iOS 10 Potentially Causing Issues with MFi Controllers

Potentially bad news here for owners of older MFi controllers: I’ve been hearing widespread reports of bluetooth disconnection issues on iOS 10. There’s a topic about it on the forum, and I’ve been getting reports via email and Twitter.

If you’ve been reading the site for a few years, this might seem familiar. A similar issue cropped up in iOS 8, where older MFi controllers would randomly disconnect during gameplay. Unfortunately, there was never a satisfactory fix for that problem – a few controller makers issued firmware updates to address the problem, and newer iPhones and iPads seemed to be immune to the issue.

In this instance, if a firmware update is required to fix older controllers, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Many of the manufacturers of older MFi controllers are either out of business or focusing on other products. If there is a widespread issue with MFi controllers in iOS 10, it will likely come down to Apple to fix the problem.

If we expect Apple to fix this issue, Step 1 is finding a way to reliably reproduce the issue with specific controllers on specific hardware. If you’d like to help, test your MFi controllers on any iOS 10 devices you have, and post your results in the forum thread. I know from experience that Apple won’t help us unless we can provide them with specific, reproducible bugs.