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How to FULLY stop AirPods from automatically connecting to Mac.

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)

Posted on Apr 11, 2023 7:29 PM

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Posted on Feb 23, 2024 6:42 PM

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.

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29 replies

Aug 20, 2024 8:44 AM in response to Mr. Dakota Brower

Here's what I did:

  1. On your mac, connect the airpods you want to use exclusively on your mac and set in BT Settings: When last connected to this mac
  2. On your iPhone, connect the airpods you want to use exclusively on your mac and set in BT Settings: When last connected to this iPhone
  3. Connect those iPods back to your Mac
  4. On your mac, connect the airpods you want to use exclusively on your iPhone and set in BT Settings: When last connected to this mac
  5. On your iPhone, connect the airpods you want to use exclusively on your iPhone and set in BT Settings: When last connected to this iPhone


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?

Jul 15, 2024 11:02 AM in response to WilliamShakespeare

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.


Dec 11, 2023 12:01 PM in response to Mr. Dakota Brower

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.


Jul 26, 2024 11:11 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

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.

How to FULLY stop AirPods from automatically connecting to Mac.

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