Problems With Using AirPods on Mac

By Scott Duck, 14 February, 2019

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

I got a set of airpods a couple weeks ago and I love them. I find automatic ear detection to be unreliable and, once I turned that off, they work great with my iPhone 6S. However, I have problems when trying to use them with my 2015 MacBook Pro. I go to the extras menu, go to bluetooth, select my AirPods in the drop down menu, and hit connect. Sometimes, they connect and work just fine. Sometimes, they connect and I get very choppy audio. Sometimes, they connect and I get VO sounds but no speech. Sometimes, they won't connect at all. Twice, when I attempted to connect, something went haywire and they wouldn't connect to my Mac and, after that, they wouldn't connect to my iPhone either. Those times, I had to reset the Airpods. I don't think there's anything wrong with the AirPods themselves because I have used them very extensively with my iPhone with no problems at all. They just don't seem to get along well with my Mac. I have read that AirPods don't work as well with the Mac as they do with the iPhone but I don't know if behavior this crazy is normal. Has anyone else had a similar experience and have any thoughts to offer?

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Comments

By Laura Tosetto on Thursday, February 14, 2019 - 22:10

I got some of these issues too, especially the one where you get no speech but only VoiceOver sounds when connecting the AirPods to the Mac. When the occurres, I have to disconnect the AirPods, turn VO off and turn it back on, making sure that speech is playing correctly, and then reconnect the AirPods. This solves the problem, but it's a bit annoying, especially if you are in a place where you should be quiet, like the library of my university.
Also, I noticed that, after connecting the AirPods to the Mac, if you want to connect them back to the iPhone, you have to do it through the bluetooth sections in the settings up, because they won't switch automatically. I don't know if this is normal, but I think they should switch automatically to the iPhone.

By Krazy Kat on Friday, June 14, 2019 - 22:10

Hi,

In trying to use the AirPods with VoiceOver on the Mac I have pretty much the same problem set that you have encountered. Namely, They simply don't work, They do work for a while, I get the VO audio sounds but no voice. These problems do not seem to follow any particular pattern and although by fooling around and putting them back in the case and turning vo on and off etc. I can sometimes get them to work it is just not worth the effort. I hope Apple gets this fixed soon.

Good Luck,

John