Bluetooth audio stuttering issues on my iPhone 16e

Also having difficulty. Stutters on headphones 1-3 times every song (works in car without stuttering). Or while watching videos. Have tried disconnection headphones and reconnected without improvement. Nothing else is connected. Try 2 other Bluetooth headsets (all different brands Sony, sennhesier, hyper x) that work perfectly on other devices. It’s seems to appear when I shut off the screen and open it back up. Seem slightly better when I turned off AI (but that could just be me). Doesn’t stutter in car just headsets.

I’m having exactly the same problem on my 16e.

I never had any issues with audio over Bluetooth stuttering when listening on my 12 mini, which I replaced with the 16e.

The only ‘workaround’ is to disable my bluetooth watch when listening to music over bluetooth, which is the only other Bluetooth device I have connected most of the time. But that’s totally unacceptable, this is objectively a backward step that Apple needs to fix. Audio also stutters when connected to my car’s Bluetooth.

This post doesn’t really help, other than confirm that other users are not alone with this problem.

Uodate 2:

I spoke to Apple Support US, they rang me in the UK about an hour after I got off the phone speaking to EU/UK Apple support. It was essentially a longer version of the questions list I was asked by UK/Europe support, but I disclosed more details, firmware and serial numbers of the different devices were taken, etc. The only additional thing I tried, which still reproduced the problem, was that I put the phone in airplane mode and bluetooth audio was still stuttering but it didn’t do that when playing over the built in speaker (obviously playing downloaded music here, so it was not a streaming/buffering issue).

Then they had me install a profile on my iPhone which logged the Bluetooth and Wifi signals / exchanges in a diagnostic report, which ran for about 20 minutes, whilst I reproduced the issue and noted down the time (to the second) of whenever the audio stutters. This was done with data over Wifi, and data over 5G. Then they phoned me up again, the logs were packaged up, and sent through. All they could do was tell me the data and timestamps etc. were going to be looked at by engineering and they would contact me back if they wanted me to run more test…

Dunno if this will help but at least someone called me, took data, and believed me when I said I had this issue. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

I had the problem 5 minutes after opening it. I went back to Apple the following Monday, and was told that no one had raised the problem. They reset the whole thing. It seemed to be ok after one song. But on the way back, it started again. The guy at Apple told me that if it started again, to wait for an OS update. I didn't feel like waiting for an update. I went back one more time, and finally got the cell phone exchanged yesterday. Everything seemed great, I tested the music and podcasts without headphones. I didn't know it was a Bluetooth problem because that's all I use for music. I'll just return the iPhone 16e one more time. I wouldn't be if I tried my luck with an iPhone 16...

Having a call with Bluetooth headphones (Beats Fit Pro) is IMPOSSIBLE with this phone, since the connection will randomly drop and come back in the middle of the call. This is even when the Beats Fit Pro do not have any other nearby devices to connect to. Updated to iOS 18.5 but the problem persists.

Hello everyone, did you try to update your Bluetooth device? Not your phone? Because I have the same issue, but only my old Bluetooth devices.

It’s not software issue per se as the 16 doesn’t have this problem. Apple is attempting to fix what seems to be a hardware conflict I.e., problem with Apple’s new C-1 cellular modem with a patch.

Try a different Bluetooth device.

I've had the same issue. Every Bluetooth device I connect to has intermittent issues. I tried all the above on trouble shooting and more including: bluetooth reset, bluetooth forget and re-aquiring devices, soft reset of network settings, reset of all settings, icloud back up, factory back up. I have worked with six different Apple technicians and spoken with Apple support it has always been a blame game. Apple please elevate this issue

I’ve contacted the Italian support, but they didn’t know nothing.

I’ve spent half an hour talking to an IT specialist gathering data for the engineers and I’m now required to initialize the iPhone and find if the problem is present without restoring a previous backup.

They also said that nobody have addressed the issue with Apple in Europe and I was the first one. I’ll do that in the next week and then open a ticket. This is very annoying.

Just upgraded from an iPhone Xr and same problem here with my iPhone 16e. Music stops playing for a fraction of a second and the comes back. Happens both on my Bose QC35 and a brand new pair of AirPods I just bought. Pretty annoying for a new phone. I didn’t had any other bluetooth connections while having this problem.

Happens to me with brand new iPhone 16e, just upgraded from 2020 SE which did not have any issue at all.

Per the suggestions in the thread, I have tried disconnecting all other Bluetooth devices. This seems to have improved the stuttering but not completely cured it, I still get them often enough to ruin the music I am listening to.

Been on call with US support, tried some things and answered some questions.

I've got a follow-up planned for tomorrow in which we'll try to replicate the problem and gather some logs with various profiles to better understand the problem.

It's tedious, but if you're a little bit skilled in tech I advise you to waste some of your time to report this and keep up with their demands, so it can be addressed and fixed more quickly

There are two users on the reddit thread for this same topic reporting that so far it appears that the Beta release of iOS 18.4 has solved this Bluetooth issue. I haven't personally signed up for iOS Beta, but I am at least hopeful that a fix will be released in the next iOS update (as 18.3.2 hasn't fixed this issue). It would be nice for Apple to acknowledge the problem and that a fix is truly in work.

I have the same problem with my new 16E, I also bought new AirPods cause I was thinking the problem was with the old headphones at first. I want to highlight that it has nothing to do with having multiple bluetooth devices added: I deleted every device except my new AirPods and yet the sound glitches every minute