Comments on: iPhone Bluetooth not connecting?

By: peterk

peterk — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:03:15 +0000

Three different Plantronics Bluetooth headsets worked fine for a couple of months – eliminating, for example, the suspicion that I didn’t read the manual or can’t follow instructions. Then I went away for a month, now I am back and none of the headsets work correctly. I can “forget” each one (settings>general>bluetooth, touch headphone name, touch “forget this device”, confirm), then re-pair, and it works during the duration of that connection, but once I turn off the headset or wander too far from the Phone and break the connection, the Phone can’t connect to the headset the next time. I have to “forget” and re-pair EVERY TIME I use a headset. This can be a calming ritual before starting to drive, but it can get old after a while. Doing it in traffic, while driving is possible but definitely not recommended.

I tried the airplane mode trick, no help.

On another site, I saw a suggestion that one should go to settings>general>autolock, and choose “Never”. I am trying this now, but … not a great solution, since autolock prevents me from running down the battery by mistake.

This is almost certainly a software issue. I am frustrated enough that I will probably make an appointment to talk with a Genius at the local Apple store. This takes a long time, but by now I have wasted a lot more time trying to find an answer on the web. The Apple support site is, as usual, completely useless on this subject as on almost all others.

By: Paulo

Paulo — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:19:50 +0000

The airplane mode fast switching worked for me too after like 10 tries — so don’t give up! But now im trying to get it to actually play over Bluetooth…

By: Agnes

Agnes — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:27:55 +0000

Thanks a million colin!!! flippin my airplane mode on and off, really helped and worked to make my phone pair with my bluetooth h710 from motorola! I guess I will never take those dusty corners of the internet forgranted =)

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:23:11 +0000

Donna,

Hope that worked; this post is not about physically connecting the device to the iPhone, but rather, allowing the iPhone’s bluetooth chip to be activated following a software update.

By: Donna Ciezki

Donna Ciezki — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:27:55 +0000

I purchased the newest version of the IPHONE and was unable to connect to my Plantronics Voyager 510. I went on-line to a chat site and was given the following instructions:

Unplug the power cord from the headset. Press the small black button above the volume control. Hold it until the light on the headset flashes blue. Let go. Press the volume plus and the silver talk button the the mic. Hold them both until the light on the headset begins to blink red and blue. Let go. Go into the phone’s blue tooth menu and search for the headset. The phone will only find the headset if it is in pairing mode (blinking red and blue). The pass key is 0000

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:47:27 +0000

Adam,

I wish I could help, but I haven’t heard of a problem like that before– jumping to mind are these three questions.

Did you make any significant software alterations (upgrade, jailbreak, etc.) between being able to connect and not being able to connect?
Is the Bluetooth icon still on the iPhone dock (top right corner next to battery status indicator)?
Can the other devices see the Blackjack via Bluetooth? (i.e., computer?)

The first question would indicate some flaw in the software and I would recommend restoring the iPhone (put in recovery mode, yadda, yadda, yadda– directions at the Apple site). The second could indicate a flaw in the software or the hardware of the iPhone (i.e., if there is no BT icon, it means the iPhone software is not actively running BT, if there is an icon, it may mean the iPhone is unable to use the BT receiver for whatever reason). The third could indicate a flaw in the Blackjack BT receiver.

Wish I could help further.

By: adam

adam — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:57:53 +0000

Well i have an odd case. While I was purchasing my new iphone earlier this week I connected to my old blackjack via bluetooth for approximately 10 seconds…and the iphone also saw everyone else’s phone in the store…30+ but mere minutes later the iphone saw nothing…and has seen nothing for the past week. I tried the airplane mode trick and soft/hard resets to no avail. I don’t have a mobile headset so I can’t see if simple devices like that work. Any ideas?

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:54:58 +0000

Thanks for the tip. I was about ready to throw both devices in the trash, then simply toggled the airplane mode switch a few times. Like magic, all was right in my little Bluetooth world.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:57:36 +0000

Tim,

I wish I could help, but I haven’t had a problem go that far– the best bet I can think of would be to troubleshoot. If you can connect other Bluetooth devices to the phone, then it is clearly an issue with the Voyager 510; if you cannot find any devices by searching (or if the 510 will connect to every other device you try), there is a strong possibility the Bluetooth chip in the 3G is defective.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:06:32 +0000

Hi,

I purchased my iPhone three weeks ago and since I have not been able to connect to my Plantronics Voyager 510. I turn on the voyager so that its ready to connect, select settings in the iphone and allow it to search. After an extended period, nothing comes up in the search field.

Ive tried updating the soft/firmware, as well as all the tricks u mentioned above (including the airplane mode). However, Ive had no success. I havn’t updated the firmware to the latest 2.2.1 as I decided to Jailbreak my phone today. Even after Jailbreaking I am still unable to detect the handsfree kit.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Tim