Hi everyone,
I’ve been using my Apple Watch for workouts forever, and I always leave my iPhone at home (or in my bag). Tracking, podcasts, and music all run directly on the Watch — that’s literally why I bought one in the first place, once the cellular version came out.
But ever since the Series 3 and the first AirPods, I’ve had the same annoying issue: it takes ages for the AirPods to connect to the Watch. Switching between iPhone, Mac, or iPad is always instant and smooth, even my Windows work laptop picks them up right away. But the Watch? Total nightmare. It always takes several tries before it finally connects. Doesn’t matter which combo I use — AW3, 4, 7, Ultra 2, and AirPods 1–3 or Pro 1–3 — same story every time. The Watch just keeps saying it can’t find them. So it’s the usual routine: toggle Bluetooth off/on, forget the AirPods, re-pair, repeat… until it finally sticks.
Once it does connect, it stays stable for the whole workout — but the next session, it’s back to square one.
And recently, it’s gotten even worse. The connection between my AirPods and the Ultra 2 now drops after like 20–30 seconds. Sometimes it just starts stuttering like crazy — music or podcasts glitch, get choppy, then completely cut out. With the new AirPods Pro 3 it’s even weirder: podcasts randomly play slower, like 0.5x speed or something. (Checked the setting multiple times — it’s not that.)
I know it sounds insane, but yeah — connect APP3 to AWU2, podcast plays slow for ~20 seconds, then boom, connection gone. Other Bluetooth earbuds (Bose QC Ultra Earbuds or Sony WF-1000XM5) work perfectly fine though.
This has been happening across four Apple Watch gens and six different AirPods models. Every pair of AirPods works flawlessly with iPhone, Mac, iPad, and even Windows. And non-Apple headphones work fine with the Watch. So I’m pretty sure it’s not a hardware issue. Something’s just off between the Watch and AirPods, and there’s basically nothing I can do about it since Apple doesn’t give us any Bluetooth controls.
Over the years I’ve re-paired everything, even set up Watches as new (no backups) — same result.
Anyone else running into this? Any ideas what I could try? I could just use my Bose or Sony buds for workouts, but honestly, it’s kind of embarrassing that Apple’s own earbuds are the most unreliable ones. And now with this new “random slow playback” thing, I’m seriously tempted to switch back to a Pixel setup for a bit…
I’ve been using my Apple Watch for workouts forever, and I always leave my iPhone at home (or in my bag). Tracking, podcasts, and music all run directly on the Watch — that’s literally why I bought one in the first place, once the cellular version came out.
But ever since the Series 3 and the first AirPods, I’ve had the same annoying issue: it takes ages for the AirPods to connect to the Watch. Switching between iPhone, Mac, or iPad is always instant and smooth, even my Windows work laptop picks them up right away. But the Watch? Total nightmare. It always takes several tries before it finally connects. Doesn’t matter which combo I use — AW3, 4, 7, Ultra 2, and AirPods 1–3 or Pro 1–3 — same story every time. The Watch just keeps saying it can’t find them. So it’s the usual routine: toggle Bluetooth off/on, forget the AirPods, re-pair, repeat… until it finally sticks.
Once it does connect, it stays stable for the whole workout — but the next session, it’s back to square one.
And recently, it’s gotten even worse. The connection between my AirPods and the Ultra 2 now drops after like 20–30 seconds. Sometimes it just starts stuttering like crazy — music or podcasts glitch, get choppy, then completely cut out. With the new AirPods Pro 3 it’s even weirder: podcasts randomly play slower, like 0.5x speed or something. (Checked the setting multiple times — it’s not that.)
I know it sounds insane, but yeah — connect APP3 to AWU2, podcast plays slow for ~20 seconds, then boom, connection gone. Other Bluetooth earbuds (Bose QC Ultra Earbuds or Sony WF-1000XM5) work perfectly fine though.
This has been happening across four Apple Watch gens and six different AirPods models. Every pair of AirPods works flawlessly with iPhone, Mac, iPad, and even Windows. And non-Apple headphones work fine with the Watch. So I’m pretty sure it’s not a hardware issue. Something’s just off between the Watch and AirPods, and there’s basically nothing I can do about it since Apple doesn’t give us any Bluetooth controls.
Over the years I’ve re-paired everything, even set up Watches as new (no backups) — same result.
Anyone else running into this? Any ideas what I could try? I could just use my Bose or Sony buds for workouts, but honestly, it’s kind of embarrassing that Apple’s own earbuds are the most unreliable ones. And now with this new “random slow playback” thing, I’m seriously tempted to switch back to a Pixel setup for a bit…
