4K Apple TV, dual Bluetooth headphones, and audio drops

I've been using a 4K Apple TV with two Beats Flex for a couple of years now and it worked great: stable, no audio dropouts, and hardly any issues at all. Then I swapped out one of the Beats Flex headphones and started using a pair of Beats Fit Pros. Everything worked fine for a couple of months, then tvOS 16 came out and the problems started.


15+ times in an hour long viewing session on both pairs of headphones we'll get dropped audio. Sometimes it's a split second, sometimes it's a full second.


Things I've tried:


1) Rebooting the Apple TV (currently running tvOS 16.2 (20K362)

2) Removing the Bluetooth pairing and re-pairing both sets of headphones

3) Turning off Bluetooth on my nearby iPad and phone

4) I bought a second pair of Beats Fit Pro and swapped out the pair I was using in this room, same issue


None of these things have worked. It's incredibly irritating thing to start happening after pure bliss for two years. I'm out of ideas so I thought I'd ask here. I try not to conflate correlation and causation, but it does seem to be linked to tvOS 16 in some way; the problems started almost immediately after it was installed, and no other variables changed that I'm aware of.


The one thing I haven't tried is using both pairs of Beats Fit Pro in this setup, but I doubt the results would be any different.

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 16

Posted on Jan 7, 2023 09:27 AM

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Posted on Jan 28, 2023 09:13 AM

I'll reply to my own post with the "solution": hilariously, later the same day I posted that message above, I saw a software update was available for my Apple TV. After rebooting, amazingly, the problem has 99% vanished! I hardly ever get the drop-outs. I'm irked it took so long for Apple to fix this issue, but I am relieved it's something they could fix in software. I hope it stays working this time. 🙃

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 28, 2023 09:13 AM in response to jasondunn

I'll reply to my own post with the "solution": hilariously, later the same day I posted that message above, I saw a software update was available for my Apple TV. After rebooting, amazingly, the problem has 99% vanished! I hardly ever get the drop-outs. I'm irked it took so long for Apple to fix this issue, but I am relieved it's something they could fix in software. I hope it stays working this time. 🙃

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4K Apple TV, dual Bluetooth headphones, and audio drops

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