Experiencing your AirPods disconnecting unexpectedly can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re in the middle of an important call. Many users have reported this issue, particularly when using the microphone for activities like FaceTime, Zoom, or WebEx calls. Interestingly, these disconnections often don’t occur when simply listening to music or watching videos, suggesting the problem might be linked to microphone usage.
After encountering this very problem – AirPods disconnecting just minutes into calls – I dug into the settings and stumbled upon a potential workaround that resolved the issue for me. Diagnostics from Apple revealed no hardware defects, and my AirPods were updated to the latest firmware, ruling out common causes. This led me to investigate the microphone settings within the Bluetooth options for AirPods.
Within these settings, you’ll find an option to designate the microphone to the left AirPod, the right AirPod, or leave it on “auto.” The default setting is “auto,” which is where the problem seems to lie. To test this, I conducted a simple experiment during a test conference call. I manually set the microphone to the left AirPod, and surprisingly, the disconnection issue vanished. Switching the microphone to the right AirPod, however, immediately triggered the disconnect. Repeating this switch between left and right consistently reproduced the same behavior.
Image alt text: AirPods Bluetooth settings on an iPhone showing options for Microphone: Automatically Switch AirPods, Always Left AirPod, or Always Right AirPod, highlighting the “Always Left AirPod” option.
Therefore, as a temporary solution, manually selecting either the left or right AirPod for microphone use, instead of relying on the “auto” setting, completely eliminated the random disconnections for me.
While Apple is still investigating the root cause of why switching the microphone between AirPods might lead to these disconnects, this workaround at least allows you to reliably use your AirPods for calls and meetings again. Hopefully, this simple trick helps others facing the same frustrating issue!
