AirPods Pro firmware 2B588 reduce the noise cancelling capability

Same thing here - I got them on day 1 and was really happy with the ANC, but the most recent firmware updates have drastically decreased its effectiveness. Instantly noticeable sitting in my usual coffee shop, in a car or on a plane. It almost sounds like partial transparency mode is now on while ANC is selected - voices, typing, footsteps etc are now getting through to a much larger degree than with the original firmware. Really hope they revert this change soon.

Mine also stopped working. There is more silence in the “off” mode than noise cancellation. Yesterday I decided to do an ear tip test and it came back yellow warning to try another tip size or adjustment.

I’ve always used medium and it was also green — a good seal.

I tried all other tip sizes and still got yellow.

It's true. The only thing you could really hope for is that the new pair had the old firmware and you would have to really try to jerry-rig them to try to prevent them from updating... like unpairing them from the iPhone everytime you want to charge or something. Really sad... And yes, it's the engineering dept or dev team that should know about it by now and I hope would be working on a new firmware... If they don't... it's really going to cost them dearly. They have a great product here... one that I was willing to drop a few hundred for... and now I'm kind of sitting here just hoping it gets back to the way it was on day one... I wouldn't be angry to the staff there... it's not their fault and this is clearly a firmware issue... So... it's a catch-22 since we can only report to AppleCare/Support and also send feedback (whether or not this gets read or not is beyond me) but the AppleCare reports are def being looked at.

Also I updated my rep about this thread (which he knew about) and said they are looking at it. So I think it's best we keep each other updated here as they are monitoring this thread too

They still have to fix this or it will turn into one of the many "scandals" Apple had before (AntennaGate, BendGate, whatever). It's just not cool to sell a product based around ANC, have it out for 3 weeks and then remove 50-75% of the ANC's effectiveness behind our backs w/o explanation or a changelog. They could always introduce a feature in a newer iOS that allows control over the ANC but why they'd change it to levels that are far below-par of their competition (Sony, etc.) doesn't make sense...

My rep is still working on this for me and I advised him to please forward this thread up the chain but he already had this URL when he initially emailed me...

If anyone else has any first-hand information from their Apple Support rep, please post it here.

Or perhaps please as your AppleCare rep if they are aware of both this forum (please email them the URL) and if it is being forwarded to Engineering. I think that is our best bet to get this fixed quicker.

I'm the one who is very upset about worsened ANC after 2C54 firmware upgrade. I have a question for those who bought an AirPods Pro with old firmware 2B584. I know that you have noticed a degradation of ANC performance when upgrading from 2B584 to 2B588. But, after that, did you notice any changes in ANC when upgrading from 2B588 to 2C54 ? Could it be that ANC breaks down during any firmware update because the hardware or firmware bug ?

Also, there is a Russian forum where is this problem discussed:

https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=792523&st=8380

And a lot of people there noted the degradation of ANC after 2C54 firmware update. People are just waiting for the new firmware update in hope that Apple will fix it back.

Also, you may get a pair shipped with 2B584. It may ship with 2B588. It's unlikely it will ship with 2C54 unless they just brought in new stock. But yes, please update us. Just please keep an open mind... We aren't crazy over here. We all collectively noticed something strange, Googled it, and realized "oh... many people are having this issue".

Most people don't use this forum... They go directly to Apple if they even do anything at all. Or they go to Reddit or another forum (and Reddit users have consistently been redirecting those people here which to me shows that even those users are aware of this problem on a mass-scale).

If you do by chance get a new pair that runs 2B588 or 2C54 and your current ones also are the same firmware and they test differently, then yes, let us know... But according to Apple, this seems to be a firmware issue.

I bought my AirPods Pro after Christmas and came with the firmware 2B588. Ever since then I didn't get the recent firmware update so is it possible that Apple has pulled the recent firmware update? I saw a recent reddit post with a source saying they pulled it. (German Article)https://www.iphone-ticker.de/airpods-firmware-2c54-offenbar-von-apple-zurueckgezogen-151650/

Although the ANC is somewhat passable, I saw a lot of users saying the firmware 2B584 was the true ANC Apple wanted to deliver. I recently purchased AppleCare since there's so many bugs and issues surrounding it so if the firmware can't be fixed, I may want to return these back or swap it out with a newer batch.

It's very similar to the truth. A lot of people say that now their new Pro headphones have upgraded to 2B588, but not to 2C54. If Apple decided that 2C54 was a bad firmware, then this is a good sign. We can hope that the ANC level will be fixed in the next firmware. If not, I'll try to return the headphones and get the money back since ANC is the main reason why I bought it.

Actually had the same issue. Called the Apple support that weren’t able to help me. Always an amber light flashing. Tried in every way to pair it, holding the pair-button for 10 seconds, delete it from every unit, nothing helped and Apple support were very confused.

Finally I got them to pair, for me the problem was that I tried to pair both my replacement AirPods at once. And when I did pair them (one by one, like u described, only one in the case) I noticed that they had different firmware (5B288 and 5B284) and I thought that maybe that was the problem.

So I paired one of the replacements with one of my old AirPods (ex. First new left AirPod with original right AirPod, the one that I were go to send back). When that worked I deleted the pairing, and paired the new right with the “new” left (that I paired in the first step). When that was completed, the both worked like a couple again. When the pairing was completed the firmware had been updated on both AirPods to 2C54.

I got pairs with 2B588 right out of the box. The noise cancelling is not as good as the Apple store demo with 2B576. The engine sound of the public transit is not diminished and found no difference between ANC on/off. Please fix it or give us control over the Level of ANC like the Sony’s.

So I finally went to the Genius Bar after this whole ANC issue and they've replaced my individual AirPods Pro after running an in-store test but left me with the same charging case and it will not connect to my devices now — the case only flashes amber and I seem to have tried every combination of charging, removing AirPods,

holding the setup button etc but they just will not trigger the on-screen connection process.

rust1 wrote:

Cerlini Gabriele wrote:

So I can now say that the lessened ANC is not related to the firmware revision. It's probably some kind of hardware issue.

Oh, I suspected it. This is the worst thing that could have happened.

Yup, but this also explains why the issue is so little widespread. It still can be due in some ways to the firmware, but definitely 2B588 on my new pair apparently works just fine so far.

I never had an issue with fit test on any firmware. Actually, I can pass fit test with either M or L but L stays in my ear better.

I can feel that "sucking" effect but again, it is MUCH less than it was before. Before it felt like going into a space vacuum. Now it feels like a gentle squeeze inside my ear.

Some here have said that they noticed the problem after 2C54 and some speculated it could be a problem during the firmware update process. Apple may delete this reply because it contains some speculation but it is being posted (MODS LOOK HERE) to try to narrow down some of the issues and rule out some things.

Do you think you could get them to 2C54 and see how they work? I'm still not convinced it's not the firmware. Unless there is an error with the firmware only showing up on some devices... Or an error when updating...

You really feel the ANC is the the exact 100% level as 2B584? Please read mine and the two other poster's comparisons between 2B584 and 2B588/2C54 and please tell us if you notice ANY of those sounds (traffic, fans, busses, subways, airplane -- not practical, your own voice, other voices, sounds of typing, environmental sounds, birds, wind, rain, all things that were eliminated prior to my device updating to 2B588).

Same for me. I bought my APP with 2B584. In the office listening music silently ANC was doing perfect job - i had my silence. Day after update to 2B588: same situation, but now I can hear the environment, people speaking. I have to listen music quite loud to get the people whispers out. this is not what I want. On 2C54 the same effect.

I have reported my problem to apple. they asked me to send the APP back (for developer team). I'll wait one more week to get feedback from someone who got his APP replaced to confirm HW issue.

rtings Had already talked about the second update. Ready carefully the whole AirPods Pro review.

they wrote:

Update 12/04/2019: After receiving multiple reports of the ANC being worse than before after the 2B588 firmware update, we retested the Apple AirPods Pro's noise isolation performance and didn't get noticeable test result differences. Apple might have tweaked the ANC, but not enough to noticeably impact the overall performance.