Apple Music randomly plays when I remove AirPods

Deleted Apple Music. That helps.

Just wish they would only play audio on command. Across every app. Don’t need music screaming at me just because some BT speakers are nearby.

And especially don’t need my phone interrupting the radio in my car to play random adverts when I am browsing the web (son was driving, car was connected to CarPlay, and I was simply reading the news.). This UX sucks!!!

I got sick of this as well. I deleted the Apple Music App. Problem solved!

Hi Spek1,

Certainly is odd. Typically the content playing will pause when AirPods are removed. However, there are some things you can check.

With the Music app open, check to see if the Autoplay feature is on. The article here can help: Add music to your queue to play next on your iPhone

Specifically, "To turn Autoplay on or off, tap the Autoplay button the Autoplay button icon in the upper-right corner of your screen. If you turn off Autoplay on one of your devices, then Autoplay is turned off on any device that's signed in with your Apple ID."

Also, have you checked your AirPods Automatic Ear Detection setting? Does it occur with the feature both on and off? If so, you may need to reset your AirPods.

The article here: Change the settings of your AirPods and AirPods Pro has the information quoted below and additional helpful details.

"Turn Automatic Ear Detection on or off

By default, AirPods sense when they're in your ear and receive the audio from your device. AirPods also pause and resume playback when you remove one of your AirPods, or stop playback—and won't resume—when you remove both. When you have Automatic Ear Detection on and you're not wearing your AirPods, audio plays through your device's speakers.

When you turn off Automatic Ear Detection, these features are off and all audio plays to your AirPods whether or not you're wearing them."

If the issue remains, test a normal restart of your iPhone and a reset of your AirPods How to reset your AirPods and AirPods Pro

Reach out to Apple Support directly if you continue to have any trouble.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Contact Apple for support

Cheers.

The first link in OrigamiFan1’s post helped me. There is an elusive “infinity” sign button in the “playing next” window that when clicked, turns off autoplay. I’m not sure yet under what circumstances it appears. It seems to depend upon the type of content selected in “playing next” but it works.

I think I may have found a solution after all this time (literally years of this annoyance). Long press the Apple Music app icon / Remove App.

I agree it's Gen3 only, never happened with Gen2. It does appear to be both iOS and OSX, b/c Music starts on my phone, and Spotify starts on my MBP, which would suggest that yes in fact it is an AirPods bug. The pattern that *seems* to be consistent, which leads to a possible hack:

When the AirPods have been in use -- phone call, podcast, whatever - and then I shut them in the case with an audible "click," the music always plays. It's interesting that I can't then repeat the effect by turning off the music and snapping them shut again - they have to be put to another use first. The sometimes-sucessful workaround is to close the case as gently as a feather in a light breeze. It doesn't *always* work ... maybe too heavy a feather? ... but if you're trying to put them away and close the case in the same room as your sleeping partner, whose patience with this irritation may just possibly be wearing a bit thin ... it's worth a try!

I chatted with someone last night for over an hour, had me turn off ear detection and back on and reset the airpods and still auto play. The person said it’s probably hardware and want me to come into an Apple Store for support but the nearest one is 3 hours away. Then they over to replace or repair mine since I still have AppleCare till 4/24. The only thing that half way works is a shortcut when airpods are connected or disconnected to pause music.

It is annoying, but I am 99% convinced that it's directly related to the pods picking up a hard snapping sound: if I close the case with a snap, music almost always plays (from what appears to be the most accessible source: Spotify, Apple Music; an open tab); if I close it gently, 100% it never plays. Although it did start when I slammed a car door the other day..... So yes, major headache and they should fix it, but also a pretty easy workaround. Good luck!

This has been driving me nuts, but I may have figured it out. I didn't even know about this force sensor feature, but it's basically a button on the stem of the AirPods. It's not actually a button, but has a very subtle haptic click when you press it. If you accidentally trigger the force sensor while you're taking out your AirPods or putting them in the charger, it starts Apple Music. You can try this while the AirPods are in your ear and see that you can start/stop music that way. I hope this helps the several thousand people who have had to deal with this.

So, Apple won't like this answer but it works and maybe when they realize this is a work around that will fix MUSIC from automatically launching and playing, they will do something about it finally…

The issue is that the touch buttons are way too sensitive, and ultimately they will just start playing MUSIC automatically every time you hit the switch, there is no way to turn this off in the setting from what I can see, Doing a slow touch setting under the sensor controls seems to help a little, Turning of ear detection doesn't work either.

The only thing that does is....

Delete the MUSIC app from the phone, I literally never use it and have no plans to in the future, streaming is fine.

By doing this the music app will not be launched and play every time you accidentally touch the button and if no media app was recently exited nothing will happen at all...

A very unfortunate way to have to solve this but it is solved!

You're Welcome, maybe get on this one!

I'm honestly very disappointed in the actually user experience from the Airpod Pro's 2, thats rare Apple, do better.

Cheers.

I do not subscribe to Apple Music, but it happens to me on the iPhone as well. Then it happened with Spotify on my laptop. There *seems* to be a correlation with either a. Holding the AirPod (or pods), which maybe makes the device think they are in my ears? Turning off autodetection might help, and b. Snapping the AirPod case shut. I'm being more attentive to soft close vs. hard close, but I notice that with a snap close, the music *always* starts. Siri overhearing something?

I found a way to stop the AirPods from playing music when you pinch the switch.

open Apple Music. You don’t have to sign up, just look at the bottom of the app screen. There is a shuffle and a repeat button. Touch each button to toggle until they are not highlighted. That should stop music being played even when you pinch the switch.

I was having the same issue as others on this thread. I have never used Apple Music and have not subscribed, but would get music playing when I pinched the switch. I’m guessing the default for Apple Music is a U2 album with shuffle and repeat turned on.

worked for me. Hope it works for you.

Spek1,

Got it. Testing with automatic ear detection both on and off will be the best way to narrow this down. Let us know how it goes! Take care.

The only solution I found is to delete tha app Apple Music 😬

I have this issue too. It only seems to happen with my newer airpod gen3. (i.e. not second gen) I've tried all these work-around fixes and nothing helps.

It's absolutely is a bug and apple needs to fix it! When we take airpods out of our ears, and put them away, the phone should NEVER start playing music. I finish a call, put my airpods away, then walking down the street I'm all "Huh? Why am I hearing Tangerine Dream music drifting out of my pocket!?". There is NEVER a case when you want this to happen. It's clearly a bug.

I just mentioned this annoying bug to my wife, and she chimed in that it's happening to her too! She was confused by it when it first started happening to her. It only started happening to her once we got her some new airpod gen3 recently. So judging by the comments from folks here, then it's a bug with airpod pro and airpod gen 3, possibly on iPhone 13 and higher.

Note, that it does not seem to happen with my airPod Max. (Nor for my wife when she uses her airpodMax). It seems related to putting the airpods into the case.

I tried to find other threads where people are reporting this issue here in the apple community, and there are other people reporting this too, but this is the busiest thread, so I'm adding my voice (actually two, my wife and me) to this complaint.

Apple, please acknowledge this at least, and please get your crack team on a bug-fix asap. Thanks!

(PS - we also subscribe to Apple One).