Airpods Audio Problems

[geraldem]

Got my airpods yesterday and paired them with my Iphone 7Plus. I am experiencing some audio crackling/skipping at the beginning of every song. Once you get through about 10 seconds of the song, it seems to straighten out. But it is pretty consistent...each song starts with pretty bad crackling or skipping. Anyone else experiencing this?

I have tried rebooting phone, disconnecting and forgetting airpods and reconnecting. Same results. Any help or pointers is greatly appreciated. Really love the form factor, but so far quality is pretty bad.. thanks

 

[edlex]

If you have an Apple Store close by you should take them to a genius. If it's easily reproduced they will replace the AirPods.

 

[geraldem]

If you have an Apple Store close by you should take them to a genius. If it's easily reproduced they will replace the AirPods.

thanks...even if bought from Verizon online?

 

[colmaclean]

My AirPods stutter/clip/pop during use quite frequently. Not at the beginning of songs though, it can happen at any time.

I should take them back, but don't want to risk being stuck at the end of the queue again for a replacement!

 

[geraldem]

My AirPods stutter/clip/pop during use quite frequently. Not at the beginning of songs though, it can happen at any time.

I should take them back, but don't want to risk being stuck at the end of the queue again for a replacement!

I am with you, don't want to send these back, but if I cant fix the stutter issues, I will. Many other options out there. My Beat Solos 2 work flawlessly.

 

[edlex]

thanks...even if bought from Verizon online?

Apple warranties their products regardless of where you purchased them from.

 

[Valavoom]

My airpod does the same. I has skipping, cracking or dead air when my phone is on LTE. Happens very often when I'm getting incoming messages, or sending out messages, sometimes even unlocking the phone will trigger it. (Phone is on silent). I already swapped my original one with a new pair at the apple store, same issue. I have iphone 7 plus.

Spoke to applecare and they are pretty clueless about this situation, only offered to reset my phone and set up as new... which i didn't do cause I think it's a bit ridiculous, considering all my other BT headsets are working fine..

 

[Ad13]

My airpod does the same. I has skipping, cracking or dead air when my phone is on LTE. Happens very often when I'm getting incoming messages, or sending out messages, sometimes even unlocking the phone will trigger it. (Phone is on silent). I already swapped my original one with a new pair at the apple store, same issue. I have iphone 7 plus.

Spoke to applecare and they are pretty clueless about this situation, only offered to reset my phone and set up as new... which i didn't do cause I think it's a bit ridiculous, considering all my other BT headsets are working fine..

Same here. Notifications make mine stutter and occasionally cause the Bluetooth connection to drop. Also moving between 2g/3g/4g also creates this crackle. I've returned mine today as I'm heading towards the end of 14 return window and don't want to be stuck with having to explain/deal/be at the mercy of a 'genius'. I will buy again when in stock as we have another pair in the household that have none of the issues on this forum also I'm hopeful these are just teething problems. Otherwise, Apple has some questions to answer.

 

[geraldem]

It really is strange. the music app seems to be the worst. It consistently skips and crackles. It is not all the time, but at least at the beginning of each song. The TV app seems to be ok. I watched an episode of a TV show and it sounded great. My phone calls dont crackle, but there is some low grade static. Overall, very disappointed. Most likely going back asap.

 

[Valavoom]

It really is strange. the music app seems to be the worst. It consistently skips and crackles. It is not all the time, but at least at the beginning of each song. The TV app seems to be ok. I watched an episode of a TV show and it sounded great. My phone calls dont crackle, but there is some low grade static. Overall, very disappointed. Most likely going back asap.

Thats what i noticed as well, withe other apps the symptom does not appear as often as apple music app. Will probably return mine this weekend.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Got my own 'pods only hours ago today so I haven't had much time to test, but I paired them with my iP7 in the store I bought them, stuck 'em in my ears right out of the charging case and went out into -7C icy weather for a long brisk walk through the city and listened to Spotify. Completely flawless performance, despite the cold and somewhat low battery capacity - when I bought them the case reported like 18%, and each pod said 67%. No idea if other music players might show different audio performance (I have nothing else to test with as I exclusively use Spotify), but that really should not be the case.

Then made two phonecalls when I came home, also worked pretty swell I must say. Sound seems a bit sharper than regular wired earpods - really brings out the poor sound quality of cellular telephony...

So in all, quite satisfied I must say. 100% would buy again!

 

[geraldem]

so doing some testing on these today. SiriusXM app, Spotify and other streaming services...work flawlessly. Apple Music...snap, crackle and pop! WTH?

 

[JTPRO]

I noticed very similar problems as described by users in this thread when paired to my iPhone7P however when I am listening using my iPad Pro 9.7 the airpods work flawlessly. Due to this I decided to clean up my iPhone. I cleared everything off by performing a reset of all content and settings and did NOT perform a restore. I set it up as a new phone and have been manually putting most of my apps back. HUGE improvement when using my airpods now. Rarely if ever get a blip or crackle now. I believe the problem for me at least was due to the source (iphone) and not the Airpods. I am very happy now with the purchase.

 

[geraldem]

I noticed very similar problems as described by users in this thread when paired to my iPhone7P however when I am listening using my iPad Pro 9.7 the airpods work flawlessly. Due to this I decided to clean up my iPhone. I cleared everything off by performing a reset of all content and settings and did NOT perform a restore. I set it up as a new phone and have been manually putting most of my apps back. HUGE improvement when using my airpods now. Rarely if ever get a blip or crackle now. I believe the problem for me at least was due to the source (iphone) and not the Airpods. I am very happy now with the purchase.

thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try. But I have to LOL...Apple has become Android now

 

[whsbuss]

Had the breakup today when in a store w/o wifi. Only happened at the beginning of each song then was fine. When I moved my IP7+ from my pocket to a chair next to me it stopped. Thinking its cellular related..... and yes it was on AM.

 

[geraldem]

Had the breakup today when in a store w/o wifi. Only happened at the beginning of each song then was fine. When I moved my IP7+ from my pocket to a chair next to me it stopped. Thinking its cellular related..... and yes it was on AM.

Yup..I really think it is a Apple Music issue. Not Bluetooth stack as other apps and streaming services don't seem to have an issue.

 

[whsbuss]

Yup..I really think it is a Apple Music issue. Not Bluetooth stack as other apps and streaming services don't seem to have an issue.

Agreed. However, I've noticed after a week or so of use, I need to restart my iPhone. What happens is when removing one pod it doesn't pause right away. Then when placing in ears from dental case, it takes a little longer to connect. A restart gets it all back again.

 

[geraldem]

In a strange turn ....last night I used my airpods on my one hour workout. Used Apple Music...it was flawless. Same songs and playlist...nothing changed, no tweaks.,etc. just no crackling.

Happy with turn of experience, but will continue to test

 

[TrueBlou]

There's always the possibility of a few gremlins in the AirPods firmware, the iOS side of things or both.

As much as we'd like and being Apple we (used to) expect a near faultless experience from day one that's not necessarily always possible. It's early days yet for them so hopefully sooner rather than later all of these little things will be ironed out.

I've yet to try mine though, just got them and they've been on charge. But I'm about to give them their first play test now so we'll see what happens. Though I'm using the developer beta of iOS so whether there's any difference in that relating to AirPods I'll have to investigate as I've not paid attention to that, thinking I'd be waiting 6 weeks for my AirPods.

 

[Valavoom]

Seems like lots of ppl are having the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/31216852

 

[colmaclean]

Seems like lots of ppl are having the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/31216852

Glad to see Apple are taking an interest in getting to the bottom of this.

I definitely experience a lot more audio dropouts using my AirPods when on the move and connected to cellular instead of WiFi.

 

[geraldem]

Well, now I had a bad day with the AirPods. My 5th workout with them and had lots of dropouts and crackling. that makes it 3 out of 5 workouts now. Can't find a cause, other than it is very frequent with Apple Music.

frustrated

 

[geraldem]

ok, latest update on my testing experience. I also have a S7Edge. Paired the AirPods with it, and with google play ...works flawlessly. So if you want to use ur AirPods with Android...works pretty well, iPhone not so much

 

[richard371]

I still get dropouts esp when my phone is in lte and I'm doing stuff. it's not always. My other bt earphones do this also maybe a little less but it still happens so I'm not convinced they are defective just yet since so many have this.

 

[AppleRobert]

Seems like cellular/wifi issue to me to tell the truth. Play something downloaded without needing any connection and let us know. Also is it happening only with the iPhone in your pocket when you have a network connection?