Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

I contacted Apple Support 4 times, they were friendly at first to make me go through their troubleshooting.

But when unsuccessful:

• One of them said that my problem was a hardware problem
• Another said that I should backup the mac and start testing it by downloading one app at a time (which I obviously didn't do because my job isn't to debug for Apple!)
• Then they transferred me to a "Manager" and that's were things got... ...interesting
  • He said that if I get the bug in SAFE MODE, this issue is then system related.

So he asked me to write down the exact times when the bug happened so he can pull a report and forward it to their engineering department.

• • I mailed him twice ever-since and well... he didn't even bother to call back in 5 days!

I'm SICK of this.

I haven't been able to put on my headphones and work properly if I'm having people around because the sound stupidly switches to internal speakers and I have to disconnect/reconnect (twice a minute sometimes) to get it working again.

Having all these restrictions on Mac to insure a smooth experience is a big SCAM, I guess Windows isn't that bad after all.

Just responding to the recent post saying it seems to be fixed after updating. I am on 10.15.1 and confirm that the issue is still happening and is not fixed. It continues to happen daily. I have had days where my earbuds have stayed connected for 5-6 hours at a time (giving me hope that the issue is fixed), and then they will just randomly disconnect and continue disconnecting over and over after that point. So, you may be able to stay connected for awhile, seeming like it is fixed, but the issue will eventually happen again. Like it has been mentioned before, this is a OS/software issue and must be fixed directly by Apple.

I do also experience this issue with Mac OS Catalina with the latest update and there is no simple solution. I use Bluetooth to connect to Dali Zensor loudspeakers. Especially when I am active on the iMac from 2017, the software switches over to internal loudspeakers and may display a message that the Bluetooth unit is «occupied», while it is still connected in the top right menu. This follows an irregular pattern. It can happen twice in a minute or just two times a day. I have to turn off the external loudspeaker completely and click disconnect in the top right menu. Normally, this step requires several attempts. Sometimes I have to wait before I try again. When I finally disconnect, I can immidiately connect to the external loudspeakers again.

The best solution is not necessarily to downgrade the OS, because Catalina is actually better than Mojave in terms of sound quality and noise. The interruptions described thoroughly in this thread are perhaps replacing the previous problems? The only way is to go to war or stay in the same program, and perhaps other programs? The latter is not necessarily a solution, but it may help to stay connected for hours. If not this is correct, the problem is perhaps caused by interferences in the 2,4 Ghz frequency, where both Bluetooth and WiFi operates, not necessarily by you, but someone else. But it is natural to quit using this frequency yourself. It can also be problems with the delivery of Mbits, perhaps the router itself or more likely fiber node traffic? And perhaps the software doesn’t accept interruption, anymore? I am not saying this is correct and I cannot offer any solution. Because there isn’t any? 5G perhaps? But these are my thoughts on the subject.

The interruptions are annoying, but try to «autopilot» the reconnection by practise.

After MacOS Catalina my headphones started disconnecting too, my coworkers have the same problem., it happens both with my AirPods Pro and Sony WH-1000MX2 and its really annoying because you can't just reconnect, with airpods i have to manually disconnect or sometimes event put airpods to their charging case, because after manual disconnect/connect connection drops just after few minutes later. Really really annoying.

Sorry to not be helpful, however I have the very same issue with Soundblaster Katana. It used to work.... Identical issue. At least now I know it's not anything I'm doing. "Just" a bug. I tried the "reset the smc" thing, and the forget and re-pair procedure but nothing fixes it. Also using 10.15.1, lol coincidentally on the very same computer.

I have the same problem with my JBL headphones. It switches back using the Macbook Air speakers after a minute or two and the only way to get it back onto the headphones is to switch the headphones off and on again.

Come on! Restart your Mac, restart your Bluetooth unit and just run the necessary programs, and cut down on the screensavers as well.

This could happen on Mojave as well, for instance when I used Steam. I always solved this with a restart. There is something with the activity on the Mac that causes this problem, but there is no solution. It happens more often with Catalina.

Keep things straight. There is no iTunes in Catalina. I use Music, and I have mentioned Steam, but I had a few 32 bit games, so I haven’t tried yet. Therefore, it is not necessarily one app nor one operating system nor update.

This problem occurs often when you work all day on your Mac. It is the same for me.

A restart isn’t complex. This is how you can work around the problem. Otherwise, you can use a wire.

I am definitively not kidding.

I have been having this since Catalina. None of the proposed solutions fix this. Some days it BT stays connected for a long period of time, some days it's horrible with it constantly disconnecting and switching to internal speaker blaring sound out in the office.

I also have the disconnects at home which where the environment with "interference" devices is different as well.

My keyboard and mouse occasionally disconnect and reconnect within a minute. So it's not just audio, however mouse/kb reconnect, audio doesn't.

As per above post, you can't switch sound back to your BT audio device, you can also see in your device properties that you can not "manage" it whilst it's says it's connected. The BT context menu also shows as if it's connected.

This is happening with all my audio devices, including AirPods.

I really wish this would be taken seriously.

Same issue here Macbook Pro 13" 2017 Catalina 10.15.2. Using Powerbeats Pro. Originally I thought the issue was with the beats and sent them to apple repair (twice) and they came back with no issue. Now that I found this thread I understand that its an OS issue. Anxiously waiting for Apple to fix. I use my beats to take meetings for work and it's not fun when the audio goes out in the middle of a call.

Using 10.15.3 beta here for a few days and the issue still occurs consistently, every couple of minutes, sometimes seconds (Bose Soundlink headphone). Tried bluetooth resets and NVRAM resets also.

Turning headphones off and on again connects automatically. And than disconnects...

Happened again and again memory pressure at yellow level. System in the same time is quite well usable. In system log I can see I think only these rows related to the problem:

Jan 10 10:49:24 MacBook-Andrej com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.bluetoothaudiod): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.

Jan 10 10:49:30 --- last message repeated 4 times ---

And what I actually did is just watching a movie in Chrome browser with fullscreen mode.

I am on 10.15.2 and this is still happening and if anything worse (i.e., happening more frequently). Bose QC35 II

One observation: Happens more at work, where there are more bluetooth devices of other folks in close proximity I'd assume. Interference?

A theory: somehow related to wifi roaming (I understand bluetooth and wifi may be on the same physical card under the hood). That said, still happens when I turn wifi off and use a cabled connection.

Like everyone here I have the same problem and have it every workday.

I have conference calls for which I either use the Plantronics V5200 headset or the sennheiser SP 30 bluetooth speaker.

If I use them with the MacBook the connection switches to internal speakers every 10 to 20 minutes, and switches back automatically a minute or so later. Extremely annoying to have this every call.

When I use the same devices with my iPad Pro I don't have the issue at all.

So for me it is pretty clear it is an issue with the MacBook.

Another issue with Microsoft Teams is that it is loosing its permissions to share the screen. Then you have to start stop a few times to be able to start your screen again.

I worked for several decades with Microsoft operating systems and never had any issues with video conferences.

I work for almost a year with a Mac, which is so called more stable and robust and I have seen more issues and missing functionalities in a year than in the decades with Microsoft operating systems.

So when will the so called reliable Apple introduce video conferencing with audio and screen sharing?

Next key note in September 2020 or could that be a bit earlier???

There are a few changes related to bluetooth:

https://eclecticlight.co/2020/01/29/what-changed-in-the-catalina-10-15-3-update/

i'm testing bluetooth headphones for about 7 hours today and connection is ok