Fixing Bluetooth Audio Stutters And Dropouts On iPhone 16e

March 17, 2025 Jürgen Kraus (Calgary, Canada)

When I was listening to the Music app of my new iPhone 16e with the Oladance OWS Pro and Tozo Open Earring earphones, and the final Audio UX3000 headphones, the Bluetooth signal was regularly interrupted by short stutters or dropouts, starting about 30-40 s into the first song, and becoming more frequent thereafter. I felt reminded of packet errors causing similar issues in desktop DACs.

There were no stutters or dropouts when listening to internet radio.

The first question to be answered was: is this specific to the iPhone 16e? It appears so as our iPhone 13 and my first gen. SE have never had any such problems.

The second question was: did I get a faulty iPhone 16e or is it a software issue? Is there any interference with Bluetooth devices in my home, for example my new laser printer? I checked the internet and found this problem discussed all over the place for example at macworld.com and macrumors.com. I was not alone.

I followed some of the devices on the Apple Community and reddit:

Updated to iOS 18.3.2
Performed a forced restart
Deleted (“forgot”) all Bluetooth devices and reconnected only one
Reset the network settings
Switched all other Bluetooth devices in the house off

This did not work.

Some users who had exchanged their iPhone 16e experienced the same problem with the new one.

I then called Apple and they advised me to restore the iPhone 16e in Finder, then restore the last iCloud backup. This improved the situation: I listened without stutters and dropouts for some 20 mins, then the issue returned.

My last resort was upgrading to the iOS 18.4 Beta software. This appears to have fixed the issue. I have not had any stutters and dropout since. The iOS 18.4 Alpha is scheduled to be released in April.

We learn: the Bluetooth stutters and dropouts are a software issue. Apple have tried to reach me, and it was conveyed that their engineers are working on a solution.

What surprises me: how come that none of the developers at Cupertino ever tested the iPhone 16e with Bluetooth earphones/headphones before its release.

Until next time…keep on listening!

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Author

Jürgen Kraus (Calgary, Canada)
Head-Fier since 2016. He has been known as “Otto Motor” to Head-Fiers, as “Dr. Schweinsgruber” to audiobudget.com users and Youtubers, and as “Brause” to Super Best Audio Friends and the Headphone Community. - For the purpose of confusion, he decided to pose under his real name Jürgen Kraus (“JK”) from now on. - This is a hobby. In “real” life, Jürgen is a professional geologist operating his own petroleum-exploration consulting company Franconia Geoscience Ltd. based in Calgary, Canada. He holds German and Canadian passports. Jürgen had a classical music education from childhood through high school in Germany and he has been following popular music developments since the late 1970s. His understanding of arts and crafts was influenced by Bauhaus pragmatism: “less is more” and “form follows function”.
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