AirPods Pro sound cuts out on MacBook after iPhone

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Level 1

4 points

AirPods Pro sound cuts out on MacBook after iPhone

Hello everyone. I have a recurring problem happening. Everyday I connect my AirPods Pro to my MacBook air and for some reason I stop hearing anything. No sound plays and when I try to use the buttons on the keyboard to adjust the volume the volume bar doesn't change and stays in the middle, however I can change it with my cursor or with the mute button.

I can't be 100% sure this only happens in this situation but I'm confident that it happens when I have the AirPods connected to my iPhone and then connect them to the MacBook. The only way to make them work with the MacBook again is to forget the device and reconnect them. Don't know what else I can do to help you diagnose and fix the issue but let me know.

I'll leave the details of all versions and models bellow.

AirPods Pro

Model nr - A3048

Version and Box Version - 8B39

iPhone 14 Pro

iOS version 26.5

MacBook Air

M1, 2020, 16 GB

macOS Tahoe - 26.3 (25D125)

AirPods Pro (2nd generation)

Posted on May 27, 2026 3:04 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

v1v3km

Level 5

6,662 points

Jun 27, 2026 9:54 AM in response to helping_bee

The combination of symptoms you are describing - no sound, volume bar stuck in the middle, keyboard volume keys not responding, but the cursor volume works - points to a specific issue where the Mac has taken over the Bluetooth connection but the audio session is in a hung or half-connected state. This is a known bug in macOS 26.3 and iOS 26.5 with the automatic device switching behavior of AirPods Pro 2.

What is happening is that when your iPhone hands off the AirPods to the Mac, the Mac establishes the Bluetooth connection but fails to fully initialize the CoreAudio output session. The Mac thinks the audio device is there and shows it in the output menu, but the actual audio pipeline is broken. The keyboard volume keys not working is a clue that macOS has not fully bound the audio session to the AirPods - the cursor volume working is because it uses a different control path.

A few things to try besides the full forget and reconnect which you already know works:

First, when it happens, try clicking the speaker icon in the menu bar and switching the output to the built-in speakers, waiting 2 seconds, and then switching back to the AirPods Pro. This forces macOS to reinitialize the audio session without a full Bluetooth reconnect and is faster than forget and reconnect.

Second, you can also try using the Sound settings: go to System Settings > Sound > Output, click on the built-in speakers to switch away, then click back on the AirPods Pro. Same effect.

Third, keeping your AirPods Pro 2 on the latest firmware helps. Firmware 8B39 has some multi-device handoff fixes, but there may be a newer version available.

The root cause is a macOS/iOS interaction bug in the automatic switching protocol that Apple has been gradually fixing in point releases. Staying current on both macOS and iOS updates is the best long-term solution.

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