AirPods Pro: Rattlegate

[Theophil1971]

Haven’t read through this whole thread by any means... but has anyone been able to connect this problem to moisture? Or eliminate this possibility? I’ve had the cracking problem in my original pair, and finally replaced them after multiple recurrences. The new pair is good so far.
on that original pair, there was a time when moisture got splashed onto them. Dried them off immediately and they seemed fine. But wasn’t long after that the crackle started. I know they’re designed to resist some moisture.
I’m wondering though if this may be a common denominator, and possible fail point. sweat dripping into the grills? Rain? Splashed water?

 

[chrfr]

Haven’t read through this whole thread by any means... but has anyone been able to connect this problem to moisture? Or eliminate this possibility? I’ve had the cracking problem in my original pair, and finally replaced them after multiple recurrences. The new pair is good so far.
on that original pair, there was a time when moisture got splashed onto them. Dried them off immediately and they seemed fine. But wasn’t long after that the crackle started. I know they’re designed to resist some moisture.
I’m wondering though if this may be a common denominator, and possible fail point. sweat dripping into the grills? Rain? Splashed water?

It’s not moisture.

 

[bthompson]

Third replacement enroute. I am very seriously considering just selling these and buying another pair with full warranty. so over this.

 

[vinegarshots]

It’s not moisture.

Well, that's not ENTIRELY true.

Like I've said before elsewhere, tiny MEMs microphones (which are what's causing this problem 9 times out of 10) are incredibly fragile and are prone to failure due to ridiculously tiny contaminants. On the order of 1 speck of dust getting on the membrane, or the smallest amount of moisture... also loud, sharp sounds can damage them, too.

So, yeah, it could be moisture in some cases, as these are not even close to waterproof. And could also be dust. Or also loud noises. Or just faulty mics. Lots of points of failure with these things. And each pod has 3 mics inside...

 

[AppleMango]

Hi guys,

i am on 2nd gen AP and would love to get some Pro. There is a deal currently in my country to get A pair for 210€, so 70€ discount!

But now I’ve read all of this here and I am going nuts... What shall I believe? People can’t be mistaken so many times... Should I pull the trigger ( it is not purchased directly from Apple but a “Best Buy”-equivalent) or leave it?

 

[chrfr]

Hi guys,

i am on 2nd gen AP and would love to get some Pro. There is a deal currently in my country to get A pair for 210€, so 70€ discount!

But now I’ve read all of this here and I am going nuts... What shall I believe? People can’t be mistaken so many times... Should I pull the trigger ( it is not purchased directly from Apple but a “Best Buy”-equivalent) or leave it?

At this point, I'd buy something like the Sony WF-1000XM3 over the AirPods Pro.

 

[vinegarshots]

Hi guys,

i am on 2nd gen AP and would love to get some Pro. There is a deal currently in my country to get A pair for 210€, so 70€ discount!

But now I’ve read all of this here and I am going nuts... What shall I believe? People can’t be mistaken so many times... Should I pull the trigger ( it is not purchased directly from Apple but a “Best Buy”-equivalent) or leave it?

I am a fairly big Apple fan and have owned most of their products in the past 3 years, and I'm not afraid to say that the AirPods Pro are flawed hardware, on the level of butterfly keyboard, and probably should be fuel for a class action lawsuit.

 

[redneckitengineer]

My APP started doing this a few weeks ago, quite annoying. During my bicycling rides it's even more pronounced. When I switched backwards from my iPhone 11 Pro back to my iPhone SE I noticed a constant issue with bluetooth connectivity now too. It drops podcasts continuously now.

 

[AppleMango]

At this point, I'd buy something like the Sony WF-1000XM3 over the AirPods Pro.

I am a fairly big Apple fan and have owned most of their products in the past 3 years, and I'm not afraid to say that the AirPods Pro are flawed hardware, on the level of butterfly keyboard, and probably should be fuel for a class action lawsuit.

WOW - That is immense and truly troubling. I am a fairly new Apple user (only bought into it 2 years ago) and I like to keep my things neat and look after them, but the outlook of a faulty product - even with that huge discount - is bothering me.

How can this happen? But looking at this keyboard mes, I maybe shouldn’t ask...


EDIT: and what are the chances it is only software and is fixable? I could buy into that fix (short term) - but It sounds people are leaning towards hardware and that would suck, especially with the discount.

 

[vinegarshots]

EDIT: and what are the chances it is only software and is fixable? I could buy into that fix (short term) - but It sounds people are leaning towards hardware and that would suck, especially with the discount.

0 chances, because it's not software. I accidentally broke the mic on one of my old pairs by blowing hard into the mic vent trying to clean it (dumb move, but immediate failure), and the result was identical.

The upside to the non-pro AirPods is that they dont use sound streaming from mics to process the audio youre listening to. So if the single mic goes bad in the old AirPods, it won't affect what you hear (people on calls might think you sound weird, or whatever, but that's it). On the Pros, all the sound you hear relies on all the mics working 100%---unless you put the Pros into OFF mode (and turn off noise cancelling and transparency), but then the sound processing is also turned off and that makes them sound muffled.

 

[AppleMango]

0 chances, because it's not software. I accidentally broke the mic on one of my old pairs by blowing hard into the mic vent trying to clean it (dumb move, but immediate failure), and the result was identical.

The upside to the non-pro AirPods is that they dont use sound streaming from mics to process the audio youre listening to. So if the single mic goes bad in the old AirPods, it won't affect what you hear (people on calls might think you sound weird, or whatever, but that's it). On the Pros, all the sound you hear relies on all the mics working 100%---unless you put the Pros into OFF mode (and turn off noise cancelling and transparency), but then the sound processing is also turned off and that makes them sound muffled.

Thank you for the explanation - not really encouraging. I think I will pass, even though it’s a really competitive price (210€ instead of 280€) which I haven’t seen before here and it’s itching to pull the trigger, but it seems too many people are unhappy.

Did Apple address anything of that or how do they explain that ratio of failure?

 

[chrfr]

Did Apple address anything of that or how do they explain that ratio of failure?

Apple will likely never address the rate of failure unless they do some sort of repair extension similar to what they did with laptop keyboards.

 

[AppleMango]

Apple will likely never address the rate of failure unless they do some sort of repair extension similar to what they did with laptop keyboards.

Makes sense, thank you.

? crazy stuff.

Maybe we should run a poll if APP users are satisfied or not...

 

[Clockworkz]

Went into the Apple store yesterday to get the pods replaced, they ran a diagnostic and found the case to be bad with “charging the left side” so now that I have a completely new set of APP, let’s hope that this new set lasts more than a week.

 

[JCCL]

Well I got a new Right Airpod. So far so good, hope the ugly rattle doesn't come back. (fingers crossed)

 

[Theophil1971]

Well I got a new Right Airpod. So far so good, hope the ugly rattle doesn't come back. (fingers crossed)

I got my first pare back in November, when they were first released. I've loved them and been very satisfied with them so far. My left pod did develop this problem, and the temporary fixes didn't end up solving it completely. But Apple very easily replaced the entire set for me. The customer support walked me through all of the suggested steps to try to resolve (reset, reconnect, etc...). That took all of 15 minutes. Then they authorized a complete replacement. I walked into the nearest Apple Store, handed them the defective pair, and they handed me a brand new pair in the box.
I'm hoping that I won't have a repeat problem, like some people have experienced. Because I really am satisfied with the product, and love them a lot.
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0 chances, because it's not software. I accidentally broke the mic on one of my old pairs by blowing hard into the mic vent trying to clean it (dumb move, but immediate failure), and the result was identical.

The upside to the non-pro AirPods is that they dont use sound streaming from mics to process the audio youre listening to. So if the single mic goes bad in the old AirPods, it won't affect what you hear (people on calls might think you sound weird, or whatever, but that's it). On the Pros, all the sound you hear relies on all the mics working 100%---unless you put the Pros into OFF mode (and turn off noise cancelling and transparency), but then the sound processing is also turned off and that makes them sound muffled.

I agree that it very obviously seems to be a hardware problem, associated with the tiny mics which process the incoming audio. Fragile, I guess, and susceptible to multiple factors that could cause failure (moisture? Dust particles? Air blown into the vents?)
Hope Gen.2 can figure it out.

 

[Mochocho]

I have the rattling issue while walking, tapping and just moving my ear. I was so frustrated when officeworks here in Australia said they fixed it but did not because it's still the same airpods(waited for a whole week).

Anyway I was able to fix mine by putting a rubber on the silicone tip end where it locks to the airpod. Seems something is wearing prematurely and eventually will loosen up and the mic will pick it up. You can give it a go and hopefully will make yours useable too.

 

[vinegarshots]

I have the rattling issue while walking, tapping and just moving my ear. I was so frustrated when officeworks here in Australia said they fixed it but did not because it's still the same airpods(waited for a whole week).

Anyway I was able to fix mine by putting a rubber on the silicone tip end where it locks to the airpod. Seems something is wearing prematurely and eventually will loosen up and the mic will pick it up. You can give it a go and hopefully will make yours useable too.

Just to be clear, a mechanical rattle that can be fixed with a trick like this is not the source of the "rattle" that most people are experiencing here (which is more of a speaker/sound distortion than an actual loose-parts-rattle sound)

 

[MacRumorsRanger]

Just to be clear, a mechanical rattle that can be fixed with a trick like this is not the source of the "rattle" that most people are experiencing here (which is more of a speaker/sound distortion than an actual loose-parts-rattle sound)

+1

Although the in-ear mic definitely does seem to react to this. I had a similar experience with my second APP set: one of the tips already on the bud was not properly seated when they arrived. So when I first put them in my ears I thought my replacement set had the same rattle issue right out of the box, the APP was definitely amplifying it in a similar fashion to the rattle we're experiencing. But properly clicking the tip into place solved it.

I'd speculate this is why Apple are asking folks whether they still get the rattle noise without the tips: probably trying to diagnose poorly seated tips vs the hardware fault before arranging a replacement.

 

[vine-boating]

At this point, I'd buy something like the Sony WF-1000XM3 over the AirPods Pro.

Wow I just purchased the AirPods Pro
Should be arriving on Saturday

I am thinking I should return them now! It seems there are too many problems.

 

[Kurzadilla]

Got my leftie Pro replaced! Had about an hour or so chat with Apple Support and they put $95 on hold. Got the replacement about 2 days later. It came in a box with new tips and and was postage paid to send it back. The money was returned to my card the same day I sent them back. No more static/rattling. Very easy swap.

 

[dannyyankou]

Had to get both of mine replaced because of this, it's an annoying bug. Thankfully both were replaced with no charge.

 

[bthompson]

Ugh. Third pair and still have the rattle. Beginning to think something is wrong with my ears.

 

[vine-boating]

Had to get both of mine replaced because of this, it's an annoying bug. Thankfully both were replaced with no charge.

I am thinking if I should keep the AirPods when they come
It seems they have soo many issues

But there are no real good alternatives

 

[cheekyjeremy]

From my experience three pairs into this saga. It now seems to have dropping them in common. Even a small drop onto carpet can lead to this. This tends to make me think that parts inside are not as secure as they should be. I am not talking about drops from huge heights or violent drops in any way. I had one pair go wrong, received a replacement that was fine for about 2 months and then once dropped started the rattle. They were replaced and the third pair was fine until I literally dropped them off a coffee table onto a rug. Same thing immediately happened.

I don't know if the symptoms of mine are the same as others, but what happens for me is that they only rattle in certain situations. If wearing them and I clear my throat, I can feel it vibrate in my ear. Despite this, I can play music really loud and it doesn't rattle. Only with certain frequencies, phone calls etc