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Apple Investigating Issue With AirPods Randomly Disconnecting During Calls (macrumors.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the unable-to-connect dept.

According to MacRumors, Apple is investigating multiple reports from iPhone owners of AirPods randomly disconnecting and reconnecting during calls. While the issue doesn't appear to be widespread, it appears to be a big enough problem to attract Apple's attention. One of the main reasons why the AirPods were so late to the market was because Apple needed more time to ensure the earpieces had reliable connectivity. Specifically, they were delayed to ensure both earpieces receive audio at the same time. MacRumors reports: A MacRumors forum thread and a long thread on Apple's Support Communities website have 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." At present, the issue appears to be limited to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices, with several users reporting no such problems after upgrading to an iPhone 7. MacRumors was also unable to replicate the problem on Apple's latest handset. Initial reports suggested the dropout issue only occurs if users also have an Apple Watch paired to their iPhone, but MacRumors was able to replicate the problem with a Fitbit Blaze, suggesting a more general conflict when other Bluetooth devices are also connected. Unpairing and then repairing the AirPods does not appear to solve the problem, neither does rebooting nor resetting the iPhone. Until Apple offers a solution, users are advised to use only one AirPod for conducting calls, as the dropouts only seem to occur when both earpieces are in use.

16 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. wire by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It would be nice if they could connect by a more reliable method such as a wire. Perhaps Apple could patent it.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:wire by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have a pair of headphones that I thought were pretty decent. Then I forgot an audio cable one day and went into bluetooth mode. Most of the nuance of the music disappeared. Gone were all the fine texture of the instruments. I honestly couldn't listen to it and switched to an audiobook. Maybe the new bluetooth is better but not currently economical compared to wires.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:wire by sheramil · · Score: 2

      Lasers. BIG, SHINY, F-ck-off lasers. Lasers that look like they could skin an ox.

    3. Re: wire by Mal-2 · · Score: 2

      But he's not wrong with his point. AirPods necessarily have tiny batteries, much smaller than the phone does. While their average current may be fine, they are going to "brown out" on peaks without something like a capacitor to back them up. This causes distortion very similar to that induced by a megaphone, which is highly undesirable for music unless your name is Tom Waits.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  2. Re:They shouldn't haven been released by sexconker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The only one who should be fired for this is the chief clown Tim Cook.
    He should be fired for the shitty sales of the iPhone 7 and MBP. as well. Shitty is a relative term here, FYI.

    Apple's latest generation of shit has been a failure in the eyes of the media, the industry, the public, and the shareholders. The current batch of iThings only serve as a reminder that Jobs is dead and what Apple without Jobs was. (For the record, I think Apple with Jobs was shit through and through, but I won't deny that people bought ever-increasing quantities of whatever turd he held on a stage..)

  3. your ears are misaligned by kiviQr · · Score: 2

    you are not holding it wrong ...your ears are misaligned!

  4. Obviously... by HockeyPuck · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is an IRQ conflict... they should move the headset to COM1 and the cellular modem to COM3.

    1. Re:Obviously... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Those were the good old days... when setting the all the IRQ, IO port, DMA and address jumpers for the the expansion cards in a decked-out PC was like solving a soduku puzzle.

    2. Re:Obviously... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Informative

      You've got a low enough ID so this is probably part of your joke, but there's lots of others around here that won't follow:

      COM1 and COM3 both shared IRQ4.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    3. Re: Obviously... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mostly it was pretty easy, if you knew what you were doing. It didn't turn nasty until plug-and-play began emerging. It's very reassuring to strap hardware into a proper configuration with hardware jumpers.

      Oh, how quickly they forget...

    4. Re:Obviously... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

      COM1 and COM3 both shared IRQ4.

      That triggered me into a hideous flashback. I must go lay down on my fainting couch now....

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  5. paying customers, beta testing by bmimatt · · Score: 2

    Just like Microsoft did in the 90's and 00's (and possibly still does now), Apple now uses paying customers to do the last round of testing for them. After they purchase the iGadgets. The recent MBP/iPhone port removal shenanigans will sure keep me riding my hardware to their last breath.

    1. Re:paying customers, beta testing by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      My guess would be that it drops on calls because the modem is active, pumping out a lot of RF energy. When signal is marginal the modem cranks up to the highest transmit power. It's on a different frequency to Bluetooth, but it still affects it, both from short range RF interference and noise on the power supply rails.

      Probably requires both poor signal and some specific cellular bands in the 2GHz region near to Bluetooth's 2.4GHz. Some LTE stuff is around 2200MHz.

      Of course this was bound to happen. Everyone knows that 2.4GHz is useless in some places due to the massive number of interfering devices. If you are in a Faraday cage like say a train or airplane with a bunch of other people who are also trying to use 2.4GHz because no-one's phone has a headphone socket any more and there is no cell signal so wifi is getting hammered... Well, it's not going to work very reliably, even if it does have an Apple logo on it.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  6. commentsubject: by Falos · · Score: 2

    Waiting for the traditional batch of "mine works fine".

  7. Re:Over the time the problem goes away by TWX · · Score: 2, Funny

    Like this?

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  8. wireless isn't a replacement by globaljustin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple is so far up it's ass on this whole "it's all wireless in the future and the future is now" bullshit...

    Bluetooth is great, but battery life and size are often fatally problematic to the notion of "just get bluetooth headphones" is some kind of universal solution rendering headphones with cords (btw the headphone jack is also a *universally compatible data port*) obsolete and somehow justifying Apple's design strategy and marketing on these products.

    Let me address this now, people will definitely comment, "But I have used bluetooth headphones for years and the battery life and sound quality are sufficient"...that's great, but it's not evidence that proves this is a good design decision.

    Bluetooth headphones are caught between wanting to be as small as possible, have longer battery life, and not teathering them for convenience somehow (b/c then might as well use a cord!). It's what happens when you let marketing drive design, an obtuse impass where no solution is right. Wireless headphones with 8 hours of battery life is not enough for many, many users. For many various reasons. It really is noteworthy that the smaller they get the more they would benefit from cords, which are the whole thing they attempt to avoid.

    We are far, far away from wireless headphones being a de facto replacement for wired headphones such that we can just discard the headphone port.

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett