Bluetooth headphone music quality deteriorates when launching iOS simulator

The situation goes a little something like this:

1. I am programming Xcode whilst concurrently listening to music on my Bluetooth headphones... you know to block out the world.

2. Then, I go to launch my app in the iOS simulator and BOOM all of a sudden my crystal clear music becomes garbled and super low quality like it is playing in a bathtub 2 blocks away... in the 1940s.

3. Note: the quality deterioration does NOT occur if I am playing music on my laptop or cinema display and I launch the sim. It seems to be exclusively a Sim -> Bluetooth issue.

The problem is more than just annoying. Because often after stopping the simulator the crappy bathtub quality music continues. To fix it I have to open sound preferences in OSX and briefly toggle back to my laptop sound and then back to my Bluetooth headphones.

This is a big deal because I launch the simulator 50x a day and have to do this toggle thing every time as well as suffer listening to 40s era mono ham radio quality music.

For your information, the headphones I am using are Plantronics BackBeat Pro and I am up to date on firmware. I am on OSX 10.11.4 and Xcode 7.3... but this problem has persisted through all versions for 2+ years now. Can you save me from the 1940s?

Solution 1:

I've managed to fix it, and it actually seems to be a microphone issue. Go to System Preferences -> Sound, select the Input tab and set Internal Microphone as the input (mine was set with my headphones').

Crappy sound goes way after that =)

EDIT (May 30 2018):

I've found out an easier way to do the same as above. Instead of opening the System Preferences, you can just go to the Mac OSX toolbar, press Option (alt) + click on the sound icon and then select "Internal Microphone" from the "Input Device" list. Print screen as follows.

Solution 2:

If you're using Xcode 9 or higher, you can set a default audio input and output for the simulator. This can be done by launching the simulator from Xcode and navigating to I/O > Audio Input within the menu bar and selecting Internal Microphone. This solution will save your audio preference so you won't have to change it on every launch.

Solution 3:

On Simulator, Select;

I/O -> Audio Input -> Macbook [Pro]

Done.

Solution 4:

Seems like years of suffering are finally over, Xcode 12 Beta Release Notes:

Simulator defaults to the internal microphone unless you explicitly choose a different audio source. This avoids triggering phone call mode on Bluetooth headsets which degrades audio quality while listening to music. (59338925, 59803381)