Airpods - new owners views, problems and questions

[ascender]

Is anybody else having strange volume issues on a single device? I'm in the office today so there's no device switching going on, the airpods are just paired to my iphone. With soundcheck enabled, changing artists or playlists results in big changes in sound volume both up and down, seemingly at random.

 

[AlliFlowers]

Only problem with my AirPods is my wife likes them... and now she wants some. Got lucky and found my pair... can't find a pair anywhere ‍♂️

Verizon and AT&T both have them online daily.

 

[JulesK]

I ended up with a pair from the local Apple store, and then a pair from Apple online that I ordered the day they became available. Both cases drained anywhere from 10-15%/day with minimal or no use, but one more than the other, so I returned that one. I only use one Airpod because of a hearing issue, and it's great to have a wireless headphone that is very convenient to use. The only annoyance is that the proximity sensor that "connects" the Airpod doesn't seem to work when lying down. Works fine otherwise. Would be great to have volume and mute controls on it (which is why I can't use it for long conference calls), but for casual listening in private, can't be beat.

The sound is fine, but because they by design do not seal/isolate, they sound best (obviously) in a quiet setting. That said, I listened to them back-to-back against my P7 wireless headphones, and - no surprise - they don't hold a candle to the P7s in terms of sound quality. But the P7 is almost too big to be portable, whereas the Airpods can fit in your pocket, no problem.

For their intended use, this is a great produce from Apple. Design can be polarizing, but the ease of use can't be beat. In terms of fit, it may be personal, but they fit much better than my Plantronics Legend, which always seems on the verge of falling off no matter what I do. If they were $80/pair, they would be a no-brainer. Maybe that's where Apple will get them to in a year or so.

 

[richard371]

The dropouts are becoming unacceptable. Just sitting at home doing nothing last night and this am I got several mini dropouts etc. I had 2 other coworkers pick up a pair last week and they are complaining of the same thing. I know BT can have dropouts but the level its happening with these are twice as much or more then other BT headsets we have tried. My guess is you are feeding 2 headset the signal instead of one so twice as many dropouts are possible. I can't imaging all 3 of us have defective headsets. I really hope Apple can tune this up with a SW update but they are just not ready for prime time IMHO. Hopefully this is not just a limitation of the oversaturated 2.4GHZ frequency range and thus more dropouts due to 2 separate earbuds.

 

[TrueBlou]

This is probably ridiculously obvious and may have already been mentioned, but I've only just noticed it so I figured I'd mention it.

Someone had asked previously if firmware updates would be possible and as usual for me I waffled on basically saying I believed they would be.

Anyway, if you go to Settings > General > About, there's a section for the AirPods with the serial number, hardware version and the firmware version. So it would appear that updates are definitely possible. Fwiw, mine are on firmware 3.3.1 at the moment, as I suppose they all will be.

 

[xthine]

Dropped mine yesterday. Was putting my hydration vest on and the tubing dislodged the Airpod from my right ear and it fell to the ground (pavement). It almost got dislodged again when my arm brushed my face.

Still works okay, there's a smaller chip somewhere.

 

[TrueBlou]

The dropouts are becoming unacceptable. Just sitting at home doing nothing last night and this am I got several mini dropouts etc. I had 2 other coworkers pick up a pair last week and they are complaining of the same thing. I know BT can have dropouts but the level its happening with these are twice as much or more then other BT headsets we have tried. My guess is you are feeding 2 headset the signal instead of one so twice as many dropouts are possible. I can't imaging all 3 of us have defective headsets. I really hope Apple can tune this up with a SW update but they are just not ready for prime time IMHO. Hopefully this is not just a limitation of the oversaturated 2.4GHZ frequency range and thus more dropouts due to 2 separate earbuds.

That's pretty bad, definitely different from my experience so far. I've had one mini dropout when streaming from my Mac but it hasn't happened again. In over 20 hours of listening time streaming from my iPhone 7 Plus I've not had a single dropout. Even when I'm a distance from my phone.
I am on the current developer betas, don't know if that's playing a part or not

 

[richard371]

I think a lot has to do with location too. Been listening to 1 pod at work this am and using my LTE on my phone and no dropouts yet. Public beta 3 should drop tomorrow so I may give that a try. Have until Jan 20 so I'm hoping I can some improvement by then.

That's pretty bad, definitely different from my experience so far. I've had one mini dropout when streaming from my Mac but it hasn't happened again. In over 20 hours of listening time streaming from my iPhone 7 Plus I've not had a single dropout. Even when I'm a distance from my phone.
I am on the current developer betas, don't know if that's playing a part or not

 

[Bromeo]

Finally caught mine in the act of pausing the music uncommanded. I was sitting at home with my coffee reading in Safari on my iPhone 6S right in front of me while listening to an album previously downloaded from Apple Music. All the sudden the music paused. No more headphone icon at the top of the iPhone screen, and I think I remember seeing the Bluetooth icon grayed out or pulsing.

I looked down at my Apple Watch (Sport, 38mm, first generation) to see the red "Disconnected" icon at the top of the watch face. Huh! That's odd. I swiped up to get control center on the watch and noticed the Airplay button was highlighted in blue. Tapped it, and there my AirPods had jumped ship to my Watch! Ah ha!

After a few seconds, the watch reconnected to my iPhone, soon followed by the AirPods, but ultimately leaving my music paused. So... this is what's probably been happening, at least to me, and would explain both paused music, as well as phone calls randomly routing to the handset uncommanded.

What a weird bug! I hope it is software, and not hardware, so there's a chance to fix it. On other forums there seems to be a common thread of iPhone 6S and Apple Watch, which describes my situation.

Chatted with Apple Support his morning. They took all the information I could give them, gave me a case number, and asked that I do a factory reset of the iPhone and use it "out of the box clean" like that for a while to see if the problem continues.

Before I factory reset, I unpaired my Apple Watch and noticed an improvement. Virtually no dropouts, and had a 30 minute phone call with both AirPods, although the phone call had one bluetooth dropout where the AirPods spontaneously disconnected and reconnected. Haven't ruled out the possibility that the AirPods tried to connect to my MacBook Pro immediately downstairs.

I have to wonder if something specific about the iPhone 6S has a limitation with the radio chipset handling multiple devices (two AirPods, Apple Watch, multiple Tiles), plus LTE and WiFi. Add a little Handoff, and, well there's a lot going on, that's for sure, and might explain why the problems lessen when cellular is turned off, Apple Watch is unpaired, or only one AirPod is in use.... lightens the load on the radio. Just speculation.

Wiped phone clean, set up as a new phone, and now listening to Apple Music via AirPods. Not a single hiccup so far. Will slowly add things back.

 

[ascender]

The auto-pause when you take one earbud out is a really nice touch and something I can see me quickly taking for granted and wishing all headphones did it. Whether its when people come up to talk at my desk or when paying for things in a shop, its just such a natural thing to happen.

 

[valenrandy]

I had mentioned this in another thread and i'll mention it here.

I love the Airpods but I keep having signal cutouts when I'm walking, jogging or running. If I'm playing music on my iphone (6) and hold it in my right or left hand I will get occasional dropouts. Same thing if I place my phone in my front pocket. If I place my iphone in my back pocket then I get lots of dropouts. I have to wear my armband to almost eliminate any dropouts that I get.

If it matters any, I also wear a Gen 0 Applewatch and I use the stock workout app when I walk/jog or run.

If anyone has a solution, I'm more than willing to listen

Thanks.

 

[TrueBlou]

I had mentioned this in another thread and i'll mention it here.

I love the Airpods but I keep having signal cutouts when I'm walking, jogging or running. If I'm playing music on my iphone (6) and hold it in my right or left hand I will get occasional dropouts. Same thing if I place my phone in my front pocket. If I place my iphone in my back pocket then I get lots of dropouts. I have to wear my armband to almost eliminate any dropouts that I get.

If it matters any, I also wear a Gen 0 Applewatch and I use the stock workout app when I walk/jog or run.

If anyone has a solution, I'm more than willing to listen

Thanks.

You'll naturally run the risk of dropouts if you're holding it in your hand, as you may be obstructing the signal. But I'm surprised you're getting dropouts when it's in your pocket.

Not that it's any use to you but my iPhone is always in my front pocket when I'm not using it and I've not had any dropouts from it.

The Bluetooth signal is generally a bit worse in open areas as well as it hasn't got nearby surfaces to bounce off and may be subject to interference from external sources. But even so I've not had the trouble you're having.

Have you tried playing music from your Watch? It's not a solution, I'm just curious how that is performing for you compared to the phone.

 

[The Game 161]

I realized damn I need to clean my ears far more often..

 

[rstark18]

I had mentioned this in another thread and i'll mention it here.

I love the Airpods but I keep having signal cutouts when I'm walking, jogging or running. If I'm playing music on my iphone (6) and hold it in my right or left hand I will get occasional dropouts. Same thing if I place my phone in my front pocket. If I place my iphone in my back pocket then I get lots of dropouts. I have to wear my armband to almost eliminate any dropouts that I get.

If it matters any, I also wear a Gen 0 Applewatch and I use the stock workout app when I walk/jog or run.

If anyone has a solution, I'm more than willing to listen

Thanks.

I have not had any dropouts. I walk the dog for an hour every morning with the phone in my back right pocket and hold it when rewinding or changing volume. Zero dropouts.
iOS 10.2.1b3
iPhone 7
No Apple watch
I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the Apple watch. A lot of people experiencing dropouts are using Apple watches. Or maybe it's the beta sw.

 

[Diiiiips]

Not sure what's happened to my right Airpod. I fiddle with a bit whilst it's in my ear because it's a tad loose (my left one fits like a glove) but whilst I was using them today my right one just sounded like it stopped working. I took my left one out and left the right in to see if it worked, it did but very very quietly.

Not sure what the issue could be. Back in the case now but going to see if they work properly once out again.

 

[richard371]

I find my dropouts seem to be worse in certain areas. I'm pretty sure that's why some people have them worse then others. Also keep in mind your feeding 2 signals instead of 1 so twice as many dropouts are likely. 2.4GHZ is extremely saturated these days.

 

[gwynne]

Anyone else use iCatcher for podcasts?

I'm having a problem where double tapping for Siri and saying Pause doesn't successfully pause playback. It says "I paused it", but as soon as iCatcher regains focus, it turns Play back on. The auto playback function of iCatcher is turned OFF.

I suspect this is a bug with the app, but looking for confirmation/sanity check.

 

[valenrandy]

You'll naturally run the risk of dropouts if you're holding it in your hand, as you may be obstructing the signal. But I'm surprised you're getting dropouts when it's in your pocket.

Not that it's any use to you but my iPhone is always in my front pocket when I'm not using it and I've not had any dropouts from it.

The Bluetooth signal is generally a bit worse in open areas as well as it hasn't got nearby surfaces to bounce off and may be subject to interference from external sources. But even so I've not had the trouble you're having.

Have you tried playing music from your Watch? It's not a solution, I'm just curious how that is performing for you compared to the phone.

I will attempt to use the playlist from the watch instead of the phone to test it out. I'd prefer to use the phone as to not drain any additional power from the watch itself.

This only happens out of the house. In the house I have no issues what so ever with drop outs. I can play music from my phone and leave the phone in the kitchen and walk to different rooms with several off angle walls in between and experience little to no dropout at the ends of the house.

 

[0298753]

Anyone having static noise / hissing on low volume? Siri quality is bad for some reason too.

 

[ascender]

What with the body being full of water, it's very bad for wireless between devices! I ran a lot with a pair of PowerBeats2 last year and regardless of where the phone was, it sometimes cut out if I turned my head - presumable because the earbud with the receiver on it was moving away from the phone.

I've not had any such problems with the powerbeats 3s, so the W1 chip is clearly doing something.

I've not tried running with the AirPods yet as there's too much external noise getting through - I'd have to turn them up so loud to hear the music and I also think it's asking for me to lose one as they're bound to fall out at some point.

 

[alansaysstop]

Anyone else experience play in the lid of the case? The lid of my case has enough play that it clicks back and forth side to side when closed. Probably not a huge deal just wondering if anyone else notices this in their case.

ugh I have this same issue and it bugs me.
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What with the body being full of water, it's very bad for wireless between devices! I ran a lot with a pair of PowerBeats2 last year and regardless of where the phone was, it sometimes cut out if I turned my head - presumable because the earbud with the receiver on it was moving away from the phone

This is the reason I ditched my PowerBeats2 for AirPods (that and they hurt my ears during long wears). I still have this issue, though not as often, with my airpods. With the PB2, it seemed anytime my phone was in my pocket and i turned my head too fast.

 

[slwiser]

I lost sound in my right AirPod. I cleaned it with no success. Going to have to take them in.
[doublepost=1484104945][/doublepost]

Not sure what's happened to my right Airpod. I fiddle with a bit whilst it's in my ear because it's a tad loose (my left one fits like a glove) but whilst I was using them today my right one just sounded like it stopped working. I took my left one out and left the right in to see if it worked, it did but very very quietly.

Not sure what the issue could be. Back in the case now but going to see if they work properly once out again.

Same problem

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Apparently the ship date slipped on them, again. Now showing March 1. Patiently waiting...

 

[JediZenMaster]

I've had a pair for a few days. Gotta say I think they are amazing.

Can't wait to see what gen 3 and 4 AirPods are like.

 

[TrueBlou]

I have not had any dropouts. I walk the dog for an hour every morning with the phone in my back right pocket and hold it when rewinding or changing volume. Zero dropouts.
iOS 10.2.1b3
iPhone 7
No Apple watch
I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the Apple watch. A lot of people experiencing dropouts are using Apple watches. Or maybe it's the beta sw.

I can't help wonder if the betas are doing anything, it shouldn't be but I'm on 10.2.1 B3 as well and it's been fine in my pocket when I'm out walking.
Out of curiosity this morning I've got my iPhone under two cushions, a foil coated piece of cardboard and I'm sitting on it (no I'm not kidding ) That's enough to make my Sony Bluetooth cans cut out, yet my AirPods are still playing without a hitch.

It's hardly scientific but I'm puzzled why we're all having such different experiences. I suspect they should be, but are we all on firmware 3.3.1 for the AirPods?