Apple isn't playing nice with Toyota. An Apple Support thread, spotted by 9to5Mac, is flooded with iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users who are frustrated with a bug that thwarts them from enjoying hands-free calls while driving.
The complaints reveal that the last two iPhone generations cannot remain connected to Bluetooth during calls. "Connection between the car and phone fails anywhere from 2-8 minutes after the call starts," one poster said. Interestingly, the car brand that is most affected by this bug is Toyota.
iOS 15 bug hinders in-car Bluetooth connectivity
The poster who launched the Apple Support thread insists that their in-car Bluetooth feature doesn't have any issues playing audio in the car. However, after initiating a call (while their iPhone 13 Pro is connected to Bluetooth), the call fails within a few minutes.
"My old iPhone XR did not have this problem, but was not running iOS 15," the poster with the moniker pudgemo said. "The iPhone is unusable for calls in my car which is really frustrating."
The thread opened the floodgates to an influx of "same here!" replies from iPhone users who are suffering from similar issues. The common thread is that the Bluetooth bug seems to be affecting iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users with Toyota-branded cars. There are some complaints from iPhone owners with Volvo and Audi vehicles, but the issue seems to be more prevalent among Toyota drivers.
One poster suggested a workaround that isn't ideal, but gets the job done. "Plugged in my phone with [a USB] cord today in the 4Runner and spoke for an hour on two different calls without a drop," jon55nj said. "Not the best but at least I have a solution."
This isn't the first time recent iPhone generations have drawn ire from customers from dropped call issues. As we reported last year, many users reported experiencing signal problems with their iPhone 12. The issue likely trickled down to latest iPhone models, too. Apple recently rolled out a signal-snag bug fix for both the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 13 with the iOS 15.1.1 update.
Unfortunately, this update doesn't rectify the in-car Bluetooth connectivity issue. "Upgraded IOS to latest 15.1 version per tech support and the problem did not resolve," PCBeach2015 said.
So far, the thread has amassed three pages of complaints, but it's unclear how widespread this Bluetooth bug is on a grand scale.
