Bluetooth audio problems Catalina

This isn’t the problem many users had. I have read about «excessive memory paging»... maybe this happens because you have too little RAM and a nearly full hard disc combined?

bluetoothaudiod (5932) is becoming invalidated

Otherwise, maybe you should try to reinstall?

It looks very close to what I had before the update.

kernel	memorystatus: killing_idle_process pid 5932 [bluetoothaudiod] jetsam_reason->osr_code: 9

But here it looks like even worse situation, might be too low memory at all for new Catalina OS (I have at least 8 and when I work it's often almost fully filled).

I don't remember when last time I had crackling in Mac, I think about 3 or more years ago, when I didn't have BT 4 yet )) But in windows it's happening with any software (not games even), like video in google chrome for example ) The hardware is the same. Difference in drivers I think and in processing sound buffers in BT audio part of OS.

Oh, what we have to endure in this forsaken feature-crammed bug-filled unreliable wasteland Apple calls "modern tech".

After thinking about my next road-trip, I had to make some tough choices.

If you are contemplating reverting back to an old OS...

Just do it!

I downgraded all the way back to 10.13... and how beautiful it is! Everything is fast, snappy and reliable. Like the best of times. Like the Steve Jobs years. When every color was a little brighter, every click a little bit more satisfying. There's more RAM/CPU available. The Wifi is stronger. And of course the bluetooth/audio is rocksteady. As it should be.

I'd like to thank my fellow mates in this thread for at least giving me hope during the last couple of months. You guys truly are the orchestra aboard the sinking ship.

I wish you well. May god have mercy on your souls.

At last, I am free.

I have tried your idea to disable AAC. And playing spotify for 2-3 hours with Bose QC35II, no any disconnection issue occurs. I will update again if any issue occurs or if this idea can be our "temp" permanent solution

hi butyear,

I already tried this solution but it came back shortly afterwards...

The issue isn't from our side, it's Mac OS terminating coreaudiod (i think) when RAM memory is reaching a certain level.

I really hope this gets solved soon... :(

butyear, call support again, they have to fix it finally. Btw, how much memory in your macbook? Also what is model of sound device you have and what is the codec you have, when you are listening some music for example (you can see it by clicking on BT icon with pressed Option key and moving to your device). Trying to help some way, maybe I can find difference with my setup. On my macbook 8 it stopped happening after an update.

Thanks, CreateCheckInvalidUserName

The only way to solve this problem is... just waiting haha...

Let me share some experience for a few days,

1. Airpod first generation with SBC codec is almost working well. But, if I do some task that requires too much memory, it disconnected again. I think it's a software fault of OS system.
2. Another bluetooth earphone (Samsung level U) has same disconnecting problem even with SBC codec.

I hope the new OS update comes soon and fix this problem.

I'm very disappointed with apple OS and their handling.

This audio-drop issue seems to occur more often when I'm surrounded by more devices, i.e. when i'm working on my laptop in a coffee shop. I very rarely drop audio when I'm home, but drop constantly when I'm in a coffee shop.

Could interference from other bluetooth devices be a/the culprit?

Just upgraded to Catalina (10.15.3) on my MacBook Air 13" (2017). Play back to a Denon AVR-X540BT via BlueTooth. Worked perfectly on Mojave.

Now I get very frequent brief dropouts as in the good old days when using CD players in cars and you were driving through/over a bump. Frequency is every 1-2 minutes. As if the Mac would have issues multitasking. No disconnection but not a pleasant listening experience.

I noticed that when I have add too many tabs on my chrome the bluetooth disconnects.

so if I'm listening to something let's say youtube, I open another tab to do something else while listening, it disconnects.

I'm so sick of having to turn off my bluetooth and turn it back on so many times. It's like hair pulling annoying!

I'm still using: 10.15.3

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. :-(

Having watched quite a few people comment that 10.15.4 resolves the bluetooth disconnection issue, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to Catalina ... again. Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same as GF95 reported above. After a couple of days the bluetooth audio disconnects are back, but the difference between the original issue and now is that bluetooth audio will reconnect after about 10-20 seconds. Before the reconnect completes audio is being played through the internal speakers.

To be clear, I was experiencing the issue originally reported on this thread, where audio would stop playing through a bluetooth device, although the device was still displayed as connected, and audio would be transferred to the internal speakers. Imho some of the comments on this thread mention issues that are similar but not the same, and it may be that these have been fixed in the 10.15.4 release.

I will be rolling back to Mojave ... again. Glad I took that backup!

I'm running 10.15.4 and I never had a problem until this version, and now it happens ALL the time, usually when using Webex, and both with wired headphones AND the internal Mac audio (the speakers and microphone sometimes just disappear altogether. Could it have anything to do with Webex, or using an HDMI external monitor with speakers (which I never use), or anything else?

They solved most issues for the most people. Works like a charm now (compared to 3 years ago for example), no any problems at all (Bose, Sony, Airpods, JBL). But of course it's not for everyone, there are a lot of different Macs and different BT devices. For example I have old Mac mini with BT 4.0 that I won't even use for BT sound, since BT 4.0 is disaster compared to BT 4.2 or especially 5.0.

These discussions are not for Apple support, they are for usual people, like us. I also waited to their reply, but it's not right place to do. The right thing is to write to their feedback form or call them.