Airpods Always Disconnecting on All Devices

Hello guys,

I currently found a solution. At least I figure out where the problem is coming from. It is all releted to the batteries in the airpods.

If you let them in the charging case, while for example listening to music, they will not disconnect.

Will search for battery replacment.

Regards,

Martin

Yesterday I was back at the Apple Store for the second time with this same problem and asked them to check the battery status and they said it was fine. They also told me this morning they had discussed the issue in their "briefing", which seems to be that there are already several users who have reported it.

They told me that they would open a repair case so that it would be registered so that the engineering team could review it and if there are several reports of the same problem, release a new version of the firmware.

I advise you to make a new appointment at an Apple Store and ask them to do a check of the battery of the AirPods so that they see that it is good and that they leave it reflected.

By the way, they also told me that if they see that the battery is bad they would charge the change at the battery price, which I think was about € 35.

Greetings to all.

Hi to all, I'm sure, after several attempts. replacing one of the two headphones solved the problem ! It s 100% sûre à battery problem.

It might be battery related:

1. Turn off Automatic Ear Detection.
2. Leave your airpods in the case.
3. Turn them on and hold the case with airpods up to your ear.

If they don't disconnect after ~1min, then it makes me think it could be battery related. Like, the airpods will only work if they are continuously charging off the case battery.

There is a big thread to get support here, please use it too: https://bit.ly/3ixGV6i

Hey I just tried “forgetting device” and reconnecting it to my iPhone and it seems to be working correctly again!

You cannot downgrade the firmware. But you can try resetting it to its factory settings by:

1. Going into Bluetooth settings on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, and forget the device.
2. Place both of your AirPods in its charging case and leave the case lid open.
3. Press an hold the button(located at the back of the charging case) for at least 15 seconds. You’ll start seeing the LED indicator flash white.
4. After 15 seconds, you’ll see the LED indicator flash Amber a couple of times.
5. After that, you have reset your AirPods to factory settings and you may let go of the button.
6. Try pairing your airpods to your phone and hopefully this fixes your issue!

If this does not fix the issue, try rebooting your devices and see if that helps. If not, I would take it to the Apple Store and get it checked out. Good luck!

I may get the reason of this issue. It's BATTERY.

Again, as the usual tricky way Apple applies on stale model iPhones, 6.6.8 firmware increases the AirPods battery level threshold, so tiny voltage down will cause BT drop.

Now I'm going to repair my AirPods (1st gen, bought on 2016/12, now could not be alive more than 2 minutes) by replacing the battery, which costs me 23 USD. Hope this may rescue my AirPods. I'll post the result later.

As a followup to my own comment I no longer think that Apple intensionally make the Airpods break by firmware update. The reson for this is that I have successfully used my wife's pair for a few weeks now and they work just fine. The conclusion I make is the following. Due to my wife's much less usage of her Airpods they are still working and this is despite the latest firmware installed on them as well. Talking to Apple Support they offer a repair (which actually is a replacement) of the "ear-pods" at a cost of >$160 and compared to a new pair that costs ≈$200 it is not tempting to go through the hassel of sending them for a replacement. Buying a new pair would also give me a new battery case as well as warranty for another year.

So instead I today ordered a new set of JBL wireless headphones at half the price and hopefully they will be just as good. https://www.amazon.com/JBL-LIVE-300TWS-Ear-Headphones/dp/B085J2HLWG?th=1 I found mine at a discount price of $99

"Off topic"

I got a new price for a battery replacement at the local Apple shop, $450!! That is asking for just the battery and replacing it myself as I cannot wait 3-5 days for them to do the job! I also talked to Apple Support asking them for an option to just buy the battery which the politely declined and just referred me to the Apple Shop and ask them for a faster service. I will ask, but probably end up buying another 3-party replacement battery and later a new computer "NOT Apple" and install Linux, or

perhaps buy a Dell XPS with Ubuntu preinstalled, and "Live happily ever after!" :)

Well I heard in a YouTube video saying that you erase your whole phone and try if it works it. Worked for me for 1 day only it’s back that problem again and the battery levels are different like the left AirPod is showing 31 while the right was showing 31 to as soon as I placed back in the case and opened it showing it is 57 charged the right one but it still disconnects while watching sometimes like it a hour or even seconds I’m using iOS 14 beta

Hi bro, as I posted in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250494933?answerId=253544521022#253544521022 , the root cause is that firmware 6.8.8 increases the voltage_low threshold (inference, no measurement proof), so to phase out old devices. The aged battery has faster drop curve than fresh battery.

Since no way to downgrade firmware or change the threshold yet, so the solution is to change the battery physically. Fortunately, I found local Airpods 1st/2nd gen battery replacement service via local B2C/C2C platform (like Amazon), which fixing cost is 23 USD, and 7 days express forth/back + fixing. I feel it's worthy to save my 190 USD Airpods (yr 2016) than buy a new one.

The new battery performance of playing music @60% volume:

20 minutes 90%

1 hour 78%

3 hours 53%

4 hours 12%

4h30m BT drop

PS.

If you have hot air welding/soldering tools and know how to use, then you can buy a pair of batteries totally 8 USD, and DIY like this: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ez411v7er

Yes, Exact same behavior. mine is getting disconnected every 30 mins then put back in case for 5 mins then pull out to connect again and like wise it works for another 15 mins then cycle repeat's.

i also noticed that battery life is also drastically decreased but case shows 90% sometime 70% and disconnects.

Please help "apple !!!" instead replace and pay same cost,upgrade the firmware quickly.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone.

Another angry user here. I am also suffering the same problem and although I know that writing here will not do any good, at least I will vent.

First-gen Airpods had worked perfectly for me so far until some months ago. In fact, the battery still shows enough capacity to use them for hours, but since they were updated to the latest firmware (v6.8.8), the right AirPod is disconnected within a few seconds of use. I have tried to restore them a hundred times or use them with other devices, but I have the same problem in all situations. If I use only the left one it is fine, but if I take both out of the case and put them on, the right one is the one that fails and causes the connection of both to be lost in a matter of seconds (still having 99% battery left).

I am very upset, I have seen thousands of comments with the same problem here in Apple's support forums, in other forums, on YouTube… Is incredible the amount of angry customers that have the same problem and Apple only offer us the same solution: buy others for 75 euros each headset.

AirPods are not cheap headphones and their lifespan is now clearly very short. Although I was delighted when I bought them and I had even been thinking about buying the Airpods 2 or even the Airpods Pro for some time, since they will not last more than two years and because Apple does not take over afterwards and the repairs it offers are absolutely inordinate of price, I don't even think about it. I prefer to buy an alternative (which there are and very good for just € 30) and if after two years they stop working (which I doubt, I don't think they are as bad as Apple's), it won't hurt as much.

I have been user of the entire Apple ecosystem for many years, I have many Apple devices that work very well and when an iPhone, an iMac or an iPad has broken, I have bought another without hesitation because I believe that its useful life has been enough long and its failure was justified by simple use and time. But unfortunately I can’t ignore this problem with the Airpods, it is more than obvious that it’s not a problem with the battery, but with the update. And if it were the battery, I would agree to repair them out of warranty for € 20 or € 30, not € 75 and maybe a few months later Apple releases a new firmware update that will damage the other headset.

I’m very, very unhappy with Apple in this regard and I took the decision to not buy other Airpods again, neither normal, nor Pro, nor Max. And of course I am not going to recommend them to anyone ever again.