AirPods Pro firmware 2B588 reduce the noise cancelling capability

"worst UX for updating an apple product since probably the Apple One" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well at least you made me laugh. Apple making us sound like we are all crazy and have "psychological issues" or "perception issues". I can't believe Apple is saying this to their customers...

The thing that actually is blowing my mind is that some people have the problem and others not. I've been through all the 3 upgrade but i haven't experimented any loss in ANC, or so i think.

Now the ANC is pretty strong as it is supposed to be.

How is it possible?

do the 2C54 triggered anything bad in some defective units?

For those who have the replacement and the issue solved: have you noticed any change in the hardware version (should be: 1.0.0)

yes you are right.

Make you few example.

If I'm driving with rain and I turn anc ON i cancel more than 90% of the noise.

If I'm at the gym, with the ANC i can cut the a good 60/70% of the noise.

If I'm at my working desk with people taking at the phone I can cut something about 40/50%, depends on how loud they are talking. The same happens if a collegue strokes hard the keybord: the ANC can cut around the half of the noise.

If I'm alone at desk and I can clearly hear a colleague talking in another room ANC can cut almost 100% of the voice.

That's not their final word. After that, on December 20, they replied someone with "We took a quick look and did see some variation in ANC performance but we’ll need to look into it further. We’re going to be off for the holidays for a bit but we’ll re-test their ANC, along with FR, once we’re back in January." and then today "Expecting to have them by the end of week, will keep you all in the loop!".

Bought Air Pods Pro when a couple of months ago.

Very happy with NC then.

Now I noticed it is not nearly as good as before, especially when driving a car, keeping out engine, tyres and low frequency noise.

I have model A2084, hw version 1.0.0

Firmware 2C54 right now.

It is like a completly different product now, I will start using my Bose instead and hoping this will be resolved soon with a better firmware.

I am waiting to hear back from my rep again to see if they will collect my device. I will update you guys if I learn anything about this.

Did anyone have their device collected from them or only people swapped out at a Genius Bar? I don't really know how this process works when Apple wants to actually collect hardware to directly to troubleshoot .

Can you clearly understand what someone’s talking to with the ANC turned on? It’s like a whisper or something louder than that? I mean, I know it’s going to be lower than hearing someone with no ANC, I just want to know how strong is the voice of someone when talking in front of you with the ANC.

Agree. Every experience I've had going to the Apple store frustrates me even more since they never want to admit fault/issues.

I'm hoping it's a firmware fix at this point but worried, based on my conversations with my adviser (who won't call me back now), Apple chose to do this intentionally.

It’s incredibly frustrating. I do not expect these to be on par with my Bose, however, I also do not expect to hear my own footsteps wearing a product which claims noise canceling. I wish Apple would admit the change and offer a fix vs the insinuation that we are all crazy!

My guess is this is 100% the issue. Based on my experiences with 3 and about to be 4 sets. From launch that is- and all versions. 0 chance this is hardware- as that means they have a percent of 65million to recall for 19’ alone.

I totally agree with everybody on this forum complaining about the latest firmware. I got my Airpods Pro at the beginning of December here in South Africa. Way in the beginning it creates a vacuum when switching on ANC and I could not even hear my fingers when snapping them next to my ear. Now I can hear them clearly and I realised ANC only works well with low frequency sounds and not as much with high frequencies. Also the the vacuum effect is now only about 30% what it used to be. This is unacceptable and not in my head. I am not crazy...

It would be amazing if someone had the change logs or (mods please don't get mad at me for this) if someone actually knew what changed in the code between 2B584 and 2B588...

It's clear to us all there is a change. We just don't know if this was intentional or not. But either way, I hope with the backlash that even if was intentional, they would change it back. If it's a bug, they can fix it...

This is the first time I would have seen an Apple product suddenly get "worse" via update and it was intentional... I mean like iPhone Software 2.0 was buggy to the point of bricking my first iPhone original and iOS 11 was also buggy but it wasn't intended... So I really hope this was not an intentional thing...

Either way, we are in a mass consensus and all have literally almost the exact same experiences. Engineering could just read through here and see that we are all having literally (even down to the most minute details) the exact same issue...

Demo units at Apple tend to run Retail-custom versions of software (such as iOS and iPad OS). I'm not sure how you checked that they were 2C54 but the hardware at Apple is also not guaranteed to be exactly the same as the retail version (i.e. they have theft prevention devices added, other means of charging the devices for consumers to use, automatic resets, demo modes on iOS devices, etc.)

I checked the software in the info tab, as is should be. And both have the latest.

what you’re saying about the demo units is right, but it applies just to the iphone, iPad and perhaps macs.

Another thing: if it would be “just” software how can we explain dozen of people having a huge improvement with the “sucking” method?

I repeat again, my test is obviously very weak: but my perception is that in the same firmware, same tip’s size, my unit has a 10/15% less power in anc.

dunno, if nothing change in few days I’ll return and buy again.