iPhone 7 owners complain about issues with BMW Bluetooth support, Verizon LTE connections

Some iPhone 7 owners are encountering trouble with Bluetooth connections in BMW vehicles, and/or LTE connections to Verizon, according to complaints on Apple's support forums and tips to AppleInsider.

BMW drivers are experiencing issues with their iPhones failing to connect to their cars, or losing Bluetooth audio playback after just a few seconds. Tactics like restoring or re-pairing a phone don't appear to offer a permanent solution, if any.

In email responses, BMW's support staff are said to be telling customers that the iPhone 7 "is not an approved device for our vehicles until testing has completed," without offering an estimated timeframe.

"Please continue to look for an update from Apple for a new iOS and our update website to help resolve your concerns: www.bmw.com/update," the emails say.

Verizon subscribers are meanwhile running into trouble with LTE connections randomly dropping out. Affected people may still have 2G or 3G data, but find their connections unable to switch back to LTE, if they have signal at all. Some AT&T customers are experiencing similar difficulties.

Verizon, at least, is believed to be aware of the situation, and collaborating with Apple on a fix. Some iPhone 7 owners are reporting temporary success with resets, SIM swaps, and/or toggling Airplane Mode on and off.

49 Comments

HenryFSU 2 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

I bet it's iOS 10, not the iPhone 7. The fact that the iPhone 7 only uses iOS 10 is what points to that model.

singularity 1323 comments · 11 Years

sog35 said:

Solution: get another car.

Numpty

mike1 3431 comments · 10 Years

I am having an issue that I attribute to the way Contacts are managed in iOS10. Until I updated my IP6 to iOS10, the contacts showed on my non-iDrive BMW radio with the name and a description of which phone I was calling (cell, home, work etc.) These labels were selected when setting up a contact. Now it just shows the name with a # next to it, leaving me to try and remember which # was which. Hoping it gets resolved in a future update.

longpath 401 comments · 20 Years

HenryFSU said:

I bet it's iOS 10, not the iPhone 7. The fact that the iPhone 7 only uses iOS 10 is what points to that model.

I have seen a related issue that leads me to conclude that it is not iOS10; but strict adherence to the latest changes of the Bluetooth specification on the iPhone 7 that is at the heart of the issue with the BMW.

I have a Polar V800 triathlon watch that worked flawlessly with multiple versions of developer Betas as well as the release version of iOS 10 on my iPhone 5S; but getting the V800 to sync via Bluetooth with my iPhone 7 has been an ongoing struggle.

I opened a support case with Polar regarding this matter and we have established a crude work-around that after a typical 3-4 tries will result in a sync of data, where only one attempt would have been needed with the 5S. The 5S did not need to pair with the watch before every single sync attempt; but the 7 does.

This leads me to conclude that ongoing changes to the Bluetooth specification, which Apple is adhering to with the 7 but had not rolled out to the 5S, are at work with regard to the BMW issue, as is apparent in the case of my watch.

The situation is irritating enough that I am giving serious consideration to acquiring the series 2 Apple Watch and demoting my V800 to race and heavy training duties, whereas it is my daily wear watch, as well as training and racing watch, presently.