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battery widget knobbled so it’s useless for AirPod users

M

madeirabhoy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 26, 2012
1,679
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Just noticed this and I’m baffled.

under ios13 the battery widget showed you the battery for each AirPod separately plus if you opened your case lid it showed you its battery level too.

under iOS 14 it just shows you an overall battery with no explanation even of what it is. Does a half battery mean my AirPods are half full and it’s ignoring the case ? What happens if you use one earpiece and it’s nearly
Empty but the other is full ?
 
You must be talking about the limited 4 slot widget but even that one shows the individual AirPods. On my iPhone since I have an Apple Watch it only shows the individual AirPods. On my iPad it shows both AirPods and the case.

There are larger widgets avaiable including a list one that shows everthing.
 
Not for me. This is my iPhone XS screen with both AirPod pros in my ear and the charging case open


73628622-2AC8-44DA-A1E1-34279829A613.jpeg
 
Strange. Here’s my iPhone X. If I have 1 Airpod in I see them individually and if I put both in my ears I see them as a unit. But the case shows up if it’s open. I thought that was the case as before but maybe not.

2FFA7161-0B95-4B58-B866-A12098970974.jpeg


151EAD83-580C-471D-84B4-6632549DF60D.jpeg
 
weird. hopefully it'll sort itself out when the next update comes. I did think it weird that they'd gimped the widget so guess its just a bug.
 
I also have both the case and the AirPods Pro showing on 11 Pro if I have the case open and the AirPods within.

IMG_0986 2.jpg
 
there's definitely something bugged.

as above, it was fine after I unpaired and re paired.

then I went for a walk, put my AirPods in, looked at my phone, back to one icon for both pods despite there being a space (case not open) and on the large widget, one line for AirPods.

opened case. no change, case not shown.

took one AirPod out and whether it was the taking out of my ear, or placing it in the case, all of a sudden all 3 appear (two AirPods and case).
 
This is normal behaviour? The case doesn’t have a connection of its own. It uses the connection of one or more AirPods in the case to send it’s battery level back to your phone.

So the case with no AirPods in it cannot report its battery level.
 
Is there a way to get your phone or iPad to show up on the battery widget on either devices?

I’d like my iPhone battery percentage to show up on my iPad battery widget.
 
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I don’t own any AirPods so I can’t share any personal experiences, but this seems to be a bug with this iOS 14 build, the AirPods firmware, or both. Considering it works just fine on the first gen, I’d expect the pro’s to be the same. I’m fairly certain it’ll get fixed by the final release though.
 
Again: there is no comms chip in the charging case. It’s all done by the AirPods. Multiple tear downs have shown this to be the ‘case’...
 
danmart said:
This is normal behaviour? The case doesn’t have a connection of its own. It uses the connection of one or more AirPods in the case to send it’s battery level back to your phone.

So the case with no AirPods in it cannot report its battery level.
Click to expand...

thanks I didnt know the case only broadcast when it had an AirPod in it. makes sense I guess.


however that apart its not normal behaviour, certainly on my iPhone. it has always shown the two AirPods separately. and it always updates instantly. now it often shows just one reading. including sometimes when both AirPods are in the case and it just shows one overall reading for the 3 things.

over the last 15 mins ive played with taking the AirPods in and out of the case one at a time. the widget keeps getting confused. at one stage it was showing me a reading from the case when there was no airpod in it (I agree with you saying it shouldn't) and now, having taken them both out of the case and put them in my ears ive completely confused it. it firstly decided not to show me any battery except my phone, but a good 5 mins later decided to show me my watch but is still not showing me either of my AirPods, which are almost fully charged. im sure if I put one airpod back in the case it'll randomly roll a dice to decide whether to show me all my apple items correctly or not.

actually its just decided to forget about my watch too now.

sure enough, put left airpod in, keeping right in ear, phone still refuses to acknowledge watch, AirPods or case. put right airpod in case too and it not only finds both AirPods but magically remembers about my watch.
 
That does sound duff, to be sure...

I think another factor, though, is the data refresh period. No way is it continually polling so you can get a situation where the widget shows the case battery for a while even after the ‘pods have been removed; it’s just holding on to ‘old’ data for a little while.
 
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My AirPods apear in the same slot if they have the same battery percentage.

If the percentage is different between them or if I’m using only one of them, they start to show separately.

Everything seems fine with the widget to me.
 
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gwhizkids said:
I also have both the case and the AirPods Pro showing on 11 Pro if I have the case open and the AirPods within.

View attachment 934034
Click to expand...
How can you get the percentage under each circle? I only get it for the iPhone or iPad but if I want it for the AirPods or for the pencil I get just the circles and nothing else
ipadbattery circles.jpeg
 
katbel said:
Thanks
What’s Apple thinking?!
I have to ask Siri if I want to know the pencil battery % till they will take that away too 😔
Click to expand...

Can see apple adding that feature down the road, hopefully on iOS 14 instead of iOS 17. 😂
 
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