iPhone 4S doesn't reliably use chosen audio input if paired with a bluetooth headset

I just went through this with a Jawbone ERA and 4S.

THE RESOLUTION: Charge your phone. If you have received a warning about low battery, it appears the phone will resort to an energy conservation state and revert to the phone instead of Bluetooth device. I am loOking for some supporting documentation.

Me too! Apple Support pleae help us!!!!!!!!!

If your phone battery is low - it will try to default to non-Bluetooth audio. Charge you phone. Once I did, it has been working consistently.

My phone is fully charged. Going to take the device back to the Apple store for a replacement. It's getting worse at outcalling and having no audio. Audio mapping (internally) is hozed I believe... 😟

I would do just that. I really thought I was onto something as this still seems to have resolved my issue. Since charged, I have not experienced the 4S automatically switching over to "Speaker" when making a call. It repeatably did this at 10% charge or less.

I got my phone Saturday, so this may have something to do wth it.

Out of curiosity, What headset do you have? I do agree there are still significant issues with BT4.0 and the heasdset manufacturers not understanding how to integrate better with Siri - but hopefully time will help with this.

BR -

My BT is a Samsung WEP460. It has incredible battery life and was discovered easily by the 4S.

Curiously- I went 8/8 on successful test calls (both ways) yesterday in my office... this after not having used the BT connectivity for a solid week.

Thinking "YEA!" perhaps some OTA fix has been acquired somehow?

I left the office at day's end, attempted a BT hands free call in my vehicle... and it started the same old krap!

Ignoring commands to channel (map) the audio between speaker/iPhone/Bluetooth and I had NO audio from any source...

It seems that the iPhone 4S audio mapping behaves WORST where it is needed the MOST: IN MY VEHICLE!

My vehicle is an older 1995 model which has NO onboard comms/predates this type networking... I do not think there is any conflict with the 4S trying to comm with an adjacent vehicle(s) NOT RUNNING in the parking garage?

I'm thinking it's still an onboard 4S software/firmware defect?

Well - after two days of working I tried my Jambox - now right back to where I started - except now after I make a call and the other person can't hear me, my phone no longer has an active microphoneuntil I reboot the phone.

This is a distracting nuisance.

Ther are lots of threads on this - but my Apple guy said he had not heard of it - I even showed him this thread. Not that he wasn't helpful - there is nothing he could do.....

THis is looking really bad for Apple - worse than AT&T dropped calls - this is an Apple hardware issue.

My first week with my new 4s was a real nuisance. Audio problems with and without bt. I tried three different bt headsets. All had same issues.

I took it into Apple on Nov 11. They replaced it with a new one. I have not experienced the audio or BT issues with the replacement. I use Bluetooth everyday. It is a cheap Motorola H 720 from Costco for $25. I bought it on my way home from apple, just in case the old headsets were part of the problem.

Get a replacement phone.

Get a replacement phone. AMEN inkling1!

I went to the Apple Store yesterday. They wiped the device and it still had audio mapping issues so they replaced it.Problem(s) solved.

Interestingly: The Apple associate told me the same thing Flywheel17's contact did: he "had not heard of this". (audio souce mapping breakdowns) Perhaps a standard/canned/mandated Apple associate response?

Bottom line: my replacement 4S phone is working and playing well with Bluetooth now. The replacement 4S has not shown me ANY of the previous audio source mapping issues. YEA! (so far)

Same result as Claribel. My genius wanted to troubleshoot even after Apple Care set me up for a new phone. He said he never heard if it either - I mentioned the 1200 thread topic going on here and the CNET video - do anyway, I reluctantly let him do a restore even after I was able to repeatedly reproduce the issue. After the restore we immediately paired and without any prating from me, the problem reproduced itself.

All day on me replacement phone and no problems. No muffled Bluetooth and I believe the phone is faster especially with Siri.

Anyway - I feel much better. Thank you all for posting.

Your answer is a little confusing. Here is what you said:

My 'Settings/General/Accessibility/Physical & Motor/Incoming calls' setting was set to default. I figured this meant it would go to an active bluetooth device if it found one since the choices were Default, Headset, and Speaker. Apparently this assumption is incorrect. When I changed the setting from Default to Bluetooth it resovled my problem. Incoming calls now connect to the headset if it is active and to the phone when it's not.

'Bluetooth' is not an option. Do you mean 'Headset?'

Please reply directly to pspirn@gmail.com

Thanks.

PS

this was helping so far in my case. thx!

...but after a while the same problems came back. that's soo annoying! anybody from apple here to take care of this bug?

I suggest you get to the Apple store and let one of the gurus get it swapped out.

I am experiencing a problem that I think is similar to what is being posted in this thread. I had problems initially getting my phone (4s) to work properly / well with my BT device, but that seems to have been resolved. It works well, quality is good, and range is good. When the phone is active and a call comes in, I answer and all works as expected. The problem comes when I answer the phone when it is not active, i.e., is locked.

When a phone call comes in, my BT alerts me as I'm sure it does for the devices others are using. If the phone is not in use, it instructions to slide to open to answer the call. That works fine, but the call is routed to the phone rather than the BT (despite having made it's initial connection through the BT to announce the call). To get back to BT, I must first enter the code to unlock the phone, then make my way to the call screen, pull up the audio screen and choose the BT device. Meanwhile the caller is sitting there hearing me through the phone, but wondering why I'm not responding. I spoke with a colleague who is using a BT earpiece and he says he has exactly the same experience.

As I said, if the phone is not locked, it automatically routes the call to my BT when I answer it. And obviously it is still connected to my BT when it is locked as that's where the ring comes. But then it loses it when I unlock to answer.

Or other way to solve this?

Thanks

BTW, re some earlier posts, it makes no difference whether the phone has just been charged or later in the day.