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AirPods Pro 2nd sound distortion issue with iOS 18

Lk52461

Lk52461

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 31, 2021
129
110
Sydney, New South Wales
Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed a sound distortion issue on iOS 18.1 to 18.2 when using the AirPods Pro 2nd generation. The sound will distort and become robotic, and then it will eventually cut out. Sometimes, it will resolve itself after 1-2 minutes, while other times, disconnecting and reconnecting the AirPods seems to fix the issue until it happens again.
 
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Had that happen once. I had attributed it to something glitching the stream from the local radio station I was listening to, but maybe not. Could have been a (very) intermittent bug in iOS or AirPod firmware.
 
This has happened to me when I use my 2nd Gen Pros with TV.

Switching to tv speakers and right back usually fixes it. Haven't really noticed it on my phone though.
 
Still having this issue?

I have it but mostly only on my macbook.

I've been fighting with Apple Support for months. I even sent the airpods in for repair and they say they replaced the airpods (not the case though) but the problem still persists.

Driving me up the wall. They are unusable with my macbook since updating to MacOS 15.

I use my laptop all day for zoom/google meet and have to had to resort to using a wired headset.
 
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suburban-male said:
Still having this issue?

I have it but mostly only on my macbook.

I've been fighting with Apple Support for months. I even sent the airpods in for repair and they say they replaced the airpods (not the case though) but the problem still persists.

Driving me up the wall. They are unusable with my macbook since updating to MacOS 15.

I use my laptop all day for zoom/google meet and have to had to resort to using a wired headset.
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This is exactly my issue. Happens periodically enough to be annoying on my iPhone 15 Pro, same on my Mac mini, and very often on my MacBook Air (M3). Apple sent replacement AirPods Pro but they do the same thing. It started happening after the iOS 18 and Mac OS 15 updates.
 
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Lk52461 said:
Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed a sound distortion issue on iOS 18.1 to 18.2 when using the AirPods Pro 2nd generation. The sound will distort and become robotic, and then it will eventually cut out. Sometimes, it will resolve itself after 1-2 minutes, while other times, disconnecting and reconnecting the AirPods seems to fix the issue until it happens again.
Click to expand...
Yes experiencing this regularly. Apple support replaced the AirPods but same thing is happening across all devices.
 
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jonmenzies said:
This is exactly my issue. Happens periodically enough to be annoying on my iPhone 15 Pro, same on my Mac mini, and very often on my MacBook Air (M3). Apple sent replacement AirPods Pro but they do the same thing. It started happening after the iOS 18 and Mac OS 15 updates.
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Yes! I cant use my Airpods Pro 2 with my Macbook Pro (M1) for more than 5 mins without it happening and like you, I had Apple replace them but within half an hour of receiving the new set, same issues. I put them in a drawer for a month and hoped new iOS/MacOS updates would fix the issue but no luck.

Apple have replaced them a 2nd time this week but of course, the issue persists.

Interestingly, I have an old pair of Airpods Pro 1 and they dont have the issue but they dont switch between devices reliably and wont work for phone calls with my phone.
 
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Truly frustrating! I've been searching the internets for answers but everything I've found indicates the problem persists. There was a "solution" that some said worked, by turning vocal shortcuts off, but mine were already off on all devices. I thought it would be solved in the mots recent update but keeps happening. Listening to music has become an annoying experience. Hopefully enough people report it.
 
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dealing with support was a nightmare, they truly had no ****ing idea and despite them giving a 10 minute spiel about how they were my case manager and would be with me to the end blah blah lies blah, I went through 5 and now onto my 6th.
 
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Something else I began noticing on my MacBook AND my Mac mini--the orange microphone icon flickers in the menu bar on right side of the screen. That wasn't happening before the major updates. Not sure if helpful but I suspect it's related.
 
+1 having same issue

Connected to my LG OLED tv I was watching on the Apple TV app, everything fine for half an hour then suddenly the audio becomes distorted/crackly/white noise over the top of the audio.

Only thing that resolves it is disconnecting then reconnecting again, but its annoying.
 
I’ve been battling Apple to explain this issue since the release of iOS 18.1 and it persists up to 18.3. They’re so oblivious to the fact that it’s a software problem that they replaced the AirPods, which I knew wouldn’t resolve the issue. In my opinion, the only way this problem can be addressed is through a firmware-level update at this point.
 
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suburban-male said:
dealing with support was a nightmare, they truly had no ****ing idea and despite them giving a 10 minute spiel about how they were my case manager and would be with me to the end blah blah lies blah, I went through 5 and now onto my 6th.
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The support team has really deteriorated. The senior advisors no longer communicate with the engineering team. The engineering team never explains technicality. they simply repeat the same script. I tested mine on a device running iOS 17.7 at the time. I couldn’t replicate the issue, which explained to Apple.
 
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Since updating to iOS 18.3 RC, I haven’t encountered the issue again on both my AirPods Pro (2nd generation, with the Lightning connector) and the USB-C version. It’s still possible that the issue may resurface, but since the release, I haven’t experienced it. I’m curious to know if anyone else has updated and is experiencing the same issue as me.
 
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Lk52461 said:
Since updating to iOS 18.3 RC, I haven’t encountered the issue again on both my AirPods Pro (2nd generation, with the Lightning connector) and the USB-C version. It’s still possible that the issue may resurface, but since the release, I haven’t experienced it. I’m curious to know if anyone else has updated and is experiencing the same issue as me.
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This is encouraging. It's been so frustrating, opening new pods out of the box with the same issue repeating. I'll report back once 18.3 becomes available for public (I'm not on beta these days). Thanks for the heads up though, hoping this fixes it!
 
Don’t celebrate just yet. I’ve had massive drops and connectivity issues when my iPad is between my line of sight between my AirPods and Mac Studio. It started with the latest big firmware jump on the pods.

Unfortunately the latest beta firmware hasn’t improved anything.

This issue has survived multiple different devices, two sets of AirPods and multiple different OS builds. It’s definitely seems localized to the headphones themselves. I’m a congested city so likely have a slew of noise over the air but this was never an issue prior to 2024 big firmware bump to include head gestures, hearing aids, etc.
 
The issue indeed resurfaced on iOS 18.3 RC. I’ve installed the latest beta firmware, hoping this will resolve the problem. Beta Firmware AirPods Pro 2 Gen 7E67b
 
Has anyone had any luck with this issue? The latest beta firmware, including 18.4, hasn’t made any difference for me. I just updated to the RC, but I’m not expecting much. Has anyone heard anything from Apple about what they’re saying or planning to do?
 
The issue appears to have largely resolved itself for me after the 18.3 update. I’ve noticed it only once or twice since then (although it still happens occasionally). I did replace my AirPods with new ones, although that didn’t seem to make a difference at the time. I’m including that detail for reference. During the entire process, Apple didn’t acknowledge the issue. Instead, they instructed me to follow the steps everyone has mentioned here, culminating in the eventual replacement. So, I’m still uncertain whether it’s solely a firmware issue or a combination of software, firmware, and hardware problems.

What I can confirm is that the issue has never occurred on my Focal Bathys (the only other bluetooth headphones I own).
 
I use Chrome on my Macbook Pro (M1Pro) and the problem would always start when using audio through chrome (youtube / google meet etc)

If I was just using the Music app, no issues. I spent ~10 hours using Safari to play youtube videos in the background while I worked and I havent had the issue occur.

Obviously some of you have had the same issue with your phones / ipads etc but i havent had that - just on the Macbook.

Will keep testing and see how we go.
 
I haven’t really noticed the issue on my MacBook, as I don’t use my AirPods Pro with it as much I mostly use my AirPods Max when using my Mac. However, the issue is happening constantly on iOS, even with the 18.4 RC, and it's really starting to piss me off. The way Apple handles this is frustrating because they'll just replace the AirPods, which won’t fix anything since the problem affects both my USB-C and Lightning AirPods Pro.

When iOS 18.4 is officially released to the public, I suspect there will be a new firmware update available, but I’m not holding out hope that it will actually fix the issue. I first noticed this problem with iOS 18.1 it wasn’t present in the initial iOS 18 release or on iOS 17.
 
Lk52461 said:
I haven’t really noticed the issue on my MacBook, as I don’t use my AirPods Pro with it as much I mostly use my AirPods Max when using my Mac. However, the issue is happening constantly on iOS, even with the 18.4 RC, and it's really starting to piss me off. The way Apple handles this is frustrating because they'll just replace the AirPods, which won’t fix anything since the problem affects both my USB-C and Lightning AirPods Pro.

When iOS 18.4 is officially released to the public, I suspect there will be a new firmware update available, but I’m not holding out hope that it will actually fix the issue. I first noticed this problem with iOS 18.1 it wasn’t present in the initial iOS 18 release or on iOS 17.
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Interesting, I've constantly had the issues since IOS 18/MacOS15 dropped but almost never on my phone.

And yeah, i gave up on Apple Support, they've replaced my Airpods Pro2 3x like it would make a difference.
 
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Yeah, I spoke to Apple, and apparently, they haven’t had widespread issues about this. I don’t understand how I’m so certain that this widespread issue is just people are putting up with it or not bothering to report it to Apple.
 
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Apple has released the public firmware update 7E93 for AirPods Pro 2, aligning with the launch of iOS 18.4. Please let me know if this update brings any noticeable improvements or changes to your experience.
 
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