FaceTime “poor connection” never resumes
I believe that sometime after I posted this question, Apple resolved the issue with the ability to resume the connection in the case of my MacBook Air and my parents' iPhone 6 &amp; 7, but I only know this because of the same issue recurring in a very specific case:
A few months after the pandemic started, I had set up a FaceTime Portal with my parents between 2 dedicated devices: my iPad Mini and their iPad Air (1 or 2, maxed out at iOS 12.5).
For 3 weeks, it worked great. I ran it every weekday for the whole work day (8 hours per day). I was initially running iPadOS 13.7, and after 3 weeks, I updated to 14.x. Immediately after updating, the problem described in my question started happening consistently every time within a minute or 2 of placing the call.
Calls would barely last a minute before I would see a burry darkened background with a &quot;poor connection&quot; warning. Maybe 10 seconds after that, I would without fail, get a call failed error.
I immediately reached out to Apple. They told me that there was a bug. Initially they told me to watch for an update of iOS 12.5, but ultimately, the problem must have been server-side, because after a few months, it just suddenly started working reliably.
There had been a 12.5.1 update that I had my parents install during that time, but multiple tests after that update showed the problem persisted. I had also updated my iPad Mini to 14.4, and again, the problem persisted.
Then one day, I randomly tested it, as I occasionally did, and it stayed connected all day. I still occasionally get the poor connection message, but it almost always comes back. Nothing changed on my side.
So the answer to this question is, the only thing you can do is call Apple and complain. My feedback carried weight because I had been using FaceTime 8h/day for 3 weeks and they could see it in the logs they requested and they could also see all of the failed calls after the 14 update. Plus, we were each using Airport Extremes for our WiFi connections.