iPhone 13 with unstable Bluetooth Connections, AirPods Dropping on Voice Calls, and AirDrop Interruptions

I currently have an iPhone 13 + Airpods 3. Bought it when it came out, upgrading from an iPhone 7.


I bought the AirPods a bit later than the iPhone. From what I remember, to date, I've never been able to make a voice call with the AirPods without them starting to disconnect/reconnect continuously to the iPhone. Sometimes it is immediate. Sometimes it takes a few minutes.


Listening to music is fine.

Taking calls with the AirPods connected to a Mac is fine.


Apple replaced them when they were new. Same thing.


Apart from this, the iPhone presents a few other issues including:


  • Unstable connection to some bluetooth devices, where the Phone will start disconnecting/reconnecting in a cycle, the same way as it happens with the AirPods. This happens routinely on a Cardo headset (motorbike intercom) and a Beeline Moto II. Other devices seem to be fine. Bluetooth external speakers are fine.
  • Airdrop is unreliable: transfer would start and, most times, it will "hang" mid transfer.
  • Listening to music with AirPods is fine, but there are a few specific "geographical locations" near where I live where the music will interrupt for a second or two if I walk nearby.
  • In the same way: voice calls on AirPods will routinely drop when walking from/to my house or walking/riding past it.


CarPlay is perfectly fine. Even calls.


All the above seems to be solved temporarily if the iPhone is restarted or Bluetooth turned off and back on.

Seems to be a software issue (the iPhone and AirPods have been recently checked by Apple and they pass hardware check with all green ticks).

It seems like some sort of cache gets full and the phone starts having connection issues, turning on/off maybe purges it. No idea.


Over time I tried all suggested by Apple. From resetting Network Settings to completely resetting the iPhone without using a backup to restore it, and everything in between.


The issues persists.

"The issue" is also widely reported on these support forums and elsewhere online (MacRumors support forum, etc.) and seems to affect newer iPhone models as well: 15, 16.


I believe this to be a software issue. I was initially thinking about upgrading Phone, but after seeing (in this very forum) that other users had the same issue after upgrading, I'm less inclined to spend close to 1k to have a slightly different iPhone that is still unable to let me take calls using wireless earphones, or is unable to reliably operate most Bluetooth devices I use often.


All Apple support does is hardware check. If that comes back positive, you're on your own.


Now, is there ANY WAY, to have the phone monitored/debugged for a longer period of time, so that when the issue happens (fairly often) it is possible to understand if that is due to other apps or strange configurations interfering with Bluetooth?

It would be faster that manually removing/adding each app from Bluetooth permissions or delete them completely from the iPhone.


Is Apple willing to investigate this issue that, as it seems, affects a fairly large number of users?


I'm really at the end of my tether. I do not want to switch to an Android device, but that seems the only option unless it is possible to find a solution (or some help to reach a solution to this).

Again: is Apple able to help with this? I mean without going through the "scripted" responses you get when you speak to Apple Support.


Thanks in advance for any help.



PS. These are a few users with similar issues:

AirPods Disconnecting Only on Calls - Apple Community


Airpods pro 2 disconnecting when answerin… - Apple Community


AirPods disconnecting from calls after a … - Apple Community


iPhone 15 Pro Max - AirPods disconnect on… - Apple Community


https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/16y2thv/my_bluetooth_randomly_disconnects_on_calls/


[Re-Titled By Moderator]



iPhone 7, iOS 15

Posted on Jan 27, 2025 11:55 PM

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Posted on Jan 29, 2025 01:56 AM

Factory resetting the iPhone without restoring from backup doesn't solve the issue.


I'm removing all the apps one by one because this really seems to be a software issue. It will take forever.

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iPhone 13 with unstable Bluetooth Connections, AirPods Dropping on Voice Calls, and AirDrop Interruptions

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