Very slow wifi when bluetooth is enabled since iOS 10

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Level 1

21 points

Very slow wifi when bluetooth is enabled since iOS 10

Hi all,

since the update to iOS 10, the download speed of my wifi (2.4GHz) on my iPhone is very slow when bluetooth is enabled.

When checking my connection speed using the speedtest-app, I get around 5000kB/s with bluetooth disabled and around 50kB/s with bluetooth enabled. In fact, I can see my download speed drop instantly when enabling bluetooth during the test and increasing when disabling bluetooth. The iPhone is connected to an Apple Watch via bluetooth.

Upload speeds are unaffected and stay constant at around 300kB/s (limit of my connection).

My iPad connected to the same network (also running iOS 10) does not show this behavior.

I called Apple Care support and they told me to rest my network settings and reset my router which I did. This fixed the problem only temporary; one day after the "fix" the old behavior returned. Now they are telling my the only option might be a reset of the iPhone to factory defaults which I would like to avoid.

The issue started with the update to iOS 10 and did not disappear after upgrading to 10.0.2.

Anyone else experiencing this issues or any clue on how to fix this?

Thank you!

iPhone 6s, iOS 10.0.2

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 10:45 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2017 10:47 AM in response to Henrik_Scheel

I have this on my ipad which hasn't ever been connected to a watch.

Below are my tests from this evening, note the bluetooth symbol if it isn't obvious!

This is after a FULL restore of the ipad from recovery mode

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Answer 2

Jan 9, 2017 3:55 AM in response to matthias__

Hi,

I am encountering the same thing. My download drops to roughly 10% of the speed that I have without Bluetooth enabled. This is very annoying and I am 100% sure I did not have this before iOS 10.

To be fair - my iPhone 5S also shows this - but my iPad Air 2 doesn't. My wifes iPhone 6 shows it as well, but not in the same extent. It drops the download speed to roughly 70-80% of the supposed speed.

Anyone solved this yet ? Any statement from Apple so far ?

Thanks, Philipp

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Answer 3

matthias__ Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 11, 2017 1:46 AM in response to Philipp_1975PB

Apple replaced the screen under Apple Care (that's where the antenna is) - it looks like this has solved the issue for me (I have to note, however, that I also switched the router and did only limited testing in 2.4GHz as the new one now supports 5GHz-Wifi).

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Answer 4

Sep 21, 2017 4:52 AM in response to 007700

Does anyone have some news on this strange behavior? I just installed IOS 11, and the problem is still there.

Wifi ON and Bluetooth ON : download speed 0,85Mbit/s upload speed 11 Mbit/s

Wifi ON and Bluetooth OFF : download speed 65Mbit/s upload speed 11.5Mbit/s

Big problem when you use the external speakers via bluetooth, and watching a youtube video. 😟

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Answer 5

Sep 22, 2017 12:50 AM in response to Thunderbugh

Same problem here even after the IOS 11 upgrade. I wrote to a technology newspaper, this is completely unacceptable. I bought many expensive apple devices but the problems are not solved and I’m very frustrated with them. Won’t buy any of their products again.

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Answer 6

Oct 26, 2017 8:51 AM in response to matthias__

Did some of you try to enable wifi connect between your Apple Watch and your iPhone? Be aware that as I know Apple Watch only support 2.4GHz and it will not work on 5GHz.

I wonder if that will solve the problem (or a temp workaround).

The reason why I think it will work is that I had a similar problem with a music app due to the problem with slow network. That was solved if my Apple Watch was wifi connected to my iPhone and at the same time I had Bluetooth enabled.

I hope that someone can try and confirm if it works

Br

Henrik

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Answer 7

jay_ary

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2017 11:04 AM in response to adamdavi3s

Are there any updates so far? I have the same issues with my wifi speed. Especially when Bluetooth is enabled AND a device is connected and operating (like a connected Apple Watch or headphones playing some songs).

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Answer 8

Dec 12, 2017 11:15 AM in response to jay_ary

Hi,

I regularly check it with support and I am actually due to do so tonight.

Thus far the engineers are still in discussion, AFAIK it seems like it must be a pretty major issue!

Hopefully I will have some better news tonight

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Answer 9

mtflud

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2017 11:21 AM in response to matthias__

This bug makes my iPhone almost unusable. I have to decide whether to have Bluetooth activated (I have an Apple Watch) or use 4G instead of WiFi, which is very inconvenient. It has existed from iOS 10 to 11.2 and still no fix! It should have been top priority from the beginning...

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Answer 10

jay_ary

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2017 11:23 AM in response to adamdavi3s

Thanks for your support. I was quite desperate when I noticed this issue on my new iphone. I recognized bad wifi speed and I did not know why. This discussion brought me to the idea, that there are issues with the bluetooth

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Answer 11

Dec 12, 2017 11:51 AM in response to matthias__

please can i suggest that anyone having this issue logs it with support and feel free to reference my support call 100366699217 the more the merrier!

Latest update:

from what I see here, the engineers want to run a profile through the iPad to see if they can reproduce the issue on a different iPad. This would involve installing the profile on your iPad so it can capture the logging information directly through the bluetooth and wifi and then they can dig in to that to see what exactly is going on with your wifi performance.

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Answer 12

Dec 20, 2017 4:45 AM in response to FidoDido78

Same exact problem. Apple even gave me a new phone, thinking it might be the antennae. No change. So now I have a brand new phone which works GREAT in the Apple store and on my work network, but 0.3 Mbps download with bluetooth on and 50+ Mbps download with bluetooth off. Turning bluetooth off isn't a long term option for me as I use them to control my hearing aids. Hello Apple, are you there?

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Answer 13

Dec 23, 2017 4:34 AM in response to matthias__

I have narrowed down the problem, but don't have a solution, only a workaround.

Wifi fails when bluetooth is on and a bluetooth device is off. It seems the phone is forever pinging the missing bluetooth device, slowing the wifi speed.

The only workaround so far is to forget the offending, paired device (e.g. car, speakers, watch, hearing aids) or turn off bluetooth completely.

Steve

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Answer 14

Dec 23, 2017 5:38 AM in response to steveadamsgm

Hi Steve,

Yes this is correct, now imagine you have an iPad Pro with a pencil and an iPhone 8+ with an Apple Watch and imagine how annoyed I am!!

It’s much more prevelant on the iPad and means I end up having to re pair my pencil every time I want to use it.

I’ve sent the latest set of logs to the engineers so it’s a waiting game now

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Answer 15

Dec 23, 2017 7:36 AM in response to adamdavi3s

I do understand annoyed. My hearing aids are connected to my phone. One battery goes out (happens once a week for each ear) and wifi is gone. I had to unpair my car altogether.

I write code and understand the problem. If bluetooth device off and paired, ping to find it. But they are pinging too much (so discovery is 'instant') and use the majority of power / bandwidth of the bluetooth/wifi antennae.

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