AirPods ALWAYS left behind!?

[sparky672]

I have AirPods Pro gen 1 on the latest firmware (6A300).
I have an iPhone 15 Pro on the latest iOS 17.1.1.
I have Verizon service as if that should matter.

Today, I threw my AirPods in my pocket and hit three locations over a 12-hour period other than my home. No less than 6 times today I was notified that my AirPods were left behind despite still being in my pocket. Even though I didn't need to use my AirPods today, I opened the case after getting a notification to "tell" FindMy that the AirPods were with me. I even opened the FindMy app and they were correctly shown on the map as with me. Despite doing these things, the "AirPods left behind" messages continued throughout the day. This used to happen fairly frequently, but today it was absolutely ridiculous.

Surely, this is something I am doing wrong? Apple couldn't possibly have it this screwed up, right?

 

[sparky672]

I followed the procedure for wiping out the AirPods and starting over. I did the "forget this device" and then held the button for 15 seconds. Setup from scratch, but I am suspicious about the procedure, since my original name for the device was preserved.

Yesterday, I threw them into my pocket and visited two locations without using. Fortunately, I did not receive any "left behind" notifications. Time will tell if this resolved it.

I'd also like to know how to lookup the firmware for the charging case (Wireless/Lightning) since this is the critical part needed for "Find My". I can clearly see that mine are on 1.4.0, but I cannot find anything published by Apple stating what firmware is the latest version.

 

[Tagbert]

I’ve always thought that “find my” for the gen 1 AirPods was both useless and annoying. AFAIK it only ever tracked the location when it was last connected to the AirPods. Once you put them in the case, they go invisible. It doesn’t have a way to know if the case is nearby. I often had it warning my that they were left behind when they were in my pocket.

 

[sparky672]

I’ve always thought that “find my” for the gen 1 AirPods was both useless and annoying.

I would agree with that based on my experience. Although, some people claim to never have this issue.

Once you put them in the case, they go invisible. It doesn’t have a way to know if the case is nearby.

That's the way it would seem. However, I don't think this is correct. I've seen it say "left behind" when I never opened the case, so apparently it could not have been invisible at the last location. I've also had it say "left behind" even after I opened the case while they were with me when I was driving away from the last location.

After doing a full reset to factory a couple days ago, I took them with me a couple of days in a row and made several stops & visits - there was not one "left behind" notification. I'll update if this changes.

It would be really great for troubleshooting purposes if Apple provided better information about how this feature is supposed to work. Like how often there is a location ping. Does the case ping the phone, vise-versa, or both? Is the ping based solely on time or does something also trigger the ping?

 

[sparky672]

I am un-marking as "resolved". Although I was able to bring them with me about 5 or 6 times in the last week or two without any issue, tonight I got another false "left behind" notification.

As long as everything is charged up and within proximity, I can't imagine a valid excuse for these failures other than really poorly engineered software. This is one of those things where you cannot blame something external like bad network configuration, wifi, or router. Every single part of this is fully under Apple's control... the hardware and the software.

 

[waw74]

if you go into the find my app, you can disable notifications for just your AirPods

 

[sparky672]

if you go into the find my app, you can disable notifications for just your AirPods

I know. Suppose I want the notice, but only when they’re actually left behind.

 

[sparky672]

So after getting it to work for a while, it's back to working like garbage.

During my drive home yesterday, I would get a notification showing where it was when I last opened the case. Then I opened the case and the location immediately updated itself. Then 10 minutes later, it did the same thing... every 10 minutes all the way home, showing the correct location from 10 minutes ago, but reporting that I left them there. Really stupid and really annoying.

There's nobody here that understands how this is supposed to work?

• The phone pings the case or the case pings the phone?
• Does it ping with case open, closed, or both?
• Why does it not attempt to ping BEFORE it reports "left behind"?

Since the entire process depends on practically nothing within the user's control, why does this work well for some people and not others? Or can we assume this is broken for everyone?

 

[waw74]

on most aipods, once the case is closed, the case powers down. So with the case closed, you get no pinging (either way), charging/battery indicator on the phone, or find my.

also several models have no wireless in the case itself, so any case <-> phone communication happens through the airpod itself while the airpod is in the case.

I think the only model that updates anything thing with the case closed is the 2nd gen Pro (both lightning and USB-C versions). They're also the only model with the H2 and U1 chips.

so if you don't want the notifications, either disable them, or upgrade to the 2nd gen Pros.

The third gen AirPods also look like they may support some of this, but I'm not sure what exactly they do.

 

[sparky672]

on most aipods, once the case is closed, the case powers down. So with the case closed, you get no pinging (either way), charging/battery indicator on the phone, or find my.

also several models have no wireless in the case itself, so any case <-> phone communication happens through the airpod itself while the airpod is in the case.

Thank you. This is very helpful information.

If I understand this correctly, it seems like a very poor or broken implementation of "Find My" since the case would ALWAYS be closed. Why is there a "Left Behind" option if it could never work?

Something must be missing here, since it worked as expected for about a week or so after doing a factory reset. How would that be possible?

 

[waw74]

The first gen AirPods pre-date the AirTags by about 3 1/2 years (and the find my app by about 2 years).

So it's a very very early implementation of any of the features found there.

not sure why it worked for a while, and now doesn't.

it's kinda like the mag-safe wallet that "supports" find my. All it does is place a pin on the map when the wallet is removed from the phone.

 

[Tagbert]

Thank you. This is very helpful information.

If I understand this correctly, it seems like a very poor or broken implementation of "Find My" since the case would ALWAYS be closed. Why is there a "Left Behind" option if it could never work?

Something must be missing here, since it worked as expected for about a week or so after doing a factory reset. How would that be possible?

Find My was a feature implemented for the first gen AirPods well after they were released. I don’t see how it would ever work reliably. Those AirPods are not connected when in the case and they have no way to communicate with the phone in that case. They lack the directional H1 chip that would let the phone “see” then in its vicinity.

It should work acceptably with the gen 2s but it is inherently flawed for the gen 1s.

 

[sparky672]

If the functional descriptions provided here are accurate, it's perplexing why Apple would even offer this as a feature since it could never work as expected.

Maybe it appeared to "work" because I never opened the case so it continued to think they were at home? So it's always going to trigger a "Left Behind" for whatever location where the case was last opened?

 

[sparky672]

Find My was a feature implemented for the first gen AirPods well after they were released.

FWIW, these are not first gen AirPods. These are first gen AirPods Pro and always had the Find My "left behind" option since I purchased them new around late 2021.

They lack the directional H1 chip that would let the phone “see” then in its vicinity.

FWIW, these are the first gen "Pro", which have an H1 chip.

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Apple makes tracing AirPods Pro, AirPods Max easier: Details here

Following the iOS 15 release in September, Apple is now rolling out a firmware update, adding functionalities inside its Find My app, for improved searches of misplaced or lost H1 chip-powered AirPods. The update, 4A400, is available for second-generation AirPods as well as AirPods Pro and...

sg.finance.yahoo.com

 

[sparky672]

on most aipods, once the case is closed, the case powers down. So with the case closed, you get no pinging (either way), charging/battery indicator on the phone, or find my.

FWIW, mine are AirPods Pro. Case is closed with AirPods inside. Case has not been opened since yesterday.

I opened the Find My app, and it connected/located my AirPods in the house within 30 seconds... again, without opening or touching the case. There most definitely is some kind of two-way communication happening with the lid closed.