Stop Apple AirPods connecting to other Apple devices

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scuwp

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#303243 27-Jan-2023 12:34

As in title. Does anyone have a solution they could offer?

A bit of background: 2 members of my house have an iPhone each and a set of Airpods each (Gen 2 if it matters). Normally I would expect that the Airpods would only connect (and reconnect) to the device they are paired with, and all would be well with the world, but this is Apple, so no. It seems the AirPods are designed to automatically switch between Apple devices to provide a seamless audio experience. Sounds great, until you have different users wanting to have their own unique audio experience.

There are plenty of tutorials on-line as to how to stop this, by going through the Bluetooth settings, changing the connection from 'automatic' to 'when last connected to this phone'. In theory this is meant to force the AirPods to connect only to the last device used. Sounds perfect, only it doesn't work, at least not consistently. It may be OK for a few hours or even a day or two, but then, suddenly the Airpods will randomly pick up and connect to the other iPhone if in use. An example being in the middle of a phone call, when the sound will suddenly connect to the other persons AirPods in the next room.

'Forgetting' the Bluetooth connection to the Airpods on one device deletes the connection from both iPhones. When you add them back just on the phone you want them to be connected to, the connection automatically appears on the other phone as well, and we are back at square one. I am guessing this is because they are under a single account.

We want to keep the devices under a single account for some app sharing and location sharing purposes.

Any suggestions welcome.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

dfnt

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#3027829 27-Jan-2023 12:52

I'd say the fact you're using a single account across the devices is going to be the issue, that's the whole point of the airpods being able to seamlessly connect between devices under the same iCloud account

I'd say the only solution is to switch to family sharing instead of using one account across two iPhones

RunningMan

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#3027830 27-Jan-2023 12:53

I've got Airpods and wanted them to only work on one device - just went in to the settings as you described and locked it to that one device. Has worked perfectly, so it can work, don't know why it doesn't for you.

scuwp

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#3027848 27-Jan-2023 13:16

dfnt:

I'd say the fact you're using a single account across the devices is going to be the issue, that's the whole point of the airpods being able to seamlessly connect between devices under the same iCloud account

I'd say the only solution is to switch to family sharing instead of using one account across two iPhones

I fear that may be the nuclear option. Undoing several years on a single account across multiple devices is going to be a nightmare.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

scuwp

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#3027854 27-Jan-2023 13:20

RunningMan:

I've got Airpods and wanted them to only work on one device - just went in to the settings as you described and locked it to that one device. Has worked perfectly, so it can work, don't know why it doesn't for you.

We have tried both devices on the 'when last connected' settings, and also leaving the one device we want them to connect to on 'automatic' (others stay when last connected). Neither seems to work for long.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Senecio

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#3027859 27-Jan-2023 13:30

There's really only two options

Separate accounts and turn on family sharing. Most apps will still be available for all users but some don't allow family sharing. Location sharing works across a family so you won't lose that.
Use different ear phones, not apple branded that don't sync to all devices on the same apple ID

michaelmurfy

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#3027861 27-Jan-2023 13:34

Separate family accounts is the only way to go. Airpods are tied to your iCloud account.

Note - you can still share purchases between accounts.

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Mehrts

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#3028162 28-Jan-2023 09:58

Family sharing takes care of the shared account features while keeping the device connections as intended.

It's designed to be a seamless experience across multiple devices on each account, and of course it wouldn't work well if many devices which are used by different people are using the same account.

dfnt

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#3028232 28-Jan-2023 12:17

You can just sign out of the device without erasing any of the data or apps used, then sign in with the new account

You can also just sign into the App Store with the existing iCloud account you’re currently using

So you don’t really need to undo anything but sign into a new iCloud account on on device and enable family sharing if you wanted to