Airpods unusable — connecting/disconnecting

[er-minio]

Which I remain unconvinced that will have any effect.

Do not do it.
I resetted my iPhone and still the problem persist. I just wasted one day manually setting everything back up.

Airtags and Apple tv maybe a 'helpful' setting thats tryna connect to them for calls?

I set up my Apple TV in a way that makes it ignore the AirPods.
Now that you make me think, I have a number of Airtags...



I'm still baffled as Apple is not available to debug or somehow track bluetooth activity (with user consent) on one of the buggy iPhones and see what happens.

 

[DaveOstrich64]

I would be surprised if they don't have the technology / resources to implement that type of troubleshooting. Disappointing that a seemingly widespread and long standing issue isn't officially recognised or investigated from Apple side.

Worth mentioning any potential similarities in our set ups? Ive got TP link access points in my house to extend the wifi 🤷‍♂️

 

[er-minio]

My home network runs on Unifi hardware.
Before that, until 6 months ago, I used an older Apple Airport Extreme + Express repeater.

Changing the wifi network/hardware didn't affect the problem in any way for better or worse.

I have to say, after a week of relatively low disconnections after purchasing the new Airpods, or at least stable connection on Whatsapp calls while at home, it now started being incredibly erratic again.

Impossible to initiate calls without the Airpods disconnecting after the first ring.
In case that doesn't happen, the call will last a couple of minutes before disconnection.

New problem: walked out yesterday, tried to listen to music and Spotify wouldn't route the audio to the Airpods but just play via iPhone speaker.
Force quit Spofity, didn't fix the issue.
Had to restart the iPhone.

 

[DaveOstrich64]

Thinking WAAAAYYYY back to the first time this happened (2-3years ago), i'm pretty sure I was in the car (Seat Ateca 2019) with the phone at the time potentially attached using USB and / or bluetooth to CarPlay...

Although I have it all turned off / forgotten all devices on bluetooth etc this could have laid some sort of a connection bug in the Carplay feature on the iOS? Like it's now continuously attempting to push calls to a nonexistent CarPlay subsequently overriding the BT Airpod connection... continuously.

 

[er-minio]

Interesting.
I had no issues with my Airpods 2 (original form factor) both on iPhone 7 and with the 13 for a few months.
I dug into my email and found out that I bought the Airpods 3 on 22.10.2021.

Issues started on Feb 2022 as I have a Genius Bar appointment (where they originally replaced both pods) on February 21, 2022. But to be fair I had my first car with CarPlay only from March the 1st 2022. I don't think I ever connected my Phone via CarPlay before that date.

 

[er-minio]

Ok, little update.

I think these disconnection might be due to interference maybe? Not software bug?

In my case there are very strong geographical connections (pun intended) with the bluetooth issue.
I can almost always trigger disconnection issues walking out of my building or walking/driving/riding in front of it on the main road.
This is on Airpods.

Another bluetooth device I do have that shows bluetooth disconnection issues, same exact way as the Airpods, is a Beeline Beemoto 2 (https://beeline.co/products/beeline...P2J8O5sMZCLsL5NP8XX5YVVHriAKnPaoaAq9-EALw_wcB).

Works generally fine, but sometimes it starts the disconnected/connected dance.

I noticed this too is tied to geographical location.
The disconnected/connected happens when I ride the bike in front of my place, briefly.

Last weekend, as a test, I had my Beemoto running for a full day and about 250km ride in Kent, I had only one disconnection episode that lasted less than a minute.

Then, this week, riding in London, I passed Old Street/Commercial Street: disconnection/connection until I left the area (from Old Street roundabout to about Hoxton Square).
On my way back, passed on the same stretch of road: same story.
Ok for the rest of the route.



Motorbike intercom (Cardo Freecom 4X) similar thing. Works of with music, etc. If I make a phone call there is a 50% chance that it will start the cycling disconnected/connected thing.

 

[DaveOstrich64]

Yeah interference sounds about right as its not every phone call it happens but is exacerbated by moving around. It could be something third party app related or some setting in some iOS feature like CarPlay. Whatever it is I have copied the bug across to new a iPhone and new Airpods made no difference.

I wonder is there anyway to promote this discussion to Apple as the thread gives alot of detail and depth to a problem that sounds identical?

Keywords being: Airpods disconnecting on calls from iPhone, disconnection then connection caught in a loop, interference tied to geographical location.

 

[er-minio]

I wonder is there anyway to promote this discussion to Apple as the thread gives alot of detail and depth to a problem that sounds identical?

I opened a thread on the Apple forums, but (as many others on the same topic) they get closed after a while.

It seems like Apple doesn't want to acknowledge the issue.

It would be nice to have MacRumors help make this issue a bit more prominent, if they are up to.