IPhone 4s bluetooth not working

theJodster wrote:

When the Iphone 4s was released, I was very quick in taking up the new phone, and I love it. I have found however I have had a lot of difficulty in connecting to the hands free in my car which is a Toyota & my wife also has problems in her BMW. Today I bought a contour + camera which links to a phone via bluetooth, with a free app. Sounded great.I have spent the last five hours frustratingly trying to get it to work, and kept thinking it was something wrong with the camera. I was poring through forums trying to get to the bottom of the problem I was having in connecting my phone to the camera.

Finally thinking about the problems I was having with my phone connecting to my car, I thought I wonder if my son's ipod will connect to the camera instead. Bingo, it connected in seconds, and it found my iphone. So the ipod can find the phone and the camera, but the iphone can not find the camera right beside it. I downloaded the app for my ipad 1, and it works fine.

This does present an issue however, with so many devices working with bluetooth, why do i phones have the issue of not being able to connect, where our old phones worked fine, and our other older apple products work flawlessly. I would have thought the new phones would have worked as well or better. Must say I am very disappointed.

I expect when I get pulled over by a police officer for talking in my car while driving, saying I have an iphone 4s that dropped out of connection, will not get me off the ticket.

The iPhone 4S is one of the few products that uses the new Bluetooth 4 protocol. It may be that the older devices just aren't compatible, or that some setting will need to be changed. How old are the cars in question?

I have found that in my car, I can put the iPhone 4S on speakerphone, and carry on a conversation just fine with the phone on my lap. The noise-cancelling is amazing.

Hi Everyone,

Reading all your posts and the frustrations with Iphone4S. I got a new 4S a few days ago and am having a problem with the blue tooth as well. Could someone help please? Everytime I go into the settings and switch on bluetooth the bluetooth sign shows up on the top. When I exit the sign disappears.

I also tried t connect my car hands free Blueant earpiece and It searches forever.

Frustrating as I never had this problem with the 3GS.

Can someone help please?

I cannot believe it.

I've had Nokia phones since I remember. My girlfriend has upgraded from 3GS to 4S, so I've been "wearing" her 3GS (iOS 5.1) just to try it. There's lots of things I love about iPhone and not less things that I hate. One of them is Bluetooth connectivity.

I can't imagine spending £400+ (thinking about brand new 4S) on a phone that does not work with my bluetooth device. I'm not talking about file transfer, I don't need it. I need my phone to work with bluetooth, as I live in the area where putting a phone on my desk makes it have five coverage bars out of five, and moving it one foot to the right or left makes the coverage disappear. Basically, there's nearly no network coverage apart from some specific places around my room, that is why my phone needs to sit on my desk and I can walk around with my bluetooth on. I CAN'T DO IT WITH MY IPHONE!!!

I would understand it's not compatible with my Nokia bluetooth headset. Fair enough. So I went to eBay trying to find a genuine Apple bluetooth device - no result. Tried iStore - guess what? None there either apart from really expensive stuff that's 50% of the iPhone! Is THIS the reason? THIS - the fact, that the iPhone, being packed with modern features, does not support Bluetooth connectivity? This is simply frustrating.

I just (this very moment when writing this) tried my friend's iPhone 4 - I was not expecting it to find my bluetooth, and I was right - it failed. And so did Apple. Low. Dissappointing. Astonishing. Sad. Amateur. Unbelievable.

I thought for a second, that the new iPhone 5 might fix it, but if yes, then that would have been done before, so I don't think new iPhone 5 will be compatible will bluetooth devices.

Other that that - I'm speechless.

If your iPhone is not pairing with a bluetooth headset then there is something else wrong here - using a bluetooth headset with the iPhone is well supported & should work flawlessly.

I have an iPod touch 4, & I can pair in seconds with the headsets I have with no problem. I have a Jawbone brand headset & 2 unknown brand chinese $10 headsets.

Also I can easily pair with the computer.

The original topic of this thread was for BT file transfer, which is not allowed. But under the new BT4, we should now be seeing more options for things like file transfer.

Headset use is completely different because that is BT2. You should not need a special headset, it should work no problem with just about any headset you can find.

What part of the pairing process is not working for you? Does your iPhone dicover the headset in the bluetooth serttings? If not, then you need to trigger the headsets 'discoverable' mode which is usually done by holding the power button, but it depends on the headset.

Try pairing the headset with your computer to make sure its working how you expect.

I have had my iPhone 4s since January. For the most part I like it. Most things work on it. But the lack of bluetooth file transfer is crippling this device in my line of work. Many times we are out of range of a decent signal and wifi is just not an option then either, so bluetooth file transfer would be great. (and was great on my other phones)

So my two complaints are;

1) my phone has yet to "see" any other device. I have tried several of the workarounds suggested in these forums without any luck.

2) If apple has deliberately disabled the bluetooth function on the iphone 4s, fine. I can live with that. But it should be told to everyone that is considering buying one of these. I asked the rep at AT&T when I bought my phone if it was capable of BT file transfer and was told "yes, the phone has fully functioning bluetooth just like all the other phones." Guess it is my fault because I assumed that the bluetooth protocal was the same for all.

I have filed a request with apple to fix this, don't really expect much from that.

But it would be nice if apple can address this issue with an update OR just be more open about the fact it doesn't work and perhaps educate their vendors to this fact.

In the meantime, can anyone recommend a good app that can substitute for bluetooth file transfer?

Just got my iPhone 4S. Not able to connect the phone's BT to my 2006 car as a hand's free device. Trouble shooted it by trying my 2010 macbook pro - nice dice either. Both car and computer have BT switched on and as discoverable.

I tried the workarounds above to no avail (switching locations & Siri off) - which even if they had worked, are a ridiculous work around.

rphunte42's post seems about right:

"The iPhone 4S is one of the few products that uses the new Bluetooth 4 protocol. It may be that the older devices just aren't compatible, or that some setting will need to be changed. How old are the cars in question?

I have found that in my car, I can put the iPhone 4S on speakerphone, and carry on a conversation just fine with the phone on my lap. The noise-cancelling is amazing."

To his/her last point, the speakerphone *is* amazing for a speakerphone. But a phone this fancy should be able to connect via BT to other devices _easily_. This is another piece of BT annoyance - I've loved me my Apple devices since 1985; but my old Android connects to BT with one flick of the widget. Simplicity & functionality in a UI - that should be Apple's bag.

Hi Riquez,

Thanks for your reply.

I did what you suggested, but first downloaded the manual from Nokia website and did step by step exactly what they said.

It works. It does see my bluetooth BH-208 Nokia headset, they do pair with each other, and I am able to initiate a phone call using my headset. Funny enough, when dialling, the iPhone even gives me options which sound device I want to use (if not the bluetooth headset): Nokia BH-208, Loudspeaker or iPhone. And it automatically uses the bluetooth if it's on and connected. Brilliant.

I have to publicly (LOL) apologize for my previous post. It's not up to date and may be misleading. I'm sorry.

What came to my attention is that I have never been asked to "push" my headset to connect to other BT device. Normally they were detecting each other without the "extra push", that's why I was so amazed when my iPhone didn't do it. Then I looked on the Internet, found out about other people's problems - here we go... It was my fault I haven't tried the manual in the first place. Always read the manual!

So, can't wait to see how it performs during a proper long conversation. I will let you know the results.

I'm going to see my GF today, will try to pair the headset with her 4S (using the same method as I did when pairing with 3GS).

Cheers and sorry again ;))

Peter

So - iPhone 4S's bluetooth pairs fine with Nokia BH-208. Now the questions is, sign a contract and: take iPhone 4S when iPhone 5 is released, take iPhone 4S now or wait for the 5 LOL

Thank you forum! After much work and Trying everything suggested here, I finally got my Bluetooth Motorola s10-HD working on my 4s! With all my other devices it was very easy to connect. But the 4s took work. When all else failed... I tried resetting twice, turning off Siri and location services, I even took out my manual that went with the bluetooth and went step by step, but to no avail. Then I went to the site of Motorola and it gave step by step instructions but with a little more detail. It said to wait until my light on the bluetooth was solid blue and that is the little tiny step not noted anywhere else for my device. And yay it works now!!

Hi, Riquez

Thank you so much for your post.

After upgrading to iOS5 my iPhone 4 could not discover my Bluetooth.

I read so many post about people with the same problem and tried a few suggestion but they didn't work...

I gave up and I was ready to buy an expensive Bluetooth then I found your post.

I tried the "holding the power button" and it work!!!

It also work on my iPad 2. I am so happy!!!

Thank you so much!!

RE: Sennheiser MM 450 connection to bluetooth issues: SOLVED!!!!

I was able to FINALLY get my iphone 4 to pair with my wireless headphones. It stopped pairing after I upgraded to the latest software when the iphone 4s launched. Someone on this thread mention resetting the headset. He was right. Follow these instructions here: http://www.themusichelpers.com/z/317147000000072

After the reset it paired perfectly.

I have trouble with connecting iPhone 4S with my Prius 2010 as well. I found out that the phone cannot discover bluetooth device as my previous phone do, but the device has to discover my iphone and pair with it. Now, after setting up and pairing from bluetooth device in Prius, I finally get connected.

I FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THE BLUETOOTH CONNECTION PROBLEM! TURN SIRI OFF, AND RESTART YOUR PHONE!

Doesn't stop it being amazing and scandalous. Viz my 4s telling me my ipad2 is "not supported" for Bluetooth. What is this other than amateur?

I'm experiencing the same thing. It started about two weeks ago. All of a sudden, my phone stopped pairing with my Subaru. I took my car in and they were able to connect to other devices. My phone is no longer discoverable. I have a rental Ford Focus this week and it won't connect either. It is definitel the phone. What happened?