Apple is reportedly investigating an issue where some iPhone owners are experiencing an issue where their AirPods wireless earbuds randomly disconnect and reconnect during phone calls.
A MacRumors forum thread and a long thread on Apple’s Support Communities website has been generated by AirPods users who are regularly experiencing Bluetooth connection dropouts during phone calls, despite the fact that the wireless earphones almost never lose their connection when used to listen to music or anything else.
MacRumors forum member protobiont wrote:
I’ve had this happen on two phone calls today. I am talking and suddenly the audio switches to the phone, I hear the Airpod connect tones and the audio switches back. This will repeat itself a few times, which is quite distracting during a phone call.
The issue appears to be limited to users with an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. A number of users report the issue disappeared after they upgraded their device to an iPhone 7. The publication was unable to replicate the issue on an iPhone 7.
Here at MacTrast, reviewer Ian Fuchs reports that he hasn’t experienced any such issues on his iPhone 7 Plus. He also notes that his wife has “borrowed” his AirPods on occasion, and she has not mentioned any issues on phone calls with her iPhone 6s Plus.
At first, it was believed the dropouts occurred only on iPhones that also have an Apple Watch paired with it, but MacRumors reports it was able to replicate the problem with a Fitbit Blaze, indicating a more general conflict with multiple Bluetooth Connections.
Apple told AppleInsider the following:
“We always examine service trends to see if there’s specific incompatibilities with our products, and we are aware of the complaints from a small proportion of iPhone 6+ owners,” a representative from Apple told us. “At this time there’s nothing to report.”
At this point in time, no solution to the issue has been discovered by affected users. Unpairing and repairing the AirPods don’t appear to solve the problem. One helpful note: the issue only appears to rear its ugly head when both earpieces are in use, so users are advised to use only one AirPod on calls.
