Bluetooth connection issues on iPhone 16

I finally got to talk to an actual human at Apple Support. He patiently walked me through every step and Bluetooth is now connecting with my hearing aids. I need an adapter and my phone should then connect with CarPlay. He connected with my phone and even had me go out to my car so he could see the set up on my camera. This happened AFTER I had already spent about an hour with both Apple and Verizon and even went down to the Verizon store. NONE of the people I interacted with had a clue how to fix the issue with Bluetooth on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. Clearly it is possible to fix the problem, but it shouldn’t take a specialist at Apple and forty-five minutes on the phone to address it. I wish I could walk you through every step, but I honestly don’t remember everything I had to do. Just know that the people you get in the “chats” are not going to be much help.

I have the same issue ! I spend so much money on this 16 pro max 1TB and spent 2 weeks talking to apple support as well as I did a device firmware update and still the issue persists. They estimated from the remote diagnostics that it weren’t a hardware problem. So basically I don’t know what else I should do?

this makes absolutely no sense. Why should we have to start again as new, losing all of our settings and saved passwords because Apple has a defective product? Apple has to fix what they broke.

Get to the point where Bluetooth literally shuts off and won’t let me turn it back on on my phone. I paid more money for a phone with less features than most flagships because I thought the premium was for stability and reliability. This is definitely not a good look especially considering how Apple were the ones who pushed the market towards wireless connectivity making bluetooth a necessity instead of a feature. Deal with it already this should be #1 on the priority list RN

I bought a 16 pro for my wife and a pro max for myself, both 1TB. My wife’s phone has zero Bluetooth issues while my pro max has Bluetooth Tx issues on multiple receivers.

While listening to music on my Bluetooth receiver, the audio cuts out for about 10 seconds and then comes back… constantly. Also when making calls in the car using CarPlay (two different vehicles), after a minute or two, the person on the other end of the call cannot hear me while I can hear them. I have to quickly change to speakerphone back to Bluetooth every couple minutes. My wife’s 16 pro does not have these issues using the same devices.

I thought my phone just had hardware issues and got Apple to replace my 16 pro max. Now I have a different pro max and it has the same issues! I don’t know how or why the Bluetooth functionality would be different between the 16 pro and pro max but it certainly is and Apple needs to fix this.

FruitHate wrote:

I don’t know why this is pinned. Many users are reporting this doesn’t address the issue. If there is no fix, that should be stated.

This falsely gives the impression that this issue can be resolved using this forum and in this specific case, that is not true.

Please revise this, thank you.

If you're asking why a particular post is listed as the "Top-Ranking" reply, that's because it got the largest number of up-votes. It's not pinned. If some other post in the thread gets more votes, it will change.

People are supposed to up-vote posts that are helpful. However, lots of people up-vote posts simply because the agree with them. Unfortunately, that results in some rants ending up as top-ranked.

Over the years, the forum has had a variety of different systems for recognizing the "best" posts. They all have their pros and cons.

Same problem here between 2013 car and AirPods 2nd gen. Phone keeps switching back to AirPods and having to manually switch back to car.

My CarPlay disconnects and my watch refuses to unlock ☹️

I’m having the same Bluetooth issues with my new 16 Pro. I was unable to connect my Apple Watch at setup. I followed online advice to forget the watch and set up as a new watch and it cannot connect to my new phone. Initially my new phone connected fine with my car’s starlink then later in the day the Bluetooth started stuttering. I turned my phone off and back on hoping that would fix the issue. Now it won’t connect at all to the starlink. This is supper frustrating! I made an appointment with a genius but it doesn’t sound like that is going to fix the issue either. Apple please fix this!

Call Apple at 1-800-MYAPPLE. (692-7753). They're very quick there. Just tell the first person you talk to (you know -- politely. Don't ruin his day and make him feel like a useless raisin lol) that multiple people in Apple Discussions are having the same problem and you think you're probably going to need a senior advisor because it's a complex issue with multiple possible causes. Or words to that effect.... That'll get them to move along quicker.

And never hang up before you get a case number bc if you need to call back, they'll never find your case (I know this bc as a broadcasting teacher, I had lots of Apple products and was often on the phone with them, especially at first).

I went from the iPhone14 Pro Max to the iphone16 Pro Max and had the same Bluetooth connectivity issues that everyone seems to be having. I came to this forum for the “fix”, which didn’t work. I was still within the 14 day return window, so I returned it and went back to the iPhone14. Never had an issue with that version. I’m going to wait until they get this figured out before investing a small fortune in a device that should have superior performance!

I’ve been on the phone with Apple and Verizon for some 2 hours this morning. I even went by the Verizon store. Nothing they suggested worked. Bluetooth just spins and says “searching.” It doesn’t see my hearing aids. CarPlay doesn’t work. And so far nothing suggested in this forum solves the problem.

Just had another session with Apple advanced tech support after thinking their previous software reset had solved the problem - it didn't. They ran diagnostics and recorded data and sent it to engineering, but engineering doesn't work on weekends, so I won't hear anything more for a few days.

I finally fixed the bluetooth issue I had with my Bose speakers. My phone was showing the speakers but wouldn't connect. I had tried everything from forgetting the device to rebooting iPhone, doing the network settings thing suggested, etc. In the end I had to reset the speakers themselves and then repair them.

Bluetooth connection issues on iPhone 16Pro upgrade purchase from VERIZON WIRELESS continues to vex this user...connection initiation and/or connection persistence issues on multiple devices e.g. iPad, Carplay, Headphones, Garmin, etc. Multiple resolution attempts e.g. iPhone network reset ALL FAILED