Why are my AirPods breaking down?

[sviato]

I bought Airpods in December 2017 and for two years they worked great - they were my favorite Apple product.

In January 2020, I traded the charging case of my gen1 Airpods for my sister's gen2 wireless charging case (her Airpods and case were purchased December 2019) case as she didn't use wireless charging and I had bought the Mophie 3-in-1 wireless charger.

Everything was fine for a couple of weeks but I've had several issues from February to now. These include:

• Airpods not always charging to 100%. Despite leaving them overnight on the Mophie charger, the Airpods may be at 90-95% charge, this morning they were at 87%. They are sometimes very hot when I take them off the charger.
• Difficulty connecting the Airpods: experiencing connection issues with both my iPhone and MacBook. When I tap/click on the Airpods, I'll see the spinning dot circle but often it just won't connect. I'll need to put the Airpods back in their case, wait a few seconds, then take them out and try to connect again. Sometimes it seems like the Airpods also connect to the wrong device. For example, last night I was using them with my iPhone and this morning I put them in my ears and heard the connection sound and expected them to connect to my iPhone but they didn't - so I manually chose them as the sound output but then they kept disconnecting every couple of minutes (it's what pushed me over the line to make this post).
• Often one Airpod won't connect when I put both in my ears. I'll hear the connection sound only in one and music will only play in that one Airpod. I then have to take the connected one out of my ear and put it back in and hope that they both connect.
• Sound cutting out abruptly - the Airpods could be working for 5 minutes or an hour and then suddenly sound in the left Airpod completely cuts out. Often I need to take them both out of my ears and put them back in to see if they'll reconnect. Other times I put them in the case for a few seconds and then they work when I take them out. Note that after taking them out of the case, the left one will still read as having battery life.
• Inconsistent battery life - one of the Airpods typically dies faster than the other - usually the left one but sometimes the right one. The battery life on each also varies with one being at 5% while the other is at 20%. Sometimes the left one will turn off and after I put it in the case and take it out, it says that battery is at 72%, though it usually dies shortly after with the right one.
• Low battery sensor not working - I used to get a tone at 10% and 1% battery life. Now, I'll either get no tone at all, or a tone with the Airpods dying right after, or what seems like a random tone when the battery is low (5%, 8% etc).
• Battery lasts 1.5-2 hours when listening to music

I could be missing some issues but I've been very frustrated with my Airpods recently. They went from being my favorite product to this myriad of issues. I've tried removing the Airpods from all devices and re-syncing them, turning the auto-ear detection on/off but neither of these helped.

I'm not sure if the Mophie charger fried them but I bought it at the Apple store, presumably Apple wouldn't sell chargers that damage its products. Otherwise, is the product life meant to be just two years?

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go to the Apple store for a couple of months as everything in my city is closed due to COVID. I'll definitely make an appointment when things open up but I"m here to see if anyone else has these issues and if anyone found and solutions.

 

[Ingster]

Some of the issues you've mentioned are possibly related to the age of the airpods, battery charge level is definitely one of them, along with duration of the charge. I too have Gen 1 airpods and love the heck out of them, but they do not have great battery life and never seem to hit a 100% charge, they have now been pushed into airpods to use when the wife is sleeping and i am still awake watching youtube vids at night, I've got APP now for my commutes.

I have noted with my AP 1st gen when switching devices, it connects easily to my older ipad air 2, but connect it to my macbook air or ipad pro i'll select them and they'll sit with a rotating connecting icon and fail, then select them again and it'll instantly connect.

One connecting and not the other I find happens more on my APP rather than my 1st gen airpods, quick drop both in case close lid and open and put them in my ears resolves this.

 

[one more]

The battery life decrease is expected as Li-ion batteries can only handle a certain amount of charging cycles before going “poof”. Depending on your AirPods use you can expect them to last you 2-3 years, then it is time for a new pair.

 

[seggy]

This is, I think, yet another example of Apple's evil genius. They've turned $150~$250 earphones into consumables in effect.

They'll last three years at most, before a battery replacement - if you use them daily, then most likely a lot less. Will they last another three after the battery swap? Debatable for the same reasons, especially as the refurb replacement unit might not be hugely younger than your originals.

At least many other copycats do opt for relatively easily cracked open cases and commodity button rechargeable cells, but it's irritating seeing the industry realise given Apple's lead that convenience trumps fiscal prudence.

 

[nickdalzell1]

The battery life decrease is expected as Li-ion batteries can only handle a certain amount of charging cycles before going “poof”. Depending on your AirPods use you can expect them to last you 2-3 years, then it is time for a new pair.

Can someone explain why the battery in my 10-year old iPhone 4 still holds excellent charge (takes forever to recharge though) when it's still on the original battery and why my PowerBook G4 laptop still has a usable charge on its now 20 year old battery? (PowerBook made in 2000)

Has Apple skimped on batteries or what?

 

[seggy]

Can someone explain why the battery in my 10-year old iPhone 4 still holds excellent charge (takes forever to recharge though) when it's still on the original battery and why my PowerBook G4 laptop still has a usable charge on its now 20 year old battery? (PowerBook made in 2000)

Has Apple skimped on batteries or what?

Everyone has. Even earlier last decade a lot of companies used Korean and Japanese cells. But BOM price is everything so now everything's Chinese - which doesn't mean to say there's not a lot of development that goes into them, but that development is making them even cheaper.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Alls I know is that if Apple made it, it lasted a pretty darned good long time, battery included. I can never say the same about my Dell Latitude D610 battery which went kaput (1-3-5 error, charge cycle 500, won't charge past 500 cycles) a year after I bought the thing, and any Windows machine which just refuses to even detect a battery over 2 years old. Also Android phones. Removable or not, expect a 1.5-3 year lifespan at BEST.

 

[Duncan68]

I have a UE Bluetooth speaker that is 7 years old. The battery on it (which was rated for 10 hours when new) still lasts about 6 hours. I think the bigger the battery, the longer the life cycle will be. However, the batteries in my Jabra Elite 65t seem to be higher quality than what Apple uses in AirPods.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I haven't had my AirPods that long (bought in February) but I can get as many as 5 hours of music without them indicating they're low on charge (as in they've never just went dead or had any sort of warning I'm familiar with). Once I was walking and listening to music in the woods and I checked my iPhone 'batteries' widget about 5 hours, 10 minutes into using my Pods, and they showed 26% remaining, although I never got any type of low battery warning (is there one?). Pretty impressive.

Wondering if I should try any other make of truly wireless buds to compare, but it seems even Bose is into the whole 'ear tip' style that resemble AirPods Pro, and those never feel right in my ears. Plus they're huge. I like my AirPods 2 since they're like EarPods but the cord was cut. I hope future AirPods are not made like the Pros.

 

[seggy]

Alls I know is that if Apple made it, it lasted a pretty darned good long time, battery included. I can never say the same about my Dell Latitude D610 battery which went kaput (1-3-5 error, charge cycle 500, won't charge past 500 cycles) a year after I bought the thing, and any Windows machine which just refuses to even detect a battery over 2 years old. Also Android phones. Removable or not, expect a 1.5-3 year lifespan at BEST.

I think you have a predictably selective memory regarding the removable Macbook Pro cells - particularly as when they expanded (and a *lot* did), they were capable of causing major damage to the host notebook since the latch held to beyond notebook damage.

Apple batteries improved in terms of cycles, but not necessarily longevity (i.e. they were more suited for daily discharge than long periods with little battery use), when they made their 1000-cycle sorta-commitment - and the same went for a lot of other notebook makers.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I had my MacBook Pro 2012 for 5 years and the original battery had not only never expanded, it still held a great charge and the only part that actually failed on that laptop was the hard drive.

Can't say that about ANY Windows laptop--after 2 years, even Windows 10 refuses to detect, much less charge a battery. It apparently does this to avoid explosions. At least, that's sorta the way I took my stepdad's 2-year old Dell Inspiron's error message. Windows 10 replaced the battery icon with a exclaimation point triangle icon and hovering over it shows 'attention needed' and it displayed Support Assist from Dell about time to replace battery and it wouldn't be able to recharge until it were replaced. Essentially the modern clone of the ol'e 1-3-5 error LED blink my D610 from 2009 did.

Even my PowerBook G4 Titanium, made in 2000 according to the bottom of the case, and my oldest Mac currently, still charges and has a couple hours of non-internet use in its original battery.

Only time will tell if my 2019 MBP has such longevity.

 

[sviato]

I’m ok with the battery life being diminished but the connectivity issues are very annoying. I guess 2.5-3 years of daily use is alright for a product’s life cycle (for comparison, I needed to replace the wired EarPods annually). I’ll still get the AirPods checked out when an Apple store reopens in my area.

I did take advantage of the education promo to get the AirPods Pro at 1/3 the price so I’ll have them as back up if my originals get worse or die completely.