AirPods disconnects on calls

I have AirPods, Apple Watch series 2 and an iPhone 7... no problem at all.

I bought AirPods for my wife this weekend... she has an iPhone 6s Plus and an Apple Watch series 1.

While at the gym, she was listening to music she had in her watch while her iPhone was in the locker room... Music was cutting a lot and Watch rebooted by itself after a few minutes.

I'm wondering if this issue she had is linked in any way to the same problem you had.

She will try again tonight or tomorrow... I will report back.

The issue returned for me. I restored iPhone 6S through iTune on my iMac. Btw, simply wiping the phone through settings > general > reset > erase all content and settings did not do anything for me. Then in the Apple Store I was advised to restore iPhone through iTunes to force the complete iOS reload. I also did not restore my backup, but spent about 3 hours reloading my apps from scratch. My Apple Watch was also completely reloaded new and I did not restore any backup of the Watch. So you can argue the software was all fresh. IOS 10.2 and WatchOS 3.1. AirPods ran great for a week. But failed again. Apple collected over a Gig of logs from my iPhone and Apple Watch yesterday. Hopefully they figure something out soon. Do not waste your time and go through the agony of reloading everything on your phone and Watch. It will not permanently fix the issue until Apple comes up with the solution. So far they have not!

Thanks very much for letting me know this. I don't want to go through the hassle of wiping my phone and setting up as new if I don't need to. I'm scheduled to speak about with a Sr. Specialist today and will let everyone know what she says.

Anyone with the latest iOS beta (public or dev) and/or the Watch OS beta (dev) ? Do you have the same problem?

I have the latest iOS beta on my iPhone 7... but my wife doesn't want me to install it on her iPhone 6s Plus ;-)

On a call with specialist as I am typing this. Apple wants me to send in AirPods to collect logs and troubleshoot them. I told the Sr. Apple Specialist I was more than willing to help, BUT, I'm not ok paying $159 for a product (which clearly has issues) to then have to send them in with no replacement product in hand while the faulty AirPods are being investigated. I told her I either need to be refunded for the AirPods and guaranteed another pair when they are fixed (which I'm happy to pay for) or provided another pair in the interim while mine are being troubleshooted. What I am NOT ok with is being out a product that I paid $159 for while they are working out the issues. I told her I feel like a Beta Tester. She put me on hold and I've been on hold for the past 10 minutes.

Just got off. She said she was calling around to stores near me to check stock (obviously nobody has any) and instead of me waiting on hold will call me back. So it seems she's trying to find me a replacement pair so I can send in my current pair. She also said that if she can't find any she will check to see what else she can do.

Same issue here. Read through all the comments here and on other blogs/msg boards. I restored my iphone 6s+ from itunes and did NOT re-pair my series 1 Apple Watch and have been using my Airpods issue free all day today on hours worth of calls.

I did speak with Apple Sr tech yesterday and today and all he can say is "glad they are working now". He didn't have any insight into what the Apple team is doing to fix this, but did say that they are getting lots of customer feedback on this and he is sure it's a software issue.

I love the airpods so will keep them and hope for a firmware update soon...in the meantime, my Apple Watch will sit on a shelf...not a great solution. Here's hoping for a fast fix.

My AirPods are now working great after having erased my iPhone 6S and set up as a new phone and avoided installing any apps or doing anything else beyond the basic requirements to get going. Able to listen to Apple Music and Podcasts (gotta love Daring Fireball) without the intermittent L/R channel hiccups or un-commanded pauses. Had several lengthy phone calls today including cellular T-Mobile LTE, WiFi, and FaceTime. In fact, I ran the AirPods down to very-low-battery-warning while on a call, popped the left one into the case, and continued the call on the right one, then switched to the left one after it had gained some charge. Not a single problem.

I've now paired my Apple Watch Sport (original 38mm). Still working. Connected AirPods to my MacBook Pro (early 2013 15") and watched a YouTube video. Paired to my Apple TV (4th gen) and watched another video. Worked great.

Finally was able to provoke bad behavior: on my Watch, swiped up for Control Center, tapped on the AirPlay icon. Tapped on AirPods. That worked. Switched to Apple Music app on my Watch. Tapped Play. Much heated discussion ensued between my iPhone and the Watch as to who gets to have the AirPods. Turns out they couldn't agree, so no music for me. Tried to switch back to iPhone, but AirPods wouldn't connect. Tried to make phone calls with AirPod's showing as the Audio device, but each time was dumped with "Call Failed." Replacing AirPods into their case for a few minutes seemed to reset things back to normal, and they are working again.

Received a voicemail from Apple Engineering in Austin, TX. Will try to get in contact with them and let them know my experiences and any logging they might want.

Aha... looks like I spoke too soon. AirPods just disconnected and reconnected on my current testing phone call. Hmm.

What Apple Watch version do you have with iPhone 7+? I'm curious if the problems many of us having are related to the original release of the Watch?

I would also like to see if there are any users who resolved this problem by going to Watch series 2? Anyone is having problems with the newest release of the Watch but 6S/+ phones?

I have concluded through my personal experience that while initially a clean iPhone 6S+ worked great with the original Apple Watch and the AirPods, it started failing on calls after a week of good use. So either a software bug that creeps in after some time of use or a hardware that starts "failing" or not able to keep up with the newer features in the AirPods?

Thanks, everyone, in advance!

Watch 2 and iPhone 6S here.

Issue: call switches back to iPhone during AirPod use

Based on this thread I am experimenting with keeping the Watch in Airplane mode as a workaround. So far good results (no switching back).

So an update.

Just received another call from Customer Relations and here is the gist of it:

-The engineers clearly want my AirPods to test and they want them now.

-She offered that I send mine in and they would basically "order" me a new replacement pair so they can get their hands on mine. However, they would put a hold charge on my CC for the cost of the replacement pair until they receive mine.

-The rub is that they have NO IDEA when my replacement pair would come. I actually chuckled at this idea and started to get annoyed.

-I say they clearly want them above because I basically tried to end the call at this point and she would not let me off the line because they want me to send them in.

I'm really starting to get miffed at this whole thing. I've spent a lot of time on the phone with Apple and went to the Apple Store at the request of customer service and I feel like the burden is completely on me as the consumer. I've been more than generous with my time and level of detail with them. "Not" coincidentally anymore, I answered the call from customer relations on my AirPods and 15 seconds into the call it lost connection and switched to my iPhone. The rep kept saying "hello? hello? can you hear me?" I said, there you go it just happened AGAIN and asked her how she would feel if on a business call with a customer and that happens over and over and over again.

I will say this : I bought the Bose Soundsport Wireless and there was an issue identified with them by Bose which I was having. I called them, described the issue and they "with no questions asked" sent me a wired pair of Bose headphones AT NO COST just for the inconvenience while they re-manufactured the Soundsport Wireless. They then overnighted me the new Soundsport at no cost. That was customer service.

The rep said she would see what else can be done and get back to me.

Spoke to Apple Client Relation, couple Senior Advisors, they retrieved diagnotic logs from my iPhone, at this point nobody from Apple can provide any updates on the issue, their engineering team is still trying to find out what's the cause. All they can offer me now is to extend the return policy.

Patience is the order of the day. They'll figure this out, but it's going to take time to sift through all the diagnostic logs. It could be we all have something in common that is triggering this... some unusual combination of hardware / software / apps / environment. The diagnostic logs are very detailed, and it will take a room full of white boards, sticky notes, and many pots of coffee to sort through it all... until some engineer who hasn't slept in two days says "wait a minute, take a look at that!" and the room falls silent.

Not only am I impressed with Apple for reaching out directly to those of us affected, but also the customers who are willing to help, including spending hours on the phone. Not every company is so fortunate to have customers that care. Kind of remarkable for a pair of bluetooth earbuds.

Honestly, I wouldn't bet on this getting resolved any time soon. I got that feeling from the types of questions they asked me... at this point I wouldn't be surprised if the 6s BT hardware just can't handle them and they failed to test it properly. On that note I'm really impressed by Apple's support. They seem to take this really really seriously.

Anyway, other than the phone call/audio quality issues i loved these things and I was very sad the moment I finally returned them. To repeat myself - I loved them for Music/Movies... the calls are just a deal breaker for me personally.

I'll give the next revision a shot or try again in the fall if I decide to get the next iPhone. But - 180€ is a high price to ask for the ability to beta test and the privilege to speak to Apple support for hours and hours on end imho.

Still really hope this gets resolved asap.