Before our now technologically advanced age, I’m talking about the seventies and eighties. All kinds of connections between two or several other devices must be initiated by some kind of a data transfer cord. I’m sure it was mostly a tiring thing to do. But thanks to Bluetooth that has made wireless connections so much easier.
Now you can wirelessly connect your iPhone to a bunch of other devices like your Laptop, an Airpod or wireless speakers, and that’s amazing.
Find Bluetooth Device On iPhone After Forgetting
Bluetooth connection issue may arise between your iPhone and a paired device, and you choose to reconnect them again after forgetting the device but can’t find the device under ‘my devices’ in the Bluetooth setting.
Also you can mistakenly forget a Bluetooth device that’s always in use and may have tried all you can without any success to reconnect it.
What can be done in this case? The only way to make a forgotten Bluetooth device discoverable again for pairing is to unforget it. This way, it either reappears under ‘my devices’ in the Bluetooth setting or can be found when available devices are scanned.
How To Unforget A Bluetooth Device On iPhone
When you choose to forget a Bluetooth device, your iPhone believes you have no need of pairing the Bluetooth device ever again with your iPhone, and so it deletes its data, making it undiscoverable by your iPhone. The device still won’t be discoverable when you scan for available devices, that’s how bad it can be.
Unforgetting a Bluetooth device is basically undoing a few steps you took on your iPhone that got the device deleted.
There are several proven approaches that you can take to do this. Some of them I would say have a bit of technicality to them, but that’s not for you worry because I will show you just how to resolve the problem by step.
I will be showing you two quick ways you can do this. The first one on my list is the simplest of them all and my advice would be to start trying out the solutions from the first before proceeding to the second.
1. Clear Bluetooth Cache
Just like every other cache, the Bluetooth cache stores the information of any pairing and even unpairing that occurs between your iPhone and any Bluetooth device. If you’ve forgotten any device a Bluetooth device on your iPhone, the cache saves the information in this manner – ‘this device has been forgotten by this iPhone user, and should never pair again’. May not be exactly this way, but I’m sure you get the point.
So long as that cache remains, the forgotten Bluetooth device will never reconnect.
To clear your Bluetooth cache, follow the below steps;
- Open Bluetooth in settings
- Click on the ‘i’ to Forget every device paired to your iPhone
- Next is to perform a force restart on your iPhone
- Press and hold the power and volume up buttons at once
- Continue to hold until the power off slider appears
- Slide to power off your phone and wait till the screen goes black
- Press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears and displays your lock screen.
- Go back to Bluetooth in settings
- Scan for available devices and reconnect the forgotten device.
2. Perform An iPhone Network Reset
Before you further with this procedure, ensure you remember your network login details or have them backup. Because taking this route to unforget a Bluetooth device basically restores your iPhone back to the way it was a few days back. You only loose some data, these may include your Wi-Fi settings, cellular and VPN settings. Ensure you have your iPhone backed up.
To successfully reset your iPhone network, follow the following steps;
- Open your iPhone settings
- Click on general
- Select and open reset
- Click reset network settings
- Enter your passcode if prompted to
- Confirm that want to continue with the reset by clicking on reset
- Your phone will go off for a few seconds and the iPhone logo will appear. The logo may flash on the screen more than twice
- The iPhone will turn back on
- Open Bluetooth in setting
- You should see all your Bluetooth connection under ‘my devices’ including the one you are trying to unforget.
If you can’t find the unpaired device, search for available Bluetooth networks and the forgotten device should now be discoverable because your iPhone won’t remember that the device was forgotten after the network reset.
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How To Forget A Bluetooth Device On iPhone
Forgetting a Bluetooth device on iPhone is same thing as to unpair a device. When you choose to forget a device, your iPhone is disconnected from it, removed from your device and becomes undiscoverable by the Bluetooth device.
Take the simple steps below to forget a Bluetooth device on iPhone, but be sure that’s what you want before doing this;
- Open up settings
- Click on Bluetooth
- Under paired devices, find the device that you want to forget
- Click on the ‘i’ button next to it
- Tap on forget
- Confirm to the popup that you want to forget the device
And that’s it, you have successfully unpaired a Bluetooth device.
Why Can’t I Remove A Bluetooth Device On My iPhone?
I like to call these type of Bluetooth devices stubborn. If the normal procedure as stated above does not unpair a Bluetooth device then their a few ways to force it out.
- Restart your iPhone
Turn your phone off and on again. Try the process of forgetting a Bluetooth device to see if the issue has been resolved.
- Perform an IOS update
An IOS update usually fixes major software issues and may be able to solve this too. Upgrade your iPhone to the next available IOS version and try forgetting the device again. Here’s how to download and install an update;
- Click on settings
- Click on general
- Click software update
- Available updates will appear
- Click download. It’ll install afterwards
- Forget the device in iPhone safe mode
If the issue remains resistant to the first two solutions which is highly unlikely, then take this approach. Here you will boot iPhone to its safe mood and forget the Bluetooth device. Take the steps below;
- Switch iPhone off
- Turn it on again
- Be on the look out to hold down the up volume button immediately you see the Apple logo
- In only a few seconds your lock screen will appear. This is the safe mode
- Perform the same procedure of trying to forget a Bluetooth device
- Now, restart your device.
This should finally kick the stubborn Bluetooth device from your iPhone
How do I remove unwanted Bluetooth devices?
Some Bluetooth devices connected to your iPhone may not be needed anymore and should be removed from your iPhone. Take the blow steps to remove unwanted Bluetooth devices from your iPhone;
- Open up settings
- Click on Bluetooth
- Under paired devices, find the device that you want to forget
- Click on the ‘i’ button next to it
- Tap on forget
- Confirm to the popup that you want to forget the device
Video Guide
Find your Bluetooth device after you hit “forget this device”
“In this video I walk you through how to find your Bluetooth device after you have already hit “Forget this Device”. Sometimes it makes a lot of sense to forget a device from your Bluetooth list, but I looked all over the internet and found almost no information on how to make the device re-appear. You have to reset your network settings on the iPhone”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6a1kf1LF64
Conclusion
It’s important to know how to deal with Bluetooth related issues because you may be needing and using Bluetooth devices a lot. Make sure also to take away from this article how to perform an iPhone network reset, you may be needing it a lot, but in case you forget, you can always revisit this article, so bookmark it.
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