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0970373

Suspended
Mar 15, 2008
2,727
1,412
Thanks for sharing. While that seems reasonable, I'm really curious what causes the AirPods to drain while not in use.

Yeah, that's what I'm curious about also. I guess they are just always on standby, ready for use so it's a steady drain on the tiny battery and then the case trickle charges it constantly like the iPhone.
 

Casimono

macrumors member
Dec 27, 2009
41
7
Folks, I had the same problem (case got 3% down every hour), and I've fixed it (no drop or below 1% in 9.5 hours so far).

What i did is I reset my AirPods by doing step 4 of "If you can't set up yourAirPods" here: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207010

Press and hold the setup button for at least 15 seconds, until you see the status light flash amber a few times and then flash white.

Once I did that, I had to pair the AirPods again with my iPhone. The connection to my Mac was also gone. And my double-tap-to-pause preset was also gone. I had to redo all these, but since then it's been all smooth sailing :)

Hopefully this works for you too. Cheers!
 

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,165
6,313
Yeah, that's what I'm curious about also. I guess they are just always on standby, ready for use so it's a steady drain on the tiny battery and then the case trickle charges it constantly like the iPhone.

That was my guess initially, but then I thought the action of opening the case is what would cause them to become active and ready to connect. Hmm
 
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ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Jul 19, 2010
2,385
1,158
I just picked up my AirPods yesterday morning and after reading the article in the News section of MacRumors, I decided to charge mine up today and test it myself. Sure enough, I'm noticing the same thing. I let them charge up to 100% this morning and pulled them off before I went in to work. The case has been off the charger for about 3 hours now and the battery has already gone from 100% to 94% without me even using them once. So 6% in 3 hours and absolutely zero use.

I'm wondering if my unit is defective as well or if it's just the nature of the AirPods.
[doublepost=1483040644][/doublepost]
Folks, I had the same problem (case got 3% down every hour), and I've fixed it (no drop or below 1% in 9.5 hours so far).

What i did is I reset my AirPods by doing step 4 of "If you can't set up yourAirPods" here: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207010



Once I did that, I had to pair the AirPods again with my iPhone. The connection to my Mac was also gone. And my double-tap-to-pause preset was also gone. I had to redo all these, but since then it's been all smooth sailing :)

Hopefully this works for you too. Cheers!

Interesting, my case is going down about 2% every hour. Just tried what you suggested and re-paired my AirPods to my phone. Hopefully I notice a difference!
 

daijholt

macrumors 65816
Jun 14, 2013
1,113
343
Wales, UK
That was my guess initially, but then I thought the action of opening the case is what would cause them to become active and ready to connect. Hmm
I'm 100% sure this is the way it works, since when I open the case after not touching it for an extended period it takes a few seconds to pop up on the phone screen, whereas immediately after that first time, it happens instantly. Still leaves it a total mystery as to why the case battery is draining though.
 

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,165
6,313
I'm 100% sure this is the way it works, since when I open the case after not touching it for an extended period it takes a few seconds to pop up on the phone screen, whereas immediately after that first time, it happens instantly. Still leaves it a total mystery as to why the case battery is draining though.

Makes sense, right? Why have the AirPods or case actively waiting to connect when they can stay sleeping / have radios off until the action of flipping open the case occurs.
 

Eduardboon

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2012
269
39
For the first time I saw that the case did not show the lightning symbol that indicates charging. It seems that the case is constantly charging the AirPods, so they are probably always in use somehow, which makes no sense at all.

I bet that people without this issue won't see that symbol all the time next to the AirPods when looking at the status.
 

TurboPGT!

Suspended
Sep 25, 2015
1,595
2,620
AirPods are not "totally unique". Different or novel is about as far as I would go.
Well thats factually incorrect, which defuncts pretty much anything else you have to say on the matter.
[doublepost=1483057466][/doublepost]
they are probably always in use somehow, which makes no sense at all.

For crying out loud, it makes perfect frigging sense, because they are lithium ion battery-sporting micro computers running actual silicon, and they are not being turned off. Of course they are draining when not "in use".
 

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,165
6,313
Well thats factually incorrect, which defuncts pretty much anything else you have to say on the matter.
[doublepost=1483057466][/doublepost]

For crying out loud, it makes perfect frigging sense, because they are lithium ion battery-sporting micro computers running actual silicon, and they are not being turned off. Of course they are draining when not "in use".

Really? That's the explanation you're going with? That they're small computers which are never being turned off. That's the whole relationship you kept mentioning about between the case and the AirPods? Wow.

So it's normal for the AirPods, while not in use, and could have the BT radios powered down, deplete the case battery at a rate of up to 5% per hour? Yeah, makes perfect sense alright.
[doublepost=1483059606][/doublepost]Well, this is interesting. Last night I unplugged my wife's AirPods from charge as well once they were at 100%. Purposely asked her not to use them all day. 24 hours later, they're fully charged. Nearly the whole day they've been at home and not in range of her iPhone (though one would expect that not to make a difference).

I would have though a few percent depletion.

2i7v79j.png
 
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Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,928
3,935
Atlanta, USA
That was my guess initially, but then I thought the action of opening the case is what would cause them to become active and ready to connect. Hmm
I agree. There's no reason for them to be doing anything when the case is closed.

Just to add another data point: my AirPods and case were all at 100% about six hours ago. The case has remained closed since and I haven't used the Airpods at all. The case is now down to 79%.

This doesn't look good.
 
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Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,711
4,491
Here
My case has been unplugged for 20 hours and has recharged my AirPods twice, once from 45% and once from like 83% and it's at 73%. Not bad.
 
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profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,165
6,313
I agree. There's no reason for them to be doing anything when the case is closed.

Just to add another data point: my AirPods and case were all at 100% about six hours ago. The case has remained closed since and I haven't used the Airpods at all. The case is now down to 79%.

This doesn't look good.

A friend of mine's is similar. Took it off charge this morning, and avoided using them all day. Case is down to 70% after 12 hours.

My case has been unplugged for 20 hours and has recharged my AirPods twice, once from 45% and once from like 83% and it's at 73%. Not bad.

That's not bad. My case is at 63% (AirPods at 100%). Took it off charge 14 hours ago. Used a single AirPod for about 4 hours today.
 

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,257
10,215
San Jose, CA
I also can't charge the case on my PC while my iPhone charges just fine on it.
I just tried and the case does charge when connected to my PC. You need to install the latest version of iTunes for Windows, which comes with a driver for the Airpod case. You should then see Windows installing an Airpods device when you first connect it.
 

nheilweil

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2008
612
154
Redmond, WA
I agree. There's no reason for them to be doing anything when the case is closed.

Just to add another data point: my AirPods and case were all at 100% about six hours ago. The case has remained closed since and I haven't used the AirPods at all. The case is now down to 79%.

This doesn't look good.
Same thing here -- three hours ago my AirPods and case were both at 100%. The case has remained closed since and I haven't used the Airpods at all. The case is now down to 90%.

The charging icon is on next to the AirPods. Stop charging them -- they're already at 100%!
 

jterp7

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2011
1,292
161
Wifes airpods and case both at 100%. She only used it an hour or so the first day but it doesnt seem to suffer the same issue. She never paired it with the computer like i did.
 

mistame

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2014
87
42
I received my AirPods yesterday, and after previously reading about the battery issues, I decided to test them straight out of the box. I paired them at 4:45pm and never removed them from the case, which was at 68% out of the box. Here's the battery percentage log (in order of Case / Left Ear / Right Ear):
  • 4:45pm: 68% / 100% / 100%
  • 5:45pm: 65% / 97% / 97%
  • 8:45pm: 56% / 100% / 100%
  • 9:45pm: 54% / 97% / 97%
  • 10:45pm: 41% / 97% / 100%
  • 12:00am: 39% / 99% / 99%
  • 1:00am: 38% / 100% / 99%
  • 2:00am: 37% / 96% / 100%
  • 5:45am: 30% / 100% / 100%
  • 10:00am: 14% / 100% / 100%
  • 11:00am: 9% / 100% / 99%
  • 12:00pm: 5% / 98% / 98%
  • 1:00pm: 3% / 95% / 95%
  • 2:00pm: Case is dead / 93% / 93%
You can see that, at best, it depleted ~1%/hour, usually ~2%/hour, but some wild swings of 5-13% drops in an hour. By 2pm today, less than 24 hours after pairing them, the case was dead without ever taking them out of the case.

After a complete discharge, I'm re-testing to see if there is any change. If not, I'll try a few other things. The firmware version on them is 3.3.1.
 

daijholt

macrumors 65816
Jun 14, 2013
1,113
343
Wales, UK
Folks, I had the same problem (case got 3% down every hour), and I've fixed it (no drop or below 1% in 9.5 hours so far).

What i did is I reset my AirPods by doing step 4 of "If you can't set up yourAirPods" here: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207010



Once I did that, I had to pair the AirPods again with my iPhone. The connection to my Mac was also gone. And my double-tap-to-pause preset was also gone. I had to redo all these, but since then it's been all smooth sailing :)

Hopefully this works for you too. Cheers!
This worked for me. I was losing 5% an hour before, and I did this last night, left the case and pods together overnight and 7.5 hours later the case is still on 99% with the pods on 100%.

Seems like the drain is mostly a software issue.
 

mistame

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2014
87
42
5% battery drop per hour, IN THE CASE seems reasonable?
:D

And in my case, upwards of 13% in 1 hour. That's more than the AirPods lose in 1 hour when they're out the the case playing music in the same timespan. While it is reasonable to expect a level of discharge while sitting in the case, the "not understanding the relationship" comes from he fact that one group of people here see very minimal to no discharge in "standby" mode after several hours and another group of people see a large amount of discharge. Given that information, I don't think that qualifies as "false suppositions".
 

teidon

macrumors 6502
Dec 22, 2009
443
213
Just to add another data point: my AirPods and case were all at 100% about six hours ago. The case has remained closed since and I haven't used the Airpods at all. The case is now down to 79%.

This doesn't look good.
That doesn't seem normal. Have you tried to reset them? Put the Pods in the case, open the case and hold the button for 15s until the charging light blinks amber and then blinks white. It's some kind of factory reset, so you'll lose all settings and also have to pair them again.

I received my AirPods yesterday, and after previously reading about the battery issues, I decided to test them straight out of the box. I paired them at 4:45pm and never removed them from the case
It doesn't matter if you take them out of the case or not. As soon as you open the case the three devices are brought up to full operation. When the case is closed they are in power saving mode, and I believe that there is also a deep power saving mode they will enter if the lid isn't opened for X hours.
 

turbineseaplane

macrumors P6
Mar 19, 2008
17,376
40,151
I haven't used my Airpods in 2 days. Case is dead and I'd just fully charged it and used the Airpods for about 10 min before putting them away before now.

Going to try that reset others mentioned, otherwise it's return and check back later.

Not interested in testing their issues at $160 and I'd rather stab myself than go deal with the "genius" bar.
 

mistame

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2014
87
42
It doesn't matter if you take them out of the case or not. As soon as you open the case the three devices are brought up to full operation. When the case is closed they are in power saving mode, and I believe that there is also a deep power saving mode they will enter if the lid isn't opened for X hours.

Yep, understood. It was more an emphasis on the fact that I did not actually use them, as in spend any amount of time making phone calls or playing music. And while it's logical, and plausible, that there is indeed a "deep" power saving mode, even when "active" they shouldn't be draining faster than when I do actually listen to music for an hour.
 
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Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
I think it's reasonable to expect some battery use when they're in the case as there is no power on / off option on the airpods (so the best they can do is go into deep sleep) - I'd suggest 1% to 5% per day wouldn't be unreasonable.

However, it isn't reasonable to expect the power drains some people have been seeing and I'd say in those instances there's an issue with them - if a reset doesn't fix it, then I'd suggest those units are faulty and should be replaced
 
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