AirPod Pro Microphone Call Quality

Same problems here. I am on my THIRD pair of replacement Pros with zero improvement. Purchased April 2020 and latest pair received here in NYC just this week. All the replacements show a manufacture date of Oct 2020 or earlier (I have read reports that those manufactured LATER than Nov 2020 may be of some kind of updated hardware that would provide a fix, but have no way of telling). Anyway, have tried all the usual repair/forget/single ear noise cancelling/etc options and zero fix. On phone calls the Pros pick up and amplify even the quietest noises making them downright offensive to the caller on the other side of conversation. Totally unusable for work, much less talking to friends. And outside??? Forget it! Slight breeze sounds like a gale, cars going by sound like a roller derby and forget about subways and train use. I will say that the reps at the Apple Stores are always nice and happily provide a replacement, but what good is it? Now I read the AirPod Max has even bigger issues with background noise! How can Apple not fix this? Can it even be fixed by a firmware update or are we truly and totally stuck here with worthless products that can’t make calls??

A little over year later since this thread was created and we are still experiencing the same problem...

I bought my first pair from Amazon on October, came out faulty. Got replacement. Second pair also faulty this time I just got refund. Third pair was given to me as a gift on my birthday on December and also faulty. I thought there will be a difference between Amazon purchased and Apple store purchased but no. And I tried everything that you can find on the internet from cleaning the AirPods Pro, the case, to disconnecting, to rebooting, e v e r y t h i n g. After days of trying I finally went to the Apple store. They gave me a replacement for both AirPods left n right. I come back home and the mic STILL SOUNDS STATIC N MUFFLED. I did the testing with voice memos but sound so bad I rather just not use them for calls. What’s the point of having expensive pair of AirPods Pro if they are all faulty?

I think it’s time for a new firmware update ASAP if you don’t want to lose any more customers because I’m exhausted of trying and failing all the time...

I've also had serious problems with my Airpods Pro. Even claimed there was a fault and got a replacement pair. Still not working.

Now I've asked around with my friends and acquaintances also owning Airpod Pros. Several have stuffed them in a drawer as they're worthless for calls in non-super-quiet environments.

I still use mine as they're expensive to replace, but I can't speak on the phone unless I am in super quiet environments. And I thought Apple would have fixed their issues, but a friend bought a new pair last week and called me up today and pointed out that the same problems I had described occured for her as well.

I've got approx. 10 friends with the Airpod Pros and all of them have serious issues using them. Apples brand is about just making stuff work. But these don't work. The Apple Airpods Pro are ****.

I bought mine in september 2020. And my friend experiencing the same problems bought her new ones in january 2021.

yeah this haa been around, but thank you. i have had 3 replacements and all the same issue. the replacements are not manufactured any differently as of yet so you are just swapping one bad for another. i had read someplace that perhaps those manufactured after Oct 2020 has some kind of hardware fix, but i have yet to see a pair made then so i have no idea.

I had the same problem with zoom, MS teams and google chat. Experimenting before a zoom call, I noticed that the sound only went bad when I switched the input sound source from 'internal microphone' to airpods. Switching back seemed to solve it. This article suggests that it's a problem with the bluetooth algorithm (makes sense) but very surprised Apple haven't created a fix for this yet!

https://audacious.blog/2017/airpods-macos-call-quality-fix/#:~:text=The%20Fix%3A%20You%20need%20to,quality%20takes%20a%20noticeable%20hit.&text=Call%20participants%20sounded%20hollow%20and,sounded%20the%20same%20to%20them.

Just this week my airpod pros have stopped working over calls. No one can hear me on the other end but I hear everything on theirs. Can someone from apple support please help us since this has clearly affected a lot of people. Y’all products are not cheap by a long shot but they have the MOST problems. This is so frustrating especially when them Samsung’s starting to look mighty appealing. Trying to stay loyal but this is becoming a headache. I can only listen to music. This SUCKS

My new Air pods pro has terrible microphones. It is cancelling my voice and enhancing the background noise. Have not been able to make a call with any clarity till date (have owned it for 4 weeks so far). Can I get it replaced with the older ones?

In order to finally have some reliable data about this problem, I recorded my voice while walking outside, using both my AirPods Pro and a second phone, and made a video with the detail (4 minutes): https://youtu.be/LSy-mserlGE

It seems clear that the issue is real and is not due to an arcane bug or setting (firmware version, transparency mode, forgetting and re-pairing). Noise cancellation drowns out your voice when it's windy, and there is no way to deactivate it. Using your phone when you are outside is currently the only fix I can see.

My Airpods Pro have the exact same issue and I'm sure this was not happening several months ago. (Around mid year last year). I went to an Apple Store around November 2020 with this issue and I got replacement pods which when we tested in the store seemed fine (hard to test since Apple Stores are empty due to COVID). Back home after a few days the problem appeared but I still though it was an isolated problem so I bought a pair for my wife. Hers have this issue since day 1. They work well when listening to audio but on calls the other person hears every background noise louder than the voice itself.

Yesterday I spoke to Apple Support and they sent me a replacement pair after having to pair a safe deposit of $200 per pair. I just received both replacement pairs and the problem persist. Now I have to go to a UPS store to leave the replacements so I get the $400 back.

This seems like a design flaw or firmware issue. It's a huge design flaw and needs to be addressed by Apple and Airpods Pro should be recalled and compensate users. I spent a lot of time dealing with support, going to the Apple Store and now having to go and return the replacement pods because the problem has not changed at all. A HUGE disappointment on quality control.

This is SO exactly what I have been going through. I was lying in bed yesterday talking to a friend. Way off in the distance on the freeway I could hear an ambulance. My friend said it sounded like it was in the room with me. I have had two sets of replacements sent and nothing changes. Their product is junk or the firmware is junk. What is the worst is that they don't acknowledge there is a problem. It's a disgrace. 4952 people have said they have this exact problem.

Apparently Apple doesn’t care what it’s customer think, this is the longest thread Ive ever seen without a definitive solution

I contacted every support centre, resellers, repair centre and always (there’s no problem with the Airpods), these are very expensive, and no one would replace them for me

I am very frustrated, I’ve been loyal customer for years but never again!

This is such a difficult problem!! I have the same issue. I spoke to Apple and now I’m getting a replacement. None of the aforementioned troubleshooting steps worked. The rep even walked me through a factory reset and the mic still sounded terrible. It definitely doesn’t give me confidence in their more expensive headphones...

exactly the same issue here. background noise gets amplified by 100 times. Went to the Apple Store this week and they exchanged them for me. Guess what... the new ones have exactly the same issue...

APPLE Please fix this know issue ASAP

I was having the same issue and was getting really frustrated. Something I read in here gave me the idea to try switching out my ear tips. I did it today and have not had the issue again today. I will keep you posted, but it is worth a try

After suffering for weeks and keep raising the same complaint,again and again they replaced my rt earpiece after demanded them to connect me with the head office , this is day 3 and I didn’t have the same problem so far. Will update you.

Im not sure if I ever will trust Apple products again