iOS 9.3.5 Affecting Bluetooth

To prevent anyone from recommending things that you have already tried, what troubleshooting have you tried? User troubleshooting for the phone includes restart, reset, restore from backup, restore to factory; testing after each step. There are troubleshooting steps for Bluetooth as well, but again, I wouldn't want to bore you with things you have already tried.

Since upgrading to 9.3.5 (iPhone 5, 64GB) from 9.3.4, I also lost Bluetooth. 😟

Symptoms after upgrading to 9.3.5

• Suspected greater battery drain (difficult to prove b/c I didn't bench mark before).
• Bluetooth failure. So far, my MS Band 2 no longer pairs (get pairing errors when/if it is found). Two other Bluetooth devices are no longer even found.
• Worse and stranger BT failure. My beloved and expensive Plantronics Back Beat Sense headphones will pair but I no longer hear any sound, nor can I control pause, forward, back. This fault discovery assures me that the Apple 9.3.5 is definitely the culprit.

Troubleshooting
All the usual

• Power down (multiple times)
• Reset (power button/home button) - Actually, the phone will do its own resets (sometimes once per day and usually while browsing with Safari). So yes, multiple times! 😟
• Inside Bluetooth - clicking and selecting Forget This Device. Doing so, means that the device will no longer be found. Of course, that is not normal!

To Do - Next?

Hard reset to factory and reinstall iOS. But my concern is that this will be a waste of time if, in fact, 9.3.5 is the problem and it's not a slightly faulty install.

sdc01 wrote:

Troubleshooting
All the usual

• Power down (multiple times)
• Reset (power button/home button) - Actually, the phone will do its own resets (sometimes once per day and usually while browsing with Safari). So yes, multiple times! 😟
• Inside Bluetooth - clicking and selecting Forget This Device. Doing so, means that the device will no longer be found. Of course, that is not normal!

To Do - Next?

Hard reset to factory and reinstall iOS. But my concern is that this will be a waste of time if, in fact, 9.3.5 is the problem and it's not a slightly faulty install.

Forgetting the device will of course mean it will not be found, unless you put the device into discovery/pairing mode. That will require following the instructions for the device. You may also have to reset the devices. That has seemed to correct any issues that I've seen others encounter with Bluetooth. All Bluetooth devices that I have worked with have a reset function, but it is not always easy to find information on it. You can get it from the manufacturer. Updates to Bluetooth profiles in phones and other devices will cause these issues.

As far as your battery symptoms, those can be individually diagnosed by finding the process or application that is using the most battery, and then troubleshoot that. Many times with iOS updates, a process can get stuck, or a file get corrupted. Usually a restore to factory can clear it, and then restore your backup. I have multiple devices running iOS 9.3.5, multiple phones, and iPads, and have not experienced battery issues.

In regards to Safari, if you are finding that using that and using the phone it is experiencing shutdowns, or restarts, then you certainly need to reinstall the iOS. Something did not go completely right. The restore to factory will get you a clean version of the iOS and install it.