Bluetooth audio stuttering issues on my iPhone 16e

I’m also having issues with my iPhone 16e and Bluetooth. My audio keeps stopping and jumping. I’ve done all the above resetting and turning off other Bluetooth devices and still happening. I’ve also updated. I’ve still got my iPhone 14 and had no issues. As I write this it’s still happening while listening to Spotify.

Having the same issue with my new 16e. While connected to my Sync Radio in my Explorer every one in a while the Music stops for a second when listening for example tracks on Apple Music. Quite annoying and with the latest iOS iOS 18.3.2 (22D8082) hasn’t been resolved.

I have just noticed one strange thing: when I stand with my earphones really far from my phone (10-15 meters away) the stuttering stops: I was able to hear uninterrupted audio for 5 minutes straight until I came back to my phone. I really hope this is not a hardware issue after all

This is my 16e connected to my watch and headphones. There is a spot on my patio where I'm guessing that the phone also tries to connect to my truck and the bluetooth shuts completely off for a second and makes all the devices reconnect. I've tried all the steps others and apple support have listed and nothing seems to fix it.

[Edited by Moderator]

Just adding my voice to this subject. I received my new iPhone 16a on Saturday, and when out for a run, using my Garmin watch, noticed this stuttering audio. It disappears as soon as I switch off my Garmin, but also occurs when it is on charge. It’s extremely irritating.

This issue only appears to affect my AirPods - not a Sony Bluetooth speaker I recently purchased.

Let us hope a patch is issued sooner rather than later.

I am wondering whether the issue arose from porting data over from our old phones. Any new software version would overwrite these flaws/gaps.

Is this Bluetooth stutter also an issue for first-time iPhone buyers who set their 16e up from scratch?

I had experienced such dropouts before from CD players connected to a DAC, and streaming music from my ipods/Mac to the 2nd generation Airport Express back in 2010. These were packet errors caused by jitter.

The current problem appears to be a Bluetooth bandwidth issue.

By the way, I had no problem streaming from my 16e by Airplay.

I purchased 2 iPhone 16es, one for myself and one for my wife. Have discovered that both iPhones have Bluetooth issues e.g., keep disconnecting from blue tooth devices i.e., air pods, Bluetooth speaker (Bose), Bluetooth receiver (Harmon Kardon). Spoke with Apple technical support and found out that Apple has no idea what's wrong and doesn't have a fix (apparently this issue is affecting most if not all iPhone 16e phones - some people just haven't discovered that their phone doesn't Bluetooth yet). I was told that maybe in the next 3-6 months, once they figure out what it is that's wrong they may have an update to address it????? Are they for real?? Wish I had never traded in our iPhone 12s. It was far better than this piece of junk. At least it worked. Also, we purchased these to take advantage of AI/Siri but now have learned that Apple is putting their new AI on the back burner because of problems they are unable to resolve in the short term. It's amazing how bad Apple has become. Product that doesn't work, employees that either can't code or maybe Apple is subcontracting their coding out to 3rd parties and getting bad code back. Service that can't fix problems. I think Wallstreet is going to have a heyday shorting their stock with the latest failure. I for one won't be purchasing any other Apple products. Apple no longer is a product I can trust.

I just updated to the Iphone 16e from the 10X Max and at first i thought it may have been my speaker(s) but once i started playing music all across the board of all my bluetooth devices, this stuttering action is so heavily continuous and i’m wondering if i should possibly downgrade if this isn’t an issue that is being looked at for a bug fix. It’s driving me mad!

I am a musician that creates my own music, often on iOS. Apple should be enormously embarrassed about this stuttering problem when I use a USB sound card, as it kills the very creativity that Apple promotes on iOS. It's not the poor developers' fault, as every App on my iPad does the same thing. I'm also in a beta testing group for one App, so I get early info on changes and problems. Apple seems to have broken something that they, so far, haven't told the developers about. The general advice from developers is not to update to the latest version of iOS, however, I recently did this update hoping to solve other problems I was having, only to create this show stopper problem.

I have an iPad Air (3rd generation), unfortunately with iOS 18.3.2 now installed. Three different brands of USB sound cards (all class compliant - no drivers) now all stutter the same... most days… not every day, which is the worst kind of problem.

My iOS gear is piled in a corner while Apple sorts this out.

i also have the problem with Audio Stuttering ever since I got a iPhone 16.

The problem comes on initial connection. If I leave it stuttering it eventually sorts itself out. This is so annoying as it worked perfectly on my iPhone 11. Is this progress??

iOS 18.5 (22F76) I STILL!!! Have this issue I just updated today and tried playing music and it still cuts out and gets all "static" like. It's BEYOND frustrating. Only other device I have connected is my iwatch. iOS 17 NEVER HAD ANY ISSUES. Please let me go back.

I've also been having this issue for quite awhile now. It started out on the 14 Pro Max, and everything I tried didn'[t work. Some oddities though... I had the battery replaced on that phone and a major software update the same day. For about a week or so, the problem went away.

It eventually returned worse than before. Ive tried removing everything from bluetooth and re adding it and it still didn't help. Ive switched off my connection to my watch, and that didn't help either. I thought that the phone had been damaged and had it replaced to a 16 Pro Max and it was there for with the new phone for a little while. About a week, but since it had just transferred all my files and podcasts from the old phone I thought it was just a remnant from the corrupted files. it went away for about a week and now is back again. Ever since the introduction of the update last year, this has been an ongoing issue.

Please fix this!

Absolutely happening on my 16e. Seems to be worse when my 16e is close to my Mac laptop

I have the same problem. When connected to earphones Bluetooth drops out after 10 to 20 minutes. Does Bluetooth and wifi share the same chip? Going to try defaulting phone wifi to 5gh on the router.

Macrumors is reporting an 18.3.2 bugfix release is being tested. Doesn't mention bluetooth issues but fingers crossed... https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/10/ios-18-3-2-coming-soon/