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User profile for user: asfraer
asfraer Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

AirPods stopped working with macOS

So just few days ago my AirPods stopped connecting to Mac after more than 6 month of problem-free experience. They worked without any problems the night before the bug occurred, they work now with iPhone and iPad and they even work on MacBook in Bootcamp with Windows 10, but they stopped working with macOS Sierra 10.12.6 (Since then I've updated to macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 and the problem is still there).

I’ve tried to remove them from Bluetooth, tried to reset Bluetooth module from debug menu, tried to delete .plist files, restarted, reset PRAM and SMC, ran FirstAid in diskutility under recovery partition, created new user to test, even update to the latest OS 10.13.3 - nothing works. They connect to Mac for a few seconds, but I cannot switch audio output to AirPods, they just disconnect.


Ran Bluetooth Explorer and it usually returns something like:

AirPods connected, handle: 0xB

2018-02-24 23:45:29 +0000 Mode change 11 for handle: 0x2

2018-02-24 23:45:42 +0000 Mode change 11 for handle: 0x0

2018-02-24 23:45:42 +0000 Handle: 0xB disconnected, reason: 0x16

AirPods disconnected


AirPods connected, handle: 0xC

2018-02-27 21:21:48 +0000 Handle: 0xC disconnected, reason: 0x16

AirPods disconnected


On a somewhat consistent basis I can make AirPods to stop disconnecting after few seconds if I rename executable file "bluetoothaudiod" in hidden folder /usr/sbin/. If I do this, AirPods stay connected, but I cannot select them as audio output anyway. But at least that might be a hint where the problem lies?


Recent issue is that when I'm pressing connect AirPods pop-up window appears and it says: Bluetooth keyboard setup - There isn't a keyboard connected. So now this shitOS think that I'm trying to connect wireless keyboard and not AirPods, great!

User uploaded file


Since the only place where they don't work is macOS it's most likely a software bug. I've contacted support on twitter, sent feedback on website, but now I'm out of ideas. Any help?

Posted on Feb 27, 2018 3:02 PM

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User profile for user: asfraer
asfraer Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Posted on Feb 28, 2018 5:21 PM

Ok, I have a solution. Reinstalling High Sierra again solved the issue for me (at least for now, fingers crossed). Initially, to try to solve the issue I've update from Sierra to High Sierra but the bug was still present. Today I just took the same High Sierra disk image that was already downloaded from Mac App Store, and installed it again, straight from external hdd where I previously saved it. For some magical reason it solved the issue. Now AirPods connect and play music without problems.


I had a suspicion that it's an elaborate way to push people to update to High Sierra and it seem to have been somewhat confirmed, because not only the very first question support asked was if I'm on the latest OS, but when I wanted to try to install Sierra again, disk image was grey and inaccessible from High Sierra, so the roll back process would definitely be pretty painful, and I assume not so many people would be going through all the hoops, and at the end of quarter Apple will report new amazing numbers of people using latest version of macOS. gj Apple 😠

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User profile for user: asfraer
asfraer Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Feb 28, 2018 5:21 PM in response to asfraer

Ok, I have a solution. Reinstalling High Sierra again solved the issue for me (at least for now, fingers crossed). Initially, to try to solve the issue I've update from Sierra to High Sierra but the bug was still present. Today I just took the same High Sierra disk image that was already downloaded from Mac App Store, and installed it again, straight from external hdd where I previously saved it. For some magical reason it solved the issue. Now AirPods connect and play music without problems.


I had a suspicion that it's an elaborate way to push people to update to High Sierra and it seem to have been somewhat confirmed, because not only the very first question support asked was if I'm on the latest OS, but when I wanted to try to install Sierra again, disk image was grey and inaccessible from High Sierra, so the roll back process would definitely be pretty painful, and I assume not so many people would be going through all the hoops, and at the end of quarter Apple will report new amazing numbers of people using latest version of macOS. gj Apple 😠

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User profile for user: asfraer
asfraer Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Feb 27, 2018 3:13 PM in response to zfJames

Seriously? 😕 Do you think I didn't realize it's bluetooth's problem? I don't have any Apple store anywhere near me, closest one might be 1K km away, plus from what I've seen on the web, top thing they can do is to reinstall the system. Well, if you read closely, I've kinda done it (sure not clean install, but I need all my data and programs to stay untouched anyway). So yeah, if you don't have a possible solution I haven't thought or tried yet, please, don't post obvious things guys.

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User profile for user: asfraer
asfraer Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Feb 27, 2018 3:37 PM in response to zfJames

Thank you for your advice, but apparently you are not paying attention or not reading carefully what I've written: AirPods work on the same machine, under Bootcamp in Windows 10, so it is clearly not a hardware issue, it's crappy macOS that is causing all of this. So I'm trying to find out what else can I try to fix that **** OS.

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AirPods stopped working with macOS

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