If you’re trying to listen to podcasts or music on your phone, it can be annoying when your AirPods keep switching to other devices, like your Mac or iPad.
Personally, I don’t mind this behavior. If I’m sitting at my Mac, I want to use the Music and the Podcasts apps on the Mac. But a lot of people consider their phone to be their primary device and always want to play audio from their phone, no matter which other device they’re using.
If you want your iPhone to keep supreme control over your ears, here’s how to disable AirPods auto-switching.
Stop your AirPods from switching between devices
What sets AirPods ahead of other wireless earbuds is all the smart features. They can instantly pair to your devices. You can get notifications on your iPhone when it’s time to pop them on a charger. And if you have models with active noise cancellation (ANC), they can detect when people are talking to you and boost their sound while turning down your music.
Because they can take full advantage of the closed Apple ecosystem, AirPods can seamlessly switch between devices as you sit down at your Mac or open your iPad. You don’t have to hold down a pairing button and wait for a blinking light to switch. However, if you like everything to play from your iPhone — and you find the AirPods switching to be annoying — it’s easy to turn off. Here’s how.
Table of Contents: AirPods Switching
- Prevent AirPods from switching to a Mac
- Prevent AirPods from switching to your iPhone or iPad
- More AirPods how-tos
Prevent AirPods from connecting to a Mac
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you’re playing podcasts or music out of your iPhone and you sit down at your Mac, you might be annoyed that it suddenly stops and switches to the computer. It’s easy to turn off this behavior, although it’s a little counterintuitive.
First, connect your AirPods to your Mac. If, in a cruel bit of irony, it doesn’t happen automatically, you can open Control Center in the top right of the menu bar, click the Bluetooth menu and select your AirPods. Then, open System Settings and scroll down in the sidebar on the left. Toward the bottom, you should see an option appear for your AirPods, just above “Keyboard,” “Mouse,” “Trackpad,” etc. In this menu, set Connect to This Mac from “Automatically” to When Last Connected to This Mac.
Personally, I have a giant speaker hooked up to my Mac, sitting below my desk. While I don’t use AirPods, I would definitely be irritated if music switched to playing out of the earbuds instead.
Prevent AirPods from switching to your iPhone or iPad
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you’re jamming out to tunes while you’re cooking dinner and happen to pick up your iPad to bring up a recipe, you certainly don’t want your AirPods to switch to the iPad unnecessarily. Luckily, you can disable that behavior here as well.
Make sure the AirPods are connected to the device, then open Settings. You should see your AirPods at the top of the list (no scrolling necessary, as is inexplicably required on the Mac). Tap on it to bring up AirPods settings, then tap Connect to This iPad, and set it to When Last Connected to This iPad.
More AirPods how-tos
To get the most out of your AirPods, you should check out our other articles:
- 6 hidden tips and tricks for AirPods
- How to use AirPods as hearing aids
- How to get the latest AirPods firmware updates
This article on AirPods automatic switching was originally published on June 28, 2024. We updated it with the latest information on December 1, 2025.
D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC — but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn’t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early ’80s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.
