Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Apple Watch 3 LTE interference

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Since getting my Apple Watch with LTE, my outgoing call quality is completely unusable. It is only with the watch turned on and in the car. The outgoing sound is garbled and broken up. Incoming quality is just fine. Early on I thought it was just the car and Tesla replaced the mics. Apple also gave me a new phone and inspected and tested the watch. Everything is to spec. I have not seen anyone else having this issue. In fact when I had a loaner model X I had no issues. It has to be something hardware related with my car specifically. Anyone else have this issue? I have just now reached out to Tesla to see what else can be done.
 
Since getting my Apple Watch with LTE, my outgoing call quality is completely unusable. It is only with the watch turned on and in the car. The outgoing sound is garbled and broken up. Incoming quality is just fine. Early on I thought it was just the car and Tesla replaced the mics. Apple also gave me a new phone and inspected and tested the watch. Everything is to spec. I have not seen anyone else having this issue. In fact when I had a loaner model X I had no issues. It has to be something hardware related with my car specifically. Anyone else have this issue? I have just now reached out to Tesla to see what else can be done.
I’m unclear as to what you are trying to do. Your iPhone is paired to your car and your watch is paired to your iPhone not your car.
So for me if I’m driving with just my Apple Watch Series 3 on and I leave my iPhone X at home I just make and receive calls from my watch. I don’t use the car mics or speakers since it’s not paired. If I’m driving and have my iPhone with me I do use the Tesla mics and speakers to make and receive calls. I have no sound problems with either method.
 
Last edited:
So I always have my Apple Watch LTE on but rarely use it stand alone. Yes, the iPhone X is paired to the car and the watch is paired to the phone. I am not attempting to pair the watch to the car (not possible). The issue is while the LTE is enabled on the watch and the phone is paired to the car, the sound quality of the outgoing audio from the car is interfered with. If I use the speaker phone on the phone while in the car, there is no problem. If I turn the watch off completely or leave it at home, no problem. If I use the watch standalone the sound quality is good as well. Putting the watch in airplane mode doesn't appear to help. It has to be turned off or not in the car. It will also interfere with someone else's phone paired to my car if I am in the car with the watch.

I had the iPhone X and watch in the loaner X and it worked just fine. No interference. Again, I think I am alone with this issue....some people have road/wind noise issues, but this is very different.
 
So I always have my Apple Watch LTE on but rarely use it stand alone. Yes, the iPhone X is paired to the car and the watch is paired to the phone. I am not attempting to pair the watch to the car (not possible). The issue is while the LTE is enabled on the watch and the phone is paired to the car, the sound quality of the outgoing audio from the car is interfered with. If I use the speaker phone on the phone while in the car, there is no problem. If I turn the watch off completely or leave it at home, no problem. If I use the watch standalone the sound quality is good as well. Putting the watch in airplane mode doesn't appear to help. It has to be turned off or not in the car. It will also interfere with someone else's phone paired to my car if I am in the car with the watch.

I had the iPhone X and watch in the loaner X and it worked just fine. No interference. Again, I think I am alone with this issue....some people have road/wind noise issues, but this is very different.
Hmmm, don’t think I have that issue but will test.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Troy
I am having the same issue although I have a 1st gen Apple Watch. Just tested this and with the watch in the car the sound of the person in the car is garbled. Removed the watch and no issue. Must be some interference with the Apple Watch and tesla Bluetooth or mic.
 
I recently read an article where the "Apple Watch 3 with Cellular" has interference issues in some medical ICU facilities causing the watch to reboot -- unsure if in reverse, those medical devices have issues when the watch is on. I've read other articles about Bluetooth/WiFi interference -- generally with the watch loosing connectivity because of external issues, but not the watch causing problems with other devices.

That being said, I had zero problems with my original day-1 delivered Apple Watch "1" in my MS, and have no issues with my newer "Apple Watch 3 with GPS+Cellular" I have now. Like @msnow, my MS does have a Sept 2016 build date and "only" AP1/HW1, so for those encountering issues, perhaps physical behind-the-dash changes Tesla has made in more recent builds are the reason some are having problems, but others are not. I suspect so. For those with issues, what is your build date and do you have AP1, AP2, or neither?
 
  • Like
Reactions: msnow
This isn't going to fix anything, but to troubleshoot, try turning cellular off on your watch. Does the problem go away? Just swipe up on your watch and click the cellular icon to disable it. You mentioned not having your watch, or turning the watch off completely fixes your issue. I'm curious if watch turned on with cellular off makes a difference.
 
Mine is a June 2015 P85D with AP1. The interesting thing is if there is interference and I turn off the LTE, it doesn't improve, at least not immediately. I have to turn the watch off completely and it goes away. If LTE is off to begin with when I get in the car it seems to be ok. So turning LTE off doesn't seem to have an immediate effect.
 
To save battery the Apple Watch keeps the LTE modem turned off all of the time, except when there is no Bluetooth or Wifi connection. If the watch is connected to your phone (or to WiFi) then turning off the LTE toggle on the watch does absolutely nothing (other than tell it not to turn on the LTE modem if it does lose the Bluetooth and WiFi connection). I wouldn’t expect turning LTE off on the watch to actually make a difference here.

I use Bluetooth headphones frequently for phone calls on my iPhone and I also have a Bluetooth keyboard. I have noticed that trying to use the Bluetooth keyboard while I’m on a call often (although not always) causes problems. Either I’ll get weird garbled sound on the headphones (it sounds deep and slow like it’s in slow motion) or the keyboard will not be responsive as I try to type. This has persisted through several different phones and Bluetooth headphones and even several versions of iOS. I believe it’s a bug in the Apple Bluetooth stack, but I just keep the keyboard off while I’m on a call to work around it.

I also have an LTE Apple Watch and I haven’t seen any issues with this watch (or my previous non LTE Apple Watch) interfering with Bluetooth calls on my headsets or in the car.

That said, Bluetooth is a pretty robust protocol and isn’t really easily susceptible to interference, so I wonder if you might be running into the same issue that I did, which I believe may be an issue with the Apple Bluetooth stack rather than interference.

It might be interesting to see what happens if you unpair the watch from your phone and see if still causes issues. If you have access to another phone or can borrow one from your spouse or a friend, maybe pair the watch to another phone and try to make a Bluetooth call from your phone while all three devices are in your car.

Also, if you have any other Bluetooth devices paired to your phone maybe try to unpair them as well, so you just have the phone and the car paired while you test.
 
Ok, so latest round of experimentation....Apple is replacing my new LTE watch for me. While they do that I went back and connected my old series 1 watch to my iPhone X. Wouldn't you know it garbles the outgoing audio! So LTE isn't the problem. I then switched back to an old iPhone 7 Plus paired to the old watch and no problem. So the problem lies with the iPhone X and any watch, in my June 2015 build vehicle. What could this be? I'm back to chasing down Tesla for a solution again.
 
Would be interesting to know if the OP, jdw and msnow all have the same model of iPhone X.

Per iPod, iPhone & iPad Specs By Apple Model Identifier: Everyi.com, there are 3 variants:
iPhone X (Verizon/Sprint/China/A1865) iPhone10,3
iPhone X (AT&T/T-Mobile/Global/A1901) iPhone10,6
iPhone X (Japan/A1902) iPhone10,3

Do NOT go by what carrier you have. It may not be right. You should able to find out via Settings > General > About > Model (you may need to tap on the field on the right).

(Side note: The reason why I say to not go by what carrier you have is that I have an iPhone 8 A1863 as that's what Target was handing out (yay!) even though I was on AT&T at the time. It is the version w/the Qualcomm modem and thus can be be used on CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint. That's what allowed me to also switch over to Sprint once I paid off the phone in full and got it unlocked.

If I ordered had ordered an iPhone 8 from AT&T or Apple and said my carrier was AT&T, I'd have likely received an A1905, which has an Intel modem and doesn't work on CDMA carriers.)
 
Since getting my Apple Watch with LTE, my outgoing call quality is completely unusable. It is only with the watch turned on and in the car. The outgoing sound is garbled and broken up. Incoming quality is just fine. Early on I thought it was just the car and Tesla replaced the mics. Apple also gave me a new phone and inspected and tested the watch. Everything is to spec. I have not seen anyone else having this issue. In fact when I had a loaner model X I had no issues. It has to be something hardware related with my car specifically. Anyone else have this issue? I have just now reached out to Tesla to see what else can be done.

Data points: neither I nor my wife have experience this issue. Both have Apple 3 LTE watch but with iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 respectively.

Watch won't pair with the car so logic says that shouldn't be the cause.
 
My carrier and iPhone are ATT. Not the Verizon enabled version.
Logic says the watches presence causes the issue but possible the interference is from the Phone. Since I’ve had several phones and watch combos cause it, the real commmon denominator is the car.
The thing I can’t understand is how no one else is having this issue. I have to get Tesla to investigate further. Calling my service advisor from my car usually gets their attention and demonstrates the issue clearly.
 
Would be interesting to know if the OP, jdw and msnow all have the same model of iPhone X.

Per iPod, iPhone & iPad Specs By Apple Model Identifier: Everyi.com, there are 3 variants:
iPhone X (Verizon/Sprint/China/A1865) iPhone10,3
iPhone X (AT&T/T-Mobile/Global/A1901) iPhone10,6
iPhone X (Japan/A1902) iPhone10,3

Do NOT go by what carrier you have. It may not be right. You should able to find out via Settings > General > About > Model (you may need to tap on the field on the right).

(Side note: The reason why I say to not go by what carrier you have is that I have an iPhone 8 A1863 as that's what Target was handing out (yay!) even though I was on AT&T at the time. It is the version w/the Qualcomm modem and thus can be be used on CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint. That's what allowed me to also switch over to Sprint once I paid off the phone in full and got it unlocked.

If I ordered had ordered an iPhone 8 from AT&T or Apple and said my carrier was AT&T, I'd have likely received an A1905, which has an Intel modem and doesn't work on CDMA carriers.)
A1865
 
Would be interesting to know if the OP, jdw and msnow all have the same model of iPhone X.

Per iPod, iPhone & iPad Specs By Apple Model Identifier: Everyi.com, there are 3 variants:
iPhone X (Verizon/Sprint/China/A1865) iPhone10,3
iPhone X (AT&T/T-Mobile/Global/A1901) iPhone10,6
iPhone X (Japan/A1902) iPhone10,3

Do NOT go by what carrier you have. It may not be right. You should able to find out via Settings > General > About > Model (you may need to tap on the field on the right).

(Side note: The reason why I say to not go by what carrier you have is that I have an iPhone 8 A1863 as that's what Target was handing out (yay!) even though I was on AT&T at the time. It is the version w/the Qualcomm modem and thus can be be used on CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint. That's what allowed me to also switch over to Sprint once I paid off the phone in full and got it unlocked.

If I ordered had ordered an iPhone 8 from AT&T or Apple and said my carrier was AT&T, I'd have likely received an A1905, which has an Intel modem and doesn't work on CDMA carriers.)
A1901 (AT&T) ...with no unique problems associated with my iPhone X or Apple Watch 3 GPS+LTE that I have found.