AirPods Pro - Noise Cancellation with One AirPod setting not working

Question

Level 1

12 points

AirPods Pro - Noise Cancellation with One AirPod setting not working

Is anyone else having a problem with the noise cancellation in one ear (AirPods Pro) setting (Accessibility->AirPods->Noise cancellation with one AirPod) randomly resetting itself? At first, it appears as though the setting is applied, however the instant my AirPods reconnect after enabling the setting, it is reset to the off position. I am a developer and have gone through pretty advanced troubleshooting without any luck. I use my AirPods every day while I’m at work and this is becoming very frustrating. The noise cancellation with one AirPod setting used to stay on when I turned it on … until I updated to 14.5. Now, every time I disconnect my AirPods and then reconnect, they automatically reset that setting to default (disabled). Every. Single. Time. I’ve factory reset my phone once, AirPods three times, and I managed to duplicate the problem with a brand new pair of AirPods Pro, so I’m almost certain it’s a software issue (but I could be wrong). It’s extremely frustrating to have to dig into accessibility settings for my AirPods EVERY time I put them into my ears. I pretty much always have only one AirPod in at a time because I’m constantly interacting with people all day and want the ability to be able to listen to music with noise cancellation in one ear and still be able to hear someone call my name with the other. I hope I’m not the only one with this problem because I honestly don’t know how to go about fixing this. I’m stumped.

iPhone 11 Pro Max

Posted on May 26, 2021 9:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Madzoirark

Level 1

20 points

Jun 28, 2021 5:41 PM in response to Bohays

Have you found a solution?

This is driving me nuts lately. I am deaf in one ear so it makes no sense at all to use both pods at once. Especially when I previously only had to use one, and the noise cancellation worked perfectly.

Not only does “Accessibility - AirPods - Noise cancellation in one ear” reset itself, I also have to return to the Bluetooth - AirPod Pro - Info to turn “noise cancellation “ back on. Like you said: “Every. Single. Time.”

I have this issue with both my iPad Pro and iPhone 8 since most recently updating the iOS.

Thanks, Limnos, for pointing out the support article on how AirPods work, but the article offers no solution other than directing us to redo the settings every time we use the AirPods. The other article is lovely but there are no issues with crackling, loss of bass , or increase in background noise. The noise cancellation just turns itself off between uses.

Reply

Answer 2

Bohays Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 14, 2021 11:12 PM in response to Bohays

I FOUND AN EASY SOLUTION!!! Factory reset your AirPods (hold the back button down until white led flashes amber then turns back to white, then let go), forget your AirPods from Bluetooth devices, re-pair your AirPods Pro as normal and then put BOTH of them in your ears, then open settings -> accessibility-> AirPods -> noise cancellation in one AirPod, and turn that setting on. Take one airpod out WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN SETTINGS (don’t navigate away, stay on that page) and press and hold the stem to put it in noise cancellation mode. It should work now and you can exit settings.

Reply

Answer 3

Aug 30, 2021 10:16 AM in response to Bohays

I'm glad I'm not alone with this problem. I thought it was a problem with my particular iPhone (which is a 1st gen. SE). I've found that when I turn that phone completely off, Noise cancellation with one AirPod Pro seems to stay enabled while using my other devices.

I talked about it with Apple Support online and they sent me to the Apple Store to talk to a "genius".

The "genius" first tried to tell me that it's supposed to work that way. haha. Then he said I should completely reformat my phone and rebuild it from scratch. So we did that in-store. While it's true that the problem didn't manifest itself immediately, I decided I didn't want to go through all the headache of downloading my apps again, etc. So I restored from backup.

Later I tried resetting all settings (Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings), but that did not solve the problem, so I restored from backup yet again.

I've even tried setting up a shortcut to get to Accessibility Settings quickly, but apparently that's not possible.

I'd encourage everyone with this problem to submit a report to Apple here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/ so that they're aware of it.

Reply

Answer 4

Limnos

Level 10

417,943 points

May 26, 2021 9:37 PM in response to Bohays

AirPods Pro and AirPods Max Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode - https://support.apple.com/HT210643

- 'Special AirPods Pro Service Program for Sound Issues' such as crackling or static sounds, and Active Noise Cancellation not working as expected. --> https://support.apple.com/airpods-pro-service-program-sound-issues

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 15, 2021 6:21 AM in response to Bohays

I will definitely try that!

…have had some success with forgetting the AirPods on all my devices, then re pairing and making sure all devices had identical settings for all aspects regarding sound and AirPods.

but Then I didn’t need to use them for a while so could not confirm it as a permanent solution. It’s also not ideal bc, for example, if I don’t use AirPods with my iPad Pro, I would want the sound to come from all the iPad speakers, vs putting both channels into the left so I can use just one headphone. Then who wants to change that on my phone again and switch them both back when I switch from speakers to AirPods…

Reply

Answer 6

Sep 26, 2021 5:55 AM in response to Gokiburi-San

I too have been having this problem and could not get anything to work with only one air pod for my one good ear without going several steps into accessibility and then into bluetooth each time. What a pain! I took your advice and downloaded IOS 15 to my IPhone 11. Then I went into accessibility and clicked on NC with one air pod and it held the setting. It works great now. I can put one air pod in my ear and change from NC to Transparency using the switch on the air pod without having to go into settings and go through all the steps into accessibility and bluetooth etc. I tried turning off the phone and turning it back on again and the settings held. Thanks so much for letting us know! What a relief!

Reply

Answer 7

Bohays Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 6, 2021 8:21 PM in response to Madzoirark

MAKE SURE YOUR AIRPODS PRO AND EARBUDS ARE FULLY CHARGED - verify with the green led light on the front or flip open the case and hold it near an iPhone (or iPad and even macOS can show you their charge in Bluetooth settings now, but these directions are iOS specific). If a dialogue window doesn’t pop up showing you charge status, make sure you have all radios ON in settings (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi … etc), turn off the screen for 5 seconds, turn it on and unlock your iPhone, THEN open the closed case and keep it open and very close to the phone. If that doesn’t work call Apple support lol.

Answer with potential solution - I managed to fix this issue on my personal devices :

Unfortunately, I have not found a kill-all solution or the cause of this bug, but I have some ideas. Somehow, someway, I managed to get the setting to stay on for the last two or three days so far. I started my most recent troubleshooting process by completely disconnecting and ‘forgetting’ my AirPods Pro from every single device I own (press the ‘i’ next to the name of your AirPods Pro in Bluetooth settings for iOS and iPados, right click/control click the name of your AirPods Pro in settings). I did not do this during my previous attempts to un-pair and re-pair my AirPods Pro but I did this last time when it worked (so maybe it helped). Seriously, go to Bluetooth settings on EVERY device you can remember connecting your AirPods to. Then, open the lid of your AirPods or AirPods Pro, press and hold down the small recessed button on the back of the case until the flashing white LED light flashes amber and then back to white, then let go of the button. Don’t close the lid immediately, Keep the lid open for 30 seconds after you let go of the button. Then, close the lid and don’t touch or open your AirPods for 15 minutes while you double/triple check that you erased your AirPods listed in Bluetooth settings from every device you’ve used your AirPods with. Ensure two things before moving on. Make sure that you do not see the name of your AirPods Pro listed under the Bluetooth preferences of any of your other devices, factory reset your AirPods Pro, and then go do something else for a decent amount of time. I chose to plug in my AirPods Pro before attempting to re-pair them. If you’re away from an outlet, at least make sure your AirPods Pro case AND buds have above an 80% charge. Pair your AirPods like I described above, then immediately go to accessibility settings->AirPods, and turn on the noise cancellation in one ear setting. I changed the long press duration setting to ‘shorter’ (middle option) too, in desperation lol. If you have an Apple Watch, turn on the noise cancellation in one ear setting (it is in the same place in watch settings too) at the same time (literally, like everything’s charged/in front of you, not do one device and then the other 20 minutes later. Tried it. Didn’t work, had to do it simultaneously). When you leave/exit the settings app, keep that AirPods accessibility preference pane/window open. Don’t force close settings or swipe/tap back to other settings pages before quitting it. The first few times, I had to go into control center to switch the bud to noise cancellation after figuring out that holding down the stem ‘button’ would only switch it to ‘off’ for me. Hope this helps you! I know how frustrating it can be, trust me! Good luck and let me know what happens or if you have questions.

Reply

Answer 8

Aug 9, 2021 12:06 PM in response to Madzoirark

My solution of 7/15 did not work. The solution above that suggesting factory reset etc did not work either.

I am still having to change settings in multiple places every single time I take my AirPod pro out of my ear. how ridiculous, especially given the cost of these things.

Reply

Answer 9

Aug 17, 2021 9:26 AM in response to Bohays

I had this problem with 14.5 it seemed to go away when I went to iOS 14.6 but now it’s back again with 14.7 can only think it is a bug as I’ve tried everything to sort this it’s so annoying. Hoping apple sort this out for iOS 15

Reply

Answer 10

Sep 9, 2021 8:24 PM in response to Bohays

I have been trying to find a work around for this issue for over a month. This is what I did tonight, and it is working so far.

I downloaded the Shortcuts app. I created a noise cancelling shortcut. Now it doesn't switch back to transparency when I return my AirPod Pro to the case. I don't know if this will work long term, but so far so good. I hope this is a solution until Apple fixes the issue. This has been an extremely frustrating problem.

https://www.howtogeek.com/698325/how-to-control-noise-cancellation-on-airpods-pro-with-a-shortcuts-widget/

Reply

Answer 11

Sep 10, 2021 8:08 AM in response to drsteveallen

It's nice that there's a shortcut for setting the Noise Cancellation mode. However, it didn't solve the problem for me.

I made the shortcuts, and set the AirPod to Noise Cancellation mode (after once again enabling Noise Cancellation with One AirPod).

Then I connected my AirPod to another device (my Mac). When I reconnected to my iPhone, the AirPod was back in transparency mode and clicking the shortcut results in the message, "Must have both buds in ear to set the desired liste... Cannot Set Listening Mode" I also get the same message when I set the AirPod to NC, return it to the case, and then put it back in my ear.

Interestingly, In a previous version of iOS, (maybe it was before iOS 14.5) I could set NC mode by asking Siri to set it, or by going to the Control Centre and long-pressing the volume control to reveal the NC modes. But now when I do either of those things, I get a similar message to the above ("Place both AirPods in your ears...") unless I first go three levels deep into Settings.

[Edited by Moderator]

Reply