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Bluetooth music + Workout Tracking

H

HopefulHumanist

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2015
762
581
I've had two gym workouts with the watch now and it seems that when you're playing music with Bluetooth headphones and tracking your workout at the same time, the connection to the headphones drops constantly. Like 3-4 times consecutively. Then it's gets through a song or two and drops again. It's distracting as hell.

It doesn't happen when I play music from the phone, only when I play from the watch. I've been leaving my phone in the locker since the gym has Bluetooth. I wonder if that has something to do with it...
 
macgeek01 said:
Is the music synced to iPhone or the watch?
Click to expand...

The problem occurs when I'm playing music from the watch, music that is synced to the watch. But only when I'm also tracking a workout. If I'm only doing one or the other, I don't have these problems.

I'm thinking that the workout info is being synced to the phone and is taking more of the Bluetooth bandwidth.
 
Probably does tax it more. How far away is your phone? Usually you have to be pretty close for music even on the iPhone.
 
Maybe you could try another bluetooth headphones? I know how you feel, its annoying ( i dont have the watch, but i do a lot of running and is so annoying when the bluetooth headphones do that)

Now i use the jaybird and is solved.
 
macgeek01 said:
Probably does tax it more. How far away is your phone? Usually you have to be pretty close for music even on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I'm really bad with distances but I'd say it was at least 100 feet away and no more than 300? The gym has wifi though. The phone showed as "Connected" the whole time.

cai4651 said:
Maybe you could try another bluetooth headphones? I know how you feel, its annoying ( i dont have the watch, but i do a lot of running and is so annoying when the bluetooth headphones do that)

Now i use the jaybird and is solved.
Click to expand...

I was actually having these issues with my jay birds. They're the only Bluetooth headphones I own so I can't test with another pair.
 
HopefulHumanist said:
The problem occurs when I'm playing music from the watch, music that is synced to the watch. But only when I'm also tracking a workout. If I'm only doing one or the other, I don't have these problems.

I'm thinking that the workout info is being synced to the phone and is taking more of the Bluetooth bandwidth.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to be near your iPhone
 
HopefulHumanist said:
I'm really bad with distances but I'd say it was at least 100 feet away and no more than 300? The gym has wifi though. The phone showed as "Connected" the whole time.



I was actually having these issues with my jay birds. They're the only Bluetooth headphones I own so I can't test with another pair.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth headphones don't use WiFi so you need to be within a 50 ft range or less based on the environment.
 
cai4651 said:
Maybe you could try another bluetooth headphones? I know how you feel, its annoying ( i dont have the watch, but i do a lot of running and is so annoying when the bluetooth headphones do that)

Now i use the jaybird and is solved.
Click to expand...

I do like the my jaybirds x but the sound is a bit low on them.
 
HopefulHumanist said:
But I had my headphones paired to the watch... It has music stored locally, it was not playing from the phone.
Click to expand...

Sorry, you did say that but the WiFi talk threw me off. Perhaps there was some type of interference. Did you try with and without the workout app multiple times and have the same results?.
 
Do a test with the iPhone in your pocket - if no drop outs, then you know the issue is with your phone being in the locker.

Also, test it while not using the gym's wifi at all.

BTW, one swift hit on that padlock with a shoe and someone will walk out with your iPhone.
 
It's likely that the watch itself is still trying to communicate over bluetooth with the phone at regular intervals, for non-music related purposes.

This may be creating some issues with the connection between watch and headphones. If the phone is in a locker(shielded in sheet metal I assume) at 100ft, that's a bit of a distance between the phone and watch for bluetooth communications.

Supposedly the iPhone and watch will use Wi-Fi when possible. Is the iPhone connected to the gym's Wi-Fi network?
 
I did my first workout today and had bluetooth issues as well. My BT earbuds were paired with my phone, not my watch. My phone was in my pocket. The sound would cut in and out periodically. I was also using my BT HRM chest strap and it often wasn't working. Seemed like the only time it gave a reading was if I had the app on my iPhone open. Going to give it another go tomorrow.
 
ninjadex said:
It's likely that the watch itself is still trying to communicate over bluetooth with the phone at regular intervals, for non-music related purposes.

This may be creating some issues with the connection between watch and headphones. If the phone is in a locker(shielded in sheet metal I assume) at 100ft, that's a bit of a distance between the phone and watch for bluetooth communications.

Supposedly the iPhone and watch will use Wi-Fi when possible. Is the iPhone connected to the gym's Wi-Fi network?
Click to expand...

Good point!
 
I have the jaybirds and have the same issue. Playing songs from the watch with the jaybird causes the song to stop intermittently. Happens consistently.
 
I didn't try keeping the phone close by or with the wifi off. I can try those tomorrow.

For the two workouts I already had, the phone was indeed connected to the gym's wifi.

ninjadex said:
It's likely that the watch itself is still trying to communicate over bluetooth with the phone at regular intervals, for non-music related purposes.

This may be creating some issues with the connection between watch and headphones. If the phone is in a locker(shielded in sheet metal I assume) at 100ft, that's a bit of a distance between the phone and watch for bluetooth communications.

Supposedly the iPhone and watch will use Wi-Fi when possible. Is the iPhone connected to the gym's Wi-Fi network?
Click to expand...
This is possible but would seem to defeat the purpose of pairing your headphones directly to the watch. If you can't leave the phone, what's the point? I suspect that interference is at play and I might actually fare better outside, away from wifi.
 
HopefulHumanist said:
I didn't try keeping the phone close by or with the wifi off. I can try those tomorrow.

For the two workouts I already had, the phone was indeed connected to the gym's wifi.


This is possible but would seem to defeat the purpose of pairing your headphones directly to the watch. If you can't leave the phone, what's the point? I suspect that interference is at play and I might actually fare better outside, away from wifi.
Click to expand...

The watch only seems to join WiFi when available when out of Bluetooth range. If the watch or phone have poor WiFi connection then they will have issues communicating with each other to sync the exercise data. As mentioned a metal locker would cause WiFi interference. This could potentially cause an issue with Bluetooth audio even coming directly from the watch because the watch is having trouble communicating with the phone over WiFi to sync at the same time. This is all a theory of course.
 
I haven't tried pairing a blue tooth headset to the watch myself. Can you hear any sounds other than music? Thanks.
 
Hmm, this is a bit troubling, as this is something I was looking forward to doing when I order and get my Apple Watch sometime in June. I pretty much hate running and working out with my iPhone 6 now, as when I had my 4S that fit perfectly in everything. Hopefully a subsequent WatchOS update and more data on this will help to find solutions.
 
HopefulHumanist said:
If you can't leave the phone, what's the point? I suspect that interference is at play and I might actually fare better outside, away from wifi.
Click to expand...

Well you can't defy physics, and in this case you probably can't rely on the gym's Wi-Fi network when the phone is stuffed in a shielded locker.

The Wi-Fi network itself might even be secured in a way that the port required for communications between the devices is blocked. Maybe it's a question for the gym's IT staff, if they even have any.
 
Last edited:
azure247 said:
I have the jaybirds and have the same issue. Playing songs from the watch with the jaybird causes the song to stop intermittently. Happens consistently.
Click to expand...

Oh no, just bought some Jaybirds and this is happening to me. Music will play, let watch face go to sleep, and then if I bring the watch face up / activate anything on the watch it will pause.

This is playing music from the watch's library only.
 
Is it even possible to connect iPhone to watch via Bluetooth and then watch to headphones, a friend told me that there could only be one Bluetooth connection. Eg: I couldn't connect my iPhone to my car via Bluetooth once I got the watch?
 
SpaceGreyStig said:
Is it even possible to connect iPhone to watch via Bluetooth and then watch to headphones, a friend told me that there could only be one Bluetooth connection. Eg: I couldn't connect my iPhone to my car via Bluetooth once I got the watch?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's possible. My car has Bluetooth and music plays from my iPhone while it's connected to the watch.

Mr Verses said:
Hello, I had a similar issue, but turning off Bluetooth and wifi on my phone sorted this issue out. Hope that helps
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. That confirms it as a bug to me. If you sever the connection to the phone, the watch stops trying to communicate with it [which is completely unnecessary in these situations].
 
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