ios 9 bluetooth audio constantly disconnecting

By cw34, 1 October, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My iPad is now updated to 9.0.2.

I'm both visually and hearing impaired. So, I use heavily VoiceOver and bluetooth connection to my Phonak hearing aid via Phonak's ComPilot. Everything was working fine until I upgrade to ios 9.

Now, the bluetooth audio is constantly disconnecting and re-connecting. VoiceOver is constantly being interrupted. Is anybody experiencing the same problem?

Is there a way for me to report the bug to Apple?

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Comments

By Travis Roth on Monday, October 26, 2015 - 02:20

For me the ComPilot seems to work better with iOS 9... That said, I have noticed if there is more htan one Bluetooth device connected at once iOS will get confused and switch audio away from the ComPilot. The best I have found so far is to open Control Center and use the Air Play button to direct the audio where I want it to go.

By cw34 on Monday, October 26, 2015 - 02:20

Hi, Travis,

Thank you very much for the tips. I tried the Air Play option. It didn't seem to help.

Maybe I should describe my problem with a little more detail:

(1) I am using ComPilot (not ComPilot 2), because my Advanced Bionics cochlear implant can only work with ComPilot.
(2) Let's say I am at the Home screen on my iPad. I touch an icon. I hear ComPilot says "Bluetooth Audio", which overtakes VO's announcement of the icon's name. If I wait just 3 seconds. ComPilot seems to disconnect. And then I touch an icon again. ComPilot seems to reconnect and says "Bluetooth Audio" again, which overtakes VO's announcement again.
(3) In order to hear VO, I have to keep tapping the screen to keep ComPilot connected so that it does not keep saying "Bluetooth Audio".
(4) I have only ComPilot as my only bluetooth audio device. My other bluetooth device is an external keyboard. I even tried "forgetting" the keyboard, but it didn't help at all.
(5) I tried Air Play and manually chose ConmPilot. Didn't help either.
(6) In comparison, when I was using ios 8.x, ComPilot did not disconnect that fast. It stayed connected for quite a while.
(7) I haven't changed anything on ComPilot during the ios 8.x to ios 9 upgrade.

Do you have the same problem?

Thanks again for your help.

By Travis Roth on Monday, October 26, 2015 - 02:20

Hi,
Ah yes I understand. This is the ComPilot's audio timeout, supposedly to save battery life. I have always had this problem with VoiceOver and ComPilot. I guess iOS 8 was maybe a little longer but I didn't pay much attention as it'd never worked for before iOS 8. ComPilot also has this problem with the line-in jack, which is really hard to figure out why they had to do that. Phonak has never made an override setting for this, so your option is to use VO quickly or nothing more or less. I have spent some time over the years trying to hack this. My best idea, as crazy as it sounds is to play a soundtrack e.g., soft music, in the background and turn that audio down so much you can't hear it but ComPilot thinks its playing.

By cw34 on Monday, October 26, 2015 - 02:20

Thank you so very much for the info! I'd been searching for answers on the Internet and trying all sorts of hack this afternoon. I thought I was the only one with this problem. Thank you for letting me know that I am not alone.

Your idea of playing some soft music in the background is a nice idea. I'll give it a try.

Again, much appreciated.

By Jesus R on Sunday, June 26, 2016 - 02:20

Hello, I reasontly got some new phonak hearing aids, and got the ComPilot air 2 for them. Yes, this is a time out feature. As was said before, the only way I find to get around this is to play soft music, or even better.a silont audio track. Also, has anyone found a good way to keep the ComPilot on their personwith a lanured or something like it? I'm a t-shurt guy a lot of the time, and the clip makes the Pilet hang from my shurt at a vear weird angle.
Thanks all.

By cw34 on Tuesday, July 26, 2016 - 02:20

Hi, JesusR,

I am wondering how or where you get a silent track?

I also found it awkward to hang ComPilot on the neck when wearing t-shirt without a pocket. I end up using ComPilot only when I am sitting down on a chair. Does anyone have a better idea?