AirPods Pro 3 speaker and mic keep switching to MacBook Air M2 during Zoom meetings

I am in the middle of zoom meetings and my speaker and mic keep switching from my AirPod Pro 3's to the MacBook system and then back again. It happens probably once per minute and is extremely annoying as I am missing parts of the meeting and constantly hearing the connection/disconnection noise.

All I can see online is to change the bluetooth setting to change 'Connection to this Mac' from 'Automatically' to 'When last connected to this Mac'. I don't have such an option. I cannot see any options on either the AirPods settings, the bluetooth settings or the sound settings that will stop the connection switching between devices.

I am running MacBook Air M2 2022 Tahoe 26.6.2

AirPods Pro 3

Can someone help please?! Thank you.

Posted on Sep 19, 2026 7:24 AM

1 reply

WheelieNick

Level 9 (74,110 points)

Oct 17, 2026 2:15 PM in response to earthsun94

Try this

Zoom often overrides macOS system settings and attempts to manage or reset the Bluetooth profile mid-meeting, causing connection drops and beeps.

Open Zoom while in or out of a meeting.
Go to Settings (gear icon) -> Audio.
Under Speaker, manually select your AirPods Pro 3 (do not leave it on "Same as System").
Under Microphone, manually select your AirPods Pro 3.
Uncheck or disable "Automatically adjust microphone volume" if the option appears, as background adjustments can trigger profile re-negotiation.