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stevenish Author

Level 1

27 points

Bluetooth Interference - Apple Watch and iPhone 6

I'm not sure which one could be the culprit, but I since I introduced the Apple Watch to my work environment, my Apple Bluetooth Mouse and when I'm playing music from my iPhone to my bluetooth sound bar is experiencing interference.

The mouse will go sluggish. Almost as if it isn't communicating correctly with my computer and stutter as I move it.

When I'm playing music via Bluetooth, the music will constantly cut out. This is not a problem I had before. It happens when I'm streaming from either my MacBook Pro or my iPhone to my bluetooth speakers.

And when I'm using my Jaybird Bluetooth headset, they are starting to cut out also. They will stop playing music altogether. I have to press a button to reconnect until it disconnects again.

I think there is some correlation between these issues and my Apple Watch / iPhone connectivity.

Watch Sport 42mm, iOS 8.3

Posted on May 2, 2015 10:54 AM

Top-ranking reply

mkwilkes

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 21, 2017 5:03 PM

Bluetooth pairing between by 2013 Highlander and my iPhone 6 worked perfectly until I started wearing an Apple Watch. Now, soon after I start the car, the navigation screen shows that I have a call. I have to press "transfer to phone" to get back to the radio. I have deleted all devices from the Highlander pairing list, but it still happens if I have Bluetooth turned on in the car and on my phone. I have to turn off bluetooth in the car to stop it. I have tried deleting and re-pairing my phone multiple times, to no avail. I am assuming it has something to do with the watch because I noticed it happening right after I started wearing the watch. Has anyone had a similar experience or have any ideas as to how to fix this?

Running: WatchOS 3.1

iOS 10.2

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84 replies

May 3, 2016 8:53 PM in response to stevenish

My new watch causes my wireless mouse to go bonkers when I am working on my desktop all day long. Was excited about the new watch, but now

have buyer's remorse. Never anticipated this and should have researched more. Only fix may be to buy a non wireless mouse which is extra bucks to accommodate the watch; I hate desk cords. The watch is parked on its charger when I'm on the desktop.

necronym

Level 4

1,434 points

May 4, 2016 7:48 AM in response to stevenish

Bluetooth has a limited bandwidth available to it. Think of it as a narrow field Wi-Fi router, if it's just you connected to the internet it's fast, but if 20 other people decided to sign onto your router and started surfing, streaming and downloading, your download speed would suffer because the bandwidth is being stretched across too many demands.

Depending on how your devices are set up, there could be too much data being split over a limited bandwidth by too many activities (streaming music to one device, while airdropping images, while health activity is being synced to your iPhone from Watch etc. Streaming music will take up the biggest chunk of the bandwidth available, if a notification comes in that would momentarily interrupt the music stream.

Try each bluetooth device activity individually, then try adding a second, third etc. to find out where the limits of the bandwidth kick in.

Jun 1, 2016 5:33 AM in response to necronym

Hi everybody,

has anyone except me noticed any improvement to the Bluetooth interference issue when using an Apple Watch? I have the impression that things started to get better now with the latest couple if iOS versions... I haven't experienced any distortions or other jammings lately when listening to bluetooth playbacks from my iPhone 6s or during phone calls... you guys?

Best,

kthersh

Level 1

15 points

Oct 3, 2016 12:48 PM in response to stevenish

I am running into this a lot lately, primarily when I get into my car, which has handsfree via bluetooth, and my apple watch loses connectivity. I'm on Watch OS 3.0 and iOS 10.0.2 on an iPhone 6 Plus.

Oct 4, 2016 1:07 AM in response to kthersh

Hi there,

haven't had any problems anymore with the recent iOS versions on my iPhone 6s and my Apple Watch on watchOS 3, but now, with my brand new iPhone 7 on the latest iOS, things got worse again. BT connection between my entertainment system (Kenwood DNX4280BT) and my iPhone 7 drops at least once after entering my car, mostly after a couple of minutes. This never happened with my iPhone 6s....

Best

Oct 23, 2016 10:27 AM in response to stevenish

I have a strange issue with my car bluetooth ever since I got my iwatch:

Concerned device, iphone 5s, iwatch and 2010 VW Jetta.

When starting car, everything pairs just fine, iwatch with iphone and iphone with car. This is where it gets tricky:

While driving and listening to music via iphone and trying to make a phone call, music is silenced and phone call goes through, if ever the other person does not answer the call, I hang up and the music kicks right in. But if the person answers the phone call, when I eventually hang up afterwards, my iphone disconnects from my car bluetooth and the music does not resume. Same issue applies when I receive a call, after hanging up iphone disconnects from car bluetooth.

I will do further troubleshooting and will let you know the results since it could be the ios 10 as well.