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AirPods case bad standby battery life
- Thread starter ssrij
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Well as promised I would do a full depletion and then recharge both the case and pods.
Now 18 hours later without using the pods nor taking them out of the case, the case is already down to 79% !
Together with the limited options for volume and track control, and the pods not being super comfortable in my ears anyway, I've decided to send them back.
No biggie...it was interesting testing out the airpods and they are certainly a great piece of tech.
Now 18 hours later without using the pods nor taking them out of the case, the case is already down to 79% !
Together with the limited options for volume and track control, and the pods not being super comfortable in my ears anyway, I've decided to send them back.
No biggie...it was interesting testing out the airpods and they are certainly a great piece of tech.
It's a good thought, but the AirPods should be in standby / nearly powered down and not using any of these features until the case is opened.
Question for people without drain:
When you look at the status when the airpods are at 100 percent. Does the lightning symbol show?
When you look at the status when the airpods are at 100 percent. Does the lightning symbol show?
Only one data point (my wife's AirPods), but in the screenshot I shared a few pages back the AirPods showed the charging symbol (both AirPods and Case were at 100%)
All the stores in Canada seem to have stock. I'm going to pick up a replacement today for myself and see how it fares.
Have you tried resetting the AirPods? Guide: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...dby-battery-life.2022799/page-5#post-24130344
Is there any way to check the build date of certain shipments by serial number? Or maybe if those who are having problems could post when they ordered and received their AirPods?
It seems clear that some are having problems while others are not, so maybe there's a couple bad batches out there.
Following closely, because I was hoping to get a pair once the dust settles...lol
It seems clear that some are having problems while others are not, so maybe there's a couple bad batches out there.
Following closely, because I was hoping to get a pair once the dust settles...lol
I charged up everything a few hours ago, case dropped to 98, pods change all the time, especially the right earpiece seems to drop to 98 a lot, the case then does not charge the left one, but just the right one. Seems a bit weird.
Yup - did it last night and then gave them a full charge. Wanted to see yesterday what a typical day is like.
Further observations:
My wife and I have a pair each. I charged both sets fully last night and then left them both, right beside their iPhones for 8 hours overnight. In the morning both sets were showing their Airpods at 100% but both cases had lost 2%. Not so bad now.
This morning, I haven't used my set at all, but after 3 more hours, the case is down a further 6%.
All I've done with it is open and close the lid a few times to check the battery. The Airpods are still siting right beside their iPhone.
So now I'm wondering if opening/closing the lid kicks them out of some sort of deep-sleep mode and uses some case battery? I have to admit, I like idly opening and closing the lid. It makes a nice satisfying snap as it closes!
My wife and I have a pair each. I charged both sets fully last night and then left them both, right beside their iPhones for 8 hours overnight. In the morning both sets were showing their Airpods at 100% but both cases had lost 2%. Not so bad now.
This morning, I haven't used my set at all, but after 3 more hours, the case is down a further 6%.
All I've done with it is open and close the lid a few times to check the battery. The Airpods are still siting right beside their iPhone.So now I'm wondering if opening/closing the lid kicks them out of some sort of deep-sleep mode and uses some case battery? I have to admit, I like idly opening and closing the lid. It makes a nice satisfying snap as it closes!
It doesn't only kick it out of deep sleep but it completely wakes all three. They all need to wake up, perform some self-checks, (attempt to) connect to the device they were last connected to and if successful negotiate some things with the device (like battery levels). And when you close the lid, all three needs to go to sleep which might again require them to perform some actions.
I think this is one of the biggest problems Apple is facing with the AirPods right now. It's too satisfying and fun to play with the case (I do it too much myself). But unfortunately it will drain the batteries which will lead to people complaining about bad battery time.I have to admit, I like idly opening and closing the lid. It makes a nice satisfying snap as it closes!
But according to what some forum members have said, there seems to be some real issues too affecting the battery time. Maybe some bugs in the firmware or some hardware issues. Hopefully Apple can sort them out with an update.
just a report back...after a couple of cycles of charging mine are great....
took the case off my charger yesterday at 8am....used one ear pod all day at work yesterday.
left in the case overnight (did not charge the case again)
this am both pods 100%
case 63%
thats pretty damn good if you ask me...
took the case off my charger yesterday at 8am....used one ear pod all day at work yesterday.
left in the case overnight (did not charge the case again)
this am both pods 100%
case 63%
thats pretty damn good if you ask me...
Did the AirPod last all day at work without needing to be charged?
It's definitely not inconvenient, but 1/3rd of the case's battery drained from charging a single AirPod doesn't seem expected. Unless you charged the AirPod multiple times?
[doublepost=1483121666][/doublepost]I picked up a new set of AirPods today from Apple. Paired them (named them to AirPods 2 so I can distinguish between both) and gave them a full charge. Curious to see how these fare compared to the original pair.
Also, my original pair, came off of full charge at 7am (6 hours ago). Haven't used them at all, but the case is at 88% and the AirPods are at 94%.
Interesting that you say that. I just got my AirPods a couple days ago, but I noticed over last night the case lost 6%. I then left my house this morning for about 3 and a half hours, leaving the AirPods at home and the case and then lost another 6%.
It sounds pretty typical, but if the battery wasn't draining when not in use, the case should be 90%. Not 63%.
(assuming your one AirPod was dead, the other unused, and it takes 10% of the case's charge to charge a single AirPod from 0% to 100%).
In real life, the AirPods seem to always be on/standby. The AirPods seem to loose about 2.5-5% per hour even if not in use. Based on that, up to 20% of the case discharged each day while "standing by" makes sense.
Don't get me wrong - I see enough variation in this that it drives me nuts and looking for a pattern doesn't make any sense. But on the average, this is what it seems to be and I'm just gonna assume that when 15 hours goes by and my airpods and charge case still show 100%, it's gonna go down and the average is going to be about the same which shows the AirPods just always draining about 2 or 3% per hour.
It looks like turning off the automatic ear detection improves battery life, but not enough real use to see if that is just a fluke.
I've followed this thread and wondered if my own AirPods would sort themselves out after a few cycles.
My case and AirPods were both 100% and I used the AirPods until they completely discharged (I'm also not getting the 5 hours on a full charge and it's closer to 4 hours). I put them back in the case and charged them from the case (not plugged into power) and the AirPods recharged and the case dropped to 60%. By my own working out, that gives just over two charges from a case which would work out at just over 10 hours of playback. This is nowhere near the 24 hours in Apple's marketing materials.
Anyone else with a similar experience?
My case and AirPods were both 100% and I used the AirPods until they completely discharged (I'm also not getting the 5 hours on a full charge and it's closer to 4 hours). I put them back in the case and charged them from the case (not plugged into power) and the AirPods recharged and the case dropped to 60%. By my own working out, that gives just over two charges from a case which would work out at just over 10 hours of playback. This is nowhere near the 24 hours in Apple's marketing materials.
Anyone else with a similar experience?
Yup, my original definitely is. While I feel like it's good battery life in general, and very convenient to throw them in the case for storage and having them charged as a result, it doesn't seem to come close to Apple's claim of 24 hours of use.
Here's some use over almost a 24 hour period (mostly stanby, but you get the picture).
I don't think it really matters that the case looked like it only discharged from 100 to 97 over the first 16 hours. I'm pretty sure the battery percentages aren't as accurate in such small batteries, and it's just fooling you a bit. You really have to see what use and standby you get over the entire charge/discharge cycle to see the reality.
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
I don't think it really matters that the case looked like it only discharged from 100 to 97 over the first 16 hours. I'm pretty sure the battery percentages aren't as accurate in such small batteries, and it's just fooling you a bit. You really have to see what use and standby you get over the entire charge/discharge cycle to see the reality.
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
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I don't get it.
My wife's AirPods after nearly 36 hours:
My original ones after 11 hours with zero use:
And my new pair after 6 hours with zero use:
Something definitely isn't right. My original pair that has discharged to 73% in 11 hours, I'm going to let them die completely without using them at all. Curious how long it'll take.
My wife's AirPods after nearly 36 hours:
My original ones after 11 hours with zero use:
And my new pair after 6 hours with zero use:
Something definitely isn't right. My original pair that has discharged to 73% in 11 hours, I'm going to let them die completely without using them at all. Curious how long it'll take.
I'll bet Apple is going to update these to not include the battery percentage anymore.
Anyways, I've gone 15-20 hours with my pair of AirPods and case fully charged without any noticeable case drain. But if I look over a period of days, not hours, it's clear the AirPods themselves are draining about 3-4% per hour on average while just sitting in the case. That results in a case drain of up to 20% per day.
If I add up the actual use of the AirPods and the standby time, it's fairly consistent over a period of days (don't bother trying to see what happens after an hour or two - it isn't a long enough period of time to be accurate). I go periods of many hours where it looks like the case drain isn't happening - but I think it is. It's simply the battery meter isn't all that accurate, especially when at a full charge. You really have to sort of add up what you get from use and standby over a full charge cycle to know if there is a problem or not. Even though my case and AirPods can appear no to drain overnight, I'm pretty sure they are and the battery meter will catch up over the next few days.
Apple would have been better to say the usage is:
AirPods with Charging Case: more then 24 hours listening time, up to 11 hour talk time, or up to 5 days standby.
AirPods (single charge): up to 5 hours of listening time, up to 2 hours of talk time, or up to 1 day standby.
Instead of:
AirPods with Charging Case: more than 24 hours of listening time,(3) up to 11 hours of talk time(6)
AirPods (single charge): up to 5 hours of listening time,(2) Up to 2 hours of talk time(5)
The way they say they tested to come up with the "24 hours listening time" completely ignores standby time, which is significant for a device like this that has sensors always on:
Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge while playing audio until the first AirPod stopped playback. The drained AirPods were charged for 30 minutes, then audio playback was continued until the first AirPod stopped playback. This cycle was repeated until both the AirPods and the Charging Case were fully discharged.
They include standby time in iPhones, and it seems like it would be even more important to include in this product.
My expectation was that I'd be able to use these for an hour or two each day, and just charge them once every 2 weeks or so. The way they presented battery life claims and the way they tested was very misleading.
I think it's still a great product, fun to use, and charging every 2-3 days isn't that big a deal. But they really mislead people and are probably going to have a lot of returns/exchanges that aren't really necessary with people thinking their battery life is shot.
Anyways, I've gone 15-20 hours with my pair of AirPods and case fully charged without any noticeable case drain. But if I look over a period of days, not hours, it's clear the AirPods themselves are draining about 3-4% per hour on average while just sitting in the case. That results in a case drain of up to 20% per day.
If I add up the actual use of the AirPods and the standby time, it's fairly consistent over a period of days (don't bother trying to see what happens after an hour or two - it isn't a long enough period of time to be accurate). I go periods of many hours where it looks like the case drain isn't happening - but I think it is. It's simply the battery meter isn't all that accurate, especially when at a full charge. You really have to sort of add up what you get from use and standby over a full charge cycle to know if there is a problem or not. Even though my case and AirPods can appear no to drain overnight, I'm pretty sure they are and the battery meter will catch up over the next few days.
Apple would have been better to say the usage is:
AirPods with Charging Case: more then 24 hours listening time, up to 11 hour talk time, or up to 5 days standby.
AirPods (single charge): up to 5 hours of listening time, up to 2 hours of talk time, or up to 1 day standby.
Instead of:
AirPods with Charging Case: more than 24 hours of listening time,(3) up to 11 hours of talk time(6)
AirPods (single charge): up to 5 hours of listening time,(2) Up to 2 hours of talk time(5)
The way they say they tested to come up with the "24 hours listening time" completely ignores standby time, which is significant for a device like this that has sensors always on:
Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge while playing audio until the first AirPod stopped playback. The drained AirPods were charged for 30 minutes, then audio playback was continued until the first AirPod stopped playback. This cycle was repeated until both the AirPods and the Charging Case were fully discharged.
They include standby time in iPhones, and it seems like it would be even more important to include in this product.
My expectation was that I'd be able to use these for an hour or two each day, and just charge them once every 2 weeks or so. The way they presented battery life claims and the way they tested was very misleading.
I think it's still a great product, fun to use, and charging every 2-3 days isn't that big a deal. But they really mislead people and are probably going to have a lot of returns/exchanges that aren't really necessary with people thinking their battery life is shot.
^Well put @NauticalDan
At the end of the day, battery life is good, but I don't understand why the battery is draining while not in use. A friend of mine in particular is worried that he'll charge them, and keep them in his bag, but if he goes to use them several days later they may be dead. I mean, other bluetooth headsets I've been using for years, including ones with small batteries will last for weeks when not in use.
And there still seems to be a discrepancy between some who have little to no battery drain on standby while others do experience it.
At the end of the day, battery life is good, but I don't understand why the battery is draining while not in use. A friend of mine in particular is worried that he'll charge them, and keep them in his bag, but if he goes to use them several days later they may be dead. I mean, other bluetooth headsets I've been using for years, including ones with small batteries will last for weeks when not in use.
And there still seems to be a discrepancy between some who have little to no battery drain on standby while others do experience it.
Everyone I've seen claim "no battery drain" are showing a snapshot of a few hours or a day. I could have claimed that for 20 hours yesterday - my case drained only 3%. It really has to be evaluated with the sum of standby + use over an entire discharge cycle.