Bluetooth connection problems with iPhone 3GS

[GainfulShrimp]

Been a couple of weeks since I was last here and a good deal of that time has been spent swearing at my new iPhone 3GS. Yes, I know shouting at it won't help but it makes me feel better.

When it first pairs with my Leon's factory-fit Bluetooth ('SEAT_UHV'), it works great - downloads the phonebook, recent call stacks etc - and call quality is OK. So far, so good. I even have it mounted in a Brodit Pro-clip (attached to the A-pillar) and it looks very pretty.

But the problem is that it randomly disconnects while I'm driving and although sometimes it reconnects again a few seconds later, mostly I need to re-pair it with the car to get it to play ball (or stop the engine, remove the key, wait a bit and restart).

I've discovered that if I turn off the 'auto-lock' feature of the phone and leave it turned on all the time, it never disconnects... the problem seems to be that when the phone blanks the screen and goes to sleep, it also puts its bluetooth connection to sleep. Sometimes when it sleeps it stays connected though - so it doesn't lose the connection every time. It's one of those intermittent problems which drives me crazy... especially because I'm 99% sure it's not the car at fault - it worked fine with my Nokia 6300 with zero disconnects that weren't for a good reason (like me walking out of range when it was still connected).

Anyway, my Googling has turned up results about mostly non-VAG cars, so I'm hoping someone here will have solved this and thus will be able to share the magic solution with me before I go completely mad. The iPhone is truly a beautiful piece of kit but this one little thing is spoiling the experience for me a bit.

Anyone have any clues, please?

 

[wheelwright]

Not got the 3GS but the 3G using the same software as you 3.0, never had any issues with my connection via BT, I have been told the new model leon's BT does have issues connecting to phones as my dealer has yet to get one phone to connect up via BT!!! BUT that may be just a one off...

 

[S.E.C.T.]

My Nokia N95 had disconnected once or twice during driving. I now place it where the USB/Aux input is under HU and have not had an issue since. I think it was just losing the connection

 

[GainfulShrimp]

I don't think it's a problem with the Leon's BT kit as it worked fine with my Nokia 6300. (It's pre-facelift 09 plate BTW.) I will experiment with the position of the phone to see if that helps, ta... but it'll be a shame if I need to buy a different Pro-clip as it's neat and easy to use when attached to the a-pillar.

ISTR somebody mentioned the Bluetooth receiver is under the drivers seat?

 

[SlipStream]

Cant help you Shrimp, but just wanted to ask a quick question about bluetooth - can you play music through bluetooth from the iPhone to the car system?

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Nope, don't think so. It might be possible, but I doubt the phone kit even supports stereo so the quality would be very dubious to start with and the drain on your phone's battery probably makes it a bad idea anyway.

Does your car not come with an aux socket then?

 

[DeanJ]

I've got an Iphone 3g and a couple of times I've had the phone disconnect for no reason. The odd couple of times it's reconnected shortly after. The once I noticed it was doing it nearly every time I got in the car and would never reconnect until I turned the engine off and back on but then would do the same shortly after. Ended up rebooting the phone and it's solved the problem since.

I've also not noticed any difference after I jailbroke my phone and also installed ultrasnow

 

[spenny2004]

my iphone 3g has also disconnected a few times but its not too bad to be honest only does it every now and again

 

[SpursMadDave]

Had my 3g iPhone for months now and never had a problem apart from if I make a call shortly after it gas paired I get a buzzing noise for a second or 2. Never had it disconnect.

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Thanks for all the comments. Hmm... well it seems either:

(a) I'm unlucky
(b) it's related to where I have the phone physically located in the car
or
(c) it's specific to the 3GS model

My commute is about an hour each way and it generally disconnects at least once every couple of days... so I would guess once per 3 hours of use, on average. It's not predictable - sometimes it will do it three times in a journey and that's when I tend to get frustrated with it.

When I called Apple Support about this, they talked me through resetting the phone's network settings and the problem seemed to go away for a bit, but it's doing it again now and to be honest I think it was just coincidence that it didn't do it for a while after I reset the settings.

I will see if I can live with it and maybe try Apple's support again if I can't get used to it.

 

[paxman21]

I have the 3GS too and mine does the same... if you just leave it, it reconnects... no help if you lose a call because of it tho!

 

[mds1256]

ditto

mine does the same 3gs randomly disconnects.

wonder if seat can update any software on it?

 

[warren_cox]

I have an iPhone 3G and my phone does it, BUT strangely it ALWAYS does it (when it does do it), on the same piece of road, just outside a BP garage on the A4 in Berkshire. It's done it about 5 times in the last few months, but doesn't seem to do it anywhere else.

 

[delboyuk2005uk]

Yeah my 3gs disconnects as well, Its to do more with the iphone 3gs than the seat bluetooth I reckon, I have just learnt to put up with it.

 

[DeanJ]

apart from if I make a call shortly after it gas paired I get a buzzing noise for a second or 2.

I get that annoying noise too which can be a pain, sometimes only for a split second but other times for about 2-3 seconds

 

[warren_cox]

I get that annoying noise too which can be a pain, sometimes only for a split second but other times for about 2-3 seconds

ditto, blows your ears out if volume on high!

 

[dannyleeuk]

When I called Apple Support about this, they talked me through resetting the phone's network settings and the problem seemed to go away for a bit, but it's doing it again now and to be honest I think it was just coincidence that it didn't do it for a while after I reset the settings.

I will see if I can live with it and maybe try Apple's support again if I can't get used to it.

Might be worth restoring your phone as a new phone. It'll give the OS a fresh install. Dont restore from backup otherwise it doesn't remove the issues. I'm not sure what that does to existing apps/contacts etc but a quick scan around t'interweb will tell you.

Note, all this is done through iTunes with your 3GS connected. Make sure you backup your iPhone prior to do anything.

 

[DeanJ]

Might be worth restoring your phone as a new phone. It'll give the OS a fresh install. Dont restore from backup otherwise it doesn't remove the issues. I'm not sure what that does to existing apps/contacts etc but a quick scan around t'interweb will tell you.

All your apps are stored on itunes too and your contacts should be synced with Address Book (Mac) or Outlook i think it is on a PC. As long as you do a backup first this'll copy all your apps to Itunes and do a backup.

If you then turn your phone off (while still connected to your computer) then turn it back on while also holding the home button, keep holding the home button as it turns on and it will go into recovery mode and Itunes will ask you if you want to do a restore.

Once your phone finishes flashing the OS again don't restore from a backup. All your apps should then sync again depending what settings you have in itunes. You'll lose any data from any apps though for a while (you can restore from a backup later)

Then you can test the phone with a vanilla install on your car. If you still get problems just do another restore on your phone, this time restore from the backup before you did the first restore to put all your settings back as it's either phone related or firmware related and not just something on your phone.

 

[NTSPARKE]

hey i have the nokia touch screen phone and the bluetooth system is suposed to download all numbers onto memory when you 1st pair the devices. but i cant get it to work with the nokia phone i have. any body know how to sort it

 

[delboyuk2005uk]

can anyone use the iphone 3gs as a ipod with the ipod connection?