"ball bouncing" noise and not pairing Airpods 2

[nickdalzell1]

I put my Airpods 2 in as usual expecting only one to pair and having to take them out and put them in again for both to work. But today, the right one made what sounded like a ball dropping on the ground noise (bonk, bonk bonk bonk bloink). Took them out thinking 'gee, never heard that sound before!' and put them back in, but again, right makes that odd noise and left is completely dead. Placed them in the case which is showing an amber LED which should mean 50% charged, the case itself without pods inside is also amber which means 50% (red is dead according to the slip that came with the pods). What has just happened?

I did have to reboot my iPhone 6S and Watch today later as both were acting 'goofy' (iPhone acted and errored claiming no internet with 3 bars of LTE, watch decided the phone wasn't worth connecting to over bluetooth). I hope it was just a glitch with all three, is there a way to reboot AirPods? What does that bouncing sound even mean? It's not listed in the slip of instructions, and the case indicates 50% charge. Just for kicks it's charging now...I hope they aren't dead already! The case is usually good for a couple of weeks of use before needing charging, and it's only been 5 days.

Before rebooting the watch, I had attempted to pair manually to the AirPods using that little antenna icon on the lower left of the 'radio' app, since occasionally I get no sound at all from the Pods, no pairing sound or that other odd sound, so I manually select 'Nick's AirPods' and they just work. Today, it just sat there spinning indefinitely and I gave up and used my wired EarPods.

 

[one more]

I often switch my AirPods 2 connection between my iPhone 11 and iPad Air 2. On some occasions after using the AP with the iPad they would fail to connect back to the iPhone. Not sure why, perhaps different Bluetooth generations (4 vs 5). The fastest way I found to get them working again on both devices is to “forget them” in Settings > Bluetooth on the device that acts up and then re-pair them with that device again. Takes about a minute.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I don't usually experience a handoff issue between devices lately, but I'm guessing whatever that sound was, it was some sort of 'failed to pair' sound. That leaves me wondering what it means when I get no sound at all from the Pods when placing them in.

BTW the 'one pod pairs the first time until I remove and reinsert them' bug seems to have been fixed. They're both working fine now.

Wish there were some way to find out what the different sounds the Pods make are. I thought only that little 'bling!' sound when they're ready was it. I figured Siri would voice any error such as battery low or failing to pair. I've listened well over 5 hours with them without them dying yet, so I wonder if there even is a low battery alert, and what it would sound like? I've just been following the LED on the case, which green means fully charged, amber halfway charged, red or none meaning time to charge.

 

[MrTSolar]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-needs-to-give-us-the-80-max-charge-option-on-the-iphone.2365460/post-31653730

Due to events ^, all I have to say now is:

 

[TimothyL]

That bouncing sound is the sound they make when they are dead. Try charging them again and see if they work.

 

[nickdalzell1]

The case had 50% charge and the pods still went green when placed in the case. Only the right one made that weird noise but 'battery low' isn't exactly the error that sound conveys to me. It's very vague. Given Apple is supposed to make things easier for new users I'd figure they'd make a more appropriate battery dead noise or mention it in the little slip shipped with them.

I re-read the slip and it shows green for case = 100% charged, amber = 50% and should be good for one more charge of the pods, and no light = dead. I've been using that as a form of gauge and that one time was the only time it showed amber and nothing worked. Also, I can get two weeks use from the case until it's too low to work. It was only 5 days and I've been using my pods as normal. But given my iPhone stopped connecting to anything via bluetooth, my Apple Watch was acting goofy and also only connected to wifi even with phone near me, and my Pods failing to work until I rebooted the two other devices (which were the only ones I had near me when trying to use my Airpods) leads me to assuming it's an error sound regarding pairing. I can't really describe it other than a ball dropping on the ground. "Nick's Airpods" still showed as an available output device on the watch as well making me think they still had juice.

When they made that sound, an empty case showed an amber light, putting the pods in the case made it go off, then back to amber, and would go green in minutes like normal. So it's not a battery issue.

But regardless, Apple needs to make an easier to understand error sound.