AirPods 3 High Pitched noise.

Same issue here. When not connected to any devices, connected to an iPhone 13 pro, or connected to a MacBook Pro I experience this high pitched crackling sound in the right bud.

The noise stops as soon as music is playing or I’m on a call.

I also have the same issue, also in the right earbud.

When first putting them in my ears, there is no audible noise. Then after about 15 seconds I begin to hear a faint, steady, high frequency ring. Wait another 15-30 seconds or so and the steady ring changes to a "chirp".

Goes away when playing music or removing the right earbud, but always returns if they're in my ear and idle.

These are my first AirPods, but another thing of note is that the right earbud's battery is draining significantly faster than the left.

Your description sounds rather like audio feedback, so it could be as simple as making sure the AirPod is correctly positioned in your ear, and the volume setting is not too high.

Follow Apple's advice in How to reset your AirPods and AirPods Pro - Apple Support to reset and reconnect your AirPods. If that doesn't solve the problem you might have a defective AirPod, contact Apple Support.

Found a temporary fix: Go to settings, accessibility, AirPods, Audio Accessibility Settings, Background Sounds and play the Rain sound set to 0 volume for both background and media. Should work well til Apple comes out with a software update to fix this, which is the most likely solution.

Same issue here, high-pitched whine when no music is playing. Hacky "background noise at 0% volume" fix does indeed work, but I don't like that it's necessary.

I reached out to Apple and am getting the issue escalated, since I'm guessing this is a software bug they missed because most people aren't bothered by / can't hear high pitched sounds. I've been encouraged to share this link so anyone with the same issue can report it too and have it addressed sooner! https://www.apple.com/feedback/airpods/

(Also is anyone else experiencing a permanent subtle pass-through or "transparency mode" at all times? Doesn't seem like there's a way to turn it off, or it even being acknowledged anywhere.)

I have the same issue also with the right airpod the annoying sound happens when no sound is coming out of the phone or ipad, also noticed that if I open the keyboard or type in a chat or search bar the noise disappears and then comes back when nothing is happening on the devices, I have been in contact with apple support and could not fix the issue.

Tried:

• Reseting the AirPods
• removing and adding them again
• different configs in the bluetooth settings, accessibility etc
• tried to clean up the mic's as suggested by apple support
• updated to the latest firmware 4B61
• Also I tried switching off all my devices and the right airpod was still making the sound with all devices off.
• Tried to move the airpod around in the ear
• Tried to play lost sounds with Find My in case maybe there was some obstruction
• Tried some bass testing songs

Hoping this can be fixed in firmware and that is not a hardware issue.

for anyone who hasn’t heard yet, enabling “background noises” at 0% volume stops the high pitch buzzing. After enabling in accessibility settings, it should show up in your command center as a quicker way to do it (it will always revert to your last volume setting, which would be 0% if you want).

I tried to create an automation that turns on background sounds whenever my AirPods 3 connect, and in theory it should work but the automation wouldn’t play on its own. However, creating a shortcut that does this and then an automation that runs the shortcut when connecting to AirPods 3 seems to work without fail. Tested it about 20 times now, and have had no issues with the buzzing because of this.

I know it’s not a solution, but maybe it will help some of you.

Same issue here on the right earbud, just got them today. I noticed some high pitched noise on the original AirPods but nowhere near as loud as in the AirPods 3. It has a pattern like one of those automatic grass sprayers that moves back and forth, except the noise is high pitched. It’s only present when music or sound is not playing and gets rather annoying. Hoping apple will fix this. The only thing I don’t like is when you call them and nobody in support knows nor do they have models to test and agree to give you some validation for the issue as a consumer. But nevertheless I’ll talk with apple support if it doesn’t go away in a few days.

I’m also getting this same issue with my AirPods 3. I’ve tried disconnecting automatic switching because that caused Bluetooth problems with my AirPods Max but no luck there. Resetting doesn’t do anything either - hopefully this is a firmware issue!

I thought this was good until I discovered that disconnecting and reconnecting the AirPods doesn’t persist this setting, unfortunately. Well sometimes it does persist. Other times it forgets. Resulting in having to go back to accessibility and turn in background sound again.

I have the same problem…I take my left bud out of my ear and I notice it stops, but it’s definitely coming from the right ear bud, it sounds really annoying especially when when I don’t have anything playing, hope it gets fixed.

Good find ! One more tip: create a personal automation when airpods connect to iphone or ipad to automatically enable the background sound so you don't have to manually do it every time because iphone disables background sound when airpods are disconnected

+1. Like a jittery whine from both pods, feels like I’m getting a headache after a few minutes. Can confirm that going to settings > accessibility > AirPods > audio accessibility settings > background sounds > rain @ 0% volume stops the noise, however I don’t really see this as an acceptable solution. Likely be contacting apple in the coming days, hopefully can be fixed/replaced/firmware updated because I’m very happy with them otherwise.

I have the exact same problem unfortunately...

Just called apple support and they offered a service. I am not so happy for a "service" on a product I bought 20 minutes ago, I then want a replacement..