Every time that I look this up, all the websites or articles say the answer is switching the settings to "When last connected to this Mac". I don't want the AirPods to ever automatically connect to my Mac, even when it was the last device it was connected to. Does anyone have any ideas for this?
AirPods (3rd generation)
I have this same issue, selecting 'when last connected to this Mac' does NOT work and I am frankly SO sick and tired of Apple deciding what is 'convenient' for me and NOT leaving room for my preference to override that I am, after switching to Mac three years ago, I am SO ready to sell each and every Apple device I own and go back to when I and I ALONE had control over my computer, my phone, my car stereo, my music library, my headphones. This is the single BIGGEST achille's heel of the entire Apple ecosystem - the arrogant, presumptuousness to leave me out of the decisions as to how and when I can use the devices I own..ESPECIALLY given the premium you pay for them. After purging my iPhone of my ENTIRE Apple Music library because Apple didn't have the sense, or regard, to put into place an option to NOT have it automatically start playing from my library EVERY time the phone connects to the car...every time I START the car, every time I END a phone call, every time I take off my Airpods...to the point of absurdity. It's been a problem for YEARS and they've done NOTHING, just as they will, I have NO doubt, do NOTHING to fix THIS ridiculous failure.
I've had enough - I simply didn't have these kinds of ridiculous issues when I used a PC and an Android phone and I will be more than happy to go back to life without them.
It seems that you haven't read the description of the post, only the title. What I wanted to achieve was being able to use my AirPods on my Mac sometimes, while stopping them from ever automatically connecting. The solution that Old Toad provides only solves the issue if I never wanted to use the AirPods on the Mac. This would be easy for Apple to solve by adding "never" as an option for automatically connecting.
Such a shame that this is still not resolved... it drivers me crazy that the airpods keep connecting to my iMac, when i am walking around with my airpods connecte dto my iPhone.. This is a real bugging thing...
Hello Mr. Dakota Brower,
Yes, it makes sense, but there is no option to bar them from ever connecting.
All you can do is turn off the automatic switching which was already provided, and this will ensure the only way they can connect with your Mac, is if you manually go in and pair it to the Mac:
Switch AirPods between Apple devices - Apple Support
Thanks.
Jayjr777 wrote:
APPLE - here's a use case for you...
Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user technical support forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:
APPLE - here's a use case for you...I use the Mac Studio to create music. Hence, I use an audio interface with studio monitors to output the sound from my Mac Studio. Never in a million years would I use AirPods with my Mac. With my phone, I have a mobile interface to interact with. After creating, I pop in my AirPods to hear music from my iPhone (as I work around the house). But, oh wait - I CAN'T. Because my Mac Studio stole the connection. A simple (user) solution is to add the "never" option for AirPods connectivity with Mac products. Apple *was* unique because they put users first. Today, it feels like a competition product and quality is fading. I never thought I'd see the day that Apple became an inferior product. Please return to your roots as a user centric brand.
-Disappointed user
P.S.
When pairing to AirPods (most commonly used on the go), why would a stationary object, such as the Mac Studio take priority over my (mobile) iPhone? Bluetooth is convenient on the go. If I have a desktop set up that never moves, it's highly likely that I'm using wired speakers.
Here's what I did:
That should be it. I've had that working for me beautifully. That being said, it would have been nice for the settings (not just connection) of the airpods to 'sync' but we're not in a perfect world are we?
As I said in my last post it's working perfectly for me. I have B/T set as follows on my iPhone as follows:
and on my iMac:
If both are set as shown in the screenshots and the last time you used the AirPods was with the iPhone it will always connect to the iPhone and give not notification on the Mac.
Since it works for most of us here it's not a system wide bug or issue.
Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?
Download and run Etrecheck.
Copy the report
and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.
Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.
It seems that Old Toad provided a perfect solution, but somehow it has been ignored.
In case you have not noticed: set it to Automatic on the phone, and to "when last connected to" on the mac, and it always prefer the phone over the mac.
Johnthewineguy wrote:
Can there be a setting of [never connect to this device]?
I'm not a programmer so I can't answer that. You can, however, let Apple know what you'd like to see here:
I want to have bluetooth turned on with my MacBook, my kid's, my wife's. All 5 family/work iPads; all our AirPods, our Beats headphones...
Are you sharing an Apple ID? If so, this is only one of many problems you'll have. Yes, you can sometimes work around them but those workarounds tend to break with iOS updates. And Apple is quite definite that they don't support sharing of Apple IDs. They don't prohibit it but nor do they go out of their way to make it any easier.
Larry Hutchinson wrote:
I guess we all want functionality to match our exact use case and I imagine this is not easy to right code for. Having said that you would think Apple would be able to sort this out.
You should definitely tell Apple what you think. That is far more likely to get you the change you desire than posting here. Your post was clear, articulate. You should pretty much be able to copy and paste it into the feedback page.
lacheporter wrote:
While this is a terrible user experience, you can turn off bluetooth on your mac all together as a "work around". But yes I agree, just stop reconnecting once I hit forget.
Tell Apple:
Mr. Dakota Brower wrote:
Every time that I look this up, all the websites or articles say the answer is switching the settings to "When last connected to this Mac". I don't want the AirPods to ever automatically connect to my Mac, even when it was the last device it was connected to. Does anyone have any ideas for this?
I had a similar issue with AirPods in that whenever I put them on to list4d to audiobooks on my iPhone I would get a notification in the upper right hand corner of my iMac's screen that said my AirPods were detected nearby and there was a button to connect.
I then following the suggest ion to check the "When last connected to this Mac" and the next time I put them on I didn't get that notification. So it works.
Be sure you have Automatically set on the device you want to use the AirPods with.
I have my iMac and iPhone set up as follows:
iPhone: Automatically
iMac: When last connected to this Mac
After the first time I connected the AirPods to my iPhone I've never have a problem with them connecting to the iMac.
Thank you!! Just shared my feedback with that link.
How to FULLY stop AirPods from automatically connecting to Mac.
