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.
