AirPods Pro Rattling Noise

I have been using mine for about half a year, since January, and I started having my AirPod cut out at random points and so I decided to just wait for an update , then that came, the issue was fixed, but no, they just had to stop working again, (this was all in the left one by the way) it would not even play sound. So I contacted apple support, they said they were not going to send me one, even though it was under warranty. So now I am having this rattling noise, and I am just so disappointed at all of the things that have gone wrong with these AirPods. The lack of customer support was a Pauling, and I waited 4 hours on the phone just to get told off about two times. The lack of quality you have put into the product is disgusting and the customer support was terrible. And this is coming from I die heart apple fan boy. If anything else’s happens I will post it here with what I have done to try and fix it and if it worked.

I think volume is partially to blame; maybe the pros can’t handle much? I know when I switch from my regular AirPods to the pros, I have to turn the volume up to hear them, because the level is so much lower. Maybe part of Apple’s solution is to cut down the volume limit on the pros?

I don’t think so because I just contacted them, the firsts time I got actual good support. This person was amazing. First time using iMessage for this, it is so much more convenient and whoever does that is so much better than most other people I’ve talked to

I agree, all 3 times never a no for a replacement. Prior to going to my Apple Cert. Repair center I contact them via i message and the person was very helpful. The system

did not allowed the shipment due to the Covid situation, not that I makes sense, but I got a reservation for the Tech Center and 8 days later I picked my replacements.

Same issue for me, but it was my right bud. I fibbed and claimed it was coming from both so I could get a fresh matching pair. I saw several people replace one only to have the other one start having the issue a month later. so tha same issue comes even after replacement, please give me a solution to this ?

Shakeel

Same issue for me, but it was my right bud. I saw several people replace one only to have the other one start having the issue a month later. so the same issue comes even after replacement, please give me a solution to this ?

Second time having to replace both Airpods. Did it over chat this time (first time was phone). I'm inching closer and closer to running out of my year warranty and having to use the AppleCare insurance. I pray they don't charge the $29 for each airpod at that point. I have no confidence that this is getting fixed with this generation of Airpod Pros.

Hey Leroy!

I actually had the same issue, and after going through 3 sets of airpods pro, I have found the tru cause and fix!!! Hopefully this video can help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97zC0zIKp_s

Hi Evan_Games,

Thanks for sharing the YouTube link. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t help because it’s not the issue which most people are experiencing. 

For most users, the vibration only happens in “ANC” or “transparency” mode. The issue does not occur in “off” mode.

To be clear, a loud “cough” will usually recreate the vibration symptom. You do not need to jump up and down as the guy suggests in his video. So given that a cough is all one need to do I think we can safely assume that the ear bud isn’t moving at all, let alone moving so far that it bounces off the wearer’s ear lobe.

As I have stated before, this has to be a hardware defect that is well known and understood by Apple, otherwise they wouldn’t be so casual about offering replacements under warranty.

Once the vibration / crackling symptoms have manifested, you can be absolutely certain that physical damage to the hardware of the Airpods you own has already occurred. There is absolutely no way that Apple would choose to provide customers with a free replacement under warranty if the issue was purely a software problem. If you experience this symptom, your Airpods are essentially a “write off” so it’s crucial to make sure you have an active warranty in place until the issue has been resolved with a permanent fix.

In the longer term, you can be certain that Apple are all over this and will find a way to solve it. The threat to their reputation will be huge so this is high stakes for them. They will almost certainly have a dedicated team working solely on this problem; but they will never admit that much in the public domain. 

It may well be the case that the solution they eventually come up with is indeed the rollout of a “software patch”. That will certainly be far more cost effective for them than a product recall. However, as an end-user it’s really important to understand that a s/w patch can only ever help to prevent physical damage from occurring in the future. No software patch can ever reverse the effects of physical damage to the hardware which has already occurred.

My thoughts on what might be causing this damage in the first place, relates to the ANC and Transparency modes of operation. If you think about it, both these modes utilise the microphone. Some of you may have noticed that in certain situations (e.g. lying on a pillow) you can experience a momentary “squeal” (basically a high-pitched sound emitted through the Airpods at high amplitude). This might very well be causing internal damage to the diaphragm. This is just a hunch which I have. I certainly cannot be certain about it. It’s possible that Apple need to develop some sort of feedback loop protection feature in their software. Let’s hope that don’t only succeed with that, but also offer greater transparency in to customers and agree to provide free replacements for anyone who owns “damaged airpods” regardless of The status of their warranty cover. But frankly, the only way that will happen is if customers work together to compound data and build a compelling case.

What a nightmare this has become. My wife has told me I have to stop trying to get these to work and just ask for a refund since I’m now on my fifth replacement pair. After a tier 2 rep told me I had to go to talk to a genius, the genius told me I had to talk to a tier 2 rep. After some more back and forth and a month of waiting I was put in touch with a local store admin that replaced them with a brand new pair. I was so excited that I had a pair that worked again. The sound was amazing. I had Bass again. There is a bass note at the start of the fit check that wasn’t audible at all on my last pair. There was no rumble, and the pounding noise when I would walk was gone too. This is the same story as every other time, but now I knew exactly what to listen for, and I also was more aware of what I am missing every time a set malfunctions. That bliss lasted for almost a week before the dreaded anomalies came back. I kept a detailed log that I will post below of every time I used the AirPods, notes about the sound quality, frequent fit check results, what type of audio I listened to, what I was doing at the time, The ANC mode, and if there was any major background noise. The only outlier is that I used them to make a phone call on my iPhone XS Max. Shortly after this first phone call that was ever made using this set the problems began. In my notes you can see I heard the issues shortly before the fit check began failing, and it was down hill from there. I want to help Apple figure out what is causing this, but they don’t seem too interested in investigating.

Here is my full log if anyone is interested. It is a heartbreaking tale lol.

AirPods Pro log

7/19 1pm Paired to iPhone, pass fit check. Bass is clear, no rumble, audio sounds less distorted and clearer than before

7/19 1pm put on 10w wireless charger

7/19 8:55pm pass fit check, used with background fan in anc mode, listened to podcast,

9:39 pass fit check. Placed back In case on 10w Qi charger

7/20 12:34am anc works, pass fit check. Listening to podcast on iPhone. Fan on in background

7/20 12:50 charging 10w Qi. Pass fit check 

7/20 3:40 iPhone podcast, pass

7/20 3:45, 2019 Mac Pro, mode option not present in toolbar, anc active, no background noise. YouTube then FCP X and Zoom

6:26 connected to iPhone, passed fit check, listened to podcast with fan on in background. Sounds good

7:51 connected to phone. Fit check passed. Using pass through mode. Sounds natural compared to last pair that was broken. Listening to podcast on walk. Pass check at end. 2 miles, 34m, Left 55%, Right 85%

8:35 placed on 10w wireless charger

8:40 listened to podcast 

9:05 placed on 10w wireless charger 

10:09 pass fit check, connected to 4K Apple TV. Watched YouTube in pass through mode. 

11:52 switched to iPhone, passed fit check. Brushed teeth with electric toothbrush. Shower on in background. 

12:25, put in case momentarily to say goodnight to wife. Attempted to go from transparency to anc and only one AirPod switched. Neither seemed to be connected to phone since audio didn’t play. Put back in case for a couple minutes. Took back out, connected, anc sounds good. 

7/21

12:54am back in case

12:46pm pass fit check, listened to podcast

8:42pm passed fit check. Listened to podcast on iPhone

8:57pm momentary desync on AirPods 

11:45pm pass fit check, listening to podcast while brushing teeth

11:59 listening to bass heavy music. Sounds strong and clear.

7/22

12:10am pass fit check, listening to podcast 

12:47am pass fit check, charging on 10w wireless Qi

12:40pm pass fit check, listening to podcast

12:58 pm connected to computer for zoom call. Level in left AirPod was lower. Had to put in case and take back out to correct. 

2:51pm has placed on Qi charger, 5v1A

7/23

12:07am pass fit check, listening to podcast

6:29pm pass fit check, listening to podcasts

11:00 pm pass fit check, podcast

7/24

12:24 am removed case from 10w charger. Placed earbuds in case

12:46pm pass fit check, podcast

1:39 placed on 5w Qi charger

3:50pm 30 minute phone call On iPhone 

9:27pm pass Fit check, listening to Apple Tv 4K YouTube. While connected to iPhone hearing more foot booming sounds that weren’t there before. Same booming sound when connected to Apple TV. Is the same in ANC and transparency. As happened on last set of AirPods, could not control volume with Apple TV remote unless I reconnected AirPods multiple times in the menu. 

9:38pm put back in case, connected to iPhone and ran fit check. Bass is noticeably weaker than before. Thuds from footfall continue. 

9:40pm “forgot” device on phone Bluetooth settings and reset AirPods Pro. Audio quality still seems degraded with weaker low frequencies and distorted mids and highs. 

9:50pm tested old AirPods first generation. Bass was much more pronounced. Restarted phone. AirPods Pro showed up as connected, but audio played through iPhone speaker not AirPods. Placed back in case and took out again to reconnect. First failure on right AirPod. Second check passed in both ears. 

10:20pm Next fit checks failed continuously on right only. Now I’m hearing constant rumbling in the right and thud sound every time I take a step. Removed and cleaned ear tips.  Inspected and saw no noticeable dust.   Right side always fails check no matter which ear tips are used.  Paced back in case. 

11:08 decided to test one more time. Now failing fit check in both ears. 

:(

I had gotten AppleCare knowing the first gen batteries were so prone to failure, and I expected I would need battery service at least once as I planned to use the AirPods Pro for years to come. I never thought I would be dealing with this nonsense. Written in the AppleCare terms it states that if a problem cannot be solved after multiple attempts at repair then a refund can be issued. I would much rather have working AirPods, but that might not be possible.

Hey Cooper,

Thanks for the reply. For me, and some others here, the issue happens while listening to music/in a phone call/watching a show AND with nothing playing through the phone. You can, literally, just have the AirPods in and cough or shake your head and you’ll hear the rattle. That isn’t software. And, for me, it didn’t matter if ANC/Transparency mode was on or off. You can just move it while in your ear and you’d still hear it. It also happened with both right and left.

The pattern seems to be that they are fine at first. After some set time (for me, 3 or so months) they start to fail the seal check and then ... rattle. Again, I’m on my third pair now. The rattle gets so bad that using them for phone calls or listening to music becomes unbearable.

Cooper789, you’re talking absolute rubbish. The issue described here can’t possibly have anything at all to do with the Apps that are running on the user’s iPhone because the issue occurs even when there’s no audio playing. (E.g. if a user were to cough loudly while in Transparency or ANC mode).