You have your headphones (or your car) nearby and you find that the moment you try to connect your iPhone to the Bluetooth so that you can listen to The Proclaimers, your iPhone just doesn’t want to pair up.

In this guide, I’ll show you how you can fix your iPhone that won’t connect to your Bluetooth with these quick and simple ways in just under 5 minutes of your time.

How to Fix An iPhone That Won’t Connect to Bluetooth: 7 Ways 

1.  Try Connecting to Another Bluetooth device.

The first thing you should try and find out is whether the problem lies with your iPhone or your Bluetooth device.

So grab another Bluetooth device (it doesn’t have to be the same) and try connecting to both and see if whether any one or both of the devices manages to successfully connect with your iPhone. 

If you find that one Bluetooth device does manage to connect to your iPhone while the other does not, then that means the problem lies with the Bluetooth device and not your iPhone.

If you find that your iPhone does not manage to connect to both of the Bluetooth devices then that means the problem lies with your iPhone.

2.  Turn Your iPhone Off and Back On Again.

This is the de-facto method whenever you encounter a problem on your iPhone as it helps fix some of the many minor software glitches that your iPhone might get stuck with.

Here’s how you can turn off and back on your iPhone.

1. Press and hold down the Power button to turn your iPhone off and it’ll show a Slide to power off your screen. Just swipe the power icon from left to right.
2. Wait for around 20 seconds to make sure that your iPhone completely shuts down.
3. Lastly, press and hold down the Power button once again to turn your iPhone back on again and it’ll show the Apple logo as it turns on. 

Now you can try connecting your iPhone to your Bluetooth device again to see if that has fixed the problem. 

3.  Turn Bluetooth Off and Back On Again.

If you’ve tried turning off and back on your iPhone and you find that it didn’t seem to work then you can try to do the same by turning off and back on the Bluetooth setting in your iPhone.

This helps to fix some minor software glitches too that may be stopping your iPhone from pairing up with your Bluetooth device

There are a few ways you can do this. For the sake of simplicity of this guide, I’ll show you the manual way of resetting Bluetooth through the Settings app.

1. Go ahead and jump into your Settings app and then tap Bluetooth.
2. Next tap the switch next to Bluetooth. (Grey means the switch is turned off and hence Bluetooth is turned off).
3. Lastly, tap on the switch again to turn Bluetooth back on.

After you’ve turned off your iPhone’s Bluetooth and back on again, try pairing your iPhone with your Bluetooth device again to see if it got the job done.

4.  Turn Pairing Mode on Your Bluetooth Device Off and Back On Again.

If you’re using a pair of Bluetooth headphones then it’s likely that it has a switch or a button which makes it easy to pair it up (Pairing Mode).

For instance, if you have Bose QCs (as shown in the image below), the Pair/Sync button will appear as a button on top of it.

Sometimes even if you’ve tried everything to fix the iPhone not connecting to the Bluetooth, the problem could very well be with the Bluetooth device itself and not your iPhone.

It could’ve got stuck with a minor glitch/bug or it just didn’t make a solid connection the first time around.

So here’s what you do.

1. Go ahead and grab the Bluetooth device that you’re trying to pair up with your iPhone and look for either a switch or a button that you would press to sync/pair it.
2. Found it? Great! Just press and hold that button or switch on your Bluetooth device to take it out of Bluetooth pairing mode.
3. Wait for around 30 seconds and then press the button or flip the switch again to put back the device ready for pairing with your iPhone. Now try pairing the device up with your iPhone as you would always do using Bluetooth and see if that has solved the problem.

5.  Time to Reset Network Settings.

When you reset your iPhone’s network settings, it erases all the data it has on your Bluetooth devices that you have connected before. 

This also means all the Wi-Fi networks and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) that you had connected with, including the passwords saved for those networks will get erased.

Resetting your Network settings is a great way to remove unwanted networks and their passwords from clogging up your iPhone and as well help your iPhone establish newer connections.

Will my iPhone’s data get erased?

Your iPhone’s data that includes your apps, notes, contacts, photos will not be deleted. This is just resetting Network Settings, not your iPhone.

Here’s how you reset your iPhone’s network settings.

1. Go ahead and jump into your Settings app and then tap General.
2. Next, scroll all the way down and look for Reset. Tap on Reset.
3. Now tap Reset Network Settings.
4. You’ll be asked to enter your iPhone’s passcode to process. Once you’ve entered it, your iPhone will reset network settings and will follow up by restarting itself.
5. Finally, once your iPhone has turned back on again, your network settings will have been reset.

You can try to pair up your Bluetooth device with your iPhone once again to see if your iPhone connects to Bluetooth. 

6.  Then There’s the DFU Restore. 

The final method you can try (which should be your last resort ) is a Device Firmware Update (DFU) restore and it’s the most in-depth restore you can do on an iPhone and it should fix some of the more troublesome software issues.

Do make sure that before you perform a DFU restore, you back up all your data on your iPhone using your iTunes or your iCloud.

Here’s how you can DFU restore your iPhone.

1. Go ahead plug your iPhone into your computer and open your iTunes. (it doesn’t matter whether your iPhone is on or off).
2. Now press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and your Home button (iPhone 6S and below) or the Sleep/Wake button and your Volume Down button (iPhone 7) together for around 8 seconds.

How do I DFU restore on my iPhone X, or iPhone 8 (or 8 Plus)?

I’m currently finishing up the guide for this, but in the meantime, you can follow through with this great guide by Gadgethacks.

3. After 8 seconds, release the Sleep/Wake button but make sure to keep holding down the Home button (iPhone 6S and below) or your Volume Down button (iPhone 7 or 7 Plus) until you find it says “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode“.
4. Now you can let go of your Home button or the Volume Down button as your iPhone’s screen will be completely black which means it will has entered DFU mode. If you find it’s not, try again from Step 1.
5. Finally, restore your iPhone using your iTunes (where you have your backup stored).

Done! Try reconnecting your iPhone with your Bluetooth device and see if the DFU restore has gotten the job done. 

7.  Pay the Genius Bar a visit.

If worse comes to worst, and if you still find that the iPhone does not connect with your Bluetooth device then what you can try to do is head over to your nearest Apple Store and talk with the Genius Bar. 

Share this guide with someone who’s going through a rough day having their iPhone not connecting to Bluetooth.

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