Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

I ran into this same issue, my bluetooth earbuds would connect, then immediately disconnect.

Catalina 10.15.6

I was able to fix the problem by stopping the coreaudiod

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

I was then able to connect my bluetooth earbuds, which was then able to start the coreaudiod successfully

I have the same problem with stuttering bluetooth audio. I tried everything Apple support advised me to do including reinstalling Catalina with the latest version (10.15.6) and still the problem persisted. Apple support then advised me to erase the route drive and start over with a clean drive restoring from a backup. I really did not want to do this and procrastinated for a while until I could not take the stuttering any more. I use a Logitech MS Master 2S bluetooth mouse. The audio stuttering effects Bose head phones, AirPods, AirPods Pro and hearing aids and the mouse is also effected by loosing its link even though it shows connected. It turned out that the Mouse is causing the Stuttering. When I disconnected the mouse, the stuttering stopped. Reconnecting the mouse caused the stuttering restarted. I have also found that the mouse intermittently stops functioning even though it shows that it is connected. When I reconnect the mouse, the stuttering resumes after a little while. Disconnecting the mouse stops the stuttering.

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If I connect my Alexa to my Mac through bluetooth, and then connect my bluetooth headphones (which are having similar problem to those you described), the headphones connect, disconnect, and then connect again. Sometimes I have to click its button to get this to occur, but once they are connected, they stay pretty well connected (albeit the strength of the connection seems a little weaker than it was before I upgraded to Catalina and this problem appeared). The "sound output device" still shows the Alexa (does NOT even show the headphones -- even though they DO appear in the "connected bluetooth device" list), but it plays through the headphones. Nice.

So, try keeping a stronger device connected to bluetooth as well as the headphone. It seems to find its way through its big brother.... :)

I'm using Catalina 10.15.6 with 2020 Macbook Pro, Tozo T-10 earbuds. The earbuds show as connected in the bluetooth menu but sound only comes out from the Macbook built-in speakers. When I go into the sound menu, the earbuds don't show up as an option even though they are showing connected in the bluetooth menu. Help! I'm driving my partner nuts with this.

Just chiming in to say I have the same problem. I've tried a lot of the workarounds mentioned in this thread, but no luck. I notice it more with my Magic Mouse stuttering. Audio drops when I have my Bose QC35 II connected, but I only have them on for meetings. Mouse issues happen even if no BT headphones are connected. I mostly listen to music with wired headphones, which have no issues.

MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2019)

2.6 GHz 6 core i7

32GB RAM

I rarely max out my RAM or CPU, so computer performance doesn't seem to be a cause for me.

BT devices I have are Apple keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Bose QC35 II - nothing else.

I have noticed a lot of bluetoothd errors in Console, this one several times a minute:

error	09:45:50.950544-0700	kernel	Sandbox: bluetoothd(209) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.server.bluetooth

This one every few minutes:

error	09:54:23.758877-0700	bluetoothd	Stop tracking peer when central manager state is 5

When the Bose headphones are connected, I get a ton of errors for dropped audio.

Wish I could go back to a wired mouse and keyboard...

I just noticed this in system.log:

Sep 10 06:57:06  bluetoothd[209]: notify name "com.apple.bluetooth.sensorTracking.stateChanged" has been registered 500 times - this may be a leak

I'm running Catalina 10.15.6

I'm having this issue as well. I'm on a late 2014 Mac Mini running Catalina 10.15.6. I'm using Cowin E7 headphones. While playing from Apple Music there is a consistent skip in the sound about every minute 20 seconds. It happens weather the music is downloaded or not. I switched to my iPhone with the same headphones and no skipping. The problem does not seem to occur on Airplay from the Mac mini.

I have a very similar issue with a Bose Soundtouch 30; ever since 'upgrading' to Catalina the Bose speaker keeps disconnecting when using the new Apple Music and just displays a message "Select a preset or explore music on the sound touch app" - this is not a Bose issue as i have explored the issue with Bose and nothing has changed on my speakers. It never happened with iTunes. I have to agree with many others that Catalina seems to be a step backwards rather than any improvement; very very disappointed with Apple who do not seem to do adequate user testing anymore.

I've just upgraded to Mojave, not Catalina yet, and I have the same problem (which many here say didn't happen to them in Mojave). Plantronics + 2017 Macbook Pro. My point is that the problem's quite extensive, and not exclusively new.

Update on this issue for me. On Catalina 10.15.6, MBP 2017 13", PowerBeats Pro. My issue is when I initially put my earbud in, I hear the chime of a disconnect. To workaround, I use Bluetooth Explorer > Tools > Test Bluetooth UI Panels > Pairing > Select my Powerbeats and click Pair. Then I hear to connect chime and it will work all day. I can take it off and set it on my desk, but if I put it back in the charging case, I have to repeat the process to re-connect.

I didnt have a problem prior to OSX Catalina, but since then my Bose QC 35 II, my Enacfire E60 and another pair that I cant remember all play broken audio, very frustrating and not what I expect from Apple.

BTW I am on 10.15.7 on a Late 2012 27inch iMac with i7 processor and 24GB RAM.

As an update, I noticed that my Apple Trackpad was sitting under the iMac (I dont usually use it but it remains connected), I just clicked disconnect in the Bluetooth setting and now the audio is playing fine with both Bose and Enacfires?

So the question is, is the bluetooth struggling with too many devices connected (have bluetooth mouse, keyboard and trackpad and then 1 pair of headphones)? or is there an issue with the trackpad?

When I run windows on my macbook pro, I also have the same problem: bluetooth headphones works well if 2.4 transmitter is not used by anything else (slow devices allowed, like keyboard). But in MacOS I often connect a lot of devices: mouse, keyboard, 2 headphones, iPhone and works perfectly. However I have bluetooth 5 here that is faster than previous versions. For example, MacMini 2012 has BT 4.1 and all headphones have much worse quality in call mode (and I didn't like calls at all).

WTF is this still a problem? i finally just upgraded to Catalina and NOW have problems keeping a bluetooth connection thru my Bose headphones. good god FIX THIS NOW. i cant work w/ this not working.

Only what I had mentioned earlier, and this still works for me, I found that the more bluetooth devices I had the more audio issues I faced, so disconnecting my Apple bluetooth trackpad (1st gen) and only having my Apple wireless keyboard, Apple wireless mouse and my BOSE QC 35 II connected via Bluetooth resolved my audio issues, re-connecting the Apple trackpad then causes audio drop outs.