Since iOS11 Bluetooth keeps disconnecting

Since I upgraded to OS11 my iPhone 6 keeps disconnecting from the Bluetooth in my car, a Mazda 6 2015 vintage. To reconnect I have to select the phone on my cars infotainment unit and off it goes working for a while longer until it again disconnects mid song. This didn’t occur prior to OS11, any ideas?

Posted on Sep 22, 2017 6:28 PM

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Posted on Oct 7, 2017 8:36 AM

Hello Pathfineroz,


I was having the same problem with my Bluetooth devices continuously disconnecting and then reconnecting on the iPhone after the iOS 11 update. It did this with all Bluetooth devices such as my car, powerbeats, etc. I use my Bluetooth headphones at the gym and on runs so you can see how this was a huge annoyance for me.


Anyways, this morning I was reading some articles and came across one that suggested I should reset all networks. I did that along with hitting the “forget this device” feature. I’ve been using my Bluetooth wireless headphones ever since I did that (for a little over an hour) and voila I haven’t had any disconnection issues!


I am not tech savvy whatsoever and I didn’t read through all of the comments in this discussion so hopefully I am not being repetitive and I am able to provide some assistance.

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Oct 7, 2017 8:36 AM in response to Pathfineroz

Hello Pathfineroz,


I was having the same problem with my Bluetooth devices continuously disconnecting and then reconnecting on the iPhone after the iOS 11 update. It did this with all Bluetooth devices such as my car, powerbeats, etc. I use my Bluetooth headphones at the gym and on runs so you can see how this was a huge annoyance for me.


Anyways, this morning I was reading some articles and came across one that suggested I should reset all networks. I did that along with hitting the “forget this device” feature. I’ve been using my Bluetooth wireless headphones ever since I did that (for a little over an hour) and voila I haven’t had any disconnection issues!


I am not tech savvy whatsoever and I didn’t read through all of the comments in this discussion so hopefully I am not being repetitive and I am able to provide some assistance.

Jan 1, 2018 5:05 PM in response to Pathfineroz

I had the same problem with my VW Sharan and it‘s „professional“ hands-free. I tried every update after 11.0. Apple support was not helpful at all, essentially suggesting I look for firmware updates for the car. As if the car hadn’t been working just fine until iOS 11 came along.

Anyway, after upgrading the phone to 11.2.1, I have not had any more disconnects. Knocking on wood that it stays that way...

Aug 30, 2018 7:00 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I think more people have this problem than you realize. They have just learned to deal with it or ignore the issue.


Here's my experience with my iPhone SE. I have the same issues most of the other people here are describing. I'll be connected to a bluetooth device such as my car's handsfree or a bluetooth head set (I've had two different brands Jabra and Plantronics), they will randomly disconnect and switch back to the "iPhone" audio output selection while I'm on an active call.


Also if I'm playing music to my car via bluetooth it will sometimes disconnect. I notice this happened probably 80% of the time when I'm leaving my house and I have music streaming via bluetooth. It would disconnect as I was driving away from the house, maybe about 40-50 feet away from my house. So I started trying a few things to try to narrow down what was happening. I speculated it had something to do with leaving an area where I was connected to WiFi. This also was true with the headsets disconnecting as I was leaving work. I turned off the WiFi radio and I would say that cleared up 90% of the issues I saw.


So after discovering this, I took my phone in to the Apple store. I described what I was seeing and they gave me a new phone. The new phone did the exact same thing as the old one.


Long story short I believe that they have a fundamental design issue where the bluetooth and WiFi radio are a shared radio and when a "disconnect from WiFi" event occurs, that has some impact on any bluetooth connection that may be established. I can't confirm this theory so I guess I'll have to leave it as my opinion.

Nov 2, 2017 5:13 AM in response to Sidasta

Okay, don't want to jinx anything...


I noticed that my FitBit Charge HR was also connected by Bluetooth whenever I turned Bluetooth on. So I was connected to two devices - my speakers/headphones/car and the Fitbit.


I couldn't disconnect Fitbit, so I clicked "Forget device" instead. Almost two hours later, no disconnect.


There's still an issue, because this essentially means I can't use my Fitbit. But right now, I'm enjoying listening to music without constant disconnects.

Nov 10, 2017 11:59 AM in response to clynham

I think I have a work round at least for my application (iPhone X/Toyota Touch 2 Go)


lPreviously I had an iPhone 6S running iOS 10 with no Bluetooth problems. I used a USB to Lightning cable to connect for music and Bluetooth to connect for Phone and internet Via personal hotspot.

My work round was to disconnect the USB cable and use Bluetooth to connect for all services. I also switched off WiFi as suggested by another contributor. No dropout at all for more than 20 minutes.

So the question is whether there is a conflict between the Lightning port and Bluetooth and if so is it software or hardware related.

Dec 3, 2017 7:25 PM in response to Pathfineroz

I was having the problem with some Bluetooth devices disconnecting and others not. My Ford Escape would drop after a minute or so. My Lumo Run would drop after 20 minutes or so of running. My Aukey earbuds and MyZone heart monitor would stay connected through an hour run.


Downloaded 11.2 last night and stayed connected every time I was in the car today. Didn’t get a run in today so didn’t try the other devices but it does seem to fix the car problem.

Jan 3, 2018 5:47 PM in response to Pathfineroz

My Genius Bar appointment wasn't very successful. Nothing wrong with my phone and no real explanation that it's likely to be software related.

Did a phone reset, without removing the data, as well as a network reset. Was advised to monitor it throughout the day/night and if this didn't improve the dropouts, I was advised to do a full reset including erasing all data and set the phone up as a new iphone.

I did this last night - very time consuming! Music, photos, apps all had to be downloaded/synced from scratch.

The good news is it seems to have helped. I have a suspicion it's linked to my apple watch. I had no drop outs after the full reset but before I paired my apple watch again. Once I did that, I got the odd drop out.

Heading back to the apple store to see if my apple watch has issues.

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Since iOS11 Bluetooth keeps disconnecting

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