AirPods 2 - Not happy

[oldmacs]

Hi All,

First time AirPods user here, I've bought AirPods 2 (off Ebay, they were open but not used). They were easy enough to pair to my iPhone but then things started going awry.

I can't consistently get AirPods battery life to show in the iPhone widget.

I can't get AirPods to play a noise from find my device, even though it shows them on a map.

I can't seem to find a way to easily switch between devices with AirPods. They don't work with my Apple Watch unless I pair with them in setting. They don't change from my Mac to my iPhone without me disconnecting them from Bluetooth and manually reconnecting on my iPhone, and then I get a 'Connection Unsuccessful' on the iPhone and have to forget the AirPods. Then I reconnect them to the iPhone and can't get them to connect back to the Mac.

I don't get any battery information on AirPods on the Mac. I can't just connect them to my Mac by selecting from the sound menu. The AirPods don't show up on the iPhone under 'about' on the iPhone.

I've been told time and time again that bluetooth headphones work great and I'd just never used a 'seamless' pair like AirPods, but these things seem like bloody disasters. It seems a million times easier to use wired headphones, all it takes is plugging and unplugging them to moe between devices and then there is no battery life to worry about.

I've restarted all my devices multiple times, paired and repaired the AirPods over and over again. All my devices are updated besides the watch (Mac is on MacOS 10.15.5, iPhone is on iOS 13.5.1, iPad on iPad OS 13.5.1, Watch 6.1.3 but that is updating now). Even now as I'm sitting here typing this up and they've made the connect and disconnected sound over and over again.

Any ideas?

 

[Slendrman]

Sounds like they may be fake. Can you go to settings>general>about and see them listed? Should say Apple and list S/N etc

 

[oldmacs]

Sounds like they may be fake. Can you go to settings>general>about and see them listed? Should say Apple and list S/N etc

They don't show up in about on my iPhone, this is one of my problems. I checked the serial number on the wireless charging case (which matches what is printed on the AirPods themselves and it shows up as legit when I enter the serial number on Apple's coverage checker.

 

[inbloomgc]

Probably fake. The big red flag is that they don’t show up in the About section of the iPhone. Could’ve just printed a valid serial number on the fakes.

 

[sub150]

Hopefully the deal was too good to be true.

 

[Böhme417]

While people seem to be quick to call them fake, I don't know. I've had similar issues with mine (bought from an Apple store). They'll sometimes not show up in the battery widget. They won't show up in about in settings. I'll put them in my ear and they won't get recognized. Sometimes, the stuff doesn't "just work."

 

[oldmacs]

If they were fake wouldn’t they not show up in ‘find my’ ?

 

[perezr10]

If they were fake wouldn’t they not show up in ‘find my’ ?

Hmm

 

[oldmacs]

Hmm

I get the proper Apple animation pop up and all when I open the AirPods case on iOS devices, and when I go into bluetooth on my Mac I get the following:

I feel like this wouldn't happen if they were fake?

 

[Slendrman]

Strange. Sucks most Apple stores are closed and can’t got there.

 

[0-0]

The fake ones emulate the apple animation pop up and other menu actions. Another red flag is that the AirPods don’t play a noise from find my device. Your AirPods should move between different devices with the same icloud without having to re-pair.

 

[one more]

I use AirPods 2 as well, so perhaps some of this will be helpful:

1) I can't consistently get AirPods battery life to show in the iPhone widget.

It does not show unless your AirPods are out of their case, which “awakens” them.

2) I can't get AirPods to play a noise from find my device, even though it shows them on a map.

To play the sound your AirPods need to be connected to a device and out of their case.

3) I can't seem to find a way to easily switch between devices with AirPods.

This will be seamless when iOS 14 and other systems come out in September. For now, the easiest way to switch from one device to another is from the Music toggle in Widgets section. Click on the symbol below and if your AirPods are out of their case or in your ears they should show in the list of available Bluetooth devices. You just need to tap on them. Saves you a journey to Bluetooth in your Settings every time:

4) The AirPods don't show up on the iPhone under 'about' on the iPhone.

They should if they are charged and out of their case.

5) I've been told time and time again that bluetooth headphones work great and I'd just never used a 'seamless' pair like AirPods, but these things seem like bloody disasters. It seems a million times easier to use wired headphones, all it takes is plugging and unplugging them to moe between devices and then there is no battery life to worry about.

The main advantage of AirPods over any wired ones is their portability and convenience. If you use them predominantly with one device on the go (iPhone), they can indeed work very well. Otherwise they don’t offer the best sound in that price range. Worse still, depending on how much you use them, their batteries will inevitably die on us within 2-3 years, as any Li-ion ones do. So we need to treat them as a short-life product, similar to Apple Pencil. If Apple could offer us a simple way to replace the batteries, this would help, but this is not the case for now.