iPhone iOS 11 Bluetooth problems with car

[mloiterman]

Ohhh... now that you say that, I HAVE had audio play at the wrong speed since I got my X. I blamed the app (an audiobook app) as those have speed controls, but as soon as I got out of the car it was back to normal. Thought 11.2 was the first Bluetooth problems I’ve had, but had speed thing before.

Also, I get weird blips in my AirPods where they seem to lose sync from each other for a split second. That happens all the time. No amount of re-pairing helps. AirPods were my favorite Apple product in years when I bought them a few months ago for my iPhone 7. Now that I have the X, they’re as buggy as any other wireless headphone. I would’ve returned them had they worked like this the first month. I’d appreciate if Apple would stop breaking my stuff via updates.

It’s slightly better in 11.2, but something is going on in the background which is causing the audio to cut out.

At times it will play smoothly, but as soon as I hit a stoplight and touch the phone it starts dropping again.

I have owned every single iPhone since the first and used every version of iOS since 1.0. This is really the first time that I can remember encountering significant, persistent and unresolved bugs like this.

I KNOW that Android and Windows are far, far worse in every respect, but that doesn’t make this any less frustrating.

 

[naturalstar]

Well, it’s not Google Maps for me. Both yesterday and today without using navigation and experienced the disconnect issue persistently. This is an unacceptable for me. I usually spend a reasonable amount of time in my car and I have a nice Bose surround sound system in it to further enjoy my music.

I may have missed this, but I’m curious, does anyone experience drops in calls over Bluetooth in their car? My music is played through a USB connection. Only my phone works over Bluetooth, but didn’t experience any issues with calls. I’ll check again however.

I think I will try disabling my Bluetooth connection in my car to see if I get the music disconnects through the USB connection and see what happens. Sigh.

 

[MajikMarker]

I've had a couple hour long drives with 11.2 on my 8 and I had zero cycling/disconnecting. First time since iOS11 rolled out that my 2017 Outback phone/BT system worked as it should. Huge relief as I cannot stand when things do not work as they should!

11.2 seems to have fixed my issues...hope future updates don't break it again. Hope it has solved the issues for the majority of others in this thread as well!

 

[mj1108]

I'm having issues with my 8+ in my car (2016 Kia Forte) and my wife's car (2016 Kia Sorrento). All phone calls make it sound like I'm underwater. Music plays fine. When I use my Airpods calls are fine. It's just in the car. What makes it even stranger is my wife has a 8+ as well and she doesn't have this problem at all. Calls work perfectly fine for her in the car. We are both on 11.2.

 

[Rob.G]

I got my iPhone X last Tuesday and updated the 11.2 that day (figured why not), so I have no idea if it would have worked previously. The phone will not auto-connect to my car (2015 Subaru STI). I have to go into the car stereo and choose the phone and choose to connect. My old S7 Edge worked perfectly, and would even resume playing Pandora, which was great.

I've done a lot of Googling and near as I can tell, this is a bug in iOS.. I sure hope Apple fixes this soon, it's damn annoying.

 

[mj1108]

I guess maybe I ended up posting about this too soon. Last night I did a backup and reinstalled 11.2 from scratch. I then restored the backup. Today I tried it in my wife's car and the bluetooth calls are working fine now. *knock on wood* Still have yet to try it in mine, but so far, so good....

 

[rijc99]

I guess maybe I ended up posting about this too soon. Last night I did a backup and reinstalled 11.2 from scratch. I then restored the backup. Today I tried it in my wife's car and the bluetooth calls are working fine now. *knock on wood* Still have yet to try it in mine, but so far, so good....

Please update on if the reinstall fixes the problem permanently when you get a chance. I’m having the same problem as you were and am holding on reinstall since it’s such a pain.

 

[noez92]

I’ve same problem with pioneer Z2050BT, but in october Pioneer was sending out software update to prevent the issue, and it’s doing fine until now, IMHO, i think in ios11 there is some new protocol in the bluetooth configuration, i don’t know if OEM head unit will have software update or not. Maybe you can try to contact your local dealer to do a software update for your car head unit.

 

[meagain]

I can't even use my phone (music, navigation, etc) with it being Plugged in!

 

[Jvinson16]

Not so promising

That is such a crock! I have been having trouble also... they need to do something ASAP

 

[mj1108]

Please update on if the reinstall fixes the problem permanently when you get a chance. I’m having the same problem as you were and am holding on reinstall since it’s such a pain.

It worked the first day after I reinstalled 11.2 just fine. Then it started acting up again, albeit it sporadically. It now bounces back and forth between sounding like I'm underwater and sounding just fine -- all in the same call.

Meanwhile, my wife's still works fine.

Very, very frustrating. Thinking of returning it to T-Mobile to see if I can swap it.

 

[rijc99]

It worked the first day after I reinstalled 11.2 just fine. Then it started acting up again, albeit it sporadically. It now bounces back and forth between sounding like I'm underwater and sounding just fine -- all in the same call.

Meanwhile, my wife's still works fine.

Very, very frustrating. Thinking of returning it to T-Mobile to see if I can swap it.

Thanks for the update.

Similar results here. I did a reset of the network settings and it worked for 1 call. Then phone calls went back to garbled. The thing is phone calls always sound fine on my end along with audio streaming. Everything also sounds fine if I use my air pods or in my wife’s car. Seems like my issue is just a incompatibility between my phone and car.

Let me know how your swap goes.

 

[mouserz]

Similar here. iPhone 8+, OS 11.01, 2017 Mini Cooper. during the call Entertainment system just repeatedly restarts itself. The call is not disconnected, just dropped from bluetooth connection. After Ent Sys restarts it reconnects, and restarts again.

I'm so glad I found someone having the same issue! I mean - I'm sorry you're having it too but I was going nuts trying to figure it out!! Mini replace my head unit saying the old one was faulty but it's still happening after a new unit was installed.

 

[mj1108]

Thanks for the update.

Similar results here. I did a reset of the network settings and it worked for 1 call. Then phone calls went back to garbled. The thing is phone calls always sound fine on my end along with audio streaming. Everything also sounds fine if I use my air pods or in my wife’s car. Seems like my issue is just a incompatibility between my phone and car.

Let me know how your swap goes.

Well, I didn't swap it out -- yet.

Yesterday morning I read about a 'fix' for bluetooth issues. It had mentioned to just turn off Bluetooth on the phone and reboot the phone. So I did that, figuring what the hell why not. When the phone came back on, I turned the Bluetooth back on. I tried it in the car...and lo and behold it worked fine in my car. Even today in my car it was still working fine. *knock on wood* I'm still going to keep an eye on it. I'm not entirely convinced that this is the "fix" for this, but we'll see how it is over the next few days.

 

[Parapsyglider]

For an year on my 7+ without being able to play music via bluetooth on my infiniti Q70. Updated my car infotainment firmware even though i knew it was the phone's issue (Every other phone i connected to my car had no issues). Was planning to switch to 8+ but after seeing the problem still exists, got a Mate 10 pro, happily streaming music, no issues whosoever. Apple, get your **** together, cant fix such a basic stuff and being ignorant on top of that.

 

[dypeterc]

Can car manufacturers just use Airplay 2 instead of BT?

 

[tpw66]

Well, I didn't swap it out -- yet.

Yesterday morning I read about a 'fix' for bluetooth issues. It had mentioned to just turn off Bluetooth on the phone and reboot the phone. So I did that, figuring what the hell why not. When the phone came back on, I turned the Bluetooth back on. I tried it in the car...and lo and behold it worked fine in my car. Even today in my car it was still working fine. *knock on wood* I'm still going to keep an eye on it. I'm not entirely convinced that this is the "fix" for this, but we'll see how it is over the next few days.

I have the same issue here on my Hyundai 2011 Elantra.
It was driving me nuts!,
callers would tell me I sound like I’m underwater ,
re-paired phone multiple times I’m going to try to Bluetooth trick suggested above ...
I called Apple they seem to be pretty clueless about this ?.
never had a problem on the iPhone 7 or 6S ..but with the IPhone X it has been since IOS 11.1...

 

[lisielib]

Anybody else having trouble with iOS 11 and Honda and Acura Bluetooth systems?



I'm growing a little concerned after running through a few cars and finding several problems.

• Low playback volume with stored audio
  Low volume on Bluetooth calls making the call impossible
  Contact names will not populate over numbers
  Voice commands from Bluetooth HandsFreeLink no longer work

10.3.3 works fine but iOS 11 does not.



Multiple tests, multiple cars in a range from 2014 - 2018.

I have the same issue with my 2017 Acura RDX. Phonebook will not download or disappears immediately. I have tried everything and seems Honda Motor Corp blames Apple and Apple Care tells me its a Honda problem. Give me a break. Everything worked perfectly until the latest IOS update. Lesson here, don't update phone when it is working fine and try out any car bluetooth before buying it!

 

[rukind2]

I’ve had ongoing issues with my 2016 Ford Explorer and Bluetooth cutting out on phone calls. The call isn’t dropped; it’s still in the handset and the car keeps trying to reconnect. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not.

 

[mj1108]

I have the same issue here on my Hyundai 2011 Elantra.
It was driving me nuts!,
callers would tell me I sound like I’m underwater ,
re-paired phone multiple times I’m going to try to Bluetooth trick suggested above ...
I called Apple they seem to be pretty clueless about this ?.
never had a problem on the iPhone 7 or 6S ..but with the IPhone X it has been since IOS 11.1...

Just an update on this and what I've found out on my issue.

It's happening again....but it only happens if I have used my Airpods prior to using the phone in the car. If I restart the phone, the phone calls are fine in the car. If I use my Airpods, then later on try to use the phone in the car, the issue returns until I restart the phone again.

I came across this with my wife's about a week ago. She called me at work from her car and she sounded underwater. She told me she used her Airpods earlier for the first time in awhile. Once she restarted her phone and called me back, the call was fine. Prior to this occurrence she had not experienced the issue I had.

Very, very weird.

 

[rijc99]

Just an update on this and what I've found out on my issue.

It's happening again....but it only happens if I have used my Airpods prior to using the phone in the car. If I restart the phone, the phone calls are fine in the car. If I use my Airpods, then later on try to use the phone in the car, the issue returns until I restart the phone again.

I came across this with my wife's about a week ago. She called me at work from her car and she sounded underwater. She told me she used her Airpods earlier for the first time in awhile. Once she restarted her phone and called me back, the call was fine. Prior to this occurrence she had not experienced the issue I had.

Very, very weird.

Interesting. Great find. I too have AirPods so I think you may have figured out where the problem lies.

Ok. I’m going to test this.

*Awesome. Now I can make calls again. Going to stay off AirPods for now and see if the call quality stays good.

Feedback sent to Apple. Hopefully they can fix this.

 

[TheBacklash]

Just going through the thread quickly.. it’s also the beatsX.
My trucks Bluetooth sounds horrible, and when a call comes in while I have my beatsX on... i answer on the headphones, I can watch the iPhone pickup the call and show the beatsX icon... then switch immediately to the iPhone. I have to always answer and then switch to the headphones, every call. Can reproduce all day long.
Answering a call in the truck is like I’m underwater now, switch to beatsX or to iPhone... clear as day. Back to truck, underwater. Only started recently.
Very annoying.

 

[rijc99]

So it seems like Bluetooth headsets that use the W1 chip.
[doublepost=1515563680][/doublepost]Please make sure to submit big reports or file complaints to Apple so we can get this fixed. Any others able to duplicate this issue?

 

[George Knighton]

I have the same issue with my 2017 Acura RDX. Phonebook will not download or disappears immediately. I have tried everything and seems Honda Motor Corp blames Apple and Apple Care tells me its a Honda problem. Give me a break. Everything worked perfectly until the latest IOS update. Lesson here, don't update phone when it is working fine and try out any car bluetooth before buying it!

Have you taken the step that worked for many of us with Hondas/Acuras; namely, did you go through your Contacts on the iPhone and delete every single instance of a profile or Contacts picture?

 

[mj1108]

So it seems like Bluetooth headsets that use the W1 chip.
[doublepost=1515563680][/doublepost]Please make sure to submit big reports or file complaints to Apple so we can get this fixed. Any others able to duplicate this issue?

Did you have another bluetooth headset that you were able to test this on? I don't have any others myself.