AirPods disconnects on calls

I've been having the same issues with drop outs during phone and FT calls.

Testing a few calls on 10.3 right now. My setup is as follows:

iPhone 6S+

Apple Watch S2

In my office I also have a BT speaker that doesn't have a mic. I thought that it was possible that this speaker was causing interference, wresting control away from the AirPods somehow.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Hey all,

10.3 user reporting in. Apple Watch 1st gen, iPhone 6s.

I've tested a few times, and now just with a 45min conference call, and the connection was rock solid. Hoping I haven't jinxed myself...

Can others upgrade to 10.3 and chime in?

Fingers crossed!

I'm backing up my iPhone 6s Plus right now in advance of upgrading to the iOS 10.3 Beta 1.

Since wiping my iPhone, un-pairing my Apple Watch and removing all of my Bluetooth devices, the AirPods have worked much better. That said, there have been a couple of instances where callers could not hear me clearly (causing me to switch to the iPhone's speakers or wired headset). I haven't had any disconnects or dropouts during calls, though. I'm thinking there is something to the theories on multiple Bluetooth devices cancelling out the AirPods connection to the iPhone.

Will report back after a few days with 10.3. I'll keep the Apple Watch unpaired (and no other Bluetooth devices) for now to see if the other audio problems disappear with the new OS.

I just don't see how it can be reasonable for someone to unpair the Watch just to get headphones to work. I cannot imagine how Apple would even conceive that this is something a user would even attempt to try, since the whole pitch of the AirPods vs. other BT headphones is the easy connectivity and switch. I would never unpair the watch, for any purpose, since having bought the watch and paired it, means I'm actually using it! It makes no sense. This should work as advertised.

That said, they connect more easily to the Watch after 3.1.3 and for phone calls using just one AirPod works, just as both work for music or connected to my Mac.

Thus, AirPods work 75%.

I understand. At the moment, I'm fine with the Watch being connected to Wi-Fi only. My use case for the Watch is such that it doesn't need to paired to the phone to be useful. I'm fine waiting for the problem to be fixed via a software patch.

I've actually see the problem of Bluetooth devices disconnecting mysteriously (keyboards and Apple Watch) on my iPhone 6s Plus before getting the AirPods, so my thinking is that it's a problem that's exacerbated by yet another Bluetooth device in the AirPods.

Very good feedback. I hope this is what most are seeing with 10.3. This would fit where someone earlier mentioned that engineering had stopped requesting logs as it may point to the fact they have found the issue and are hopefully folding it into 10.3 +.

I have an iPhone 7 with the same problem.

Disconnecting AirPods on longer calls. On approx. 10min it disconnected 3 times in a row, then at approx 20min it did the same. Never problems listening to music. Tried resetting network settings, didn't fix the problem. Re-pairing did not fix it either.

I don't know if the problem is with the iPhone or the AirPods... tried a call using an iPhone 6, did not have tha same problem...

I'm on my second pair of AirPods now (first were returned with this identical issue but the second pair performed the same) and have spent roughly 6 hours on the phone with Apple senior software engineering and they bounced the problem up to senior hardware support. My Apple senior software support person called me back today and said that he had received a reply from hardware dept that they "are aware of the issue and have collected many reports of people with this issue and that they are working on a fix in the near future".

He wouldn't get more specific on what was meant by "near future" or which specific iOS version, only that an iOS update would fix them "in the near future"

This is the closest I've come to Apple actually admitting that there is a problem.

I contacted Apple. A day after the support chat I received a call from higher level support. They're very keen on collecting as much information about this problem as possible. I was impressed with the level of attention (and it definitely needs attention).

I encourage everyone to contact support. There's a strong feeling that this can be fixed via a software update.

As I mentioned previously I was set to send mine in to be inspected and was told 2 days ago that they are no longer collecting logs or data relating to the issue. Given that, my assumption would be that they've isolated the issue and are working on a fix.

I upgraded at 10.3 Beta last night. Since then and until now (1P Eastern), I havent had a single issue with my AirPods. I have 6S Plus, Apple Watch 1, and Airpods.

Previously I would drop constantly (with 1 or 2 of the buds in my ears). Today, no drops and I am able to use both earpieces for calls (yay!) and music. Like a previous writer, let's hope I haven't just jinx myself...

With this performance - these little things are pretty useful.

To summarize this thread, , it seemed that a few people had either upgraded to an iPhone 7, unpaired their Apple watch, or switched to using only 1 Airpod to reduce dropped connections during phone or FaceTime calls. It seems that there has been various levels of success with these measures.

- Spending $$ for the latest iPhone is nice for Apple but not a real solution (at least not for me and many others)

- Unpairing an Apple watch seems like a degradation of 2 products

- 1 Airpod may work in quiet office situations but sometimes I need the minimal attenuation of the noise around me during calls

Oh yeah, and this, the reason we all are trying these workarounds is because the Airpods generally KICKA$$!

So in my recent experience, OS 10.3 Beta 1 has eliminated this random switching from Airpods to speaker during FaceTime and phone calls. In the last two days, I had no switching for calls with 14 min, 27 min, 11 min and 5 mins durations. I didn't do anything drastic to my iPhone when I updated to 10.3. The only thing I did was ensured I had a recent backup with 10.2 and updated (yes updated, did not do a full restore or wipe) my current configuration with 10.3B1. So if you're a developer you may want to update to 10.3B1, if not you may want to spend the $99 to be part of the developer program, or just sign up for the public beta and get this update for free at some point in the future.

Additionally, I would have other BT devices disconnect and reconnect on occasion up to this point, so much so that I thought I needed to take in my phone to the Apple store for a replacement. I previously blamed this behavior on my BT speaker being old, the Pokémon Go app on my Apple watch being buggy, etc. It wasn't until this behavior showed itself on the AirPods that I reached my threshold of being annoying enough to want to get it fixed/replaced.

I'll report back if it manifests itself again, and with Beta updates that could happen, but I'm happy thus far, the magic is BACK!

Did it earlier, but I'm using a iPhone 7, with Apple Watch 1, and of course the AirPods. I'm also on iOS10.3Beta1.

I have also tried to reset the network settings.

After this the Bluetooth symbol change from headphones to standard Bluetooth symbol(on the status line at top of the screen), and I had one call for more than 20 minutes without any disconnects. But then the Bluetooth symbol changed to the headphones, and the problems where back. Don't know if this have any thing to do with each other... But it may be that others can confirm this...

I have iphone 6s and Apple Watch Series 1. I have had this issue with the Airpods from day one. Mostly on phone calls, with both or just one ear piece in. Disconnects about 30% of time. Also, music and podcasts disconnect around 10% of the time but in my GMC with Bluetooth on, more frequently even if I am not listening to music - I hear the connect sound every few minutes.

I can manually reconnect but it goes out again. I have unpaired and repaired the Airpods - seems to help for a short while then back to the problem.

Hope this gets fixed soon. Annoying. Good product - just not dependable.

I can confrim that this fix, did NOT help anything at all.

During my first call after the fix, I had a disconnect almost immediately and then several times afterwards during the same call. This is starting to annoying me insanely much, and I hate to say it, but at the moment the AirPods are a piece of expensive crap!