AirPods Linked to all devices with same iCloud ID

[Zazoh]

Probably 99% of people want it that way. I only ever want them to pair with my iPhone. Is this Possible. When I remove from iPad as an example it gives warning that it is tied to iCloud account.

 

[FHoff]

No. If you remove them from the iPad, they will also be removed all other devices associated with that iCloud account.

 

[one more]

Somewhat confused here... I use AirPods 2 with my iPhone or my iPad. However, I need to manually switch to them on each device. For example, if I use them on my iPhone, in order to use them on the iPad I need to manually select them in the iPad’s Control Centre or Bluetooth (the latter is more cumbersome), otherwise they simply remain “attached” to my iPhone and will not automatically move over to the iPad.

 

[QCassidy352]

I don't believe it's possible without unlinking the device (in this case your iPad) from the iCloud account. Which seems way worse than the original problem.

Just curious - why does it matter? It's not like they have multipoint, where they are actually connected to the iPad; they are just paired. If you never affirmatively connect them, the fact of the pairing shouldn't matter, right?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Yeah they usually default to the last used device.

I have a MBP, iPad, and iPhone in my office. I almost always use my Airpods with my iPad unless for a call. It is good about remembering the last device I used them with so I can just start playing right away.

 

[Zazoh]

Ya. I’m going to use my current set that only lasts 30 min, with my iPad when I use in bed.

Buying a new set and wanted to only have those appear on iPhone. I never use on my Mac mini. I just wanted to check if I wasn’t missing a device opt out setting somewhere.

like when I sell a car I no longer have, I remove the BT connection. Sure it doesn’t hurt anything, it’s just sloppy, to leave it there.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Oh yeah you're fine, I've had 2 airpods connected to all of my apple devices when I bought another pair a few months ago. When I gave away my first pair to a relative, I just unlinked it from my iPad and it unlinked it from all of my devices.

 

[jmmo20]

Somewhat confused here... I use AirPods 2 with my iPhone or my iPad. However, I need to manually switch to them on each device. For example, if I use them on my iPhone, in order to use them on the iPad I need to manually select them in the iPad’s Control Centre or Bluetooth (the latter is more cumbersome), otherwise they simply remain “attached” to my iPhone and will not automatically move over to the iPad.

it's supposed to automatically come up in the airplay audio menu in any audio application.
Other headphones don't appear here unless you manually connect to them on the bluetooth settings app.

 

[one more]

it's supposed to automatically come up in the airplay audio menu in any audio application.
Other headphones don't appear here unless you manually connect to them on the bluetooth settings app.

Ah, I see. Sure, they do automatically appear there, yet you still need to click on them to connect, at which point they will disconnect from the previous device. So the OP can continue using his AP just on his iPhone, as he wants.

 

[jmmo20]

I think what the OP wants to do is that the Airpods don't appear on the bluetooth device list on his ipad at all - removing them from the ipad removes them on his phone too.

 

[iamasmith]

I had this with my original AirPods, I never used them on the Apple Watch and only used the BeatsX.. I really didn't want them to appear at all. The solution for me was to give the BeatsX to the Mrs and the AirPods to one of my daughters and to get some AirPod Pros which I CAN run with and use for generally everything.

One thing to note is that with my iPhone Xs and Apple Watch S5 the AirPod Pro's behave slightly differently and appear as connected on BOTH devices simultaneously unlike the previous AirPod gen 2's I had. This does make them switch more seamlessly but I have had one odd occurrence with a watch app interrupting audio playing from the phone and pausing it.

I think the 'connected' status is over some control protocol and this helps the device switch where the A2DP Audio protocol is coming from faster.