AirPods case bad standby battery life

[Lihp8270]

I couldn't help myself, and I had a look.

In the last 3 hours, there has been ZERO loss of battery. I still don't believe it. Though since doing this, my watch battery has started to drain excessively again. So I've had to do the reset all settings fix to sort that now

Incidentally, the watch when it has drainage trouble is 2 to 3% per hour loss. Which is similar to what the AirPods are. I don't believe in coincidences, maybe it's an iOS issue?

 

[GlenK]

Charged both to 100% yesterday and disconnected at 5pm. 15 hours later pods are at 100% and case is at 99%.
Never opened them for the 15 hours. Have been very happy with battery life and seem to be getting better than advertised.

 

[tomaustin44]

I couldn't help myself, and I had a look.

In the last 3 hours, there has been ZERO loss of battery. I still don't believe it. Though since doing this, my watch battery has started to drain excessively again. So I've had to do the reset all settings fix to sort that now

Incidentally, the watch when it has drainage trouble is 2 to 3% per hour loss. Which is similar to what the AirPods are. I don't believe in coincidences, maybe it's an iOS issue?

So to clarify... since taking off charge this morning you've only lost 7% and have used the Airpods for just over 60 mins for playback? That seems much more reasonable. Will be interested in seeing how they fare overnight but fingers crossed.

 

[Lihp8270]

So to clarify... since taking off charge this morning you've only lost 7% and have used the Airpods for just over 60 mins for playback? That seems much more reasonable. Will be interested in seeing how they fare overnight but fingers crossed.

Removed from charge at 9am, used them from 9:35am till 11:20am. When I put them back in the case was still at 100%, the AirPods down to 73%.

Checked at 1230 case at 93%, checked at 1530 and the case is still at 93%

I'm not holding my breath. I'm waiting for a huge drop off.
[doublepost=1483631765][/doublepost]While waiting for this big drop though. I've opened and closed a few times in the past 30 minutes, and it has dropped 2% though.

Hopefully that is me, but in that time. I have also erased by phones settings, and network settings to sort the watch issue.
[doublepost=1483631886][/doublepost]I will be using them at about 6pm for a few an hour or so. Then I will check them this evening before I go to bed. I'm struggling to not keep checking

 

[Chaarrliie]

How long do you think should last a normal case on stand-by?
For mine (when I described its behavior to Apple they decided to send a replacement) they haven't lasted 48 hours yet...

I feel that, if I charge the lot and leave it on stand-by it could do okay, but as soon as I use the AirPods, even just a bit, and place them back in the case, the case battery starts to drop quickly

 

[NauticalDan]

LOG 1 at 68 hour mark: 3.5 hours music playback, 64.5 hours standby. CHARGE: 34%
(this was with Auto Ear Detection: ON and Double Tab: SIRI)

LOG 2 68 hours: 6 hours music playback, 62 hours standby. CHARGE: 37%
(this was with Auto Ear Detection: OFF and Double Tab: OFF)

If I assume 5 hours of AirPods music playback results in 25% of the case charge being used, then the standby discharge rates are:

LOG 1: 0.75% per hour
LOG 2: 0.53% per hour

But since LOG 2 is still ongoing right now, it could just be some variability and I'd rather see what the totals are for the full discharge. It isn't really a big enough difference right now to draw any conclusions. I suppose it looks like I'm doing a bit better with the sensors turned off (but also doing a few less checks of just opening the case and closing too which could explain some difference). I don't think the sensors are the smoking gun here.

For the next charge cycle (LOG 3), I'll turn the sensors back on and only check the charge levels when I take the AirPods out of the case to use and when I put them back in the case after use. Then I'll do the same with the sensors turned off again (LOG 4).

LOG 1 (all sensors on).
Thurs 1330 - AirPods 98 / case 100
Fri 0500 - AirPods 100 / case 97
Fri 0600 - AirPods 97 / case 97
(used for 30 min, music)
Fri 0630 - AirPods 89 / case 96
Fri 0800 - AirPods 100 / case 87
Fri 1200 - AirPods 100 / case 81
Fri 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 75
Sat 0700 - AirPods 100 / case 72
Sat 0930 - AirPods 100 / case 65
(used for 140 min music, 10 min talk)
Sat 1200 - AirPods 47 / case 64
Sat 1330 - AirPods 100 / case 44
Sat 1830 - AirPods 100 / case 38
Sun 0900 - AirPods 100 / case 34
Sun 1100 - AirPods 100 / case 29
(used for 120 min music)
Sun 1300 - AirPods 63 / case 27
Sun 1430 - AirPods 100 / case 5
Sun 1530 - AirPods 95 / case 2
Sun 1630 - AirPods 94 / case 0
Sun 2030 - AirPods 72 / case dead
Sun 2130 - AirPods 63 / case dead
Sun 2230 - AirPods 55/68 / case dead
Mon 0200 - AirPods 33/52 / case dead
Mon 0600 - AirPods 11/36 / case dead

LOG 2 (all sensors off)
Mon 1300 - AirPods 100 / case 100
Tues 0700 - AirPods 100 / case 100
(60 min use, music)
Tues 0800 - AirPods 82 / case 100
Tues 1100 - AirPods 100 / case 92
Tues 1400 - AirPods 100 / case 84
Tues 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 83
(30 min use, music)
Tues 1630 - AirPods 93 / case 82
Wed 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 70
(120 min use, music)
Wed 0800 - AirPods 63 / case 70
Wed 1530 - AirPods 100 / case 60
(30 min use, music)
Wed 1600 - AirPods 91 / case 60
Wed 1900 - AirPods 100 / case 54
Thurs 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 48
(120 min use, music)
Thurs 0800 - AirPods 62 / case 48
Thurs 0900 - AirPods 100 / case 37

 

[Chaarrliie]

I have something like 25-30% drop in 18 hours of stand-by, would you consider it as not normal? Thanks

 

[NauticalDan]

I have something like 25-30% drop in 18 hours of stand-by, would you consider it as not normal? Thanks

Yeah, that's pretty normal. You can't really just look at an 18 hour period though. I've seen no drop in 18 hours and then 30% drop in about the same time period. It averages out about the same though over multiple days.

 

[Chaarrliie]

Yeah, that's pretty normal. You can't really just look at an 18 hour period though. I've seen no drop in 18 hours and then 30% drop in about the same time period. It averages out about the same though over multiple days.

Thanks. It's really weird that Apple hasn't got a clue about the average battery life. I described that to them - just wanted to have a better understanding - and they said it's not normal and scheduled a replacement (delivery in 6 weeks whereas I have to give my set to UPS in the next 48h)... (I'm still taking notes and reports on my own to try and see if I notice something weird, the day before it was 50% drop in 24h)

Maybe we should just leave the case charging every time de don't need to have it in our pockets :/

 

[NauticalDan]

Thanks. It's really weird that Apple hasn't got a clue about the average battery life. I described that to them - just wanted to have a better understanding - and they said it's not normal and scheduled a replacement (delivery in 6 weeks whereas I have to give my set to UPS in the next 48h)...

Yeah, it's really weird they don't know.

The way they tested battery life to get their battery life claims was to use the AirPods until fully discharged, then charge them in the case for 30 minutes and repeat that cycle until all the battery was dead.

So did they not bother to test the standby time and it got unnoticed? Or did they test the standby time and just not think it was an important measurement to include in battery life estimates? We may never know.

 

[Chaarrliie]

Yeah, it's really weird they don't know.

The way they tested battery life to get their battery life claims was to use the AirPods until fully discharged, then charge them in the case for 30 minutes and repeat that cycle until all the battery was dead.

So did they not bother to test the standby time and it got unnoticed? Or did they test the standby time and just not think it was an important measurement to include in battery life estimates? We may never know.

So now I have to give up my pair and wait 3 to 6 weeks to get a new one that may not even be better :/

 

[Nitens]

Hi everyone. I had this problem since I got them. I definitely noticed that airpods discharges to 94-95% and then the case tops them to 100% again. So my case is fine, airpods are not.

I tried resetting, I tried calibrating batteries (both airpods' and case's). Nothing works.
Apple has no stocks so they can't replace mine. I'm waiting for them to be available again or for a firmware update. I would be very happy if they could just fix it with a firmware update. Right now I'm a bit sad: they costed me 179€ but are defective.

 

[0970373]

Test #3 with auto ear detection off on all iCloud connected devices. After 24 hours, this is definitely a big factor in battery brain if not the main culprit. It still automatically connects via BT to your last connected device and I still had tap to play/pause on. It makes sense. If ear-detection is on, the proximity sensors are always on and drains the battery for the Pods, as it drains, the case charges it.

Day 1, Hour 0 - 6:30p: Pods 100%, Case 100%
Day 1, Hour 5 - 11:30p: Pods 100%, Case 100%
Day 2, Hour 21 - 3:30p: Pods 100%, Case 93%

I'll continue this current test for another day to see the battery but at this point, I have decided to keep them and will be using them and charging them as needed. Hopefully Apple will fix the drain w/ a firmware update though.

My 2nd test going until the case was pretty much depleted. I reset & repaired the case prior to the test. I have the AirPods on multiple devices via iCloud, same as my first test. Ear-detection was also on for both tests.

Hour 0: 11:44P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 100%
Hour 3: 3:08A - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 93%
Hour 14: 2:35P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 86%
Hour 17: 5:39P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 76%
Hour 24: 11:12P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 69%
Hour 27: 2:15A - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 51%
Hour 37: 12:23P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 44%
Hour 40: 3:02P - AirPods 100% (charging), Case 34%
Hour 51: 2:40P - AirPods 91% (charging), Case 3%

I'm going to do another test and turn ear-detection off and have removed it from my MBP & ATV4.

 

[NauticalDan]

Test #3 with auto ear detection off on all iCloud connected devices. After 24 hours, this is definitely a big factor in battery brain if not the main culprit. It still automatically connects via BT to your last connected device and I still had tap to play/pause on.

Day 1, Hour 0 - 6:30p: Pods 100%, Case 100%
Day 1, Hour 5 - 11:30p: Pods 100%, Case 100%
Day 2, Hour 21 - 3:30p: Pods 100%, Case 93%

You can't draw any conclusion yet that Auto Ear Detection is the main culprit. Even with that on, my first log I only dropped 3% over a 16 hour period. You dropped 7%. Keep going for sure to see what the totals are after fully discharged, but right now it's just some minor variation (we often see drops of 10% in a few hours, but then it stays flat for almost a day). It's the average over a longer period of time that is important.

 

[0970373]

You can't draw any conclusion yet that Auto Ear Detection is the main culprit. Even with that on, my first log I only dropped 3% over a 16 hour period. You dropped 7%. Keep going for sure to see what the totals are after fully discharged, but right now it's just some minor variation (we often see drops of 10% in a few hours, but then it stays flat for almost a day). It's the average over a longer period of time that is important.

Honestly, I didn't buy these to test so I'm just gonna use them because that's what I bought them for. I figured out on my end what what affecting it so that's that.

 

[NauticalDan]

I dropped from 37% to 30% in the last 4 hours with no use (auto ear detection off). But I dropped 6% overnight (11 hours). If you look at small windows of time (anything less than 2-3 days), it can vary a lot.

 

[Chaarrliie]

Hi everyone. I had this problem since I got them. I definitely noticed that airpods discharges to 94-95% and then the case tops them to 100% again. So my case is fine, airpods are not.

I tried resetting, I tried calibrating batteries (both airpods' and case's). Nothing works.
Apple has no stocks so they can't replace mine. I'm waiting for them to be available again or for a firmware update. I would be very happy if they could just fix it with a firmware update. Right now I'm a bit sad: they costed me 179€ but are defective.

For my first pair Apple website said 4 weeks delay but I got them 20 days earlier, I hope it will do the same with the replacement...
[doublepost=1483658380][/doublepost]Ok so today I had a 40% drop on the case in 24 hours and I didn't use them at all.
Still sounds normal?

 

[zea mays]

This has been interesting to follow. I let my AirPods and case drain to almost zero (couldn't get the case to go below 5%). Last night I took the case off the charger and had R AirPod at 100% and L AirPod at 0% - case was 100%. When I woke this morning, both AirPods were at 100% and case was at 91%. I haven't used them at all today and the case remains at 91% and AirPods at 100% each. Here's hoping it stays that way!

Well, that didn't last. My AirPods performed awesome battery wise for the first couple days. Since then, I can only reliably get 2.5 hours from a single charge until they shut off. Also, my battery case is losing about 50% every 12 hours even when not using the AirPods.

I emailed Tim Cook's office because I wanted to know if the firmware was indeed update-able. I knew that the genius bar or Apple support wouldn't know that so I went right to the top to get that question answered. I was completely happy waiting until there was a firmware update if that was possible - I just wanted to know so I could make an educated decision.

Executive relations got in contact with me. The engineers wanted my AirPods for testing so we've arranged a switch for new ones next Wednesday. I'm very interested to see what the next pair does battery-wise.

 

[NauticalDan]

Just a quick update... my case discharged quite a lot today with no use. Between 9am-1pm it discharged 7%. Between 1pm-4pm it discharged 10%.

It has 20% charge left. Taking the actual usage and corresponding case battery power required to recharge AirPods due to use out of the equation, the discharge rates look like this:

1st log (auto ear detection: on and double tab:siri)
0.75% per hour in standby

2nd log (auto ear detection: off and double tab: off)
0.72% per hour in standby

I'll run it down completely to 0%, but it's looking like just a lot of variability in the battery meter readings, especially at fuller charges, and the average over the entire life from 100% to 0% will be about the same with or without sensors turned on.

I think that explains a bit why many people seem to go for entire overnight periods at 100% with almost no case drain. I think the case is draining - it's just that battery meter not registering it. And then as that progresses, it catches up.

Log 2 (auto ear detection: off. double tap: off)
Mon 1300 - AirPods 100 / case 100
Tues 0700 - AirPods 100 / case 100
(60 min use, music)
Tues 0800 - AirPods 82 / case 100
Tues 1100 - AirPods 100 / case 92
Tues 1400 - AirPods 100 / case 84
Tues 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 83
(30 min use, music)
Tues 1630 - AirPods 93 / case 82
Wed 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 70
(120 min use, music)
Wed 0800 - AirPods 63 / case 70
Wed 1530 - AirPods 100 / case 60
(30 min use, music)
Wed 1600 - AirPods 91 / case 60
Wed 1900 - AirPods 100 / case 54
Thurs 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 48
(120 min use, music)
Thurs 0800 - AirPods 62 / case 48
Thurs 0900 - AirPods 100 / case 37
Thurs 1300 - AirPods 100 / case 30
Thurs 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 20

 

[mspikes]

I've been reading the posts here and thought I'd add my own. I've had the battery draining problem with TWO pairs of AirPods. I ordered the first through Apple.com, and got them on December 19th, went into my local Apple Store to complain on January 2nd, and was told that they would replace them for me once they had them back in stock. Luckily, it only took 2 days for them to call me and tell me to come pick up a new pair.

Even after getting the new pair, I find that the case loses 35%-45% of its life throughout the day without any use of the earbuds. This has been consistent with both pairs I've tried. I've tried resetting the buds, but it dosen't help. I even had one occasion where the case died, and I couldn't connect to the buds, despite them being at 99 & 87% when I popped one back into a case that was around 25% charge about 20 minutes before I went to use them again.

The support team dosen't seem to have a good explanation for why this is happening, and while I appreciate the speed at which I got a replacement, it looks like I can't depend on these for my use case, which is pretty light. So, they'll be going back to the store.

 

[tomaustin44]

I will be using them at about 6pm for a few an hour or so. Then I will check them this evening before I go to bed. I'm struggling to not keep checking

Any update on your situation? I tried your charge all night unpaired strategy... will keep you all posted. Good to hear reports of a few people being contacted by Apple Care and the Executive Team (here and on the other thread). Hopefully means they're investigating.

 

[The Game 161]

charged mine yesterday morning and the case is still on 78% at 11.am the next day even though i've used the air pods for a good amount of time as well. i bet i could last at least a week with the case before needing to charge it.

 

[NauticalDan]

I finished the other log of the battery case drain. I'll post both below for easy reference, for anyone that cares.

Log 1 had auto ear detection ON and double tab SIRI. While in standby, the case discharged an average of 1.07% per hour.

Log 2 had auto ear detection OFF and double tab OFF. While in standby, the case discharged an average of 0.82% per hour.

To calculate the case discharge rate per hour, I subtracted the case charge that would have been needed to recharge after use, based on the case providing an extra 19 hours music use or 9 hours talk time use.

Doesn't look like the sensors are the problem here. The case discharge rate was a little less with the sensors off, but not really all that much. You'd have to run through that test many times to really see if it makes a difference.

Another thing I noticed, the battery meter fell an awful lot faster in both tests when it was at a lower percentages. At higher percentages it looked like there was almost no case drain. But in both cases, the rate of case drain got much worse as it was draining towards 0%. If I were to subtract the last 24 hours from each of these aprox. 3 day tests, the rate of case drain would have shown to be a 1/3 or 1/2 less. Maybe just inaccurate battery meters catching up as the charge goes down? Anyone who routinely charges before the case reaches about 60-70% probably would not notice the issue.

Gonna do the test again, in the name of science! But I think I only care to do it once or twice more before I don't care about it anymore. hehe

For the next one, I'll turn all the sensors back on, and only check battery levels right before use and right after use. I suppose there could be a bug where if you open the case and close it without taking them out, it sends a power up signal but not the right power down signal? That's a long shot, but who knows.

Log 1 (auto ear detection: on. double tap: siri)
Thurs 1330 - AirPods 98 / case 100
Fri 0500 - AirPods 100 / case 97
Fri 0600 - AirPods 97 / case 97
(used for 30 min, music)
Fri 0630 - AirPods 89 / case 96
Fri 0800 - AirPods 100 / case 87
Fri 1200 - AirPods 100 / case 81
Fri 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 75
Sat 0700 - AirPods 100 / case 72
Sat 0930 - AirPods 100 / case 65
(used for 140 min music, 10 min talk)
Sat 1200 - AirPods 47 / case 64
Sat 1330 - AirPods 100 / case 44
Sat 1830 - AirPods 100 / case 38
Sun 0900 - AirPods 100 / case 34
Sun 1100 - AirPods 100 / case 29
(used for 120 min music)
Sun 1300 - AirPods 63 / case 27
Sun 1430 - AirPods 100 / case 5
Sun 1530 - AirPods 95 / case 2
Sun 1630 - AirPods 94 / case 0
Sun 2030 - AirPods 72 / case dead
Sun 2130 - AirPods 63 / case dead
Sun 2230 - AirPods 55/68 / case dead
Mon 0200 - AirPods 33/52 / case dead
Mon 0600 - AirPods 11/36 / case dead


Log 2 (auto ear detection: off. double tap: off)
Mon 1300 - AirPods 100 / case 100
Tues 0700 - AirPods 100 / case 100
(60 min use, music)
Tues 0800 - AirPods 82 / case 100
Tues 1100 - AirPods 100 / case 92
Tues 1400 - AirPods 100 / case 84
Tues 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 83
(30 min use, music)
Tues 1630 - AirPods 93 / case 82
Wed 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 70
(120 min use, music)
Wed 0800 - AirPods 63 / case 70
Wed 1530 - AirPods 100 / case 60
(30 min use, music)
Wed 1600 - AirPods 91 / case 60
Wed 1900 - AirPods 100 / case 54
Thurs 0600 - AirPods 100 / case 48
(120 min use, music)
Thurs 0800 - AirPods 62 / case 48
Thurs 0900 - AirPods 100 / case 37
Thurs 1300 - AirPods 100 / case 30
Thurs 1600 - AirPods 100 / case 20
Thurs 2000 - AirPods 100 / case 18
Fri 0600 - AirPods 95 / case 4
Fri 0610 - AirPods 93 / case 3
Fri 0800 - AirPods 88 / case dead

 

[eneisch]

Check out this Reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/co...e_drain_i_have_a_fix/?st=IXM4Y8TU&sh=ec4e2ec6

The person reset their AirPods so they were not connected to any devices or iCloud account. He let the case sit and neither the AirPods or case experienced any drain. Based on this they are theorizing that it is a connection problem that the AirPods always have some sort of connection which is causing the battery drain. Maybe it is not a connection, but rather is searching for a connection. They theorize that this indicates a software rather than hardware problem.

 

[nheilweil]

My case by itself doesn't have any problems holding onto battery charge. My AirPods by themselves don't have a problem holding their battery charge (well slight drain but not bad). However, put my AirPods in the case (AirPods and case both at 100%) and they drain like crazy requiring the case to keep them at 100% and thus dropping the case's battery level. I can tell it's the AirPods because I can see them dropping down to as low as 95% and then back up to 100% once the case refills them.