Bluetooth On iPhone 6 keeps dropping connection to AppleWatch

1 month on and I am still having this issue, I have now tested my work phone whilst tethering and it appears to be fine. So I fully reset my phone and set it up from new (I did not realise how customised and personal my phone was!). This still has not worked and I still have the problem with my personal phone. The only two differences now are that my iPhone 6 Plus 'might' have a different Bluetooth chip to my iPhone 6S and that my personal iPhone had an Apple Watch connected. My personal phone has also dropped out on a bluetooth headset which I was trying to use because of the issues I was having ruling out the car.

This leads me on to a conversation with a colleague who is having the same problem since upgrading to the latest iOS, she has a Bluetooth headset and has an Apple Watch. She has an iPhone 7 and the same 1st Gen Apple Watch - this has got to be a software bug with the iOS 10.2 with Apple watches.

Anyone managed to fix this or heard anything from Apple?

does same this with plantonic handsfree ear piece. its all up to date the iOS and everything else and its only bluetooth device etc. its software and should lock onto a device until its turned off (bluetooth or device)

I'm currently talking to a 2nd line Apple support who is communicating with their development team, I have done logging when the issue happens and these have been sent to Apple. The first thing they came back with was the fact I also have a plantonic headset. They have said that there are known issues with these headsets and iPhones but could not explain the issues I am having. I have another support session arranged on Monday to answer some more of their questions. I must admit since getting past 1st line support who blamed the car, the phones hardware and everything else in between Apple has been very good - but no fix yet! So you are aware my plantonic fails on my personal phone, my work phone and my college has the same problem with her headset and her iPhone 7. I am starting to wonder if the plantonic Bluetooth profile is causing issues with my car kit ... even with the headset turned off!

Hi. i have exact same problem with Plantronics M55, 2011 SKoda Superb and IP 6s.. have previously deleted all profiles and factory wiped the phone. driving me more bonkers than i already was... please update with any resolution!

good luck..

It's a problem with phone software aka iOS it gets a connection but scan the area for more then crashes. Apple need to sort it out but blind to see most are having the problem. They should make one bluetooth connection and no more and if out of range it looks for last connection until user input changes the connection. Reset will do Jack

As mentioned above I have been speaking to second line Apple support person, the guy was very helpful and prompt, did what he said he was going to etc. He requested that we do additional logging that this came from the developers - before we had chance to do this he got an update saying they were aware of the issue, see below:

Hi Graham, when you have the issue with your Skoda do you have the phone plugged in and charging and/or do you use wifi tethering for data? My phone was unuseable yesterday driving back and kept cutting out, I disconnected it from the power and it started working as you would expect. I have noticed my phone has been better in recent weeks but it's had the battery changed under the warranty so it's not been on charge anywhere near as much as it used to be. It would also explain why it happens on my personal phone and not my work phone, I don't tether on my work phone and my work phone is a 6s Plus so much larger battery and does not need charging as often so tend to charge it at home not in the car. Just a thought as I will report it back to Apple if there is a connection. Thanks

IP 6S has had battery replaced by AppleCare.

- it's connected to Apple Watch 1

- wifi will be on, but not active (i don't turn it off) except to say that I think it sniffs out BT hotspots and connects briefly as i pass.. there is wifi from a 3 MiFi in the car (for customers) which is on but phone is excluded from it

- no, phone not charging. well, not often!

i do notice that when I am at home and sat with plantronics m55 ear piece connected, every so often though only half a metre away, the headset reports phone not connected. I haven't noticed if this is a regular interval. I've seen plantronics issues mentioned elsewhere and have asked PLantronics, they aren't aware of an issue with Apple products (though they did tell me to download their hub software and make sure headset firmware up to date)

In the car usually I don't know it isn't going to work until i try to answer a call (then can only hear caller by risking licence to put phone on speaker). poor... sometimes, e.g. if i ask Siri something, car takes over then Siri can't hear me, and thee whole thing then gets in a complete knot (and i can't even drop the "call"). very occasionally i do get a message saying phone unavailable (from car). again, very occasionally after working! the car seems to reboot and remake the connection (which subsequently from experience won't work).

so, long answer short - no i don't think that my issues correspond with yours. regrettably it's not that easy :-(

I have this issue too. I have an Apple watch, but that never has a problem. The problem is with my headphones, I have several headphones that I use for different situations. The issue is they will have an extremely short range until I go into settings and choose to forget this connection. I reconnect, and everything will be fine and my range will go back up to 20 to 30 feet. Then it will drop back down to about 1 or 2 feet the next time I use it until I forget the connection again. Turning the device off and on without the "forget this connection" does not fix it. That why I believe this is a software issue. I think it gets stuck in a low power mode.

Ever since I added a smart watch (Moto 360 Sport) to my iPhone 6 the Bluetooth constantly drops. I notice it in my car the most, but at work when I am trying to listen to podcasts or music, my headset will go silent and then vibrate on reconnect. It is very distracting and frustrating.

So far I have tried factory reset, restore, upgrading to latest iOS and none of it matters. I was really thinking the X might be my next phone but it doesn't seem like Apple has managed to fix this issue across 3 generations of phone, so not sure why I would expect the next to be different. My watch will probably like the Pixel 2 better anyway. 😟

interesting...I don't have this issue with my WATCH, but I do have this problem with my mfi game controller.

I have a MOGA Rebel mfi game controller for my iPhone 6 running 8.1.3

when i play games with this controller, it often drops connection, which is the same as you described, the bluetooth icon flash on and off...

I tried everything i could but still can't get rid of this problem. It just made me gave up playing games with controller.

Hope Apple can get all the bluetooth glitches fixed in iOS9

I have this same problem. iPhone 6 8.3 and Apple Watch. Will drop connection when I'm watching it from the iPhone that is 1 foot from the watch

I know the watch radio is working because with the phone turned off in my house, Siri works fine via Wi-fi. Also, the phone works with my car's bluetooth.

Furthermore, my father has an Apple Watch and it works fine with an iPhone 5 iOS 8.3

At this point, I think it's an iPhone 6 issue with low power bluetooth (which is what the watch uses as opposed to what my car uses).

I've started to have this problem out of nowhere a few days ago. Bluetooth is consistently disconnecting a few times per day now, but it worked fine for 3 weeks since I got my apple watch. What is extremely strange is the wifi on my iPhone drops and it can only see 5 ghz networks... Turning Bluetooth on/off resolves the connection to the apple watch (Bluetooth reconnects) AND wifi networks are visible again on the iPhone. Do I have a faulty radio in my iPhone or is this a software bug??? A restore and reset of network settings did not help :/

Hi Phillip. This is normally caused by interference with another Bluetooth device. The best way to fix this is to reset your network settings and re-pair Watch. I would recommend unpairing the Watch first. If you are using any other constant Bluetooth device that is connected to your iPhone, you may continue to see this problem reoccur. I specifically had this issue with Pebble and Fitbit devices together. When I stopped using Fitbit, the problem was resolved. Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Brandon

Tried repairing multiple times. Same issue. (I hate answers like that, it's like when IT punts and tells you to reboot your computer).

I really think it's a low power bluetooth issue with the iPhone 6 and iOS 8.3. Like I said I can go to iPhone Bluetooth and constantly see the watch go from "Connected" to "Not connected" when it's about 1 foot away. I don't have that problem with my car (but that's Bluetooth 2.0 versus the Watch at Low Power Bluetooth 4.0).

I'm going to pair the watch with my sister's iPhone 5s and see if the performance is better. I'm willing to bet that it is (since my dad's watch works fine with his iPhone 5).