Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

I really need the 10.15.4 to come out. Going insane with the drop-offs. Cannot work without my active noise-cancellation headsets and I have been forced to take calls on speaker - 40% of my job. AND I work remotely. I know I am ranting

I absolutely thought I was going nuts with this (now I don't feel so alone). I have both AirPods 2 and Beats Wireless 3 headphones and both are exhibiting the exact same behavior. I see really strange messages in the console log related to bluetoothaudiod and then they simply just disconnect. I've tried all the fixes that I've seen relating to resetting the bluetooth module.

Apple what the heck... Please respond to this thread. We're are out here music-less.

Help!

redparadox, as I understood they are not reading these discussions. Also I think bluetooth module is working very well the same as it was for me. I had bluetoothaudiod problem as well, because it has setting to stop when a free memory is needed for something else in the system. And it's not related to bluetooth hardware, it's program for audio processing. So I suppose (the same as for me it was) your devices stay connected even audio lost and you can use you mouse, keyboard (if you have) and see that phones are also connected, just no ability to select them in audio output.

After update to 10.15.3 my problems seems disappeared on MacBook with 8 Gb memory. And also I bought new one MacBook 16 with 16 Gb memory and it has 10.15.3 as well and I didn't have any problem with bluetooth audio, but busy memory is always less than 14 Gb.

I've had this issue since updating to 10.15.3. Specifically, all bluetooth headphones (Bose QC 35 and a cheap gym pair) would connect for about 15 seconds and then immediately disconnect. I've tried everything on this and many other forums to fix it but nothing worked (reset BT module, repair, enable AAC in BT Explorer, reset PRAM, etc.).

I finally decided to spin up the Console app and filter by bluetoothd to see if I could find anything useful. During connection I noticed the following error pop up multiple times:

"Trigger core audio to connect to bluetoothaudiod but we don't know about coreaudiod"

Seeing that, I decided to manually restart core audio with the following Terminal command:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

Immediately I was able to connect my headphones and they stayed connected. I no longer saw an error in the Console app. I don't know if this will help everyone but it's working for me. If it is core audio related I won't be surprised if this issue pops up again. Hoping it's fixed in 10.15.4.

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.

That command line is basically the same as to restart the machine. I have told you before. There is no way that you can understand a solution that worked.

I have experienced prolonged dropout on PC, too (even with the mouse in a USB-port). I was completely stuck, but the solution was to connect the Bluetooth back on the iMac again, which has worked very fine the last four months, ironically.

I'm not saying I can explain why that command worked. I did multiple reboots, clearing NVRAM/PRAM, clearing the bluetooth settings, removing/reconnecting the AirPods and still the same issue until I issued that command and no problems since. Go figure...

Better than doing nothing. Glad it worked for you!

We have figured out that an update may have fixed this, and that your actions proved it, but not for all! There are so many cases with different disconnection issues, so I am only referring to this one particular case I am aware of.

I noticed, that it was actually not a problem with macos, but with my iphone claiming "back" my airpods. I switched off bluetooth on the iphone off, and my airpods (pro) stayed connected. Switched back bluetooth back on, working fine now.

I see Catalina 10.15.4 is GA (out of beta) now. Is the general consensus that this will resolve the bluetooth auto dropouts that most on this post were experiencing? Keen to hear people's experiences with 10.15.4 before upgrading again. (I previously rolled back to Mojave. It was a pain and I don't particularly want to do it again!)

Hi! I own a Sony WH-CH 500 headset and i updated to 10.15.4 today. The headset disconnects every time if Microsoft Teams trying to enable the microphone.

Same behavior if i go to sound settings and switch to headset microphone. It disconnects immediately.

So the bug is not fixed for me. :-(

I've had problems with my Bose QC-35 headset regularly disconnecting as others have described since updating to Catalina. Since installing the 10.15.4 update 2 days ago I've not had a single disconnect despite constant usage due to the COVID-19 working from home arrangement. Fingers crossed...

I had the same issue, thought it was the music app - using the Music app, still stutter on the bluetooth headset. I disconnected the Magic Mouse II - and problem gone! Seems it's the bluetooth of the mouse. Back to using only magic keyboard and touchpad

Updated to 10.15.4, but the problem's actually gotten worse. Now embedded videos and some audio streams won't play in Safari unless I not only disconnect the bluetooth speakers -- I have to power the speakers off so that the computer can no longer see them. Then, on internal speakers only, the videos will run. Meanwhile, continued strange behavior when on audio such as Apple Music -- if I go to Sound Preferences and disconnect the bluetooth speakers that aren't delivering, they usually reconnect themselves and start playing.

Catalina has been a real bummer. I hardly ever saw the beach ball in Sierra or Mojave -- now I see it multiple times a day. It reminds me of Windows, which is not a good thing.

Hello guys,

Unfortunately, the bug is still there on 10.15.4 but it now disconnects and reconnects automatically.

for those of you who don’t experience the bug the first day or couple of days after updating, it’s due to the restart.