iPhone 6s won't reconnect to car bluetooth

[Dave00]

This has been such an incredibly frustrating problem. I have a 2012 Subaru Impreza. My iPhone 5s connected to it with no problem. My new iPhone 6s, I can connect just fine, but as soon as I turn the car off, the connection doesn't work anymore when I turn the car back on. I have to manually select the iPhone 6s in my car, at which point it works again until I turn the car off. Same thing happens if I toggle Bluetooth off/on on my phone while leaving the car running.

The iPhone can see the car bluetooth, but when I try to select it from the phone, it says it can't connect.

I know there were issues with pairing with iOS 8, but I never experienced these on my 5s. I've tried every fix mentioned - forgetting the car bluetooth, deleting the iPhone from the car system and then re-pairing, restarting the phone. Haven't tried forgetting all networks, because that would be a serious pain (so many wi-fi logins) and would only do if I were guaranteed success, which seems unlikely.

Any way to find out if the problem is with the phone or the car? I tend to think the phone, since other phones can connect, but who knows. Maybe an issue with older bluetooth/newer bluetooth.

Am I the only one with this problem?

Dave

 

[Dave00]

Figured out my own problem, but will post it here in case anyone else searches like I did and couldn't find an answer.

For some reason, on Subaru's, the system considers bluetooth players and phones connecting via bluetooth to be different entities. The way to setup a phone pairing is not through the dashboard, but through the steering wheel controls. Press the "off hook" button, then use the controls to select "Pair phone". Now everything works just peachy.

Dave