Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

I opened Finder, selected “Go” and the “Go to Folder...” and typed in “~/Library/Caches”. Then I deleted everything in there and watched my RAM increase substantially. I’ve been watching it carefully and clearing the RAM down periodically to see if it is a RAM issue. So far, the Bluetooth has stayed connected for over two hours (where it was doing it every minute or so when available RAM was running around 32MB on my MacBook Air with 4GB RAM).

I’m going to try this for the next couple of days to see if this works. I know that this started when I upgraded to Catalina but they may be using the RAM a different way in this version?

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) macOS Catalina 10.15.2

I have been having this issue, and also another one to do with Photos.

I have submitted both of them as issues through Apple support, using serial number from my 2014 macbook air.

I got quick and useful responses for both, using chat and phone response. Not all resolved, but they are definitely helpful and willing to pursue and escalate the issues. Response times are amazingly fast.

Interestingly, they always check for previous similar issues issues, and they tell me that there are very few. They don't monitor these chat groups with any regularity, so if you have a problem, its much better to go to the real deal technicians!

Go to https://support.apple.com/en-ca/contact

Same problem. I use a Logitech bluetooth (BT) adapter to connect to external speakers. When Catalina mysteriously switches to the internal speakers, and I go to sound preferences and click on the bluetooth audio device, which is still showing as connected, nothing happens. I think at that point the bluetooth audio device may not, in fact, be connected -- not sure.

But! Here's an interesting twist. If at that point I click on "Disconnect" for the bluetooth device, the device gives a signal indicating that Catalina just reconnected to it. Then I can go to sound preferences and switch the audio back to the bluetooth audio device. (For now.)

But I shouldn't have to do any of that, of course. What a hot mess.

I depends on amount of free memory you have. That in the same time depends on your installed memory in Mac/Macbook and also how much applications / tabs in chrome you open. With 8 GB memory for me it happens rarely now, but I try not to open much applications or restart chrome often (to free all memory that chrome has taken by the moment).

In Mojave the same Bose phones worked without any disconnection even I had more memory consumption. Now in Catalina, when memory consumption goes up, kernel kills bluetoothaudiod because IT'S IDLE, while I'm listening music.

I updated to .3 release, will do a test next hour. Will check if it still there. And also will try to remove plist and test. And if not helped then reset NVRAM. Also I have 4 devices: 2 sony headphones, 1 bose and 1 JBL. Will do a test with all of them :)

shahedshah you might had different issue than me. Most of us had issue with automatic killing of bluetoothaudiod by OS kernel. It's quite logic behaviour of kernel when it needs some memory. The problem was that bluetoothaudiod actually wasn't idle, but detected by kernel as idle (some wrong settings/flags or idk what in the code). And it's only software problem of kernel or of bluetooth audio daemon and not NVRAM settings or BT issue (many noticed that BT device even didn't disconnect, just audio couldn't switch there).

And now I see they finally fixed it.

But of course here some people who has more than 8Gb memory and probably didn't even had it fully filled (as I have on MacMini for example). And also there are some people with other BT issues, like firmware or bad chinese mouse clogging BT and WiFi channels (I had one in the past, when understood it became a garbage and replaced with normal one).

Anyway, tomorrow I will close my second question with technical details about it. Thank you all for pushing on Apple, but it seems they had .3 update previous year already, but not everybody got it that time.

Unfortunately, CreateCheckInvalidUserName's solution is more of a walk around (no harm meant PhillB). I think that AAC codec is widely popular for obvious reasons and forcing it shut isn't a solution.

I have been having this issue for over 4 months now (and yes, before Catalina update!)

Coreaudiod is going crazy when RAM memory starts getting full. And that isn't rare with Mac since it allocates all available memory to opened apps to make use of it and improve UX.

One trick though to avoid that awkward blast of music on internal speakers at work:

• Mute internal speakers before connecting your audio device so when the bug happens, it goes back to mute ;)

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'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...

After upgrade to 10.15.4 - still stuttering sound on AKG Bluetooth headset, as long as the Magic Mouse is connected as well. I disconnect the little pet - perfect sound. No issue with the touchpad though

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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.... :)

If you are using a bluetooth mouse, turn it off and the problem stops.

Probably it needs just clearing settings (NVRAM, SMC, Bluetooth device settings). I have no any BT problems on 3 Mac devices for about 8 months already.

I'm also having this issue, it's completely annoying.

I constantly use bluetooth audio devices (Airpods, Bose QC II and a bluetooth speaker).

They keep getting disconnected after a few minutes using them, and worse, I work remotely so I had a lot of issues during important work calls, while using Hangouts, if this disconnection bug happens, you don't have other option than restarting your browser to make your mic work again. I had this problem 4 times during a 30 minute work call, totally embarrassing and annoying.

I wanted to downgrade to Mojave but it takes lots of time (backup, bootable installer, uninstalling Catalina, installing Mojave).

Please, as Bunkface mentioned on his comment: if you have this same problem, click on "I have this problem too" so this issue get's Apple attention.

I get this too with my Bose QC35ii which always worked fine before. This time I grabbed the dmesg output just after they dropped out - sugggests an issue with power saving mode:

+ IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::stopAudioEngine()

+-IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::setState(0x0. oldState=0x1)

+ IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::audioEngineStopped() - numRunningAudioEngines = 1

+ IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::scheduleIdleAudioSleep: idleSleepDelayTime = ffffffffffffffffffffffff

- IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::scheduleIdleAudioSleep: idleSleepDelayTime = ffffffffffffffffffffffff

- IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::audioEngineStopped() - numRunningAudioEngines = 0

- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::stopAudioEngine() returns 0x0

+-IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::setState(0x0. oldState=0)

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient::externalMethod, selector=0x0, arg0 0x0, arg1 0x109f5b000, arg2 0x8010 arg3 0xe77

scalarInputCount=0x4 structureInputSize 0x0, scalarOutputCount 0x0, structureOutputSize 0x0

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient::registerBuffer64 0x0 0x109f5b000 0x8010 0xe77

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient::safeRegisterClientBuffer64 <ptr>

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient[<ptr>]::registerClientBuffer64 (<ptr>[1], 0x109f5b000, 0x8010, 0xe77)

null clientBufferSetList

did not find clientBufferSetList for ID 0xe77

PMRD: setAggressiveness(0) kPMMinutesToSleep = 0

clientBuffer->mAudioClientBuffer32.sourceBuffer before offset: <ptr>, offset size: 16

clientBuffer->mAudioClientBuffer32.sourceBuffer after offset: <ptr>

null clientBufferSetList

did not find clientBufferSetList for ID 0xe77

creating new IOAudioClientBufferSet

output

!isOnline

- IOAudioEngineUserClient::registerClientBuffer64() result 0x0

- IOAudioEngineUserClient::safeRegisterClientBuffer64 returns 0x0

- IOAudioEngineUserClient::registerBuffer64 0x0 0x109f5b000 0x8010 0xe77 returns 0x0

- IOAudioEngineUserClient::externalMethod returns 0x0

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient::externalMethod, selector=0x3, arg0 0x0, arg1 0x0, arg2 0x0 arg3 0x0

scalarInputCount=0x0 structureInputSize 0x0, scalarOutputCount 0x0, structureOutputSize 0x0

+ IOAudioEngineUserClient[<ptr>]::startClient() - 0

audioEngine && !isInactive(). State = 0

audioEngine->getState() != kIOAudioEnginePaused

+- IOAudioEngineUserClient[<ptr>]::setOnline(1)

!isOnline() setting online

+ IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::startClient(<ptr>)

+ IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::incrementActiveUserClients() - 0

+ IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::startAudioEngine(state = 0)

+ IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::protectedCompletePowerStateChange() - current = 2 - pending = 2

- IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::protectedCompletePowerStateChange() - current = 2 - pending = 2 returns 0x0

+ IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::protectedCompletePowerStateChange() - current = 2 - pending = 2

- IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::protectedCompletePowerStateChange() - current = 2 - pending = 2 returns 0x0

+ IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::audioEngineStarting() - numRunningAudioEngines = 0

- IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::audioEngineStarting() - numRunningAudioEngines = 1

+- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::resetStatusBuffer()

+-IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::setState(0x1. oldState=0)

- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::getTimerInterval()

- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::startAudioEngine() returns 0x0

- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::incrementActiveUserClients() - 1 returns 0

- IOAudioEngine[<ptr>]::startClient(<ptr>) returns 0x0

engine started

bufferSet <ptr>

output clientBuffer <ptr>

+ IOAudioStream[<ptr>]::addClient(<ptr>)

- IOAudioStream[<ptr>]::addClient(<ptr>) returns 0x0

- IOAudioEngineUserClient[<ptr>]::startClient() - 1 returns 0x0

- IOAudioEngineUserClient::externalMethod returns 0x0