How do I fix Bluetooth connection issue on my iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 18?

I had the said issue after I updated to iOS 18.2. Could not connect the phone with Car bluetooth and AirPods Pro 2 had difficulties in connecting to the phone and when connected, kept on disconnecting. I was able to circumvent this issue by doing followings:

1. Removed my phone from Windows 11 Phone link
2. Unpaired the phone from Windows bluetooth

Since then, phone connects to car right away and Airpods connects quickly and don't get disconnected.

Had terrible problems with Bluetooth but whoever said turn off vocal shortcuts spot on! you need to sort this out 

Removing the SIM card and then resetting the network settings helped me.

For two weeks now, music playback via the car radio has been working without dropouts. iPhone 15, IOS 18.1.1

Thanks so much!

I found the solution on Reddit! Turn off vocal shortcuts. It worked for me!

I had the same issue with my iPhone 16 pro and I solved it with wiping out the phone and choosing “Set up as new iPhone”.

Thanks, this worked for me. However, updated to 18.0.1 fixed the issue with Vocal Shortcuts enabled as well.

I updated to iOS 18.1.1 (22B91, viewable if you click on the version number under Settings => About => Version) yesterday and this morning my devices connected normally. Hopefully this minor update has resolved the issue entirely.

i did a “forget this device” to everything Bluetooth except my watch s there were no issues with that. I reconnected my car, my ear buds and have not had issues since then

I had the same issues on iOS 18.1.

Vocal Shortcuts was off already.

Restarting, even hard reset did nothing.

for me the issue is what iOS 18 is doing (or not doing) during Bluetooth discovery.

what worked for me, if you have a device which does not show in the device list:

Power down the Bluetooth device

Turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone for about 15 seconds

Turn Bluetooth on, again.

Bring the device close to your iPhone

Power on the Bluetooth device.

if you don't see it in the device list, force the device into pairing mode. (This usually involves holding one or more buttons for several seconds. You may need to check your user manual or device's support web site to find the method.)

When the device is forced into pairing, it will show on your iPhone Bluetooth devices list and can then be paired.

For myself and several other people, forcing the Bluetooth device into pairing mode, can often resolve the pairing issue, especially in devices with passive auto-pairing.

Turn off the device, turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone. Wait about 15 seconds. Turn Bluetooth on, on your iPhone. Power on the Bluetooth device. Force the device into pairing mode. Now the device should appear in the Bluetooth discovery device list and you should be able to pair. (You may need to research how to force pairing mode on your particular Bluetooth device.)

i believe this is an issue Apple needs to address, but for now, this workaround may be helpful.

I have had help from Apple support and they restarted my phone and I deleted apps that were not connecting to Bluetooth and reinstalled all seems to be fine now

Hi, had the same problem with all my bluetooth headsets but a soft reset of the iphone solved the sound issue.

De iPhone geforceerd opnieuw opstarten - Apple Support (NL)

Press up botton and release, press down button and release and press and hold the big button on the right side on the iphone untill you see the apple logo, phone then reboots, and all is sorted

The same issue is on the iPhone 14 Pro Max running the latest iOS 18.0.1. Cannot pair with a bike GPS computer Hammerhead Karoo 2. It simply doesn't show up in the Bluetooth devices search list.

At the same time old iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 15 was able to find and pair gps computer successfully.

After iOS 18 update, iPhone bluetooth would not pair with my hearing aids (Advanced Bionics) even after forgetting the device and turning bluetooth off & on several times.

Everything worked fine prior to update, but phone bluetooth would not discover or pair with hearing aids after update. Macbook (v15.0.1) was able to discover & pair fine.

I shutdown the Macbook to prevent auto pairing and then restarted my phone and and my hearing aids three times before phone finally discovered & paired with hearing aids. Have had this exact same problem with several iOS updates over the last couple years. Apple's proprietary bluetooth is SO FINICKY and very easy to hate!

It happened to me first with car play which before IOS 18 was flawless ! Since 18 upgrade I go two miles and car play drops every single time never ever did this before the other problem I am experiencing now after 18 upgrade is crackling dropping for short times with Bluetooth never happened before the 18 upgrade so those are the two problems I am having now and I am using the pro max 16 max , My 15 pro max was perfect UNTIL I upgraded it to IOS 18 then it started doing the same stuff before that it was 100% solid connections never ever dropped a connection on car play or Bluetooth

[Edited by Moderator]