Connecting airpods to macbook pro

what if you

1. connect the airpods to the iphone
2. go into iphone bluetooth settings and choose to "disconnect" from airpods
3. do the same for ipad
4. then try to connect airpods to the mac for the first time.

basically the idea is the iphone / ipad is blocking the mac from connecting to the airpods

to fix this for me basically i chose to disconnect the airpods pro from the iphone first

the story :

airpods had been connected to the iphone, and i had put them into their case

want to connect them to the mac, so i turned bluetooth on, on the mac, and "connection failed"

so i reset the airpods with the apple article, reconnected them to the iphone

chose to disconnect the airpods from the iphone

connection to the mac then successful

Greetings, michpoly.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you are unable to pair your AirPods to your Mac. I’d like to lend a hand.

To start, please review the following article and confirm these are the steps you’re taking to pair your AirPods: Connect and use your AirPods and AirPods Pro - Apple Support

Since you've already tried to reset your AirPods, consider answering the following questions:

• Which AirPods are you using?
• Have your AirPods ever worked with the Mac?
• Do other Bluetooth devices connect your Mac?

Best wishes.

Same issue. BUT when my macbook pro use Catalina 10.15.3 all work fine, and some days ago i update my MB to Catalina 10.15.4 and having this issue: airpods 2 connected, all work with video or music 2-3 minutes and sound start freezing, and after freezing just no sound, reconnect 2-3 min and same .

If airpods connected with iphone 8plus or ipad all work fine.

Also having this issue on Catalina 10.15.6 on my 5k iMac with Airpods Pro. When I put the Airpods in my ears sometimes they'll bong fine and connect, but most time they'll just cycle between connected/not connected and I have to forget the device and connect them again. However, reconnecting fresh sometimes gives me the 'connection rejected' error. I'll sometimes have to do this over and over again until they finally connect. I had just upgraded to the Pro's and never had this issue on my regular Airpods.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that they connect to iCloud so they want to connect to my phone as well, but I'm not positive. If there's any way to not have these connect to every device in my iCloud account and only the devices I choose, I wonder if that would help.

Either way, this is definitely a nuisance that hopefully a software update will fix.

I have the exact same issue. They seem to work until I connect them to my iPhone 11; once that happens, they won't reconnect to my MacBook Pro (Catalina 10.15.4).

hey! seems like a bunch of us are having the same issue with catalina and AirPods pro. i'm signed into my iCloud and apple ID but keep getting the same error as JessS19 below - "connection failed" can you help us? thanks!

I have the same problem. I connect the Airpods to my Iphone 11 and Ipad without problem. My Macbook pro connects via bluetooth to another device without problem. Bluetooth if it works. I bought ToothFairy to try to solve but I have the same problem.

MacOS Catalina 10.15.5

2nd generation Airpods

Anything further on this? Mine (airpod pros) don't play sound and connect and disconnect to bluetooth every few seconds. I have catalina OS on a macbook pro, the airpods connect to my iphone easily.

Same issue here

Same issue here. Tried re-pairing, tried resetting, tried working on the mb pro bluetooth. No way to make it work.

Same issue here. I tried to forgot the airpods in other devices and then connect, but didn't work.

When is Apple going to help out with this problem?? I can still send my Airpods back if they are not going to work. I need these to do online meetings.

I forgot to mention that I also tried the command "sudo pkill blued" and finally completely formatting the mac. The problem persists. Any solution?

JessS19,

I too have exactly the same issue. AirPods Pro, received 5 days ago. Connect to iPhone 11 Pro NO PROBLEMS. MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.3. Turned bluetooth off and on. Airpods fully charged. I have a magic mouse which connects with my MacBook pro with no issues.