Is iPhone 11 the last model with working Bluetooth.

Jade103Jade wrote:

My iPhone 15 is basically a mobile landline. It does not connect to ANY of my Bluetooth items.

I know this problem is prevalent in the 15 and 16 models, but how far back does it go? My iPhone 11 and iPhone 6 were champions. Can I get an iPhone 14 and be able to listen to my music on my soundbar or headphones? Or be able to ‘hands free’ answer phone calls in my car?

Spoke to Apple chat extensively about this problem, I was promised three times that a senior advisor would call me within 5 minutes. No one called, presumably because this problem with iPhone 15 is beyond repair or redemption.

So my question is what is the latest model of iPhone without well known, wide spread, heavily documented Bluetooth pairing/connectivity issues?

Thanks.

We own iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Neither has any Bluetooth connectivity issues. My 16 Pro Max has no less than 8 Bluetooth devices paired without issue. I also owned iPhone 15 Pro, 14 Pro, 13 Pro and 12 Pro, none of which had any Bluetooth issues whatsoever. To assume everyone is having Bluetooth issues with newer phones is like walking into a hospital, seeing sick people and drawing a conclusion everyone everywhere is sick.

Do you by chance use a VPN on your phone? VPN's are not needed on iPhone and can cause connectivity issues with Wifi and Bluetooth devices.

If you don't use a VPN, see if this helps you --> If you can't connect a Bluetooth accessory to your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Prevalent? Hardly.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max connects fine with many bluetooth devices.

People always complain about bluetooth, but there's no real evidence this is actually an existing hardware issue or consistent bug in iPhones and across many models.

Just because you have issues or you know people that have issues, does not mean everybody has them. What you read and hear is likely a very vocal minority of the billions of iPhones out there and in use.

Also, you may not be aware of this, but people also complained about Bluetooth issues with the iPhone 6 and even iPhone 11 back in the day just as much, but since you probably did not experience any, you simply were not aware they existed just like they do today.

And people will always complain when something goes wrong, but almost never say anything when it works fine, so you will always see more complaints than comments that it's working.

No such heavy documentation exists because no widespread bluetooth issue exists on iPhone models. People will say it's not working, then never come back when it does work.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying there no issues with bluetooth anywhere. That would be incredibly false. There's probably many, many issues around which will have varying causes and solutions and will affect various models of iPhone. I'm sure everybody will have a bluetooth issue at some point. The probability is very high with so many iPhones out there, if you taker a stroll around Android forums you'll probably find a ton of complaints about bluetooth issues there too.

What I'm saying is, just because people say they have issues, does not mean a device you own will have them. Nor is one model more likely to have them than any other.

If you can't connect a Bluetooth accessory to your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of your local Apple Store and have it checked.

In addition to lobstersghost1's suggestion for possible things to troubleshoot, you may also need to reset certain devices. It's not that common anymore, but some BT devices have a limit to the number of devices they can be paired with. Once they reach that, you need to follow a procedure outlined by the manufacturer to reset it.

I have an iPhone 15 Pro that is paired to nine devices at the moment. And, while I'm sitting here looking at it, it seems to be finding all of my neighbors' televisions. I can't recall having had any issues.

You don't tell us what you've done to pair a device you're having issues with. Perhaps too simple and you are aware, but if you don't put a device in pairing mode per the manufacturers directions, it won't be seen by your phone to pair with. Other things which can cause an issue is the device is already paired with another device, which is nearby and powered on. In that case, turn off any other device something may be paired with already. And finally, so devices have a limit to how many pairings it can have, so restoring them to factory settings may solve a pairing issue.