iPhone 17 Pro Max Bluetooth intermittently disconnecting

If it happens in specific places or areas, and the same places every time, it is almost certainly microwave interference→Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support. The frequency range used by Bluetooth is in an unlicensed band, and is also included in S band (2 to 4 GHz) radar. Uses include airport surveillance radar, air traffic control radar, surface ship radar, weather radar and ground penetrating radar. So if you are near an airport, body of water when larger boats and ships are present or you are near weather stations that is a likely cause. Bluetooth’s 2.4 GHz is right in the middle of S band.

If you have other BlueTooth or radio communications devices (such as walkie-talkies) in range but not connected they can also interfere with BlueTooth.

Less likely, but possible, do you have a 3rd party VPN installed on your iPhone, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN, then restart your device. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. Updates sometimes "break" VPN, and it needs to be removed. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN, but probably shouldn't.

andrico289 wrote:

Sorry forgot to mention I’m not near any planes or walkie talkies the problem is the actual model of the phone when I search it in google a lot of people or complaining about this same issue on the forums and Reddit apple need to sort this out as soon as possible

What is “a lot of people?” 50? 100? compared to roughly 100 million iPhone 17 users? If it affected even 1% of the user base (1 million) it might be something Apple can fix, but for a small number it is almost certainly a problem with those specific devices.

andrico289 wrote:

This mostly happens when driving around so definitely not a microwave. I have checked my vpn I have been in the apple shop 3 times about the situation . They sent me a brand new phone I have reset the phone and started from brand new rather than restore from Icloud problem is still there . I have disconnect my watch and my AirPod problem is still there. set the phone up brand new again on the new phone and the problem is still there this it is definitely a problem with the iPhone 17 pro max because I have previously stated this is another brand new device. My partner has the same phone and doesn’t have the problem. there is clearly a bad batch going around or hardware/ software issues as I’m not the only one experiencing this it’s quite annoying when your driving and my phone won’t even stay connected by Bluetooth for 20 minutes. Apple support was telling my take my case off it could be that done that that didn’t work I’m getting quite annoyed as I spent a lot of money off this phone for it to not work when my iPhone 12 works perfectly fine no issue with all the devices I’m connect to with Bluetooth but the latest phone can’t hold a Bluetooth connection for 20 minutes

When you say you checked your VPN do you mean you actually deleted the VPN profile, or just turned it off?