Several with hearing aids since iOS 11 upgrade...

My Resound Linx 3D hearing aids have been working flawlessly with my iPhone 7 Plus since I purchased these hearing aids a few months back. Last week I installed the iOS 11.1 security update before leaving on a business trip to Europe on Sunday night. When I landed at the airport in Amsterdam, the hearing aids wouldn’t connect to my iPhone. I figured the hearing aid batteries were low so I replaced them while I was waiting for my flight to Manchester. After restarting, the right hearing aid wouldconnect but not the left one. Opening and closing the battery door multiple times generally resulted in one hearing aid connecting but not the other. Sometimes, neither hearing aid would connect. When I arrived in the UK (and for the 3 days that I was there) this problem persisted. Sometimes the hearing aids would connect just fine. Other times, one or none would connect. I tried quite a few things including forgetting and repairing the connection between the iPhone and the hearing aids multiple times. Nothing helped. At times, It almost felt like therewas Bluetooth interference everywhere and the hearing aids were struggling to get a signal lock.

I think I may have solved the problem and I’m posting here to pass along the info. I have both my iPhone and my iPad setup to connect to my Linx 3D hearing aids. It occurred to me that every time the disconnecting issue pops up, I am sitting near my iPad. I think what may be happening is that both devices are trying to compete for the connection at the same time and that is why one or both ears won’t connect. They are dropping off to connect to the iPad. I’ve unpaired The hearing aids with the iPad and turned off Bluetooth on the iPad too in order to test this theory. This also explains why some people don’t have the issue. The other interesting datapoint is that the iPhone had the iOS 11.1.1 update and the iPad did not. Maybe this was an issue...not sure.

If you have similar issues with disconnection and you have multiple devices paired, try unpairing your hearing aids from everything but your iPhone and see if the problem stops. I did that and all is well again. I think there is a bug in iOS that causes issues when you pair multiple Apple devices to the same hearing aids.

Jordan

Note: It seems that over time the "pairing" between iOS and the device can get 'shaky'.

The solution is to force a re-pairing: General -> Accessibility -> scroll down to MiFi Hearing Devices (tap)

If the devices show up, but not connected, first tap the "Forget this device" to 'clear out' old connection information.

(That's an important step.)

If you have other iOS devices nearby, make sure they are also not paired with that MiFi device (maybe even turn off the Bluetooth on those other devices temporarily).

Then open/close battery doors to cause the hearing aids to 'restart' and look for a pairing connection. Once they show up as a MiFi device (even though disconnected), tap on that hearing aid device line. You should then get prompts to "pair" with your Apple iOS device -- and have a nice new 'paired' connection.

While I wasn't having all the severe problems several have noted above, I was having a problem with the 'output device' switching between a phone call being placed ("ringing") and the call being answered. That is, while the call was "ringing", I would switch from the default of hearing aids to the speaker (on phone or on car multimedia). When answered, the audio would switch back to the hearing aids (which it should not have done).

After the forced re-pairing (forget device, then re-pair it), the one test call I made did NOT switch back to the default between the "ringing" and the "answered".

By the way, switching to another phone may not clear out the existing "pairing" connections (that's part of the phone's data when it is backed up and restored).

Try the 'forced disconnected' (forget the device) and re-pairing to see if that clears up the issues.

Yes I am having the same problem. I called the hearing aid manufacture technical support and they are acknowledging it is a problem with iOS 11. I asked if they could do an update to their software to resolve the issue, and they said it was to on their end, it would need to be corrected by Apple in an iOS update.

I went to my audiologist and he upgraded my firmware on my hearing aids. Since the update my issues with iOS 11 have been 100% resolved. I wear Starkey Halo 2 aids. I hope this helps a few of you out and you can find the same relief I have.

Yes- I discovered that my ipad auto-loaded the hearing aid app (I have tried both wides and starkly halo, and am sticking with the latter, though the wider app was easier to use) and the phone and ipad were fighting to pair, and the aids wold not pair. However, even when I deleted the app from my ipad, I am still having issues with one heairing aid unpairing, though less frequently.

I am having the exact same problem and Apple has changed my new iPhone 8 for another iPhone 8 and exactly the same is happening. I have now been told that resound have not done any upgrades to their app for over a year and that seems to be where the problem is!

Not sure if the next steps to take

Kerry

I think you may be on to something here. At first I thought it wasn't for me because I have Bluetooth turned off on my iPad for this reason that I don't want my phone and iPad to compete for my hearing aids connection. Then I realized I just got an Apple Watch and I think my iPhone and watch are competing for the connection. I turned off my watch for the day and will see if I get improved behavior and will report back. I certainly think there is enough evidence that Apple should look at this seriously. I had very few issues with this before iOS 11. I use ReSound hearing aids paired to an iPhone 7+.

Bluetooth 5.0 is probably the culprit- most of your devices (hearing aids) were designed for Bluetooth 4.2. I have verified this with accessibility techs in Apple support and I work in tech support. All adds up - seeing all this with my dads phone.

Someone else posted earlier that they had their Halo firmware updated and it seems to have fixed the issue. How accurate this is I don't know.

Having a similar problem, difficulty pairing and then when it indicates everything is paired only receive audio in one ear. Also on my iphone 8+ it will crash the TruLink program and switch back to phone, disconnecting the hearing aids.

I have had to use the "Forget this Device" several times to get the previously paired aids to pair again. In addition I use to be able to switch from one device to another simply by turning off the BT on one and turning it on, on the other. This is no longer the case. I must "Forget the device and re-pair and hope both work or do it again. Or the settings will say that both are connected but they are not.

I was hoping the latest iOS upgrade (11.2.5) would have fixed this, but no such luck. Apple - this is not a hearing aid issue. Many brands of hearing aids are having the same problem. Please fix this!!

I have the iPhone X and I have also noticed this issue.

Mostly affects incoming calls where it fails to decide what audio to use, dropping in and out etc, can take 10-20 secs to stabilise. Makes no difference whether you change the Audio Routing options either.

This makes the purpose of the aids super limited. I don't notice any issues with Media Audio though, and hardly ever a problem with outgoing calls too. Although once or twice it has disconnected mid call,

Tried on other iPhone, (6S) and this is the same. Media Audio works fine on my iPad Pro too.

I have Resound Linx2 aids. Contacted my audiologist to see if they are aware and whether Resound have released a firmware update. But, I've been researching online, and aside of a Starkey Halo fix, it seems that many of us are getting nothing but grief from Apple in terms of who is to blame.

It WORKED pre iOS 11, so surely it cannot be that hard to put right. In truth, my iPhone X is a pile of trash. Slow and unresponsive at times. Notifications screen is a mess and don't display properly. Why do they insist on breaking their OS? May have to consider Android if they don't sort it! :-(

I have this issue with Beltone First 17. Just as others have expressed, Bluetooth pops, cracks, drops, fails to connect, takes forever to connect, etc. Apple has changed my new iPhone 8 for another iPhone 8 and exactly the same is happening. I did the hard reset by iTunes twice and the problems continue. Apple and iPhone are no longer an option for future use. PLEASE, fix it Apple.

I'm using Starkey Halo 110 and iPhone 7 Plus. My phone locks up when I put my hearing aids on in the morning. Sometimes it locks up later, but it always locks up at some point. Apps that were already running will seem to get stuck updating their feeds, but in reality they've all become stuck due to whatever has locked up the phone.

I can't answer any calls that come in during this locked up state because touch doesn't work nor is the phone broadcasting to the hearing aids. The lock up has been a complete disaster for hands-free driving and I've just had to leave my phone alone until I get to my destination and can try to fix anything.

Pressing to power it down won't even work for several minutes. Touch slowly disappears, so even if the phone gets to the power down screen, I may not be able to slide to power off.

The phone will spontaneously restart itself at some point, but I eventually discovered that turning my hearing aids off solved all of these issues.

It works just fine lots of other times. I just wish I knew how to predict when it's safe to use my hearing aids or not.