Had 3 pairs of airpods over the years (2 original ones, 1 pro), all used heavily, haven't experienced this kind of an issue even once. And neither do I know any

Had 3 pairs of airpods over the years (2 original ones, 1 pro), all used heavily, haven't experienced this kind of an issue even once. And neither do I know anyone else who did. I don't know your situation, but I have a feeling you might have gotten a faulty unit, in which case a warranty request might be helpful. I switch my current ones between a macbook and my phone multiple times a day, all it takes is pressing a single button in my taskbar on macbook or control panel of my phone. I heard they even have an autoswitch feature now, where you can use your airpods with macbook, but when a call comes in or you play a video on your iphone, it switches automatically to that device, and then back. Haven't had a chance to test that feature myself tho, so YMMV.