AirPods disconnects on calls

I just uploaded another 2.8GB of files..what I am going to try for the next couple days is turning off my watch, leaving it at home and seeing if the call dropping stops. I have the FEELING that the problem MAY lie actually, in the WATCH and not the airpods or the iphone. I have had some funky bluetooth pairing issues with the WATCH, things won't pair till a reboot, airpods can't be found till a reboot, that sort of thing. COULD be the watch is the culprit in the mix.

We'll see

What I also haven't seen mentioned here is how each AirPod is an independent connection. When a Bluetooth watch/fitness tracker and the AirPods are communicating with the phone it is essentially managing three Bluetooth devices. I wonder if that is contributing to this issue and if so how Apple plans to deal with it. Call me cynical but I find it hard to believe that this wasn't seen during prelaunch testing.

The question is does the fix require a firmware update on W1 chip and can it be done without sending them in?

I am concerned that the fix will have to wait for 2.0 hardware but it will be too late to return ours.

I would suggest if you are concerned about a fix requiring new hardware, either return them and repurchase when its fixed, or at least open a support case so you are in the system of having problems with them. The warranty is one year from date of purchase, so there's always that.

I do have a case opened and I worked with support to upload multiple logs to them. The last reply on Tuesday was that they still didn't know what was going on and was also told to install updates on phone when prompted in future.

Also maybe I missed that but I don't see major blogs covering Apple reporting this issue which many of us are having.

Good. I think having the case documented would make it straightforward to get a refund should we desire. Personally, I plan to hang on to see if a software update is released to address the problem. I'd rather do that, than return the AirPods, and find out a week or so later an update comes out to fix it and then have to wait until February or even March to acquire another pair.

Apple arranged for a replacement set of AirPods for me. In fact, it did sound like due to the backorders, it might be awhile. As luck would have it, when they contacted my local store, they had one pair just received in stock, so they put my name on it as part of the case. I traded my pair in and picked up the new pair last night.

So far, so good, but we'll see. My first phone call out the gate where the new AirPods disconnected and immediately reconnected to the phone, but then were fine for the rest of the conversation. I then realized I still had the Tile and Kevo apps loaded as part of my backup restore. I deleted those and restarted the phone just to be sure I'm running without anything like that for now (and I still haven't paired my Watch since restoring from backup the other night). Today, I had a 40 minute phone call without interruption. About to go for a hike, and we'll see if my music / podcasts pause.

Also of note, the replacement AirPods have slightly better finish quality: the join where the two plastic halves are glued together is much better - still a visible seam as in the marketing photos - but not offset like the previous pair. And, it could be my imagination, but I'd swear these have a noticeably fuller sound than the previous pair. AirPods firmware is on this new pair is still listed as 3.3.1 and hardware as 1.0.0 in iPhone Settings > General > About > AirPods.

As to this being news, sure, or this could be a fairly limited set of users. I'd think there would be many more pages on this and other forums if the problem were truly widespread, let alone it would be surely brought up in some of the more balanced reviews by now. There are a lot of very happy users out there, and you'd think that wouldn't be the case if everyone was running into this. Time will tell.

Just wanted to add that I am having these issues as well. AirPods work fine listening to music, watching videos, and playing games, but when I either receive or make a phone call, the connection constantly drops and I have to manually reconnect, usually at least once a minute or so. I have tried restarting the iPhone, forgetting the AirPods and re-adding them, resetting the AirPods, all to no avail. I have already submitted feedback to Apple (why doesn't their feedback form have the most recent iOS and macOS versions?).

I am also experiencing this issue. I have the iPhone 6s now running the latest beta (10.2.1) and the Series 1 watch on version 3.1. I was previously running 10.2 on the phone but thought I might try the beta to see if it made things any better. It didn't.

I can listen to music and podcasts for hours on end with no problem at all. If I take a phone call, within the first 1-2 minutes it disconnects and the call goes back to the handset. This happens pretty reliably every time I take a call. I can force reconnection to the AirPods and they may work for a few minutes more but repeat the whole pattern over again. As others have mentioned it does seem that using only one AirPod for calls seems to work without issue. Placing the watch into airplane mode also seems to help though I haven't had a big enough sampling of extended calls to know for sure.

I just want to add that I've had the same exact issue. I have an iPhone 6s, 1st gen Apple watch. Both running latest OS. I had just reset my iphone before adding my Airpods and for the first day they worked magnificently. The second day I added my watch back into the mix and from then on they experienced what I would describe as degraded audio quality in general, and especially the issue of disconnecting during calls. Disconnects happened every 2-3 minutes for me on average. Eventually I decided to return my Airpods before the return deadline because making phone calls is a critical feature for me....these were the first Apple hardware product that I've ever returned in over a decade of being a loyal customer. :-(

Here's a video of the disconnect happening if it's useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZeRhbB1Xkw

I have this problem too. Exceptionally frustrating - calls drop completely randomly. I have a Gen 1 Apple Watch, and an iPhone 6s.

Anyone figured out a fix? Seems like the common thread amongst our issues is ab Apple Watch paired with a 6S...

usernameamamama wrote:

I have this problem too. Exceptionally frustrating - calls drop completely randomly. I have a Gen 1 Apple Watch, and an iPhone 6s.

Anyone figured out a fix? Seems like the common thread amongst our issues is ab Apple Watch paired with a 6S...

The workaround for me has been to just use one AirPod when on a phone call. I've only made a couple of calls that way, but so far, so good.

When I connect my airpods to my Mac and make ccalls with my iPhone (via FaceTime on my Mac), there are no issues.

I strongly believe the issue is not with the airpods but with the iPhone 6s.

Hopefully we'll see a IOS fix shortly

Imjustjoekingbro wrote:

When I connect my airpods to my Mac and make ccalls with my iPhone (via FaceTime on my Mac), there are no issues.

I strongly believe the issue is not with the airpods but with the iPhone 6s.

Hopefully we'll see a IOS fix shortly

Your Mac is not connected to an Apple Watch nor is it directly utilizing a cellular radio. It could very well be an issue with the iPhone 6s/6s Plus (and hopefully a software issue and not a hardware issue), but saying that the AirPods work with your Mac does not eliminate the AirPods from the potential issue; it eliminates your Mac from the issue.

Do you notice any battery burn on the watch? Everytime I lose a connection,suddenly, my watch battery is draining like mad (10% over 10 min) until I restart the watch. It only happens when I get a call with both airpods in.

I've been doing that as well. The problem I have been experiencing is if I go back to music, only one airpod works. I have to force quit the phone and the music app. When I restart music, I get both airpods again.