AirPods disconnects on calls

OK... so here is my latest update after my 3rd visit to the Apple Store and having several phone calls with Apple Engineering.

First, I should point out that Apple Engineering contacted me and had me run several tests while they collected logs. I was able to replicate all the issues and was told that Apple was aware of the issue and working on it. The only down side was I was told that I wouldn't necessarily be notified of the status of the issue.

So, already having had AppleCare setup a Genius Bar Appointment for me on this issue... I decided to go anyway. As was the case the previous 2 times, the Genius Bar employee apologized for it being such a new product and the Geniuses not having much experience with them yet. I related to him my calls with AppleCare, as well as, Apple Engineering. At that point he kind'a looked at me like, "well, what the heck do you want me to do then?" So, I took a stab in the dark and said, "since my watch and phone are both covered under AppleCare... why don't you bring out a new one of each and we try to get them to work... if they do, I walk out with the replacements, if not... you can put them back into inventory." He said he had no problem doing that for the phone, but they don't carry a replacement inventory for the watch... so, off he went and grabbed a phone.

Now, for the first time in my testing, I didn't apply my backup. I setup the phone as a new iPhone and didn't let it pair with my watch. I connected my AirPods and they worked BEAUTIFULLY for hours!! I mean I talked on the phone for over 3 hours and never had single connection issue. The AirPods never dropped connection either on a call or when they were silent. Siri was constantly responsive and it seemed like they sounded better than before.

So, I decided to try and pair my watch (still without applying my backup). That is when I started to see the connection drop. The first time was right after a phone call, I saw the headphone icon vanish and Siri was gone from the double-tap.

I'll be sending this experience on to Apple Engineering... but I sure wish there was a way we could track their progress on this.

I just received My replacement pair from Apple after 2.5 hours on the phone with them and waiting a week for replacement to arrive. I haven't made a call yet but the popping/clickin sound on al audio is abundantly clear. It's obviously not faulty hardware as Apple told me. I'll prob make a trip to the Apple Store tomorrow and see what can be done. AirPods experience is extremely frustrating to say the least with iPhone 6s Plus and watch series 2.

Thanks to all who are sending info into Apple on this. I love these AirPods, but the connectivity issue with my iPhone 6S is disappointing. I hope it's just a software issue, and not a problem with the Bluetooth chipset in the phone and/or Apple Watch.

Took a six mile hike yesterday, and decided to listen to some downloaded Apple Music on the AirPods. As expected, I started having issues not even a half mile in - my music kept inexplicably pausing all by itself. I checked to make sure the phone was waking up and somehow hitting pause buttons. I tried turning off Automatic Ear Detection on the AirPods. Nothing helped until I disabled cellular (T-Mobile) by using Airplane mode and then re-enabling Bluetooth and WiFi. Interestingly, the iOS reported it couldn't put my watch into Airplane mode... turned out my AirPods had jumped ship to the Watch. Eventually I got it sorted out and was able to enjoy some contemplative music on my wanderings with only a couple incidents of uncommanded pauses.

This morning, listening to more downloaded music, this time with cellular enabled but at home on WiFi. Just the occasional left-right burble, and then about 15 minutes in, the music paused. I looked at my watch (original 38mm Sport), and it was displaying the red "No Connection" icon at the top. Swiped up to see the AirPlay icon was Blue; tapped on that and saw my AirPods had jumped ship again to my Watch. After a few seconds, the watch reconnected to my iPhone, which was sitting right in front of me (I was reading web forum in Safari), the AirPods then reconnected on their own to the phone, and the music remained in a paused state. This is probably what was happening on my hike yesterday. Also happens when listening to Podcasts.

I was able to have an hour-long FaceTime Audio call today by using only one AirPod. If I use both, chances are they'll disconnect from the phone randomly switching all audio to the handset, and I have to re-select them as audio source (or wait long enough and they might resume on their own).

I'm starting to think both are related to the AirPods jumping ship (i.e. via continuity) to my Watch. What's weird is it still happens even with my watch powered off (but not un-paired). Hesitant to un-pair my watch as it means I'll have to re-enter my ApplePay cards again.

So, there's a huge hint. I'll see if I can report this to Apple.

So I un-paired my Apple Watch and hoped it would cure the issue, but it didn't. Two disconnects, re-connects during a call. Only thing I have not tried is a wipe of my 6s plus and set up as new. I'm not willing to do that.

Chatted with Apple online tech support this morning. At least I have a case #. Gave them all the info I had figured out so far. They asked that I factory-reset the phone and use "as new" for a while to see if the problem manifests out-of-the-box like that. I dislike doing that, but willing to help. I'm in the same position supporting my own software and sometimes end up asking customers to do clean installs to help troubleshoot. Pain in the rear, but that's technology in a complex world.

For all we know, at this point, the 6S is having trouble maintaining multiple Bluetooth connections on top of demands of cellular and wifi. I also have a bunch of Tiles, which may be exacerbating the situation as well, since they connect via Bluetooth.

So far, just unpairing my Watch has virtually eliminated the recurring brief left-right hiccups in Apple Music listening. Hmm. Will try a call before I wipe the phone. Couldn't hurt.

Ok, I was holding off on posting this but I feel like I need to help some of you who are trying to reset your iP6S+. This will only temporarily fix the problem. I went to the Apple Store on January 2. At the store the tech brought an iP6S and loaded fresh iOS 10.2. Then we connected my AirPods and I made three test calls. All were over 10 min each. No disconnects. Worked perfect. I was sent home to completely wipe my phone and reload my Apple Watch. I did that night. I actually completely started fresh. Reinstalled everything from zero. The AirPods worked great for almost a week. No issues with two pods on really long conference calls. I make a lot of calls every day for work. They worked perfect. I was scheduled today to speak with their engineering department as a follow-up. During my 1.5 hour call with him, my AirPods disconnected a lot. We were running diagnostics throughout the call. Different scenarios - with and without WiFi, with and without my Apple Watch, consistently disconnecting and reconnecting within two seconds of each drop. He collected 1.2Gb worth of logs and I uploaded it to their engineering department. I'm happy to help Apple to figure it out. I don't think it has anything to do with the AirPods hardware. He actually was happy we were able to replicate all the problems while the iPhone and Apple Watch were running in diagnostics. They now have a lot to review. He said he's been calling a lot of customers who had the same complaints but they would not always replicate the problem during his call. So, folks, hang in there! Hopefully, the software guys will be able to figure out the bug and address it in the next release. They're still trying to zero in where the glitch is. IPhone or Apple Watch and most likely be addressed through some update to the AirPods themselves. Hope this long comment would help someone who reads it to not waste your time on iPhones reloads or trips to the Apple Store. All who have this issue, please do go online and keep reporting this bug to Apple. The more complaints they get, the sooner they prioritize their developers to work on it. I love my AirPods. Back to using only one during calls. No issues with streaming video or audio while listening with both pods. Only calls on iPhone 6 S Plus for me. Good luck! Cheers!t

Thanks for posting, lak69. I think we all want Apple to succeed with these AirPods, as they are such a brilliant design. I thought I was losing my mind given the glowing reviews. Sure, we expect some minor teething pains on new products, but how could all these reviewers overlook this kind of major weirdness? If it is an ugly bug limited to a very specific combination of devices that only appears after many days of usage, I can see why now. That it gets increasingly worse gives me some hope it is a software problem that can be fixed. Hope the Apple devs have their "Ah ha!" moment soon!

So just got another call from the Sr. Apple Specialist I've been working with/sending all my documentation to. She said the engineers want me to send my Airpods in. I want to help, but part of me has a problem with this. I paid $159 for these and feel like I'm a beta tester. I'm happy to help but unhappy I won't have my AirPods as they've become an integral part of my daily life. She's going to call me back before 11pm EST. I'll report back.

Has anyone else sent them in for testing/"repair"?

They should be able to reproduce the problem on their own. Do they not have their own AirPods to do their own testing? I don't know how much clearer this problem can be for Apple. This thread is giving them all the info on a silver platter. Obviously this isn't being escalated at Apple properly.

I know how you feel. My return window closes on Friday. The pragmatic part of me says to just cut my losses, return them, and re-purchase later. If I were asked... the engineer in me would say to send them in - anything that helps the team there find the problem, within reason. After all, they're people just like you and me, and they've got to be stumped and worried at this point... perhaps very worried.

I know I've asked my own customers to send equipment in to me for diagnosis when all else fails. I always try to include a thank-you like a gift card with the return, even if results were inconclusive. Debugging hardware is not fun, especially if it's an edge case.

Here's my update:

- I got my AirPods before Christmas, walked into a store and bought it off the shelf. Took it home, found out it had the issue, and went back into the Apple Store the next day to complain about the issue. At that time this thread was minimal and both myself and the Genius Bar people thought it was the phone. Their quote, "The AirPods are so new, there is no way it has an issue!!" I had Apple Care and they replaced my phone. Got a new iPhone 6S +. They suggested I start off with a fresh install Instead of restoring my backup. Most of my info is on the cloud, so I went ahead and did that. It cost me a lot of time to restore everything and download my App's, but I really wanted the AirPods to work.

- Fresh iOS install and AirPods only. It worked in Dual AirPod mode for a while, then subsequently started disconnecting again.

- Later that evening I re-setup my Apple Watch (1st gen) and the disconnects kept continuing. More frequently With the watch paired again.

- Last Friday I got a call from someone from Apple representing the Senior Engineers. She took a full interview about the issue, had me install the diagnostic tool, and capture a couple moments when it actually happened.

- I have to say I was super impressed by their level Of detail. It ended up being a 2 hour call. Extremely friendly and you can tell Apple really wants to figure this out. When you get someone friendly like that, it makes you feel happy to assist Apple and hope it gets fixed soon!! I LOVE using my AirPods (so convenient), especially at the gym. These things never fall out And I love The clarity of the music.

Funny thing is during the call with the Apple rep, the AirPods worked like a charm. Couldn't get it to fail for the life of me. Then, of course, we hang up, and 90 seconds into my next call, it disconnects. I was able to capture the data for Apple and upload it for this and another subsequent call.

- They gave me a case number and sent me to a Senior Engineer. He was not aware of the issue and kept calling them EarPods And suggesting I go into the Genius Bar to see if they can help. That's so embarrassing On their behalf. Totally opposite experince compared to the original tech rep. I asked my original rep for a new Senior Engineer to keep me up To date with the progress. No response yet.

- I saw someone comment that it happens to them on FaceTime Audio. I haven't had it disconnect on FaceTime Audio for me. The only time I have a Dual AirPod disconnect is during a native iOS phone call. FaceTime, FaceTime Audio, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes videoes, iTunes movies, YouTube all work perfect for me on dual AirPod.

There are ways to mitigate the issue (remove Apple Watch pairing, switch the mic to one AirPod only, etc...), but in my experience this only mitigates the issue and does not solve it. I even have disconnects with 1 AirPod in, though much less frequent than 2 AirPods.

I've given a lot of time and data to Apple so I'm hopeful they figure it out! Someone was debating whether to return their AirPods. I love mine for my workouts at the gym, so I'm going to keep it, though it's so frustrating when it disconnects a phone call. If it works like it does for music, it's going to be so great!

Keep submitting a bug report to Apple - they are clearly listening To us. I have no idea what triggered the phone call (this message board or an official bug report). Interestingly they called my home phone line and not my cell phone. I just happened to be home to take the call, so it worked out well.

Thanks so much for sharing that. I was asked if I wanted to swap out my Iphone but that seemed to be a bit much given it was working fine with other bluetooth stuff. Would appreciate any other updates on this one - I live miles from a store so making a trip out for no reason isnt really ideal!

I was having this same issue and i thought the issue was with the AirPods so i took them back and got a new pair. The issue persisted so i thought id check the iPhone. Resetting network settings did not change anything. A bit confused as i purchased my device recently. I backed up all my data and restored the device via iTunes. I decided to set the device as new just to make sure. The issue has been resolved and my AirPods are functioning like they should.

I was having this same issue and i thought the issue was with the AirPods so i took them back and got a new pair. The issue persisted so i thought id check the iPhone. Resetting network settings did not change anything. A bit confused as i purchased my device recently. I backed up all my data and restored the device via iTunes. I decided to set the device as new just to make sure. The issue has been resolved and my AirPods are functioning like they should.

So from what I'm reading, it seems that wiping the phone and setting up as new has resolved the issue for some.

Can anyone comment on whether they wiped their phone -> set up as new -> and the issue returned?

Thanks.