AirPods disconnects on calls

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.

I'm convinced this is a 6s/6s Plus issue, although I do remember seeing a 7plus user commenting that he/she was having the same issues.

Just had another instance . . . listening to music, selected the person to call, call is being made and zero audio from either AirPods or iPhone. It's like the audio gets caught in limbo. Person on other end picks up call and audio still in limbo. Can finally hear call on iPhone, then 10 seconds later AirPods reconnect and pick up call. So frustrating.

Today, Apple Technical Support had me backup my iPhone 6s Plus to iTunes before performing Erase All Content and Settings. I have yet to restore from the backup or sign into my iCloud account while I test the AirPods out. Made three phones calls; on two of them, the AirPods sounded worse to the other side than when using wired EarPods. The third call was to Apple Support, and the technician said the sound quality was very good on the AirPods.

No disconnects yet. I'll run my iPhone stock for the next day and see if I experience any dropouts. Then, I'll restore from my iTunes backup, pair my Apple Watch, and see what happens.

Like other people, I have a Gen 1 Apple Watch. Was experiencing a number of AirPod disconnects during phone calls. Had some with podcasts and other apps too.

Steve@Clearpath wrote:

Bummed but giving up and won't use AirPods for calls again until this is fixed. ➖

Dropped every call so far today whether using one AirPod or both.

Why not just use one AirPod for phone calls? While it's not a solution, it is a decent workaround...

Steve@Clearpath wrote:

As I mentioned, I'm dropping calls whether I use one or both AirPods.

Sorry, I missed that. That's too bad the one AirPod workaround isn't working for you. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed via a software update that Apple releases soon!

It's been a full day since I wiped my iPhone 6s Plus clean and re-paired the AirPods. I have NOT restored my iPhone nor paired my Apple Watch yet. I haven't even signed into my iCloud account or installed any apps; it's as stock an iPhone install as you can get.

During this time, I've made numerous calls, short ones of less than 5 minutes, medium ones of 17 minutes, and one 45 minute conference call. I have also been listening to podcasts continually throughout the day. I have yet to experience a single dropout nor disconnect with the AirPods.

Of course, my iPhone is not very useful with none of my data, so I'm going to do the iTunes restore later today and see what happens. If the backup doesn't re-establish the connect with my Apple Watch, I'll hold off on re-pairing it since it's working over Wi-Fi (green cloud icon in Control Center).

I followed a similar process, and even received replacement AirPods from Apple. Same results: with a clean or restored from backup iPhone 6S, AirPods work perfectly. After re-pairing my Apple Watch (original 38mm sport model), the audio glitches and AirPod disconnects during calls start happening again. Doesn't seem to matter if I run phone and watch setup as new or restored from backup.

I can even provoke the symptom by going to airplane mode, re-enabling Bluetooth, and listening to the locally stored voicemails in the phone app. It is less likely to happen with just one AirPod.

The symptoms are definitely pointing towards my iPhone 6S not handling more than one or two Bluetooth devices connected simultaneously. It is as if some condition accumulates over time and the iPhone 6S Bluetooth radio resets, dumping everyone off (including the Watch). Could be a problem in the Bluetooth radio chipset, or the software managing it.

I have access to an iPhone 7 Plus this week and may give that a try. Problem is the disconnects are so random it could happen early and often, or after several successful calls.

Thanks, GGGeoff. In that case, I'm going to restore from iTunes backup and hold off re-pairing the Apple Watch. Did you have any other Bluetooth devices registered with your iPhone? Like keyboards, Tiles, additional headsets, computers, etc.? I had a bunch on my iPhone 6s Plus, but most of them were not connected (except the Tile, which I removed).

Come to think of it, I had noticed in the past that my Apple Watch would occasionally disconnect from my iPhone, even though the two devices were right next to each other. I have also had mysterious dropouts with my previous wireless headset (Aukey) while running, but I never thought to think they were related. Your idea that the Bluetooth radio is resetting sounds intriguing.

Yes, my first call with the new replacement AirPods disconnected within a few minutes. I noticed the Tile app in my restored backup had reconnected to all of four of my tiles. This was before re-pairing my iPhone. After deleting the Tile app, things were better.

Now that you mentioned it, I also experienced random Bluetooth disconnects on my watch.

I decided to stop fighting this and have upgraded to an iPhone 7 Plus just tonight. We'all see how that goes. Love the camera.

As an update, I had a call from the AppleCare Senior Technical advisor who handled my case.

(I have an iPhone 6s with AppleCare+, a first generation Apple watch and Airpods - Airpods disconnect during calls and music skips far too often)

She told me that I was not the only one with the same issues, and that Apple engineers were currently looking into the issue.

She also told me to keep my devices updated, since the fix would might come as a software update.

That sounds like good news to me: Apple is aware of the issue and working on a fix.

Let's just hope it comes sooner than later.

🙂