Audio stops on airpods

Solved! but it's a hassle...

After talking with Apple Support, we determined it's probably due to a faulty version of iOS on our phones. I restored my phone in recovery mode and then restored from a backup. AirPods+ iPhone have been working perfectly since then (24 hours!) with no audio stops or phone call audio issues.

Here are the steps I followed:

Backup

1. Backup your phone to iCloud and turn off find my iPhone.

2. Backup your phone to your computer using iTunes. (It'll restore faster from an iTunes backup plus horcruxing your phone is always a good idea.)

Restore

3. With your phone plugged into your computer and iTunes open, put the phone in recovery mode. On my iPhone 7, you hold down the sleep/wake button and the volume down button simultaneously until a "connect to iTunes" logo appears.

(enter recovery mode instructions for different iPhones: If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support)

4. iTunes will tell you "There is a problem with the iPhone that requires it to be updated or restored." Follow the prompts to restore (not update) the iPhone. This step fully removes the faulty version of iOS on the phone and replaces it with a new copy that iTunes will download.

Setup from backup

5. After the restore is complete, set up your phone from one of the backups you made in steps 1 and 2. This step puts all your information and data back on the phone.

6. Once you've finished setting up your iPhone from the backup, try using AirPods. Hopefully the issue is resolved.

It's been 24 hours since I did this process and I have not had any problems with my AirPods since then. They're working just as well as they did before the iOS 11.3 update when this started happening all the time. It was to the point where audio would drop on nearly every track or podcast I played. Now they work normally again. It was a time consuming fix, but well worth it to get this unbearably annoying problem resolved. Hopefully it works for you guys too!

Shout out to Steve at Apple Support for the idea

I don't know if this has been mentioned, and I'm late to the discussion, but here goes.

I was able to fix this issue by:

1) Un-pairing my AirPods from my Apple iCloud Account

2) Resetting my AirPods

3) Shutting off my Mac, my MacBook, and my iPhone (all of my iCloud devices)

4) Restarting my devices and repairing them.

Side note: I've found that wireless speakers (Sonos, etc.) caused issues with my AirPods, especially when they were playing music. I haven't been able to recreate this since iOS 13, however.

This is also happening to me since iOS 11.3, I have noticed the following:

• It usually happens a few moments after starting to play audio, and after I have turned the phone off.
• When I pick up the phone to fix it, the screen won't come on for 2-3 more seconds than usual, either auto on or by pressing the power button. Almost as though it has locked up and is processing something in the background. On one occasion, the audio returned on its own a few seconds after turning the phone on.
• Sometimes activating Siri will reset the audio, sometimes not.
• Changing audio sources and back again always resets it, and rarely does it happen a second time during the same connection.
• It does NOT happen when the phone is connected to other Bluetooth audio devices like car stereo or speaker, just Airpods.
• When it happens during calls (usually the same timing after initiating the call and turning the phone off), the audio feed slows down so the caller on the other end sounds underwater.

I have generally had issues with the pods connecting to Bluetooth if I pull them out of the case and quickly put them in my ears without turning the phone on. I generally have to open the Airpod case in proximity to the phone such that the battery level popup occurs, then they connect fine.

Along with the perpetually buggy and mucked-up video app that never remembers where you left off and can't keep track of what you have watched, it makes iOS upgrades a royal pain.

Same issue here. As others described, it began immediately after iOS 11.3 update. Audio drops after a few seconds but playback continues without audio output. The Bluetooth connection to airpods remains active. Switching to another audio app (eg podcasts to music) sometimes restores the audio. Manually switching playback from airpods to iPhone then back to airpods resolves it for that session. Neither restoring the iPhone nor repairing the airpods fixed it.

Also experiencing weird audio in phone calls on airpods. I notice an underwater sound and so does the person on the other end of the call. The phone call issue usually resolves itself after a few seconds. Definitely seems to be an iOS issue. It’s exceptionally annoying that it happens after just long enough to put the phone in your pocket and start doing something else. Then you have to stop to pull it back out and deal with this hassle.

iPhone 7

iOS 11.3

Original airpods. Double tap set to play/pause on both.

I have been having the exact same issue since 11.3 (never happened before). Airpods regularly stop playing audio even though they remain connected. Switching the audio playback from airpods to iphone then back tk airpods fixes it, but is verg annoying. Hope apple fixes this bug.

update:

My bother has AirPods he uses with his iPhone 7+ and does not experience this issue. We unpaired his AirPods from his phone and unpaired my AirPods from my phone. We paired his AirPods (which have never had this issue) with my phone and the issue began happening immediately. We also paired my problem AirPods with his phone and the issue did not happen at all. So, it's not an issue with AirPods, it must be an iOS issue. I don't think it's a hardware problem with my phone because the issue began happening immediately after updating to iOS 11.3 and no subsequent updates have resolved it.

his phone 11.3.1 (15E302)

my phone 11.4 (15F79)

My is very similar and I found another fix if you are listening to a podcast or something else that lets you skip back a forth a fixed number of seconds.I pause then go back 15 seconds and forward 15 seconds (you can use whatever you have it set to) then it play and sound comes back.The good thing with this fix is that as long as the AirPods are connected I can play without it stopping.Even if I go to Apple Music,however the skip tracks won’t work there.I have to connect and reconnect Bluetooth and it can happen over and over again or work fine.Definte bug in iOS.

Seems to happen a few moments after I put my phone back in my pocket. Same thing in music app and podcast app. Tapping the sound out icon and quickly switching back to phone speakers and then back to AirPods is enough to fix it but it is an annoyance

I’m using the AirPods on my iPhone X and iOS 12 and it never did it before but it started today and I disconnected them from my phone and reconnected them and so far it hasn’t done it. It was doing it every few seconds

Yes I has this problem but iOS 12 fixed it,some helpful hints are in this thread.i believe this is an AirPlay problem.Are you using an Apple Watch as well?That seemed to make the problem worse but it wasn’t the total cause.Try switching Airplay on/off ,to see if that helps.

full back up and restore resolved the issue as well, thanks Jason.

Also having this issue recently. Didn't notice any issues until the last few weeks, but now my Bluetooth connection to my Airpods will just randomly stop playing music even though Music is still playing according to my iPhone.

To fix it I have to switch in and out of airplane mode to reset the BT connections.

Using the iPhone 6S, with version 11.3.

I saw a post from a long time ago where someone had a similar issue where an app running in the background would have a crash/error, and it would impact the music BT functionality. Going to try and run my music for a while with all other apps closed to see if it still has issues.

Note: The most recent occurrence from this morning occurred with just the Music and Email apps open. Just closed the email and we'll see how things go.

I'm running iOS 11.4.1 and I'm having this exact problem with my AirPods. As mentioned numerous times in this thread, disconnecting and reconnecting to the AirPods via the airplay dialog seems to temporarily fix the issue. But I've also noticed that during the lapse in audio, the music is still playing in the music app and the double tap play/pause still works. Sometimes activating siri brings it back to life.

Same here. I'm on iPhone 7. It happened after I upgrade from ios 11.2 to 11.3 in April (now I'm on 11.4 and it's still there). There's no way to fix it permanently. VERY frustrating.

What I notice is that

• The audio stopping problem only happens when I'm on lock screen mode. It never happens when the screen is on. (so one workaround is to keep the phone awake all the time which is a waste of battery)
• It happens with all kinds of Bluetooth speakers that I have (including airpods) and in all apps.
• Once it happens, the phone won't respond to any button (e.g. home button) for a few secs.
• The temporary solution for me is to press pause (if I'm listening via music player app) and wait for about 10 seconds then resume. The audio will be back as normal.
• The problem seems to happen at random but the frequency builds up over time! I had to factory reset my phone and restore backup every 2-3 months because it happens nearly every minute of playing. Once it's reset, the audio problem is gone for a few days before it starts to happen again (like once or twice a day, given that I use airpods approx. 3 hours daily) and slowly build up after that. And after using it for 3 months, it stop playing like every minutes. Sometimes I can only play music for 10 seconds before the problem kicks in !

The backup restoration workaround is even frustrating because it takes about 6-7 hours. And if by any chance my laptop goes to sleep mode, iPhone will be disconnected and the restoration will be cancelled and I have to start everything from zero again!

Apple should take this as a serious matter. My user experience is completely destroyed after upgrading to ios 11.3. All minor updates since then seems to be only related to security issues.

PS. Earlier on when I upgrade from ios 11.2 to 11.3 I also experienced "underwater" sound when using sound recorder (with or without airpod) but this problem is gone after I factory reset the phone and reinstall ios via iTunes and restore backups.

Same here. Also happens when I lock the phone manually, though. A couple of seconds after I put the phone down, audio output stops. Changing output to phone speakers than back to AirPods fixes it.

Tried to reproduce the error, but it doesn't happen every time. Just occasionally.

Would be great to get some feedback from Apple on this problem.