Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

I had the same problem when I upgraded to Catalina 10.15.2. Then after suffering for a while I read somewhere that they fixed this usse in 10.15.3. Upgrading to 10.15.3 solved this for me.

d_fuser, XPC error - it means coreaudiod can't communicate with bluetoothaudiod (at least I think so :D ) and then removes all devices that are from bluetooth. Can you open Console app and leave it working and when happened, search for a line "bluetoothaudiod" then, to check what killed it or what happened with it at all?

I have the same issue with Sony WH1000-XM3 on MBA (13", early 2015) Catalina (10.15.3). I guess I have solved this temporarily. The disconnection might be caused by the software interference. The process is as follows:

1. install Bluetooth Explorer from apple deveploper website, which contains in Addtional tools for XCode. (No need to install XCode if you don't have it)
2. Start Bluetooth Explorer, Utilities -> Event log (shortcut: ⇧+⌘+0)
3. You can moniter for a while with bluetooth headphone connected. There might be some error log appear in the logging window, something like,

Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in()

• If you can identify the cause of the error log, fix it. Otherwise, you can use EtreCheck to assist you locate the cause of the error.

(For my case, I have two major error log, a) shadowsocks-NG, which persists with a plist file to start after I uninstalled it, b) Google chrome updater looking for a full path located in an older user path which I've changed the name.)

• After eliminating these errors, the event log will looks clear as follows:

Process: Bluetooth Explorer 7.0.0
Operating System: Version 10.15.3 (Build 19D76)
Date: 2020-02-11 08:41:59 +0000

PS: FYI, I also enable force use of aptX via Bluetooth Explorer as gmrandazzo suggested in another thread.

Thankyou so much for this post.

My hardware and the steps that worked for me:

1) MacBook Pro 2016/16GB/512GB/15"/2.7GHz I7

2) Sound BalsterX Katana

3) I already had XCode installed

4) Used the provided link to download the additional utilities

5) Had to find the official Apple doc

6) Activate/Launch Bluetooth Explorer (no windows appear, however the menu is active at the top).

7) Click Bluetooth Explorer in the dock (Menu at top becomes active)

8) Click tools/Audio Options

9) Check "Disable AAC"

10) Click Close

11) Reboot - I could not find the "Reset Bluetooth Module" in version 11.

12) Connect to you SBX Katana

13) Click/Press Alt-Bluetooth logo in the top meny bar - Hold this combination/Do not release

14) Move the mouse to hover over SoundblasterX Katana - Note: Codec is SBC

15) Play music and be happy :-)

From my limited understanding of what I did, I think the Apple bluetooth module cannot determine the appropriate Codec to use. This means using the wrong/incompatible codec results in no sound which, from my reading, is where everyone is as of right now.

The remaining problem here is, that while this process may work, it requires a reboot between devices that need AAC and SBC or whatever other codec your device needs. Also it is unclear to me if it is possible to manually force a particular codec on a particular bluetooth sound device.

Hope this helps someone.

PhillB

Some people also said AAC codec works incorrectly in the latest versions. So probably if you turn AAC off, sound will be working ok again. It can be turned off in Bluetooth Explorer (might be needed to download it from Apple website at first). After changing codecs settings, airpods will need to be disconnected and paired again.

I can easily reproduce the issue. As soon as system needs additional memory it kills idle processes and it thinks for some reason (some bug in the code) that "bluetoothaudiod" is idle and kills it.

You can open application "console" and search for two words: "killing_idle_process" and "bluetoothaudiod" and you should find the same.

I will request support from Apple.

Sorry for delay, had to finish urgent work.

Ok so, I updated to 10.15.3 and now I tried to overload memory to reproduce issue with bluetoothaudio (I did it easily previously many times to reproduce the problem: overload memory, boom - bluetoothaudio lost) and now I did what I can to overload everything and bluetooth didn't disconnect. So it seems it fixed now :) Yay! Will write later again, but I think it's the end of the issue with bluetoothaudiod in Catalina.

rayjayjohnson - which data are you talking about and what happened?

Today after another problem with failed bluetooth audio I have checked one more time in which state is my BT connection to speaker - it was connected, but speaker wasn't listed in output devices. After killing process "coreaudiod", speaker was available in output devices. So, may be problem not in bluetooth? have you any thoughts about it?

Possibly can help installing Bluetooth Explorer from apple website. Then to open it and in menu go to Tools -> Modify software and device configuration -> and ticket "Full factory reset" and perform the action.

A further reply to my reply:

Sound BlasterX Katana official web page states:

Supported Codecs

SBC, AAC

https://us.creative.com/p/speakers/sound-blasterx-katana

Conclusion:

Apple's AAC codec has something wrong with it. Workaround is to force it off and use SBC.

SBC *must* be supported by all audio devices because it is defined in the bluetooth standard.

** I solved this problem perfectly !! **

I suffered the same problem with my macbook pro 2018.

I updated OS version from 15.10.1 to 15.10.3, but it still had problem.

I asked about this to support team, and they said to create new user for desktop.

So, I created a new login user (not apple online account),

and the problem disappeared.

This problem was very annoying and uncomfortable,

so I hope the people who have the same problem would solve this problem with this solution.

After much searching online and trying to reset the bluetooth module several times and ignoring Apple support that suggested re-installing the operating system, the following simple command fixed my issue:

From terminal:

sudo killall -9 bluetoothaudiod coreaudiod

Who knew. No issues at all after that point.

10.15.4 beta 3 fix it. Two days of testing are successful!

Hey,

I had the same issue but after updating my macbook to macOS Catalina 10.15.4 it seems that they resolved this problem. Since then I have not experienced any issue with my bluetooth devices.

jmattdb not the *********, but under some load (I have 8 GB memory), for example 3 Chrome windows with 20 tabs each, Slack, Skype, VSCode and during a call in Skype with ScreenSharing, memory can go out of green state and immediately BT sound disconnects. I think OS just unloads BT sound module because it's sitting somewhere in the cache or something like that. Btw, when memory pressure go out from green (there are some levels), it doesn't mean that machine will be very slow yet.

During about last 3 months I had it like 20+ times and after like 10th I started to notice that memory is related to that and it happens everytime. After that I moved some apps out from my macbook to remote Mac and now connecting remotely there, but anyway sometimes I overload memory even now.