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protobiont

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 6, 2010
650
141
Has anyone had an issue where their Airpods randomly disconnect and reconnect during phone calls? I've had this happen on two phone calls today. I am talking and suddenly the audio switches to the phone, I hear the Airpod connect tones and the audio switches back. This will repeat itself a few times, which is quite distracting during a phone call.
 
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retrospek

macrumors 6502a
Sep 28, 2004
677
406
UK
Do you have an iPhone 6 by any chance ? As that appears to be happening to a few of us. I don't think it is happening on the iPhone 7 though...
 
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gemnilocs

macrumors 6502
Jan 26, 2011
354
74
california
Has anyone had an issue where their Airpods randomly disconnect and reconnect during phone calls? I've had this happen on two phone calls today. I am talking and suddenly the audio switches to the phone, I hear the Airpod connect tones and the audio switches back. This will repeat itself a few times, which is quite distracting during a phone call.

yep or that when making a call, it disconnects and goes to the phone....frustrating...oh and i'm on a iphone 7 plus
 

fryrice

macrumors member
Apr 20, 2012
55
10
Boston, MA
When I'm on a phone call with 2 earbuds in the connection drops. But with 1 it doesn't drop.

I have performed all the "network reset" and "re-pairing" and it still happens (bluetooth connection disconnects).

Also I have a 6s.
 

fishbert

macrumors member
Aug 20, 2009
78
145
Has anyone had an issue where their Airpods randomly disconnect and reconnect during phone calls?

Yes.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airpods-randomly-disconnecting-during-phone-calls.2024358/
https://discussions.apple.com/message/31172464?start=0&tstart=0

A lot of people who report this issue are using a 6s (or 6s Plus), which has led some people to blame that for the issue. But there are people who report similar behavior with an iPhone 6 or iPhone 7, so I wonder if that isn't explained by there just being more 6s-generation iPhones out there.

Another line of thinking is that it may have something to do with having an Apple Watch and it trying to take the AirPod connection away from the phone. I haven't kept up with it enough to know if there are reports of similar behavior from people who don't have an Apple Watch, though.

So, there are some theories out there as to root cause, but they're based on little more than conjecture and users reading user complaint tea leaves at this point. What interests me the most are the people who say they've been in touch with Apple engineers who are looking into the issue; gives me hope there may be a fix (or at least an official explanation) sometime soon.
 
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tivoboy

macrumors 601
May 15, 2005
4,044
847
I have had this problem too, and participate in the other thread. I've been working with apple advanced support for the week trying to troubleshoot and get to the bottom of the issue. Loading profiles and sending them log files.

One of the elements of the testing is to capture a log snapshot when it happens.. on my phone 6s (yes 6s) this is done by pressing the sleep/wake button and the two volume rockers simultaneously (there is a haptic feedback when doing this) and this writes a time stamp or log flag to the ever growing log file that I send over.

that said, what I HAVE found out while doing this process is that by DOING this funky action, it RECONNECTS the airpods nearly EVERY TIME.

so give that a shot next time and see if it works. This shouldn't be required, but till we get to v1.0.1 at least for FW, some of us may just have to live with the issue.

I'm hoping that is isn't something to do with the BT radio on the 6s, or with the actual pair of airpods that I have (having given away five pair as xmas gifts it would be pretty ironic if MY pair were the bad pair)

We'll solve it soon enough though i believe. The folks I have been working with are very professional.
 

KittyKatta

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2011
1,058
1,212
SoCal
I have connectivity issues ALL THE TIME.

- Answer a call, hear a voice for 2 seconds then audio drops back to the iPhone
- Get in the car, bluetooth goes to Car Audio and can't send it back to AirPods
- Listen to music, remove AirPod, put it back and its set to iPhone audio

I've tried re-pairing. resetting all bluetooth settings. And tried swapping with a brand new AirPod. Same problems.

I didn't see many complaints about any connectivity issues so I assumed its me and have just dealt with it. So it is nice to see now that I'm not the only one.
 
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jsutcliffe

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2014
14
0
Just seeing this thread. 6s and my AirPods recently got dropped several times during a single conference call. It's happened a few times during calls, but I don't think I've seen those kinds of dropped connections while working with/listening to other apps.
 

Mw0103

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2014
325
679
Just to add a data point: no issues at all for me since I received my Airpods on Tuesday (iPhone 7+). I have just under 6 hours of conference call time on them without a hiccup of any kind. And the quality is excellent in every way.
 
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retrospek

macrumors 6502a
Sep 28, 2004
677
406
UK
Really hope Apple is going to fix this bug - I'm on teleconferences all day long and I'm disconnecting every 15 minutes currently ! In fact I've had to go back to my wired headset !

It is weird though that this is only on my iPhone 6s Plus - if I use my MAC to do a FaceTime phone call it works fine. Also, if I listen to music on my iPhone it works fine !
 

tivoboy

macrumors 601
May 15, 2005
4,044
847
For anyone having this problem could you either comment in one of your previous posts or in a new post if you ALSO have an Apple Watch?
 
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protobiont

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 6, 2010
650
141
I have an Apple Watch series 2 (incidentally, pairing the AirPods with the watch is a pain in the butt)
 
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friedmud

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,415
1,265
I have an Apple Watch series 2 (incidentally, pairing the AirPods with the watch is a pain in the butt)

I didn't have to do anything to "pair" them to my Apple Watch... they just showed up there in the AirPlay menu just like they do on my iPhone, iPad etc.

To add to the thread: I don't see any of this behavior (mine are working perfectly) and I have a Series 0 Apple Watch and iPhone 7+.
 

friedmud

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,415
1,265
I don't have any problems pairing to my iPad or iPhone, but it's a nightmare to get them paired with my watch. I have an iPhone 7+ and a series 2 Apple Watch.

That's really weird. As I mentioned... I don't even have to "pair" them. If I just swipe Up on the Watch face to bring up the control center then scroll down to reveal the "airplay" button and touch it... it will allow me to select my AirPods... from there I just go play music and it works.

I never had to "pair" them with my Watch to make this possible. It "just works"...
 

rhyme

macrumors regular
Sep 22, 2013
224
22
I have also had this problem, and yes I have a 6S and a first series Apple Watch. The random disconnects/reconnects happen with every call, so Air Pods are unusable for phone calls. It also somehow interferes with the connection to my Watch and I need to reboot the watch to get it reconnected. The Airpod disconnects never happen when just listening to music or audiobooks. My Bose bluetooth earphones don't have this problem. I called Apple support and did the unpair/repair thing, then went into the local Apple Store, where they advised me to exchange them under warranty. After waiting a few weeks for the replacement set to become available, I found I had exactly the same problem with the new set. So I gave up and returned them for a refund -- the Bose pair sound better and are more comfortable anyway.
 

wotfan

macrumors newbie
Apr 27, 2011
20
2
6S & original Apple Watch. Drops on every call unless I only use just 1 AirPod. I have never had a drop when using only 1.
 

redfoxash

macrumors newbie
Nov 11, 2016
3
6
So good to see this thread! I have the same issue and its driving me crazy. 6S and original Apple Watch. I wouldn't say all calls drop, but enough so that Ive had to stop using them for work calls. Listening to music is fine and I love them for that.

I took them to the Apple Store today. They did a "Reset all settings" and rebooked me to come back in a week to let them know if it was still happening. Annoying part was I got home, made a call and they disconnected instantly. Really annoying, I hope a fix is issued soon.
 
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