
Bluetooth can be a little finicky on its best of days. There are several possible points of failure between your iOS device and whatever accessory you’re connecting to. Here’s how to troubleshoot them. While it can be temperamental and a bit of a battery drain, Bluetooth remains a great way to connect to nearby devices and accessories. Pairing your devices over Bluetooth allows you to do cool things like trigger reminders when you get out of your car, and is also required for lots of devices like wearables and wireless speakers. So it can be frustrating when Bluetooth connections aren’t working. There are, however, several troubleshooting steps you can take to get your connections going again. Like most things gadget related, there are some things you want to make sure of before you get too deep into troubleshooting. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on and Airplane Mode is turned off on your iOS device. You can check this quickly by sliding up the Control Center panel from the bottom edge of the screen and checking the buttons along the top.
Make sure the Bluetooth device you’re connecting to your phone (e.g. your Bluetooth headphones, fitness tracker, or whatever else) has enough battery charge and is turned on. Make sure your iOS and Bluetooth device are close enough to one another. While Bluetooth standards mandate ranges of no less than 10 meters (33 feet), different hardware, a range of antenna strengths, various types of interference, and several Bluetooth versions commonly in operation mean that range can be tricky. In the real world, most of us would be happy enough with a 33 foot range. When trying to pair devices or troubleshoot why they’re not pairing, make sure the devices are as close as possible. Once you get them paired, you can experiment with more range. If none of those help, we can move on to some other troubleshooting tips. If you can’t get your iPhone or iPad paired with your Bluetooth device-or if iOS just isn’t seeing the device at all-the old “turn it off and back on again” advice applies, with a bit of a twist thrown in.
Turn off the Bluetooth device you’re trying to pair. Bluetooth and turning the “Bluetooth” slider off. Force restart your iOS device by holding the Home and Power buttons down until you see the Apple logo on your screen. If you’re using the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, you’ll hold down the power and volume down buttons instead. When your iOS device has restarted, turn Bluetooth back on. Turn your Bluetooth device back on and try pairing it with your phone. Most of the time, this technique should solve pairing difficulties. If you’re having trouble with a device that you have paired with successfully in the past, and restarting Bluetooth didn’t work for you, you can try “forgetting” the device and pairing it again from scratch. Tap the “i” button next to the device you’re having problems connecting to. Tap the “Forget This Device” button. Confirm that you want to forget the device.


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