bluetooth music issues after iOS6 update

Just got off the phone with Apple support. They said they are aware of the issue, but the most likely fix will be firmware updates coming from the device manufacturers. In my case, with Volkswagen, that could take up to 6 months to happen. So, most likely, I will be officially ditching Apple in favor of Android. So ******* depressing. What a ******* joke.

Just another data point, I'm seeing the lack of metadata, auto resume, etc. on my Alpine CDE-133BT as well. Was working fine with my 4S on iOS 5. Upgraded the 4S to iOS 6 and immediately saw the problem when I got in the car this morning.

Well, I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news, but my fedex driver dropped off my iphone 5 this morning to my office on his first stop. I chatted with him yesterday 🙂

I updated the iphone 5, synced it to itunes, and walked out to my truck. Surprisingly it is working as designed. There are no problems at all. Bluetooth controls on my steering wheel are working again, I have artist track info, etc on my head unit, and it sounds crystal clear.

The bad news, I have a feeling since the iphone 5 works fine, it will not be fixed as aggressively for those staying with the 4/4s.

I feel bad for you guys and I hope they have a quick resolution for you.

I can tell you with certainty, that my parrot controlled pioneer head unit does not work with the iphone 4 or iphone 4s on iOS6, however the iphone 5 running iOS6 is working flawlessly.

All I can say is, man is this phone fast!!! Track changing is instant, display on head unit is much faster!

I also have an Alpine CDE-133BT. Right after I 'upgraded' my iPhone 4 to iOS 6 the bluetooth functionality diminished. It will still play music through the car stereo but I have no control over it (pause, skip, play, etc) and it no longer shows the artist, album and song info. If it I plug it in with a usb cable those functions work correctly leading me to believe that this is a bluetooth issue. I tried unpairing the phone via bluetooth with the stereo and repairing it multiple times and have had no success.

I have the same issue. Updated my iPhone 4s to iOS6, and lost all function of bluetooth except making calls through my deck (AVH-P8400bh). I also lost function of my Advanced App Mode as well. Apparently if you own a Pioneer producet, Pioneer has already sent in an update for this. They're waiting on Apple to approve the update.

As far as the bluetooth is concerned, I was talking with Apple Support for an hour yesterday. I got passed around, until I got a tech supervisor. He said the bluetooth should still work. They car or stereo companies have to update their hardware/software for the audio info and stereo controls to work again. I'm good in the fact that I can still stream audio, but it really ticks me off that I have to keep picking up my phone to change tracks. Also looking at my screen on my deck, and it says no information found.

To sum this up....SOMEONE PLEASE FIX THIS! I know it will eventually happen, I'm just impatient.

apu2009 wrote:

Backing up and restoring the iPhone does not fix the issue.

Out of curiosity, did you try a reset all content and settings on the phone, then restoring from an iOS 5 backup?

I was having difficulties with iTunes Match after upgrading to iOS 6 and that procedure resolved them.

Lighty_, I think this is not the case. I updated my Pioneer/Parrot bluetooth device to 4.0 (firmware update available via Pioneer support). Still A2DP does not work properly. I guess it's up to Apple to find a solution...

Here is interesting information for those with Alpine products:

Alpine statement:

“Alpine conducted a quick compatibility test with the iPhone 5 and found that certain AV, AVN and Digital Media Receiver products are not able to playback iPhone music over the USB connection. Everyone can, however, continue to listen to music from Pandora or access their iPhone’s music library wirelessly via Bluetooth® Wireless Technology.

In addition, it has been reported that Bluetooth streaming meta data and control is currently not functional with iOS 6. At the time it seems all 1-Din (including CDE-235BT) head units are effected by this, not 2-Din AV/AVN/Digital Receivers.

Alpine’s engineering teams have begun detailed evaluation and specification confirmation and we will provide updated information as soon as investigations are finalized. Compatibility with other Alpine products is being verified and will also be confirmed later.

Currently, Alpine products verified not compatible with the iPhone 5 (no iPod/iPhone playback via USB) are:

INE-S920HD, INE-Z928HD. IVE-W535HD, iDA-X305S/X305/X100/X001

We will continue to update you regarding compatibility.”

Source: http://satelliteradioplayground.com/2012/09/25/car-radio-makers-cite-problems-wi th-apples-nasdaqaapl-new-ios-6/

I noticed 2 things -

1 the cell phone battery status no longer works via bluetooth (Pioneer Head Unit) on both my Iphone 4 & 5 running IOS6.

2 My Alpine CBE-136BT can play the music as long as I control it from my Iphone5. I used to be able to control the iPhone from the headunit - much safer. Also the Artist / Album / Song doesn't show up anymore on the head unit.

I'm very disappointed in Apple - I understand that I have to deal with the physical side of Apple moving to the ligtnening connector, but this Bluetooth nonsense is crap.

Over the past few yesrs I've become a real MAC fan, on my 3rd iphone, Second MacBook and this is the first time I feel really let down.

I sincerely hope there's an IOS6.0.1 REALLY soon...

After the "wifi problem" with my iPhone 5 I got this! :-(

I solved Thankfully, the problem, click on the name of the device even if it was already connected via bluetooth. After this i can stream music with my Midland BT Next.

Dear friends,

If the BT acessories stop work after install IO6, turn off your iphone and turn on.

After that, try again pairing the BT acessories and "voilá".

Marcio Guth from BRAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL !!!!

Message was edited by: Marcio Guth

If this Bluetooth problem is a rumor, I would not be on this forum trying to figure out what is wrong with my Bluetooth connection after updating to IOS 6. It's been two weeks since I've had this problem but yet it keeps arising and will not work.

My conclusion of the problem:

iOS 6 followed new Bluetooth protocols where vendors are not up to date via Bluetooth which is causing the problems. Without vendors updating their Bluetooth it could not be Apple's fault. Though... Updates usually have a backwards compatible way of connecting to older devices so what it seems like apple disabled that feature for more current devices.

Either way they are canceled out.

That doesn't make sense. It is an iOS 6 thing and is broken on the iPhone 5 too.

iPhone 5 here and 2012 Acura TL Tech with no AVRCP 1.3 with my iPhone 5. The phone pairs, address book imports, music streams, and steering wheel controls work. I just don't see any track information. I was looking forward to this too.

For those muttering Android, you will be unhappy to know that Android doesn't support AVRCP 1.3 at all so that won't solve your problems if your units depend on that profile. You can unlock, root, and install a custom ROM that supports it, but even then it will only work with the stock music player. Third party apps like Pandora generally don't offer it since Android doesn't actually support it.

I hope Apple will fix this if it is broken or will add it back if they took it out.

I think all fingers really point at the iOS 6 update as being the cause of this. When I was running a iPhone 4s 5.1.1 with a Pioneer AVH P3400BH everything worked fine as song tags displayed and radio controls worked via Bluetooth. I did the iOS 6 update and went out to my car to pair the device and played a song and the only thing I can do it turn up and down the volume. I do have to say that everything works fine with the cable plugged in though. I did downgrade the iOS 6.0 to 5.1.1 and restored my iPhone from a previous backup and I still have the same issue. Tonight I will reload the iOS 5.1.1 and not use a restored backup and see if that makes a difference. I will post my findings but ether way this blows and Apple needs to step up with a fix. I could see if it was just Pioneer having issues but from the posts it sounds there are more people having the same issue with different OEM's then just Pioneer.

Of course it works just fine in a 2011 Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Manufacturer head ends have broken before due to bugs in the firmware; with increasing complexity it's inevitable.

For example, Mazda 3 headends stopped working when iOS 5 was released because they only supported AVRCP 1.3, not 1.4:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3381837?start=90&tstart=0