Bluetooth headphones stutter on Macos Monterey 12.0.1

Turning off AirPlay Receiver worked for me. In addition, often after my computer is powered down I have to go into Bluetooth Preferences and take my headphones off the list (x button) and then let it reconnect. Between the two this covers it for now.

Actually I retract my statement, I disabled the airplay receiver again- shutdown/powered on the headphones; still behaving weird.

But this time I removed the headphones from the bluetooth settings, re-paired them and indeed now audio plays correctly (with the XM3:s at least); gonna try the XM4:s later as well.

Thanks for the workaround.

I’m having (or had, hopefully) the same problem with my Bose Soundlink Mini, very annoying. I found a site that said to reset the Bluetooth module, which seems to have fixed it (it’s only been an hour or so, but it hasn’t cut out at all since then).

To reset the module, click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar while holding down Shift and Option simultaneously, and in the Debug… pop out menu you can reset it.

This article recommended going to the Sharing settings and turning off the Airplay receiver option... And it worked for me!

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/qjwvn8/updated_to_monterey_and_its_causing_problems_in/

Due to the problems, I was already in the Apple support chat, the employees there unfortunately have no idea - They only give standard "advices" - None of it will bring me any further. In addition, the problem itself is denied, at least by the employee I had in the chat. After that, I left the chat, because this woman was in no way a help.

I was able to identify the problem by myself, to fix it just go to System Preferences and uncheck Airplay Receiver - Just try it and enjoy a consistently good sound :-)

Having similar problems myself. I'm using macbook air m1 with sony wh-1000xm4. Normally headphones work fine, but as soon as I run some 3d games stuttering starts. From my testing so far it does not happen when running 2d apps. As soon as you start some 3d one however, during startup you can clearly hear a change in sound quality, if I have some other audio running at the same time you can hear that it becomes weirdly deep-sounding. Resetting bluetooth works for some games(tested on Civilization VI) but not others. You can try running `sudo pkill bluetoothd` in terminal after starting game to reset bluetooth. Before you could make a reset from menu, but apple removed that option(why? seriously why?).

Turning off the Airplay Receiver seems to have done the trick (for the past hour anyway so fingers crossed it stays working). Now I have no stutter using WH-1000XM4 headphones on "Priority on Sound Quality" mode.

Prior to this, I found switching Sound Quality Mode to "Priority on Stable Connection" in the headphones app to help.

FWIW I have the 16 inch 2019 intel macbook, and the headphones have the 2 devices connected option enabled.

This was annoying me too much lately, and the bluetooth issues were happening with every bluetooth device I have (magic trackpad, bt keyboard, airpod, etc).

The only thing that made it work for me was disabling airplay handoff on my tablet and phone, now I can use my macbook without wanting to kill someone :D

for cryin' out loud.. ever since I got this new macbook M1 it's been nothing but problems w/ audio output/input..

Thanks for the `sudo pkill bluetoothd` command.. corrected the issue.. at least for now...

For me, the issue was solved by kicking a few nonessential devices off Bluetooth (I have a keyboard and mouse on a second desk nearby that I use occasionally, they we connecting while I was at my first desk, which normally is fine).

I am wondering if a lot of the fixes on this thread, which seem to work inconsistently/temporarily for people, are related to the fix simply kicking bluetooth devices off. Then when the full set of devices eventually get back on, the problem returns...

It's helpful for me. I uncheck AirPlay Receiver and this fix soud issue and too the issue "lagging" of my bluetooth mouse.

I am having this issue as well with my Soundcore Q35 headphones (on latest firmware). Currently using Monterey 12.0.1 on a 2020 Intel chip iMac.

Disabling Airplay Receiver seems to resolve the stuttering, however, the headphones show up twice (as bluetooth device and airplay-bluetooth device )in Apple Music and once in the Bluetooth control menu. Switching between the two give significant different volume and audio qualities while neither address the stuttering until airplay is disabled.

I also need Airplay enabled as I rely on it heavily to transfer files, notes and photos back and forth from my iMac to my work phone.

Trying this suggestion as of this writing, I can't believe this.

Why Apple is doing these things, I'm on an iMac 2020 and sometimes the stuttering gets beyond bad... sometimes I believe that even things like the keyboard gets the order of letters wrong (but that could be me), other times it's obvious as I type and the key presses arrive seconds, SECONDS later.

Either Bluetooth needs a serious overhaul or there's something wrong going on.

On an M1 Pro I don't seem to have these issues though, so it might really be just interference.

Airplay Receiver on the Sharing settings OFF!

This worked perfectly for me. M1 iMac and Airpods Max with hopelessly choppy sound. Unusable in Zoom meetings as it also made the mic choppy. Flicked off the Airplay Receiver and they finally work! This issue was making me batty.

It's not your headphones, it's the MacOS Monterey making this problem obviously. I've recently bought AirPods 3 and am constantly experiencing this issue which is extremely annoying. Same AirPods on my iPhone work perfectly fine.

Nothing to do besides wait for Apple to fix Monterey with some update.