AirPods connection problem

I own an iPhone 11, a MacBook Air M3, and AirPods 4 ANC. Until recently, the AirPods automatically switched between my phone and MacBook and connected. Now, even though the MacBook is on, the AirPods don't connect automatically. The settings are the same; I haven't made any changes. I have to connect them manually every time. After connecting them manually, they switch back and forth between the phone and the AirPods, but once the connection to the MacBook is lost, they don't reconnect. This wasn't a problem before. Even if I take them out for two minutes and put them in the AirPods case, they only reconnect to the phone, not the MacBook. Why?