Level 1

66 points

iPhone 8 bluetooth issues

My new iPhone 8 is having all kinds of wonkiness with bluetooth. It refused to pair with my AirPods, repeatedly dropped connection to my 2016 car, routinely loses connection with my series 1 watch and refused to connect to unlock my laptop (all things that I had no issues with before moving over from my iPhone 6). Apple support told me to erase all content, reset and go through a reinstall from a backup (and all the password re-entry etc.) which I did wasting a couple hours of my day. Their remote diagnostic said bluetooth was fine and some of my apps (none to be named) had problems necessitating this restoration from backup. Needless to say, the issue does not seem solved. Anyone else having bluetooth issues with the iPhone 8? All of these bluetooth connectivity issues worked flawlessly on the 6 (with iOS11 and all prior iterations I had) so I may just sent the 8 back and live w/ my 3 year old battery for a while longer.....

iPhone 8

Posted on Sep 24, 2017 7:41 PM

Top-ranking reply

jeffntamm

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Dec 2, 2017 10:32 AM

Possible fix to some of the issues. We had an appointment at the Apple Store last night and discussed this issue with them. My wife's Ford Explorer was dropping the bluetooth out intermittently during phone calls and even when not in a phone call. Her watch would also disconnect at times. The weird thing was we discovered that she could play music and it would not drop out when streaming music through bluetooth. We told the Apple Genius that we had restored the phone from a backup several times and that did not fix the issue. The Apple Genius felt strongly that the backup had something corrupt about it so he suggested that we restore this as a new phone and not restore from the backup any longer. We had to manually save all of the photos and contacts to a hard drive before doing this. Once we restored this phone as a new phone, we then added all of the photos and contacts again from the hard drive. We also had to add all of the apps manually. Finally, we tested making phone calls several times and we have not had an issue once. This may help some of you in the future. It is a long process so be prepared for this to take a few hours depending on the amount of files that you have. Good luck!

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245 replies

Dec 5, 2017 10:21 AM in response to Al_H

Just in case: a few have had luck with clearing their IPhone BT connections and the vehicles connections and repairing them all after the IOS 11.2 update. Good luck and I know it’s been a pain for me as well.

deggie

Level 10

167,525 points

Jan 2, 2018 9:07 AM in response to rama1979

Your problem with all of those is probably your connection with the iPhone 6+. Turn Bluetooth off on the 6+ and any other device you have that connects to the BT devices. On your car delete all previous iPhone pairings and try again. Then move on to the smaller units, put them in pairing mode and connect them.

papalou

Level 1

4 points

Feb 20, 2018 6:47 AM in response to papalou

Well, I fixed my problem. Just sharing in case it fixes it for others. I had manually deleted my old phone's profile from the car stereo (by pressing buttons) but ALSO had to remove it using vocal commands. My faith in Apple is renewed. The makers of my car stereo, however, should be stoned.

Apr 13, 2018 4:28 PM in response to Kev3471

Yes, I agree. I called Apple today and spoke with a "Senior Tech", Laverne, who after the first few steps didn't fix the problem, wanted me to reset a whole bunch of other settings that I knew had nothing to do with a Bluetooth problem. I have a 2012 Subaru Forester that connected fine with my iphone 5c with ios 10.3.3 but my new iphone 8 with ios 11.3 loses the connection when I turn the car off. Laverne said I needed to call Subaru to see if they had an update for my car's bluetooth. After seeing the hundreds of iphone users online who have had the same problem, I am amazed at her attitude, when I asked her to review herown database of customer complaints, that I was the one who needed to go to Subaru for a solution. Clearly the problem is either with the iphone 8 or the ios version installed on my iphone.

sri1460

Level 1

14 points

Sep 27, 2017 11:20 AM in response to Ralph9430

Upgraded to 11.0.1 and so far the disconnect issues with my watch don't seem to be happening anymore. I hope to update again after a few more days of observation. Thank you!

asimon20

Level 1

4 points

Dec 2, 2017 2:45 PM in response to deggie

Also clear out all previous names and reconnect - that’s what worked for us

Sent from my iPhone

Dec 5, 2017 8:29 AM in response to Rayloriure

Just wonder if you updated to IOS 11.2 yet? If fixed most of my Jeep 430 uConnect Bluetooth connection issues with the exception of some audio control on my iPad Pro.

Kev3471

Level 1

4 points

Dec 9, 2017 5:26 AM in response to 85alvarado

Well i downloaded 11.2 and so far so good -connects automatically and doesn’t disconnect. Here’s hoping it stays like that.

asimon20

Level 1

4 points

Dec 15, 2017 7:54 AM in response to bigredmixer

Delete all connections and the. Re pair the blue tooth - that worked for us

Sent from my iPhone

Jan 26, 2018 2:35 PM in response to Rayloriure

I was having BT issues and latest software update (11.2.5) made things much better! Audio still a bit choppy but has improved considerably ...

sri1460

Level 1

14 points

Sep 29, 2017 5:28 PM in response to sri1460

My watch disconnected again with the 11.0.1 update when I got into the car. It seems like the problem occurs after several connect disconnects on Bluetooth. It was fine for the first couple of days after the new install of 11.0.1.

Oct 6, 2017 9:53 AM in response to Rayloriure

i have the same issue on my iPhone 8 plus and after contacting apple support, I was told to do a backup and factory reset my phone, which I did. After restoring my data from the backup, I am still having the same issues. It connects to my Bluetooth devices but loses connection and re-connects all the time ( my devices are: Huawei smart watch, 2017 car, Samsung Bluetooth headphones, Miband).

before iPhone 8 , i had an iphone 7 which had no issues until i updated the OS to iOS 11, which makes me think that this is a iOS issue and not iPhone 8 specific.

Rayloriure Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 6, 2017 10:00 AM in response to dadathepanda100

You got the same response from them that I did. However, my experience is slightly different; I did everything you did then, I reverted back to my iPhone 6 (running iOS 11) and had absolutely no issues with that combination. I then went to genius bar where they did diagnostics and swapped out for another iPhone 8, which has the same issue. When I pair my work iPhone 6S, no issue. When I connect via usb, no issue. I strongly believe it's a bluetooth 5 issue. I spoke to Apple again last night and they told me to take my car in for service. BMW has no information about this issue. I asked Apple and BMW to pass this on to their engineers. I've already wasted enough of my time on this. I suspect it's too early to bring my car in for a "fix" as it's unlikely they have the problem sorted yet and it would be a further waste of my time. Now I just have to decide whether it's worth keeping the phone or changing back and waiting for both systems to play well together. One day I'll learn my lesson about being and early adopter....

Rayloriure Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 20, 2017 8:13 AM in response to Victor510

FWIW, I downgraded to a 7, got twice the storage for $50 less and have none of these issues anymore. You may want to consider doing the same. I rather BT worked with my car than have wireless charging.

pgleiser

Level 1

4 points

Jan 17, 2018 6:20 AM in response to Mikey89

I have chatted, spoken on the phone twice and visited the Apple Store three times.

The communication channel isn't the problem. The PHONE is the problem. Or more precisely, apparently, the operating system is the problem. From what I've read, all of these problems started with iOS 11.

That there are posts on this forum about this problem going back to November and that they remain yet unresolved is surprising and disappointing.

Apple is supposed to be better than this.

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iPhone 8 bluetooth issues