iPhone SE Bluetooth issues

My latest conversation with Apple Tech Support: After reporting the problem last Wednesday to a store Genius Bar and getting a replacement iPhone SE with the same problem, I called and asked for senior support technician on Friday. I received a call back from him on Monday to tell me he elevated my case to engineering and added it to the growing list of cases elevated to engineering. He figured that the more cases went to engineering, the quicker we would all get a fix. He also believed that it's a software issue, since audio works fine on non-phone call situations.

He promised to call me this afternoon (Tuesday) to tell me if he found out anything about a fix timetable. Based on this information, I will decide whether to return the phone or keep it and wait for resolution.

On the rattle issue... I believe it's a non-issue. Both my SEs had the rattle. My 5C has the rattle. Also friends' 5C, 5S and 2 SEs have it. It's the power button up top that causes the rattle on all of them.

In the meantime, I would urge everyone to report the issue to as many non-Apple blogs and forums as possible. There was only a brief few hours yesterday when some blogs reported the issue, but we would get a much quicker resolution if the issue became bigger news.

I can adjust the Bluetooth volume with the buttons on the side of the phone while connected to my Ford Sync unit. The problem is that the signal is already distorted before the volume adjustment. So all I'm doing is turning up or down a blown out, distorted audio signal. I hope they fix this soon.

I have been following this since my bluetooth pairing on a 2013 MB GLK had the same issue despite the previous 5S working fine. I could not understand callers but they could hear me fine. Today I tried one more thing. I went to the bluetooth pairing menu in the car and deleted all previous iPhone listings (I had three old iPhones listed and all had the same name). I then re-paired the new device so it was now the only device listed. Now the garbled speech which was present on all calls is gone. I don't think the audio quality is great, but it is totally usable when it was not yesterday. I already had a call in to Apple Support just to get a ticket number on the issue. He stated he had to search hard to find any mention of the SE issue and only on GM cars. Where are all these calls going? I would think they would appear on their same data base. He did have me do a hard reset of the SE and it did not seem to make any change in quality. I am using IOS 9.3.1. I will give this a try the next few days. This may have no application to others' situation, but I thought I would mention it.

My experience (iPhone SE 64 GB plus VW Golf VI bluetooth): I phisically disconnected my car's bluetooth hardware, so it was totally factory reset. Then I plugged it again, switched on the car's ignition and paired the phone: no luck, still bad incoming audio.

I have a Verizon iPhone SE on 9.3. When paired with my 2014 Honda CR-V, I have the same issue of poor-quality audio during phone calls.

One thing I tried yesterday that seemed to help was turning off both WiFi and LTE before making a call to another iPhone. While not perfect, the audio sounded much less distorted.

The Bluetooth problem seems to be on a large enough scale that Apple will have to either provide a swift software update or a recall to avoid fallout. I'm crossing fingers that being patient is the right decision. My husband and I have already both reported the problem to support, via Apple and Verizon.

have this exact issue with my iphone se purchased last Wed from t mobile returned and replaced at Apple store Saturday after a horrendous wait same issue. Wasted a tremendous amount of time resetting the iphone to New. Having Chevy dealer update Bluetooth on car the Apple people are now trying to blame the carrier. They ordered me another replacement. Spent hours on the phone with Apple and T-Mobile tech support. Very disappointed with Apple store response. They are looking at me as I am crazy. Fed up

I've got the same problem here. Can't make a phonecall via bluetooth when connected to my Audi RNS-E carkit in my Audi A3 (2004).

for the record:

same problem here in a 2014 Audi A3 e-tron MMI Navigation Plus.

Bluetooth Calls with iPhone SE are basically useless.

Tried factory reset and re-pairing. issue persists.

Two other iPhone 5S work fine.

I was told at Apple Genius Bar that all Iphones since 5S or somewhere near that vintage have a rattle, which is standard with the operation of the camera.

For the record, I have the same issue with iPhone SE 64G and a pathfinder 2015.

I worked for 36 years in Telecom engineering, so I am familiar with that annoying sound. It seems to be caused by audio clipping, in other word, if the sound level is too high for the bluetooth encoder/modulator. Therefore, the part that are above a certain threshold is clipped. I certainly hope the audio level can be reprogrammed by a software patch, and not fixed by an hardware attenuation on the circuit board. The latest would be a disastrous situation for Apple.

I'm taking the bet on the upcoming software fix and because I like the SE, I'll just be patient.

HI all

I've had the same problems with the SE 64gb which I got from vodafone on the 7/04/16 connecting to 2010 transit and 2011 A6 Audi..I then returned the phone and bought another phone from Apple which was £55 cheaper by the way but this had the same problem. I've since returned the iphone SE and now using a 4S which working fine. Must say my daughters 6S seem to work fine when connected to both vehicle. I never spoke to Apple technical but the shops never seem to know of any problems with the SE.

Hopefully they can sort this out and once they have I will buy another one because the 6s is just to big for me

After reading about this issue in the news, I Just confirmed it with my iPhone SE 64GB and my SEAT TOLEDO (2014) and its Seat Media System 2.2. Bluetooth Calls have terrible sound and beyond understandable.

Let's hope Apple fixes this soon...

Hi, friends!

Do you know that BLUETOOTH PROTOCOL has different sound quality with simple LISTENING MUSIC and CALLS with MICROPHONES.

USSUAL MUSIC HAS NORMAL HIGH QUALITY IN STERERO.

BUT SOUND with MICROPHONE has dirrerent quality in 8 bit MONO in standart BLUETOOTH.

8 bit as you know has a many noises if you compare with normal quality. But it is MODERN BLUETOOTH problem, not iPhone problem!!

It because chanel in Bluetooth is tight and bidirectional sound takes more resources. Do you understand?

By the way CREATIVE LABS made new feature for BLUETOOTH BACK CHANNEL. His new adapters and headphones (only last models) has new feature CRYSTAL CLEAR for BACK CHANNEL, so only in this adapter sound with MICROPHONE via BLUETOOTH is better, but also in MONO mode!!! And with new feature works only if transmitter and receiver support new feature. I think CREATIVE use 2 BLUETOOTH CHANELs in one for DIRECT AND BACK CHANNEL.

I faced same problem in new gaming (for example WORLD OF TANKS GAME).

If you want to use BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES in GAMES with CHATS you have to choose

1) if you use buit in microphone with BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES your MUSIC in GAME will be 8 bit mono only when you activate the chat.

2) but you can use stand alone wire microphone connected to your sound card as example to use high quality music in headphones.

Practically all bluetooth headphones with mic has same problem with BLUETOOTH QUALITY in MICROPHONE MODE and this write in it's manual!

So, for my mind this is BLUETOOTH PROBLEM only, but now many people start to use Bluetooth often and now they understand, that wireless sound is not always good and Bluetooth standart is old and they need to think how to make Bluetooth standarts better with microphone!!.

Maybe it is true what you mention, but is has nothing to do with this issue.

It is confirmed that bluetooth HFP protocol has issues with iPhone SE, it iscrystal clear. Other phones work, SE does not. Easy.

You think that HFP protocol in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s has all modern creative labs features like this http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/creative-bluetooth-audio-bt-w2-usb-transc eiver ???

This is APTX Low latency and FastStream audio codec for Crystal clear BACK CHANEL?

And you think that somebody from APPLE insert old chip in iPhone SE?

I know exactly that my iPhone 4s has no even APT-X (APTX low latency has no especially) and has no main for that topic FastStream CRYSTAL CLEAR feature for back chanel audio codec.

APT-X is a modern feature

APT-X low latency and FastStream audio codec for crystal clear back chanel is most modern.

For my mind iPhone 6s has no APT-X, has no APT-X LOW LATENCY and has no FastStream audio codec.

And iPhone SE also has no such technology.