AirPods keep cutting out? Here’s how to fix!
Your AirPods keep cutting out from your iPhone, and you don’t know why? In this article, we’ll introduce you to the most common connection issues. Of course, we’ll also give you some tips on how to get your AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max working again.
Nothing is more annoying than listening to music and being constantly plagued by disconnections. If you are using Apple AirPods or AirPods Pro, you can find tips and tricks below to make the connection stable again. In some cases, this will also help you with the AirPods Max, but we also recommend our general article about problems with Bluetooth headphones.
Since their introduction in 2016, Apple’s wireless AirPods have enjoyed great popularity – especially among iPhone and iPad owners. As the successor to Apple’s old wired earbuds, which were marketed as Earpods, there are three different AirPod models to choose from in 2021. The AirPods (currently in the second generation), the AirPods Pro and the AirPods Max.
Although ease of use is one of Apple’s strengths, there are frequent reports of connectivity issues with the wireless headphones on Apple forums. However, this is not unusual for Bluetooth headphones. The AirPods lose the connection to the iPhone purely by chance – but what is actually the reason for that?
Why do my AirPods keep cutting out? Here’s why!
Before we even get started, it’s a good idea to research the causes of this annoying problem. From our research, we could deduce that there could be several reasons AirPods cutting out randomly. However, we were able to pin it down to three main aspects:
- Software issues: Usually caused by a software update or accidentally changing a setting
- Signal interference problem: Wireless devices are prone to interference.
- Hardware problems: If there is a physical defect.
Depending on the cause, troubleshooting steps can range from very simple to somewhat complex. To help you get to a solution as easy as possible, let’s start with the simplest!
AirPods keep disconnecting from iPhone, iPad or Mac? Here is how to fix it!
In some cases, AirPods can suffer problems and cause random disconnections from the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Apple Watch to which they are synced.
These random disconnections and connections are tremendously annoying, especially if they are very common, as they render the wireless headphones are completely unusable. Fortunately, there is a very easy to apply method that usually solves this problem and that we explain in the following lines.
How to fix AirPods that keep disconnecting.
Once the previous checks have been made, you can now follow these steps to prevent the AirPods from continuously disconnecting from the iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
Here’s what you need to do:
Check the battery level of the AirPods.
At the risk of upsetting many of you who may have other issues with the AirPods, let’s first address what is perhaps the most common reason for frequent disconnects. Many users simply forget how long they have been using the AirPods. Once the battery level of the AirPods exceeds a certain threshold, they are prone to random disconnections.
The good thing is that you can quickly check the battery life of AirPods with simple steps. If you’re using an iPhone, you can do that via the Battery widget.
- To open the Battery widget, tap and hold on to the home screen until the icons start to wiggle.
- Tap the “+” icon in the upper left corner to bring up the widget page
- Scroll down and look for batteries, then select “Add Widget“.
- Now you can monitor the battery life of the AirPods and know in time before the battery drops to a critical level and affects the sound and connection quality.
Another option is to simply put the AirPods back in their case and leave the lid open. When your iPhone is near the headphones, you’ll see a pop-up window showing the case’s remaining charge and individual AirPods.
As a last resort, Siri will also help you if you want to know about the battery level of connected headphones. Just ask, “Siri, what’s the battery level of my AirPods?”!
Check Bluetooth settings
If the battery is still full enough, it’s time to go deeper! Since the AirPods rely on Bluetooth to connect to your devices, it’s always a good idea to check for any Bluetooth-related issues. This is one of the main reason to AirPods keep cutting out.
The first thing you can try is to disable Bluetooth and then turn it back on. Before you do that, it would be a good idea to unpair your AirPods from any other devices they may have connected to. Once you turn Bluetooth back on, see if the AirPods reconnect automatically and fix the problem.
A more drastic method would be to completely unpair the AirPods from your phone once and reconnect them. Note that this process will also unpair them from other devices connected to the same iCloud account. Here’s how to unpair Apple AirPods from your iPhone:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Bluetooth.
- Nowt tap the “i” button next to the AirPods in the list of devices.
- Tap on “Forget this device.”
To reconnect your AirPods to your iPhone, simply follow these steps:
- Make sure your iPhone is unlocked and displaying the home screen.
- Place your AirPods in the case, leaving the lid open, and hold them next to your iPhone.
- A setup animation will appear.
- Tap on the “Connect” option.
- A setup animation appears on your iPhone.
- Tap “Connect” and complete the setup process.
Enjoying this article on AirPods keep cutting out? You can check out if you have charging issue with the AirPods case, how to charge AirPods case?
Turn off your Wi-Fi for a short time.
If the disconnection issue occurs on a particular device, you should turn off the Wi-Fi on that device. Keep in mind that you’re doing it as a troubleshooting step to see if turning off the Wi-Fi fixes the problem. You will, of course, need to turn it back on if you have determined that the Wi-Fi was the problem.
If you found out that the Wi-Fi was indeed the culprit, it’s a good idea to reduce the distance between the AirPods and the connected device as much as possible. Also, check to see if the AirPods are near microwaves, baby monitors, or wireless cameras. For a long use keep your AirPods clean, here you see how to clean your AirPods and the Charging case.
Update the firmware on the AirPods.
Occasional disconnections may also be the result of outdated firmware on the AirPods. To check if there is an updated firmware for your AirPods, you need to follow these steps:
- Make sure your AirPods are in their case and connected to your iPhone.
- Open the settings
- Tap “General” and then tap “About.”
- Please scroll down to the connected AirPods and select them.
- A screen will now show you details about the AirPods – including the firmware version.
- To update the firmware, plug a Lightning cable into the bottom of the charging case.
- And leave the case next to your iPhone for a while (preferably overnight).
- This is because there is no way to force install a firmware version on the AirPods.
- If a new software version is available, the latest update should be installed automatically.
- If your AirPods continue to have the same connectivity issue, it’s time for more drastic steps.
Disable automatic wear detection
Automatic wear detection is a clever feature that basically does what it says. Take the AirPods out of your ear, and the music goes off. Put them back in, and the music will continue to play. However, this feature is also blamed for the disconnection issue. If you’re annoyed by random disconnections, it’s a good idea to disable this feature. Here’s how:
- Tap on “Settings“
- Go to “Bluetooth” and tap on the info icon next to the AirPods.
- Disables the option labelled “Automatic ear detection“.
- Disables automatic switching between devices
Automatic switching between devices is a feature introduced in iOS 14. It allows AirPods to switch between connected Apple devices automatically. In case you have multiple Apple devices at home, this feature is meant to make life easier.
However, often enabling this feature can cause the connection to be randomly disconnected and the AirPods to connect to the wrong device. Therefore, you should disable it once during troubleshooting:
- Open Settings.
- Tap on Bluetooth and then on the info icon next to the AirPods.
- Tap on the option “Connect to this iPhone“.
- Make sure the Automatic option is not selected.
- Selects the “When last connected to this iPhone” option.
Reset the AirPods to factory settings
To restore the AirPods, the first thing to do is to put them in their case and keep the lid closed for at least 15 seconds.
Once this time has passed, open the case lid and press and hold the button on the back until the light flashes orange several times. Once the process is finished, the light will blink white.
Make the iOS device forget the AirPods.
To do this, you must access Settings – Bluetooth and then tap on the blue icon next to the name of the headphones.
Finally, tap on the Skip device button to delete the AirPods settings from the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
Restart the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Apple Watch.
The second step of the process is to restart the iOS device. The easiest way to do this is to access:
- Settings > General and select the Shutdown option.
- Finally, slide the Slide to power off control and wait a few seconds for the terminal to turn off completely.
- Once off, press the power button on the side of the terminal, wait for iOS to be available again and unlock the device normally.
- In the case of the watch, the most direct way to restart an Apple Watch is to hold down the two physical buttons of the device at the same time until the Apple logo appears on the screen and then wait for watchOS to start up again.
If you have tried the directions in this tutorial to fix AirPods that keep disconnecting and connecting and the problem persists, we recommend going to a technical service. There is probably some software failure that needs to be checked by specialized technicians.
Synchronize the AirPods again.
Once the restore process is complete, bring the AirPods close to the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and follow the on-screen instructions to pair the headphones and the iOS device again.
After performing these steps, the AirPods should resume normal operation and stop disconnecting continuously. Also, remember that one of the reasons why AirPods disconnect from other devices is that their battery level is very low or completely drained.
It is highly recommended to check their charge. Either from the Notification Center widget on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, by opening the case near the device with which the headphones are synced or in the Bluetooth menu in the Menu Bar in case the headphones are synced with a Mac.
Conclusion on AirPods keep cutting out
We have tried to address most of the causes and solutions in this article. With these, Apple’s wireless headphones should work fine again for most users. But of course, there’s a chance that the connectivity issues still persist for you. So feel free to discuss it in the comments and check out solutions from other Apple users.
If you can’t find a suitable solution, you should also use another Apple advantage: The good support of the company. Visit an Apple store and ask an employee what the connection problems might be. It might also be a hardware defect, and you will get new headphones.
Did this guide help you, and were you able to solve the problems with AirPods keep cutting out? Please let us know in the comments. Of course, we will immediately include new tips in this guide.
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