it worked fine for 2-3 hours. Then, when begun stuttering I just disconnected it and re-connected it and worked fine again for 1 hour. It's just temporary solution but it's the only available option which worked for me now. So, go check your car bluetooth if it has an option to connect a device other than Phone,

Exactly! Apple told me that the issue was in car, but car bluetooth function absolutely perfect with iPhone XS and iPhone 11 I own. I also connected another iPhone 14 pro (of a friend of mine) and it worked fine. So I strongly believe it’s a bug of iOS.

Apple run a lot of diagnostics test to my iPhone (remotely) and they find it to work perfectly.

Coming days I will update to iOS 18 to check if it will work. But I have no hope anymore

Reached out to Apple Phone Support and discussed the issue with them. Made sure to mention that the problem is wide spread based on Community posts. Decided to do a couple of things:

1. Try a couple of other streaming media apps. I have used Apple Podcast exclusively for years and that's where i notice the issue most. Although lately I have noticed Waze audio breaking up too.
2. Reset all settings. Tried resetting network settings but nothing improved
3. If neither 1 nor 2 work I will wipe the phone and run a new phone setup from my macbook pro. Takes a while to get all apps updated and the data back but...

Apologies for the airpods mention. I was confused because in another forum/community (Re**it) with a similar thread I participate, all people had no stuttering issue with AirPods but only with other bluetooth devices, especially with car Bluetooth systems. I will give a try again after wipe-out bluetooth devices and then try to uninstall re-install applications, because when I did this un-re/installation I had not wiped out bluetooth devices.

I tend to fully agree with Mar895i who wrote the below (because older devices I owned had never this issue):

Overall, in my opinion the issue concern the fact that iPhone tries to send more data than actual bandwidth of the bluetooth connection.

Actual bandwidth may be lower than nominal due to interference with Wifi or other electronic equipment in your car or at home.

Bluetooth bandwidth in older iPhones may simply be lower by default than in new IPhones like 15 or 14, so it matches what your car multimedia can process.

Bluetooth interference can potentially cause connectivity issues due to the disruption of the wireless communication between devices. Bluetooth operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency range, which is also used by various other devices such as Wi-Fi routers, microwaves, cordless phones, and even some baby monitors. When multiple devices are operating in close proximity and using the same frequency band, interference can occur.

Here's how Bluetooth interference can impact connectivity:

1. Audio Streaming Interruptions: When you're streaming music via Apple Music or using Siri to play audio content, Bluetooth interference can disrupt the connection between your device (such as an iPhone) and the Bluetooth speaker or headphones. This interference can result in the audio stuttering, dropping out momentarily, or experiencing poor sound quality.
2. Bluetooth devices transmit data in packets. Interference can cause some of these packets to be lost or corrupted during transmission. As a result, the receiving device may have trouble decoding the audio or Siri commands correctly, leading to stuttering or delayed responses.
3. Bluetooth signals can be weakened by interference from other devices operating on the same frequency band. If the signal strength drops significantly, it can affect the stability of the connection between your device and the Bluetooth accessory. This can result in intermittent stuttering as the connection struggles to maintain a consistent data flow.
4. Bluetooth uses different channels within the 2.4 GHz frequency range to establish connections. When there are many Bluetooth devices in close proximity, multiple connections can create congestion on the available channels. This congestion can cause interference, leading to degraded performance for Apple Music streaming or Siri interactions.

To mitigate Bluetooth interference issues and reduce stuttering:

1. Minimize the number of active Bluetooth devices in close proximity to each other. Switch off or move away devices that are not in use or causing interference.
2. Increase the distance between your Bluetooth devices (e.g., your iPhone and Bluetooth speaker/headphones) to reduce the impact of interference.
3. Keep your devices' firmware up to date, including your iPhone and any Bluetooth accessories. Manufacturers often release firmware updates that can improve the performance and stability of Bluetooth connections.
4. Objects like walls, furniture, or large metal surfaces can obstruct Bluetooth signals and contribute to interference. Ensure a clear line of sight between your devices to optimize signal strength.
5. Some Bluetooth devices allow you to manually switch to different channels within the 2.4 GHz range. Check the user manual or settings of your Bluetooth accessory to see if you can change channels to find a less congested one.
6. If your Wi-Fi router supports it, consider using the 5 GHz frequency band for Wi-Fi connections instead of 2.4 GHz. This can reduce potential interference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals.

By implementing these steps, you can help minimize Bluetooth interference and improve the overall performance of Siri's voice.

Same Issue here.

Iphone 15 pro with non-apple devices like Sony WH1000, Logitech G435 and VW Golf.

No issues using an iPhone XR or 11, iPad Air 4 and 5, MacBook Pro 2018, Windows PC, etc, etc as active party in the connection.

It is empirically safe to name the iPhone 15 pro as the cause for the issue.

It should be evident that interference is not an issue in a car and the results with the other devices confirm that assumption.

I was forced to do a complete reset on my iPhone 15 Pro, because of some weird album art mixup that totally cluttered up my iTunes app. So, I did a complete wipe and reinstall, and then had to wait for several thousand tunes to reload (which is a trick in itself, I don't recall what I had to do, but I think I had to switch the manual install off and on in order to get the tunes to finally load, which took a couple of hours.)

The good news is, since I did the reset, the album art issue was corrected and there does not seem to be any type of audio stuttering or weird connection issues that I was experiencing before, which continued until I did this a few days ago. There seemed to be some type of interference at certain intersections while driving, and I wondered if cell tower signals might have played a role in the disturbance, as it seemed to be an issue of either buffering, or poor signaling, in spite of the fact that I would be playing music that was downloaded on the phone. I never figured that issue out, as it now seems to be working just fine, and as well as my previous iPhone 11.

It was a bit tedious to do a reset and then wait for everything to load, as well as getting iTunes to actually recognize and load all the music that I wanted to put back on the phone, but now things seem to be in order. FYI I did upgrade to iOS 18.01 and after the reset, the buggy things I noticed on that seem to be resolved.

How to turn lossless on or off

1. Go to Settings > Apps. 
2. Tap Music.
3. Tap Audio Quality.
4. Tap Lossless Audio to turn it on or off. From here, you can choose the audio quality for streaming and downloading audio.

• • Lossless for a maximum resolution of 24-bit/48 kHz
  • Hi-Res Lossless for a maximum resolution of 24-bit/192 kHz

Same issue with recently bought iPhone 14 pro while my old XS works absolutely fine. iOS 17.5.1 in both devices. What is going on? Is it a phone device issue or car system issue? I have no issues with sound on my Airpods.

Has anyone of u got this resolved and how?

OK, so I tried the steps suggested by Apple support (noted in previous post).

1. Tried Amazon Music and Pandora and audio still breaks up. This also happens with my AirPods. I've skimmed some of the posts on this issue but don't think anyone else has mentioned a bad bluetooth connection with AirPods (but I may have missed it).
2. As stated, reset all settings made no difference
3. Support said it could be an issue with bluetooth firmware and wiping the phone then doing a new phone setup from my MacBook would give me fresh copies of the OS and all the apps. Need to find out if i can then restore settings from a backup. Reset all settings last week and I'm still finding little things like sharing data between health and my workout app that I need to tweak. Also want to reiterate to them that this is a major problem that many users need fixed. Developers should be working to fix this instead of having support suggest processes that don't fix the problem.