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Apple's AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max can be used with any and all Apple devices, but you need to know how to make them switch â and how to make them stop switching, too.
AirPods and the iPhone go together so well that you may automatically regard them as a single device. In truth, though, your AirPods are not really paired just to that specific iPhone as it is more they are paired to the phone and your Apple ID.
If you have a Mac, or an iPad, or an Apple TV 4K linked to the same Apple ID, then those same AirPods are effectively already paired to those devices too. The AirPods can be readily used with any of them, and you can easily switch between them all.
Only, sometimes things can be a bit too easy. It's very easy to find yourself happily listening to AirPods playing music from your iPhone but then get confused because you're suddenly listening to something playing on your Mac.
It's worse with the Apple TV 4K, as Apple seems to assume that once you've ever listened to the set-top box with AirPods, you always want to do that. Cue annoyed families who find the TV has gone silent just after you've put AirPods on in a different room.
Despite Apple's best efforts to make all of this “just work,” you are still better off learning about how to manage your AirPods sources, so you can hear audio from only the device you want.
How to set up brand-new AirPods from scratch
You can be guided by Apple's own on-screen prompts on the iPhone, or you can follow the AppleInsider step-by-step guide. But briefly, the aim is to connect them first to your iPhone, and you start that by holding the AirPods case next to it.
You need Bluetooth turned on for the iPhone, regardless of which AirPods model you have. If you have…