Have you ever been listening to music on your AirPods, and then suddenly, it pauses for no reason?
When something goes wrong with wireless technology, it’s hard to know what to do. It’s the same with Apple’s AirPods and AirPods Pro. Your AirPods may stop working for various reasons, including connectivity, battery, or software issues.
In this article, we will discuss why your AirPods keep pausing and how you can fix it to enjoy uninterrupted music again.
Let’s get started!
Why do Airpods keep Pausing?
Several reasons could be causing your AirPods to pause. The following are some possible causes:
- A dirty or obstructed microphone.
- The battery power in your AirPods is running low.
- Your AirPods’ Bluetooth connection is weak.
- An issue with software or hardware.
- You’re using an app, or your phone has a problem.
If your AirPods keep pausing, it’s likely due to one of these issues. To fix the problem, you’ll need to clean your AirPods, charge them, update their software, or reset them.
What Should You Do If Your Airpods Pause?
If your AirPods keep pausing, there are a few things you can try to fix the problem. Below is our guide to troubleshooting AirPods.
Airpods Proximity Sensors
Another possible cause of your AirPods pausing is proximity. You may experience sudden pausing of audio if the AirPods are too far from your smartphone or another device. A Bluetooth connection between AirPods and a Bluetooth device has a maximum range of about 30-60 feet.
If you place your AirPods more than this distance from your source device, you may experience audio problems. In addition, surfaces between the AirPods and the source device can affect proximity sensors, including walls and people, if you’re in an electromagnetic environment.
Fortunately, one of the easiest problems to correct is the proximity sensors in the AirPods causing sudden pauses. You just have to move your iPhone closer to the AirPods to re-establish the connection.
Turn Off Automatic Ear Detection
AirPods will all include Automatic Ear Detection, regardless of which model you choose. The AirPods pause playback when you remove them from your ears and resume it when you put them back on.
In spite of this, Automatic Ear Detection doesn’t always function properly. Automatic Ear Detection is likely to be the culprit if you’re having issues with AirPods pausing after trying the above fixes.
These steps will guide you through disabling Automatic Ear Detection.
- Open the settings menu on your iPhone.
- Go to the Bluetooth tab.
- In the device list, locate your AirPods.
- Select the AirPods and click the More Information icon (the “i” icon with a circle around it).
- Turn off the Automatic Ear Detection switch.
Once this is done, you can play some audio through your AirPods to see if the pausing issue has been resolved.
Check Your Double-Tap Actions
You can customize what happens when you double-tap on your AirPods. There are several options available, such as activating Siri, pausing and resuming audio playback, and skipping between tracks. If you’ve accidentally set the double-tap option to Off, your AirPods will no longer pause when you remove them from your ears.
Here’s how you can check and change your double-tap settings:
- Open the settings menu on your iPhone.
- Go to the Bluetooth tab.
- In the device list, locate your AirPods.
- Select the AirPods and click the More Information icon.
- Click on the double-tap Actions and select Play/Pause.
Hopefully, this will have resolved the issue with your AirPods pausing.
Charge Your Airpods
If your AirPods have a low battery, they might not work very well. They might be quieter, and the microphone might not work. You might even shorten the life of your AirPods if the battery is very low. When your AirPods’ battery is low, it’s not easy to use them, and you won’t enjoy them as much.
In fact, they might even die on you. It’s important to keep your AirPods charged so you don’t have these problems. The process isn’t hard either – AirPods can be fully charged in less than an hour, from nearly dead to fully charged.
Check Your Bluetooth Connections
When your iPhone is connected to more than one Bluetooth device, it might have trouble deciding where to send audio. For example, when you have AirPods and a Bluetooth speaker connected, your iPhone may become confused about which one should receive the audio.
Before you assume your AirPods are broken, check to see if you’re connected via Bluetooth to any other devices. You can try disabling those devices and see if your pausing issues go away.
Restart Your iPhone
This is a basic troubleshooting step that can be used for various issues. A restart clears any temporary glitches in the system and can often resolve the problem.
You can restart your iPhone by holding down the power button until “Slide to Power Off” appears. Then, slide the power off and wait for your iPhone to turn back on. Once it has restarted, try using your AirPods again to see if the pausing issue has been resolved.
Airpods Won’t Connect To Your Mac
Bluetooth chips in older Macs are notorious for being flaky, which is why this is so common.
- The first step in troubleshooting is to turn off Bluetooth.
- Open your Mac’s Control Center and click the Bluetooth icon to toggle it.
- When it’s off, wait a few seconds and then turn it back on.
Additionally, if that does not work, you can stop the Bluetooth daemon on macOS. It is important to note that executing this command will result in a loss of Bluetooth connectivity.
- Using Terminal, open a new window and type:sudo pkill blued
- Press Enter and type your admin password, then press Enter again.
- Reconnect your earphones after a few seconds.
Airpods Battery Draining Too Fast
With Automatic Ear Detection enabled when you leave, your AirPods will last longer.
Go to Settings to find out. Then tap the i next to your AirPods in Bluetooth. A software quirk may cause your issue if it’s on. As described earlier, you should reset your AirPods in this case.
Remember that the batteries in your AirPods and charging case are the same as those in your iPhone. As these batteries are cycled more often, their overall charge decreases.
It is simply the way lithium-ion batteries age. You can replace the batteries in your AirPods and charging case for $49 each through Apple Service and Repair.
AirPods that are still covered by warranty won’t be charged. Additionally, you can check the status of your Apple warranty. If you’re unsure which case is compatible with your AirPods, you can check the Apple website or contact Apple for more information.
Conclusion
We hope this article helped you troubleshoot the pausing issue with your AirPods. As you can see, there are a few different things that can cause this problem.
You may not be able to stop it in some cases, but most people can get their AirPods working again by following one of the methods I shared above.
Have any of the listed methods helped you stop your AirPods from pausing? Let us know what you think and if you have any questions in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
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