Bluetooth Interference - Apple Watch and iPhone 6

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

Since I bought my apple watch in feb 2017, I have had intermittent issues where bluetooth audio drops connection to my vw golf car stereo. This has never happened before because I used the iphone 5, and iphone 6s since last year with no issues..Only this year when I introduced apple watch, connection would randomly drop from my phone... I tried deleting bluetooth devices and repairing but with no help. My previous device fitbit had no issues tho.. I had a fitbit charge before and had no issues. If this is a limitation of apple watch where 1 device (iphone) has a problem supporting 2 bluetooth devices (car & phone) at the same time, then there should be an option sync manually data once a day at 11 pm or whichever my phone so it doesn't create this interference...

I have the same issue accept with the new Jaybird3 series bluetooth head phones. I try to play music from my Mac mini and get nothing but cutout issues... I had to turn off my cell phone, mouse, track pad and wireless speaker in order to get the interference to stop. Ridiculous.

Not a happy customer of bluetooth,
Geoff

I have exactly the same behavior with my Panasonic home phone system. Using iPhone 7/IOS11.1, AWatch S3cell/OS4.1. So this still isn't working correctly two years later. Disconnect the home phone from iPhone BT and the watch will answer incoming calls. Otherwise, it gets a "call failed". However, outgoing calls work, as do texts, e-mail, etc.

iPhone 6 here and listened to audio via Bluetooth for years, never an issue. Added a smart watch and now the Bluetooth cuts out constantly unless the watch is in airplane mode. Very annoying and stopping me from even considering upgrade to an iPhone X and apple watch series 3. This has been an issue for years it seems and spans across a full range of devices, with what seems like no desire to fix it from Apple. Guess I need to weigh options between S8,Pixel 2 or whatever LG's new device is; hate to leave apple, but this is unacceptable.

I had this same issues when I upgraded to the iPhone X. Put the Apple Watch in airplane mode call is fine out of airplane mode call is crackly. Called Apple they had me reset my network settings and that solved the issue for me. Hope this helps if any one else runs into the issue.

I am new to apple watch.

I paired my watch to my BT headset so I could listen without my phone. This worked for me...

However while streaming from my TV to the BT headset, the audio cut out whenever I turned my wrist, rater like I was looking at the time.

I confirmed this correlation by unpairing the watch.

BUT I should not have to unpair it.

Is there some BT handshaking that happens when it thinks I'm looking at the watch that messes up the audio stream?

Should I need to pair and unpair the watch.

What am I missing.

Barry

I posted this on the Apple Watch Hardware board as well:
There seems to be conflicts with the Apple Watch, iPhone6 Bluetooth and car connectivity. The iPhone is the hub that Bluetooth goes through for both the watch and the car, the watch itself is not pairing to the car. I have an iPhone 6 Plus that has no problem connecting to my Toyota RAV4 EV audio and phone system via Bluetooth. I recently paired an Apple Watch to the phone, and all was well until the next time I got into my car. The automobile Bluetooth would no longer automatically pair with the phone, and when I forced a connection, the result was that my watch would no longer receive calls. I left it alone, and a few days later I realized that my watch had ceased other operations as well: it would no longer charge with the provided dock, and sending taps, heartbeats and on-watch texts immediately failed. Ultimately, I had to remove the car Bluetooth connection from my iPhone and reset the watch to "out of the box" settings before it became functional again. At this point I cannot connect the iPhone to the car via Bluetooth without impacting the watch. Apple Watch devs: software fix, please!

Can I suggest you post this to the Apple feedback site (link below) - the dev won't see it her (Apple doesn't participate directly). Or call Apple support - this is the first instance I've seen of Bluetooth interference.

It might be that a restart would fix it - worth a try

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Sent my comments in to Apple Feedback, thanks for the suggestion! (And no, doing a restart of the watch and the iPhone did not fix the problem. Had to reset the watch to factory settings before I could get it working again. Now I'm just avoiding pairing my iPhone with the car, which is inconvenient to say the least!)

nick101 wrote:

Can I suggest you post this to the Apple feedback site (link below) - the dev won't see it her (Apple doesn't participate directly). Or call Apple support - this is the first instance I've seen of Bluetooth interference.

I personaly haven't experienced it, either, fortunately. I use a BT keyboard with my iPad and BT speakers or headphones much of the time. So far, no issues.

No issues here, several watches, keyboards and trackpads here, but also a few BT speakers jotted around the place. I suspect it to be something specific to the OP and probably not suitable for feedback.

I am having a similar problem as RickH except my issue is with a house phone. I use an AT&T detec6 house phone with wireless handsets in every room. The AT&T has a great Bluetooth feature that allows you to connect up to two iPhones so that if either my land line or one of the iPhones has an incoming call then you can answer the call from any wireless handset as long as your phone is within the Bluetooth distance requirement from the base station. It also allows you to use a handset to call out on your iPhone line. This is good for people withou a land line.

Here is the issue. When the Apple Watch is paired with the iPhone at the same time as the AT&T base station, the Apple Watch will not answer the incoming iPhone call. I can answer on the iPhone but not the watch. Interestingly though is that I can start an outgoing call with the watch, just not receive. If I remove the bluetooth pairing from the AT&T base station, then the Apple watch will answer and works fine.

i Hope this was just an oversight by Apple. We should have the option to connect to any attached voice enabled device paired with the iPhone. Wheat her it is your automobiles Bluetooth hands free device, a Bluetooth house phone or a Bluetooth headset. Which I don't have one to try. They should all be available as an option depending on your situation.

floyd0 wrote:

Here is the issue. When the Apple Watch is paired with the iPhone at the same time as the AT&T base station, the Apple Watch will not answer the incoming iPhone call. I can answer on the iPhone but not the watch. Interestingly though is that I can start an outgoing call with the watch, just not receive. If I remove the bluetooth pairing from the AT&T base station, then the Apple watch will answer and works fine.``

I suspect your problem may actually be different than the OP's. You may be running into competing BT profiles. Both devices may be trying to use the same BT profile on the watch, which wouldn't work.