Opening Anki on macOS switches AirPods from iPhone to Mac without audio playback

Anki Help
1

When I open Anki on my Mac while listening to audio on my iPhone through AirPods, the AirPods switch to the Mac. This happens even when I remain on the deck list without reviewing cards or playing any audio in Anki.

I also tried starting Anki in safe mode by holding Shift, as recommended in the troubleshooting documentation, and the same behavior occurred.

I would expect automatic switching when Anki actually plays audio, but not simply when I open the app. Is this intended behavior?

I searched the forum and found reports about AirPods playback delays and clipped audio, but did not find a matching report about switching on startup.

Environment

  • Anki: 26.09.3 (29bb700b)
  • macOS: 27.0 (26A428)
  • AirPods: AirPods Pro 2 (Lightning)
  • iOS: 27.0.1
  • AirPods automatic switching: enabled

Steps to reproduce

  1. Connect AirPods to the iPhone and start playing audio.
  2. Open Anki on the Mac.
  3. Stay on the deck list without reviewing cards or playing audio.
  4. The AirPods switch from the iPhone to the Mac.

The same behavior occurs when starting Anki in safe mode with Shift held down.

2

I don’t have AirPods to be able to test this. I did try testing with ordinary bluetooth speakers. However, the behavior doesn’t occur with them because, once connected, my bluetooth speakers don’t switch devices. I imagine that AirPods and/or the iOS/macOS infrastructure has additional technology/functionality that allows for easy device switching. I’m not sure how it works.

If I had to guess, it might be that Anki is initializing/testing its audio player upon startup, triggering the device switch.