Audio Switching From Watch to Phone When Paused

By DPinWI, 6 January, 2021

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Greetings.

I am using an iPhone 11, a series 6 watch, and Air Pods 2.

I would like to have music playing from my watch when out for a walk. I can put a playlist on it, and play it through the Air Pods just fine.

When I come to a situation where I want to pause the music so I can pay attention to crossing a street, for example, I double tap an Air Pod, or ask Siri to pause the music.

When I try to resume playback, again with either an Air Pod tap, or Siri command, the audio from my phone starts, instead of the watch.

I am currently restarting the music from my watch face, but with a guide dog and Wisconsin winter clothing, this isn't ideal.

Any suggestions how I might make this work more efficiently would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments

By Stuart Duncan on Thursday, September 8, 2022 - 15:14

I've been frustrated by this for years. I reported it to Apple and even produced a video to demonstrate the problem. I gave up a few years ago and as a result, I missed the solution that Apple provided.

Connect your AirPods to your iPhone.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth. Choose the More Info button for your AirPods. Locate the setting that says Connect to this iPhone. Change the setting from Automatic to When last connected to this iPhone.

This stops the AirPods from automatically switching. You need to do this on each Apple device that you have (except the watch) otherwise the AirPods will continue trying to connect to those also.

This keeps the AirPods connected to your watch. Only bug is that when stopped, you may need to refresh the connection but you can do this by pressing the crown as if making a Siri request.

I also created a shortcut to set the audio destination to my AirPods and I've put that onto the watch face as a complication. Not necessary for the above but it is handy if you've been using your AirPods on your phone.

Hope this helps

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 8, 2022 - 15:14

I was told by an apple person on the store that you could not transfer from phone to watch with the air pro or similar. You can play music using watch and it will work but if you use your phone and Air pro the sound will not come from watch any more. Unlike if you use iPad and phone. If you play music and use phone the music will come up and if you move to the iPad sane.