88 replies
16h46m
I left my AirPods Pro at a school sports field an hour away, and I didn't realize until the next morning after it been raining heavily. I gave them up for lost and needed headphones for work – so ordered some from Apple with same day delivery.
A week later, I got a Find My notification that they had been spotted – at the same sports field. I figured what the hell, put on a podcast and drove the hour to see if I could find them. Worst case scenario, a couple of hours of driving.
Using Find My and the directional feature points you in the right direction to within feet, I found them in the tall grass.
The case had been perfectly watertight, and they'd barely lost a percent of power in a week. Remarkable really all round.
Mine lose 20-30% sitting in their case overnight. It's very annoying. You ARE lucky!
That definitely isn’t normal. My guess is you need to clean the contacts in the AirPods. They might be in the case but it’s still pairing or trying to pair. Shouldn’t drain that much, especially overnight.
It's an iOS bug. It happens now and then for me, and when it happens it drains all the battery juice. Still no fix to this date.
My Apple Watch regularly gets burning hot and drains the battery. Sometimes overnight, sometimes during the day. Very annoying. Reset several times, Apple Care was of no help, no fix to this date either. Only way to alleviate is to reboot the Watch.
This is since the existence of software and is going to stay with us until most people is ok to have 1/3rd of the features for the same kind of money. This will never happen, so bugs are here to stay.
The fact that software is buggy is not the customer's fault any more than food poisoning is the fault of people who eat too much.
If you restrict your diet & make sure to properly cook your food you can greatly reduce your frequency of food poisoning
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804545
That wasn’t their point and I’m hesitating to believe you actually think it was.
This is like blaming people for not locking their door after they’ve been robbed. Yeah, they should have locked their door. But the person who actually did wrong is the person who robbed them.
Blaming somebody for not taking extra steps to reduce the chances of something happening to them that is ultimately the fault of another party is not right.
Pointing out that there are ways to reduce risk of something bad happening does not excuse the fault of a perpetrator. Neither is it victim blaming. This is particularly true when having a bad thing happen to you could occur without any individual acting intentionally, such as is the case with food poisoning.
I don't agree with this at all. It is possible to both be in the wrong _and_ not be the villain. If I am dressed to the 9s, wearing expensive jewelry, carrying a lot of money.... and then I want down dark alleys.... and I get mugged; I am not the bad guy, the mugger is. But I'm also partially to blame, because I knowingly took actions that increased the likelihood of me being mugged.
Our society has elements that will harm us. It is up to us to take action to reduce the likelihood of that happening.
It’s not the individuals fault on their own, but the market absolutely reflects societies tolerance of bugs and crashes. Microsoft started boiling that frog decades ago.
It's defective. They need to fix it or replace it.
could you link the bugreport or sth pls. apple has such weird bugs. on my iphone if i set an alarm and late at night i decide to tell siri to put another alarm she deletes the first one. did miss some flights because of that. and sometimes it doesnt ring at all. have a analog alarm for that now.
Apple doesn’t really care about bugs. They’ll get fixed if and when they feel like it.
It'll get fixed if they think it'll result in a lost sale. As they are effectively a vendor monopoly, this probably won't happen.
what a bubble to live in
Apple doesn’t do public bug reports
Apple officially doesn’t, but the community does…
http://www.openradar.me/
How did you determine it's an iOS bug?
Maybe the battery is failing?
Could be either/or. I long ago lost the brassiere that came with my AirPods Max (not really lost, I just can’t be arsed to dig it out of where I think it is) and they’ll drain themselves fairly quickly just trying to throw out stray connections to any of the five or so devices they can connect to unless I make a point of disconnecting them. AirPods Pro exhibit the same exact symptoms when the contact inside the case needs to be cleaned.
I can’t work this out. Is this an autocorrect?
Nope.
https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2021/05...
My airpods need a small piece of tissue in the top on one side or they don't charge. Could be a tolerance issue.
There’s a magnetic contact that the “bra” case engages that turns off the headphones so the battery doesn’t needlessly drain. Bunch of companies make after market cases/covers, you should get one of them at least.
If Person A loses 1% over a week in standby, and person B loses 20% overnight, it's probably not the battery..
Unless Person B also tells you that in general their air pods only last 30 minutes playing music.
As stated, their percentage of power level fall vs person A is 2000% more being generous (person A said a week, not a night). If it was because of the battery, the air pods would also last way way way less playing music.
You're right. Its definitely the Person.
Except when lithium batteries get old they start to lose double digit percentages in a couple hours. My experience anyway.
I love the airpods but ah... they dont play well with any kind of metal work. If you do metal work with a file the shavings get everywhere and once they stick to the magnet its almost impossible to get them out. I guess this is a very unusual edge case though but thought id post it. lmao.
Do you reckon a high psi stream of compressed air would remove the shavings? ie from an air compressor or similar
Probably would need to be careful not to damage the microphones.
Iron age problems. Wasn’t a problem in the good ‘ol bronze age.
Might I recommend something like IsoTunes? Far better product to use in a work environment where you might need to hear something going wrong.
I use tape, or bluetack. Bluetack is easiest for the external connectors, but a wodge of tape, properly manipulated, can get the internal ones. Can be a bit of a pain, but it's never not worked.
Something is wrong with them. I can use mine repeatedly over several days before finally needing to plug them in again. You should reach out to support.
I've googled it and tried all the recommended fixes.
This is a frequent problem - only for some people.
The left earbud dying is a frequent problem. Sometimes I sometimes hear about the right, but usually the left. Even more rarely, both die frequently, which isn’t the real issue…they drain the case, right? (if not ignore the rest of this)
Want me to blow your mind? The REASON for this is the case. Everyone always suggests cleaning, but that won’t help for the long term. I know because I have tried.
I took a pair of tweezers and bent the metal contacts in the case outward. That was a year ago. I have not had a single issue since. Not one. I am willing to bet Apple brushed a manufacturing defect under the rug. YMMV and if your airpods are under warranty, consider that first, but after having the issue with first gen and second gen, I wasn’t about to deal with nonsense.
What? that doesn't sound like Apple at all. They would never do that. I get butterflies just thinking that.
The butterfly keyboard was a _design_ defect, and these are very different things. Apple went to great lengths (because telling Jony Ive 'no' was not an option) to try and tweak the design to function correctly in the real world, and failed.
But they came out of the box functioning perfectly, and stayed that way until tiny specks of dust inevitably entered the picture. The entire saga was extremely boneheaded and after I took mine in for a replacement (which, I must say, was out of warranty and only cost me time) I vowed to never buy another MacBook which had that absurd keyboard. Fortunately I didn't have to, they went back to the proven design which is a true beast and just keeps chugging along for years without a single missed or repeated keystroke.
But this is very different from shipping products with known _manufacturing_ defects, and then 'brushing it under the rug', presumably by not issuing a recall. I can't recall even the former happening with post-iPod era Apple products, let alone the latter.
In this particular case, the most likely culprit is pushing the AirPod into the charging slot with enough force to bend down the contact. There isn't a way to manufacture a spring contact which isn't vulnerable to this, and the fix is easy if you have thin enough tweezers. If Apple shipped an edition of AirPods cases with bad contacts, which didn't charge out of the box, it's a safe bet that there would be press about it. Maybe there was, but if so, I missed the 635 comment HN thread about it.
I see what you did there.
Going to give this a try tomorrow… fingers crossed.
Please remember to come back and update us after a couple of weeks!
Have you actually talked to Apple? They might just replace them. Is this the only pair that’s demonstrated this behavior, or has it been multiple units?
Mine last not even 10 minutes after one year of use. Apple did nothing. So no more AirPods ever for me anymore
Just chiming in to say I had the same problem and found a solution.
For some reason, my AirPods silently connect to my iPhone while they're in their case and both devices are asleep. Why they do this, I have no clue. Just quality 2020s Apple programming.
Anyways, there's an easy solution: go into the settings app (not the drop down menu) and turn off Bluetooth on your phone/ipad when you don't need it. Your AirPods will no longer randomly drain at night. Neither will your Apple Pencil, if you have one of those.
You'll find a lot of comments on Apple support forums/reddit/etc saying it's impossible for it to be Bluetooth and that you should never turn it off for any reason because it's crazy. People for some reason are very assertive about that. But they're wrong. I now make a habit of only turning Bluetooth on precisely when I need it and immediately turn it off afterwards and now nothing gets drained needlessly.
Now the only AirPods bug that drives me insane is the volume randomly shooting up halfway to max randomly sometimes when I connect to my computer, but I made a script to somewhat fix it.
Can’t you just turn off Bluetooth easily via Control Center? Top left Bluetooth symbol
That doesn't turn Bluetooth off. It's deceptive. It simply "disconnects" it, but it'll still connect at a random point in the future. It also doesn't really disconnect it since it'll still detect devices and burn away your battery life. And I experimented with it countless times over a couple years.
That's why I said you need to do it through settings directly. Otherwise it won't do anything.
Yes it does. Once you tap that button Bluetooth will remain off.
Yes, but only until the next day.
This is accurate.
That is a lot, but I wonder if GP’s only decreased by 1% because their phone wasn’t close by. AirPods and their iPhones probably keep pinging each other to maintain the Bluetooth connection, which must have an effect on the battery.
Only when you pull them out of the case. Otherwise they just stay asleep. When I replaced my Powerbeats Pro (same fundamental tech as any AirPods) with AirPods Pro, I went about a year or so without touching the Powerbeats Pro and they just sat in one spot not too far from anything they could connect to since I never unpaired them from anything. I pulled them out a year later, and the Beats themselves were still fully charged and I think the case was still about 70%. Couldn’t tell you what I had left the case at though.
Mine sometimes don't charge in the case, and can either end up with the case fully charged and the airpods fully drained, or if they charge/discharge through the night with the airpods at a random charge and the case somewhat drained.
I seem to be the only person this happens to, but the won't-charge-in-the-case problem was so bad with my original airpods pro that Apple ended up replacing the case, then the airpods pro and the case, over a very frustrating several months of back and forth. My new airpods pro were fine for maybe eight months, but the problem has started again. So far it's only once every few weeks, which I can live with.
If you don’t know, make sure the light blinks when you drop each AirPod in. That will show it hit the contacts correctly. My APP 1s also had this issue way more often than my second gens.
Not normal. Case takes months to deplete without usage for me.
Yours are broken somehow. That's insane.
That is very strange and defective.
Try leaving them on the bedpost, c.f. Donegan, L (1959)
I find it funny that you consider a drastic difference like that a matter of luck. Clearly something isn’t right with your pods.
My AirPods went thru the washer and dryer in their case. No damage whatsoever!
My first gen pros didn’t survive. They still work, but have a high pitched wine. They were already out of warranty so I had to buy a new pair.
I did not and will not complain. I have owned over a hundred pairs of headphones/earbuds in my lifetime and these things are the best, by FAR.
However, don’t wash them.
You realize that this is not a warranty issue, right?
Maybe by warranty he meant the insurance that Apple now sells (“AppleCare with…”)
I get that AppleCare is technically insurance, but it's kinda a rip-off IMHO.
They may have meant AppleCare+ which covers accidental damage
https://www.apple.com/support/products/headphones/
And petre may have meant that them being unrepairable isn't a warranty issue.
Holy crap, hundreds of pairs? What do you do with them? Run them through the washer just for fun? :)
I probably haven't had hundreds yet, but probably more than one hundred.
So many things used to come with cheap earbuds or headphones. A pocket radio. A portable CD player. A cheap MP3 player. A laptop. I've even had some small TVs come with headphones out of the box. So there's like 40+ sets I didn't even ask for over the years. Pretty much all immediate trash.
Then there are the ones I bought in a pinch. Go on a trip, realize I didn't bring my headphones, swing by the store and get a cheap pair. Being a cheap pair, they often didn't last long. There's another dozen sets.
Now the ones I actually wanted. Not all have replaceable cups or pads, so they'd often wear out after a few years. Or they were USB, and the circuitry started freaking out after a few years. On top of that I probably have different sets for different use cases. A pair for on the go. A pair for the computer. A pair for the HiFi system. A pair for the office.
My airpods pro were totally destroyed in the washer/dryer, no idea why.
Maybe it was because it was quite a lengthy washing cycle?
Yea my brother has ruined 2 pairs of airpods in the washing machine.
I wonder what the difference is? One (admittedly uninformed) hypothesis is that there might have been more detergent, and the failure was caused by detergent residue. If this was true, they could be (possibly) repaired by rinsing with fresh water to remove said residue and leaving to dry. (Lots of other possible hypotheses and confounding factors)
You forgot to set the washing machine to "Whites"
I sometimes wear my airpods in the shower. Have gotten water in them often, but this never caused them to fail or be permanently damaged.
Out of curiosity – why do you wear them in the shower? Are they meant to withstand that?
Mine too. I tried them on and they played a loud, high pitch noise and haven’t dared touch them since.
Same here. They sounded "off" for a while, but returned to normal after a day of drying outside of the case. (I'm guessing that perhaps some water was blocking the microphones used for noise cancellation.)
Heh. I wasn’t so lucky, and it was the morning of a flight. Never had more of a reason to pull the forget on the $15 2-hour delivery Apple offers in my area.
What would happen if you lost only one?
Slight chance of finding it if you notice it's missing fast enough. FindMy only finds the charger, not the headphones out of charger, but you can make it play a sound.
You can buy a replacement for about 50% of the price of a new set (complete with charger case).
In my case I only own cheap aukey earbuds and so far I couldn't find any information about buying a single earbud
That’s not correct.
One night I dropped my case as I crossed the street to my building. I grabbed it off the ground without paying attention, both buds had fallen out.
In the morning, I picked up the case and noticed that it felt light. Find My reported both buds as having been seen outside on the sidewalk, one last seen four hours ago, the other six. I ran downstairs and outside to find them both smashed by car traffic.
Another time a bud popped out of the case while passing through the TSA X-rays (yes, I have lousy luck with these). I was able to pinpoint the direction with the app and make it plays sounds, but the agents were unable to dig under the rollers and get it out.
It’s rare to hear (for my ears) such a perfect outcome when it comes to lost tech
(in germany) Friend took multiple trains, Ubahn, Bus. 5 Seconds after leaving the bus, he realized he had forgotten his backpack with id, laptop, etc.
We were "hunting" busses for 2h but couldn't find it. He didn't have Find My set up on the mac. Filed police report etc. A week later he got mail saying the bag was found in a train in Augsburg. Which was the 2nd of 4 legs of the trips or something, and he was completely off where he lost it :D
I accidentally put mine through the washing machine. The aftermarket case I had them in died but the Airpods themselves survived just fine. That was 2 years ago and I still use them every day.
Wow 1 percent in a week. I use mine every couple of days but they drain much faster. Perhaps yours decided, he, see no iPhone for a couple of hours let’s do some deep sleep.
I’d love to have more control over then charge cycle like that.
I saw someone on Twitter that left hers in a seatback on a flight. They'd show up on Find My every day for almost two months before they died. She talked to the airline multiple times about someone checking her seatback and several times they insisted they weren't there. Doubtful they ever checked at all but impressive battery life.
I lost two sets in the snow at my mom's house. Where she lives the snow sticks around for 4 or 5 months. They would have been near the top of a few feet of snow where we were making snow angels and generally frolicking, and then covered up by additional snowfall. We found them once it melted. They both work fine.
I washed my Airpods in a washing machine once and they continued working normally for 6 months until the noise cancelling started to fail on one side.