Big Sur Breaks Airpods Connecting to Macbook

I fixed this by doing the following

1. Forget the AirPods as a bluetooth device on Macbook and iPhone

2. Reset the AirPods to factory settings

3. Reconnect the AirPods to iPhone

4. Reconnect the AirPods to Macbook

Endorsing this method posted by someone else already on this thread, also worked for me:

Press Shift-Option and click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
Select Debug.
Click “Reset the Bluetooth module.”
Press "Ok" to continue.
Restart computer

I have the AirPods first gen and this worked for me

Delete "/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL" folder, then restart mac

Getting similar behavior. Sometimes AirPods connect and disconnect after few seconds. Even when they do connect, they often don't make the typical "connected" sound. Also some apps continue to go through speakers even though status bar shows AirPods as connected. E.g., noticing this with Messages app playing incoming message sounds through speakers while the Music app is indeed playing through AirPods. Very unreliable and bad experience in Bug Sur.

After many factory resets, I have managed to make it work with just forgetting the iPhone in my MAC. After this, I had no issue with the AirPods in my MAC (Big Sur 11.0.1)

Major issue with Bluetooth on 2017 MacBook Pro MacOS Sur. AirPods Pro keep loosing sound intermittently. Logitech mouse - MX Anywhere 2 and keyboard - K780 wireless Bluetooth connectivity is failing - disconnects and reconnects intermittently. Ran diagnostics with “D” . No issues found. Deleted com.apple.Bluetooth.plist. Did not work. Deleted contents of Audio. Did not work. Connected only the Aipods Pro. Sound is intermittent. Did the reset Bluetooth module routine. Did not work. Did a clean install using a USB-C Flash drive. Audio keeps going in and out on AirPods Pro. Apple, fix it! before releasing a winter product and before somebody sues big time. Why is Apple not acknowledging this issue?


Apple, CEO, do you see people are deleting folders and files left and right?

and none of you are mentioning the Apple Mac model you are using. Please do. It may help.

Thanks jaksen93, everything works fine now. The sound quality is better now

Don't forget to change the balance and put it on the middle if only one airpod works

Same problem here after upgraded to Big Sur for my Mid-2014 Mac Pro. So frustrated, the connection just isn't stable. Tried a lot, nothing worked so far./...

Firstly disconnect the AirPods and remove
Then clear the plugings here: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins
Try to connect.

Clearing the /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins worked for me. Thanks @harungunes

I seem to have fixed mine by turning off the auto switching. I set connect to this mac to "when last connected to this mac" and did the same on my phone. It seems to work, but time will tell.

Just press the apple on the top left of your screen. After, go to settings press Bluetooth, and then try to connect your airpods like usual.

Soooo...the "fix" is to disable a FEATURE of the OS and the $200 wireless headphones that were made FOR the companies devices? Sounds like a review I'd see for a 2 star $20 product on Amazon, not for a supposedly top of the line company.

Is it just me or is Apple getting worse every year? They "make improvements" to many things, but they seem to be overall pretty stagnant on the software front. I personally would like some compensation for having to deal with this issue for so long without any word from the company. Shows the trajectory they are on...a company that used to be known for their customer service, reliability, and interconnectivity that ignores such a large issue for months.

For what it is worth, i had the same problem, and none of the above solutions worked. Only after booting in safe mode, i found out it worked again. So i knew it was software related. After some trial and error i found out my Logitech manager for my bluetooth mouse is causing the interference...After deleting thsi program en rebooting my macbook the airpods working as it should be.

I get the same thing. This update messed all sorts of things up. Airpods is one of them. The constant disconnect and lack of dependability in the settings not working as they always did prior to the update is quite disappointing.