iPhone7 Bluetooth issue in the car

So, I'm having a similar issue.

Phone: iPhone 7
Carrier: AT&T

Operating System: iOS 10.1
Vehicle: 2013 Hyundai Elantra GLS

Issue: This has happened on my previous phone, an iPhone 6S, as well. However, since upgrading to iOS 10 and using the iPhone 7, the issue has increased. I feel that I'm a good candidate to test this issue because I drive 55-miles each way to work. So, I'm usually in my car for an hour each time.

What happens is, I turn my car on and turn the bluetooth on my phone on. After a few moments (rarely immediately; sometimes 1-3 minutes), the bluetooth will connect on my car stereo (I see the bluetooth symbol and it will flash, indicating that it's connecting) and then, it will disappear and drop the connection. It's very rare that this connects the first time. Maybe once every 2-3 weeks. This will continue (connect and disconnect) until it finally connects and then syncs my contacts. Sometimes, I drive an entire hour and my phone will never connect in my car. So far, this has happened twice in the past 2-3 weeks.

That is the main problem

Another problem is syncing and downloading my contacts to the car stereo. This usually takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes. I have 42 contacts in my phone, and remove my call history quite often. Therefor, it should not take this long ever.

I've only ever experienced this issue since Hyundai updated my car stereo's software. A previous update would instantly connect without any issue whatsoever except that every 15-minutes, my phone would go from hands-free back to the phone. The person on the other end would not be able to hear me, but I would be able to hear them. So it too me awhile to learn what was happening. To resolve this, I'd go into my phone's audio setting during that call and switch it from the phone back to hands-free. And once I did that, an internal timer would go off and I would need to do this every 15-minutes. So, if I noticed my phone getting to the 14-minute mark, I'd do it quickly so I wouldn't have the problem. And then, I'd have to keep my eye out for the 29-minute mark as it always happened in 15-minute intervals. The current version corrected that annoying issue. However, now, I'm experiencing the connect/disconnect issue.

Steps for Resolution: I've unpaired, paired, deleted the phone from my car, deleted the car from my phone.... more times than I care to count. This has not solved the issue.

I've also read in this forum about the Airplane mode trick. I've tested that theory out today and it does not work. In Airplane mode, I'm still experiencing the connect/disconnect issue.

Another theory is to turn LTE off on my phone. I've done this and also tested that it does not work. It still connects and disconnects.

I've even tried both of those, pairing and unpairing several times, and it still does not work.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with Hyundai to replace my car stereo with another one. It seems that I have this problem more than most people and it's very frustrating with a new phone and a fairly new car. I hope this fixes it. I'll check in with an update, however, I don't see this fixing it at all.

My wife has an iPhone 5S on iOS 10 on Verizon and I plan on testing this out with her phone tonight and see if it works. But, for now, this is an ongoing issue and problematic.

I've been having these issues with my F250 and Ford Sync, so I decided to just delete the device and reconnect hoping this would help establish a solid connection. However, now when I try to pair my device, Sync doesn't even show up as an option to connect to in my iPhone bluetooth settings. Everything worked great with my iPhone 6, but now my iPhone 7 plus is completely disconnected to my Ford. iOS 10.1 updated today, and running latest software version of Sync (v4.4)

I actually still have problems. My music seems fine but when I get a call I need to use the phone to talk. I can't be heard through the car even though it rings through the car speakers. So 80 percent fixed I guess for me.

i was having the same issue, i went into the settings of the bluetooth and stopped syncing the contacts, and for the first time today i was able to take a call thru bluetooth without it disconnecting. So i guess its having trouble loading the contacts

Thanks I will give it a shot. Much appreciated.

I am having the same issue with my Jaybird x2 Bluetooth headphones. They worked remarkably well with on 6s+ and ios9, but frequent dropout and skipping on Ios10, all versions. It is slightly better on 10.1, but not resolved. Very frustrating. I will try the workaround mentioned above and turn off LTE. Thanks to all for the suggestion!

So I got a chance to jog today and try out the above suggestion of turning off LTE. No skipping, no dropouts. The headphones performed perfectly! Great suggestions, thanks to all!

I'm sure Apple must be aware of this issue, hopefully a fix is on the way.

I have the the same bluetooth audio skipping/dropping issue with iPhone 7 plus in Toyota Sienna. I filed a bug at https://bugreport.apple.com/

Just wanted to bring this back up to the top. I've been waiting for a resolution from Apple since I opened a case 42 days ago and can't seem to get their attention about this problem. Still ongoing.

I'm having the same problem, Bluetooth connection dropping/skipping randomly while playing Music or Podcasts. I have an iPhone 7Plus connecting to 2016 Lexus RX350. My iPhone 6 was working perfectly until I upgraded to iPhone 7Plus.

There was 10.1.1 release a couple of days ago. I installed that and same issue. Now I'm seeing 10.2.1 beta I'm going to try and install that now...

Sooooo...10.2 Beta 1 still not fixed. The Bluetooth only seems to cut out in my car (Ford Escape 2014). It works great with my Bose QC30 earbuds. No problems there.

But I can also confirm turning off LTE does work as far as I can tell.

10.1.2 beta same issue - I also agree that turning off LTE service fixes the problem. Unfortunately, my data service on AT &T is less than half the speed on 3G as is it is on LTE.

I have been just toggling off the LTE when I get in the car. I don't like having to do it, but this issue does not seem to be a very high priority for Apple.

I have the same issue too. I have an Infiniti FX and the connection sometimes is choppy. I replaced the phone through Apple and I still have the same issue.

This website (http://www.autoconnectedcar.com/2016/09/why-bluetooth-issues-with-iphone-7-ios-1 0-and-cars-will-cause-problems-what-to-d…) says that one of the users claims that the issue is related to Bluetooth interference with GSM. I have AT&T phone but I wonder if anyone here is experiencing the same issue with a Verizon phone. Verizon uses a different modem (Qualcomm).

Note that I have an iPhone 6+, which has the same bluetooth version (4.2), and the same iOS (10) but there is no issue with this phone.