Bluetooth audio stuttering issues on my iPhone 16e

Jürgen Kraus wrote:

But what I learnt is that Apple's engineers are now aware of the problem and they are working on it.

Seems like they have already resolved it in the version being tested right now. The only question is will they drop a point update in the meantime and that is unknown.

Music playback, or audio playback in general, no longer stutters like it did before the last update, but the Bluetooth connection still occasionally drops and then reconnects.
I mostly use the AirPods 4 and a mini boombox

Same here - just got a new iphone 16e. My old iphone XR had no trouble. I have Beats Solo 3 and Studio 3 and Openrun by Shokz - all have the same stutter / intermittent sound cutting out for a split second. Hopefully a fix is in the works.

Stutters when carrying a airtag in another pocket.

iOS 18.4 fixes the stuttering issue

Not in my case. It happens with youtube, with spotify, with any sound coming from the phone by bluetooth.

And it doesn't matter if there is another bluetooth connection to, for example, an Apple Watch or not, the problem is still the same, and it's not an headphones problem because on the iPhone 13 Pro they work flawlessly even with other 6 bluetooth connections active (for apple stuff and iot devices)

Same here, dropouts with new airpods 4 and my old beats, and little glitches with my old airpods all on new 16e. No issues with the same headphones on my mac. No issue with the beats or old airpods on my old phone.

It also happens with just one Bluetooth device, the headphones.

seems more frequent with third party headphones (Bose for me) than AirPods or Beats. I’ve also heard a lowering in bitrate before the stutter

Yes, I also just activated my iPhone 16e and connected my AirPod 4 w noise cancellation & they now stutter/go silent for 1/2 second roughly 3 - 6 times per song with this new phone. I never had this or any issue when connected to my prior iPhone 13.

Bought iphone 16e few days ago, I am having this stuttering problem with my airpods pro 2 and airpods 3 aswel, works fine on my old iphone. The audio is stuttering even with my airpods being the only bluetooth device connected. Hopefully this can be fixed via ios update and its not a faulty hardware issue.

Update: I just received there wireless Bluetooth earbuds from Amazon: https://a.co/d/2lcx8ML

I have a Fitbit Inspire 3 which I stopped the Bluetooth connection then paired the earbuds then added the Fitbit back on the Bluetooth. Playing Apple music and so far all is good. Not sure if it’s the version of Bluetooth that makes the difference. The Fitbit appears to have version 5 and new earbuds are version 5.4. Good luck all.

Adding to this list of Bluetooth stuttering. XR worked just fine with the same configuration. This is occurring with all of my headphones, my car, watch etc. It is also occurring when there is only 1 paired Bluetooth device in range.

I went back to the Apple Store this morning. For the 4th time in 12 days. I finally returned the 16th. They understood even though I was the first to return for this reason. I changed for an iphone 15 hoping I won't have any problems...

Hi, having same problem on my 16e. Just when using any bluetooth connection. If just speakers, then perfect. But if bluetooth interrupts for microsecond or longer, then continues. I think its hardware issue, and specially bluetooth module. Didn’t found solution.

same thing happens to me with my first gen airpods, JBL Tune 230NC TWS, and Onemore Sonoflow over ear headphones. Not to mention it'll just disconnect from car bluetooth which is a ford sync 2 based system. This is annoying, I switched from iphone XR to upgrade not downgrade. the disconnecting and stuttering actually got worse when I updated to newest IOS today. Y'all wanna sell something for more money than economy models have gone for in the past then sell something worth it! I do not care about apple intelligence at all, I care about everyday usage and everyday I have to deal with this crap. Probably would've been better off buying an android device.