My AirPods have started disconnecting repeatedly whenever I use them at my local gym, even though they work normally everywhere else. I have used the gym for nearly five years, but this began within the past week or so. My older AirPods 2 would disconnect within a minute after reconnecting. I recently bought new AirPods Pro, and they stay connected longer but still cut out or disconnect in certain areas of the gym. I use an iPhone 17 and an Apple Watch, and the same issue happened during workouts with both pairs of AirPods. They worked perfectly during a 12 km run, so I'm wondering whether something in the gym environment—such as wireless interference or congestion—is causing the problem.
3 Answers
If the gym’s wireless environment is overloaded, there may not be much you can fix from the AirPods side. Try forgetting and re-pairing them, but if that does not help, use a different area, keep the phone on the same side as the AirPods, or use wired headphones at that location. The recent timing could point to new equipment or a nearby device that was recently added.
Another possibility is that your phone is encountering an unusually large number of nearby Bluetooth devices. Someone else noticed many temporary phone connections appearing in the phone’s Bluetooth controls at their gym, which may explain why the problem is more noticeable when browsing music or actively using the phone. Turning off unnecessary Bluetooth devices and testing with Wi-Fi or AirDrop settings changed could help narrow it down, although AirDrop itself is not necessarily the cause.
This sounds more like local wireless interference or congestion than a problem with either pair of AirPods. A large gym may have lots of phones, watches, speakers, TV systems, cameras, and other equipment competing in the 2.4 GHz range. The fact that it happens only in particular areas is a strong clue. Try moving to a different part of the gym and see whether the connection stabilizes. It would also be worth asking the gym whether they recently installed or changed any wireless equipment.
That makes sense, especially since it only happens in certain spots and both pairs behave normally elsewhere.