Airpods Always Disconnecting on All Devices

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!

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

I just got it checked at apple store and through diagnostics tests they found the AirPod battery failed to keep the charge though it shows fully charged in your phone.. you have to replace the specific affected AirPod.. that’s the only solution..

Update!!

Guys, good news at least for me. So, after trying everything regarding to software troubleshooting, I turned off ear detection and started playing with airpods inside the case, to my surprise, while inside the case they never disconnected but continued drawing power constantly from it. So in a desperate last attempt I order a couple of OEM batteries from ebay that were about $13 the pair, proceeded to a random reapir shop that know mostly how to repair apple products, they told me they´ve never done that service before, but with they´re knowledge ended up agreeing to do the labor to replace the batteries, cause I don´t have the tools, they charged me around $17. In the end I got my airpods working againg by changing the batteries. Plese note my explanation on how I figured it was the batteries on the 2nd sentence. Lucky me I gess, but many have tried this and didn´t work because it was a firmware issue...

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.

I'm from Spain. Last week I made an appointment at the Genius Bar and they made me a replacement for second-generation ones paying €55. I had to claim a lot, but in the end they recognized that this is a problem that is repeated many times in the airpods 1gen in the 6.8.8. I recommend that you go and claim it! Good luck!

I too figured out that it was actually the batteries being worn out that caused the problem. Apparently just letting the pods be and not using them also wears the batteries.

It seems like the described behavior is common when batteries die.

I figured it out by looking at battery level while not playing anything. It dropped rapidly from full to nearly empty while just sitting quietly in my ears.

Also contacted Apple and they offered no help… :(

Hi Thanks for the updates ! I'have also found a solution by replacing one ear (bought from a store around 25$) and everything worked fine. The guy from the store told me that the problem is very common and that he has a huge stock of airpods ears with same problem (seems like the battery life is around 2-3 years).

Just bought a Huawei Freebuds Pro to test them :)

I’m so glad I found this thread. I thought i was going mad. I’ve done everything to reset them too and I still get the same issue. After about 1 minute my gen 1 left AirPod cuts out. Then after about 10 more minutes the right one cuts out too.

if I put them back in the case and then back in my ears the same things happens.

I know 100% this is software. Try this - upload an audio file that’s long to the files app. Connect your AirPods and then play the audio file from files. It will play perfectly for as long as the clip is. I have a dj mix that’s an hour long, plays perfectly and no disconnects. Then play something from Apple Music or a podcast or anything else and it will cut out after a minute.

I haven’t had time to go into an Apple shop yet but this proves it is software. Try it.

Had a genius bar appointment today. He ran diagnostics tool and found a problem with the right airpod's battery. Replacement would cost over $AUD100 so I passed it. I’m unsure if it is due to battery or firmware as airpods battery showed 95% when it was disconnected

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.

What are your AirPods' hardware version and model number?

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