Airpods fail with phone calls after second BT connection, like a car

Same symptoms for me

• IOS 11.02 on 7+
• Apple Watch Series 0
• Have not connected in the car.
• Do not have a tile

This has happened after connecting with my Macbook Air and then reconnecting with my iPhone 7+. Shows connected to Airpods but won't produce sound during a call. Music works fine. Interesting to note, while in Spotify, it only shows the bluetooth signal without showing the "name i.e. Airpods" in the notification field.

Disconnected Airpods, repaired. Didn't fix problem

Tried putting AW in airplane mode. Didn't fix problem

Rebooted phone. Fixed problem - NOT sustainable - this *****!

Any other ideas or troubleshooting?

My wife is having an issue with no sound in her Airpods where she has to unpair and then re-pair them. I'm curious if there is possibly an issue with the phone's Bluetooth having trouble resolving conflicts when it's paired with something else.

I had the same issue happen to me today, but not in the car. I had to restart the phone to be able to use the AirPods to make calls again (but they would work to play music). I was working by my desk, and had my Garmin Watch connected to my phone (as always, so not sure if that is part of the issue), but my MacBook Pro was close by, and the AirPods can connect to it (although they were not connected). My "Tiles" were also connected to my phone. I think the issue is that when too many bluetooth devices are connected to the phone, or to the AirPods, the AirPods start causing issues and crash the phone.

This is a major bug. Not only I could not make call with the AirPods connected during this issue, but someone tried to call me and the call didn't even ring and went directly to voicemail for the other person.

Was there any progress on this issue. I have the same problem. Also have multiple BT devices in use, like Tiles, several car BT's, 2 apple watches, speaker, 2 other headphones. Except for the tile, 1 car, 1 watch these are not simultaneously on, typically.

But a very annoying problem. Music work but as soon as you need to call or pick up a call, there is a 50/50 chance you won't hear anything and neither does the person on other side of the line.

This is different from the call disconnect issues reported: once there is a connection, then no problems.

iPhone 7+ iOS 10.3.1. Latest watch OS too

I have the same problem. I find that disconnecting the AirPods and then reconnecting them works. Reboot not needed.

Also when I'm in the car the phone won't stick with one Bluetooth source. It seems like the car and the phone and AirPods are all playing tug of war to broadcast the call. The call will randomly switch outputs. I wonder if this is a related issue (or not).

I see the same issue, iPhone 7+ all the latest updates. Music works fine, but if I have switched my AirPods between devices (iPad, Mac, watch, etc) then it is 50/50 if the audio will work when using the phone through them.

Same issue here with iPhone 7+ and all the latest firmware iOS. Music audio works fine. But audio from phone call is not transferred. Rebooting the phone does sometimes help. Remove and reconnect from bluetooth not. I've done all the suggestions from other sites as well. I would say on the average the succes rate, to hear a phone call, is less then 10%. I have a 'hope' that iOS11 will fix this issue, somehow.

I have iPhone 7+ and same issue. I can’t count on my AirPods to work when I receive a call and that is terrible. I also have several Bluetooth connections (tiles, cars, speakers...)

I’m using iOS 11 and no improvements. Same issue.

Apple even sent me brand new AirPods and no improvement.

I wonder if this is an iPhone 7+ issue? Anyone else having these same issues?

I have an iPhone 7 and the identical issue- including tile & Bluetooth car. I can experience this when i’m away from the car. I am wondering if there is a Tile conflict - that seems like a commonality, too. I had a similar problem with my iPhone 6s did as well. I updated to iOS 11 today hoping for a fix and it still happened.

I just picked up a pair of AirPods and I’m experiencing the same issue you’re describing. I had a pair of BeatsX that was having the same issue. I was hoping switching to the AirPods would eliminate that problem.

I've had a similar but I think same, issue since I got airpods at launch. I can be listening to music through the airpods on my phone (7+) and either when I receive a call, or when I make a call I cannot hear the call and the other side can't hear me (it does help if I switch to speaker phone and back to the airpods). Once I end the call, the airpods go back to playing music. I'm usually around my other apple devices that I also use with my airpods (laptop, ipad) and my phone itself is connected to other things like my watch and tiles.

I have several sets of airpods and this issue happens with all of them.

After seeing your comment here I went into the Times app settings and turned off Use Bluetooth and the issues with the AirPods stopped. I was able to witch between devices and back to the phone and no issues hearing phone calls. It’s working the way it’s been advertised now.

I guess if I need to try locating a Tile I can turn Use Bluetooth back on the app’s setting.

I'm still having this issue and it's driving me crazy.

I don't have a Tile, but to have 3 'Nuts' (avoid the joke please!) - I wonder if it's related.

The only way I've found to fix this issue is to reboot. Given that there's clearly a pattern here I do hope Apple pick this up and deal with it before I reach the point that I throw my phone out the window in frustration 😉

I have tried so many steps to fix this issue including two Apple Genius appointments and nuking and paving for my iPhone 7 and I’m running iOS 11.

Good news: I disconnected the Tile bluetooth setting in the Tile app and the phone call audio returned! Thank you Smerts above for the suggestion. —Dave

I've had a chance to test this today - my airpods are playing up again.

Airpod in ear, make a call, no audio

put watch into airplane mode

Remove and replace airpod in ear - FIXED.

However, I've had to do that 3 times in the last 2 hours. Rebooting the phone seems to give a longer period of no issues than this temp fix above.

There's clearly a bug somewhere in how the iPhone is handling bluetooth, and sometimes it's getting upset enough for BT call audio routing to mess up.

I'm not sure how to get Apple to pay attention to this thread, going though the Apple support just had me making sure I had batteries charged, that I'd not dropped things, and other first line activities.