WatchOS 6 and Airpods

[Der Keyser]

I’m really struggeling with WatchOS 6 on my Apple Watch 4 LTE ....

One of the BIG issues is that my Airpods 2 will mostly not connect to my watch unless I reboot the Watch first. Sometimes the watch just can’t find them at all, other times it connects, but then plays audio for 2 sec, and then the sound disappears. The airpods are still connected to the watch - and music/podcasts thinks it’s it still playing, but nothing happens. Removing one from my ear pauses music, and it resumes again when inserted - there is just no sound coming from them.

Common for both scenarios: If I reboot the watch everything works just as expected.

Are anyone else seeing the same problem?

 

[eclipse01]

That is weird, mine works as they should, is your bluetooth always on?

 

[Der Keyser]

Yes, and it never seems to disconnect from my phone. I have tried to clear it completely and setup from scratch, but that didn’t really help

 

[eclipse01]

assuming they always connect to your phone just fine?

 

[Der Keyser]

I had zero issues on WatchOS 5.3, but the upgrade to WatchOS6 has been downright terrible. I bought new Airpod 2’s right around the same time, and they have been A MESS to get going. Had to reset my Phone’s settings to remove the old airpods properly so I could get the new ones to pair with my watch at all. Now they work fine on my phone and iPad, but I suffer the above issue on my watch.
[automerge]1571933571[/automerge]

assuming they always connect to your phone just fine?

Yes - after I reset my settings on the phone they have been working flawlessly on my phone and iPad.

 

[eclipse01]

I would try unpair/repairing of the watch.

 

[Der Keyser]

Did that, but it’s not helping.

 

[eclipse01]

2 more final things I would try (that i'm sure you tried already)

-Sign out of your apple account and sign back in
-Hold in button on airpods for like 30 seconds to "reset" them/repair with devices

 

[Der Keyser]

But honestly I think it’s related to IOS 13 and the way it registers Airpods as shared devices on iCloud. Somehow I have a feeling it has failed to clean my devices completely of my old Airpods. When I removed the old airpods, they were removed across all my devices, but when I paired the new ones, they were called ”my name’s airpods” on my phone and worked fine. On my iPad they were just not showing, and on my watch they were just called “airpods” and didn’t work at all unless I roamed while the watch and phone were within reach of each other.

After clearing my phone settings and deleting the airpods again, they are now called the same on all devices, and works - except for the reboot issue with my watch. I have a feeling there is still some “old airpods” settings lingering on my iCloud or Watch settings that I cannot get rid of unless I setup everything as new - not something I want to go through.
[automerge]1571934502[/automerge]

2 more final things I would try (that i'm sure you tried already)

-Sign out of your apple account and sign back in
-Hold in button on airpods for like 30 seconds to "reset" them/repair with devices

Yeah, did that more than once in my futile attempts to fix it.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

I use mine every day and can’t say that I have had any connection issues

 

[parseckadet]

I encountered similar issues on the watchOS 6 betas.

 

[swandy]

Have you tried to remove the AirPods on the connected iPhone and then reconnecting them? I had a similar issue though with the original AirPods and that seemed to help the Watch and the AirPods find each other.

 

[Der Keyser]

Have you tried to remove the AirPods on the connected iPhone and then reconnecting them? I had a similar issue though with the original AirPods and that seemed to help the Watch and the AirPods find each other.

Yeah, I think I have tried everything I have been able to google as possible fixes. I just hope 13.2 / 6.1 can help....

 

[perezr10]

I’m also having a lot of AirPods connection issues on the latest watchOS beta. Sometimes I stubbornly fight to see if I can figure out how to make them connect. Like disconnecting my iPhone or turning off Bluetooth on everything but my watch. Usually, I end up having to reboot my watch. That seems to be the only thing that always solves the problem.

And if you’re a big Apple Watch/AirPods user, it is so frustrating to have the iPhone trump the watch for pairing with the AirPods when the iPhone is asleep and you just “Play” on your watch!!!

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Yeah, I think I have tried everything I have been able to google as possible fixes. I just hope 13.2 / 6.1 can help....

This is exactly why I no longer upgrade to Apple's new OS's anymore until they have been out for at least 6 months or more. Apple has taken a turn for the worse thinking that they have to constantly come up with new features every 2 months and as a result, the user experience has really gone downhill.

Worse yet, Apple now keeps giving me reminders and notifications every single day to "Upgrade Tonight!" with no option to stop the reminders. I left Microsoft 13 years ago because of these kind of poor user experiences and Apple has gone down the same road.

 

[cosmic68]

I have something similar. When I’m listening to music on my iPhone on my AirPods and a walkie talkie message comes through (yes I use that), the audio diverts from iPhone to watch.
When WT session is over-it’s like the AirPods get locked, but to neither and I have to restart both iPhone and Watch to get it started again.

 

[Der Keyser]

This is exactly why I no longer upgrade to Apple's new OS's anymore until they have been out for at least 6 months or more. Apple has taken a turn for the worse thinking that they have to constantly come up with new features every 2 months and as a result, the user experience has really gone downhill.

Worse yet, Apple now keeps giving me reminders and notifications every single day to "Upgrade Tonight!" with no option to stop the reminders. I left Microsoft 13 years ago because of these kind of poor user experiences and Apple has gone down the same road.

Yeah - learned my lesson now. Had the same disaster when I upgraded to IOS 11 which took a long time to become acceptably usable. 12 was fairly decent, so I though Apple had learned a lot from 11. Seems not to be the case. I have this horrible feeling that 13 will be the worst ever considering just how bad it is @13.1.3.

 

[papbot]

I’m really struggeling with WatchOS 6 on my Apple Watch 4 LTE ....

One of the BIG issues is that my Airpods 2 will mostly not connect to my watch unless I reboot the Watch first. Sometimes the watch just can’t find them at all, other times it connects, but then plays audio for 2 sec, and then the sound disappears. The airpods are still connected to the watch - and music/podcasts thinks it’s it still playing, but nothing happens. Removing one from my ear pauses music, and it resumes again when inserted - there is just no sound coming from them.

Common for both scenarios: If I reboot the watch everything works just as expected.

Are anyone else seeing the same problem?

Whenever you have that connection issue with the Air Pods, and you will have that enough to be annoying, I had the issue prior to iOS 13 and watch os 6 and still do. But I found that sticking them back in the charging case for abut 30 seconds and then taking them back out will fix this almost every time. I actually haven’t had this not work once since I discovered it. I used to try restarting the watch which didn’t work, or if it did only occasionally but putting them back in the charger does.

 

[Macloven]

Mine died the other day sure it was my new watch. But turns out nothing would connect to them. Like papbot above says, putting them back in case for a bit brought them back to life. First time that’s happened.

 

[1rottenapple]

I’m really struggeling with WatchOS 6 on my Apple Watch 4 LTE ....

One of the BIG issues is that my Airpods 2 will mostly not connect to my watch unless I reboot the Watch first. Sometimes the watch just can’t find them at all, other times it connects, but then plays audio for 2 sec, and then the sound disappears. The airpods are still connected to the watch - and music/podcasts thinks it’s it still playing, but nothing happens. Removing one from my ear pauses music, and it resumes again when inserted - there is just no sound coming from them.

Common for both scenarios: If I reboot the watch everything works just as expected.

Are anyone else seeing the same problem?

Have you tried re-installing the watch software? I was having an issue with my AirPods where the left AirPod would be silent when using the watch for music or podcast. I tried everything and nothing fixed it except resetting the software. Now works 100%.

 

[Der Keyser]

I’ll give that a try again tonight when I have time (tried it several times along the way).
I have to anyways, because my watch now only has about 4 hours on battery from a full charge - without me using it.
MAAAN, I’m so tired of Watch OS 6.....

 

[Jssmith83]

I've run into a different problem. I have the Apple Watch 4 without LTE. When I go for a run and leave my phone behind, everything works pretty well. However, when I get back from my run and get near my phone, whatever I was listening to on my Watch starts to struggle. The audio pauses and restarts until I get my hand on my phone. Once I do that, the audio just stops completely.

Anyone have the same issue or ideas? I might try to just do a clean install today to see if that works.

 

[Der Keyser]

I have basically given up on Apple at this point.... I finally have my airpods working decently after multiple clean reinstalls, but now my watch looses 3.5% battery a minute when doing untethered workout with LTE active and music playing. So on a full charge I can do no more than a 28min run or the watch runs out.

Running watch OS 6.1 now