Level 1

149 points

Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294

The active noise cancellation on (at least) the AirPods Pro 2 is much worse after firmware update 7A294, including 7A302. The noise cancellation effect seems noticeably weaker now, roughly 50-70% as effective. Qualitatively, the effect is now closer to a slightly quieter adaptive mode. Essentially, I can now practically hear everything at a reduced volume, and my Sony 1000XM5 headphones now perform much better than my AirPods Pro 2, and this wasn't the case until the firmware/iOS 18 update.

Troubleshooting steps I've tried:

Cleaning the AirPods and tips (gentle surfactant/alcohol wipes, Blu-Tack), although they were already clean
Replacing the tips (they were already pristine)
Changing tips and ensuring proper fit
Resetting the AirPods
Toggling all settings on and off (Off, Transparency, Adaptive, Noise Cancellation)
Ensuring I hadn't accidentally selected something other than the noise cancellation mode
Having the AirPods replaced at the Apple Store

None of the above remedied the issue.

Some examples and context:

I can now fully make out conversations on the train in Tokyo, which I wasn't able to do that up until a day or two ago. To wit, train announcers are now less distant and audible. I can now hear people conversing on the other side of the carriage, and at one point, I was able to make out the music leaking out of someone else’s headphones...
I can now make out talking heads playing at low volume on a TV in another room.
I can now make out external sounds when ANC and Background Sounds (Dark Noise) are active at the same time, and up until the most recent update this combination was closer to being fully isolated.
Background music in convenience stores is now fully present, where as prior to the update I couldn't hear a thing.
I now no longer bother swapping to Transparency when my girlfriend is trying to talk to me across the room, because I can hear everything she has to say while noise cancellation mode is active. In the past, having to toggle between settings was a source of annoyance for us.

The situation is particularly disappointing, as I once adored these headphones, and the degradation of the noise cancellation effect makes the AirPods Pro 2 essentially more annoying than anything else.

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 4:53 AM

Top-ranking reply

theonetheycallsamuel

Level 1

32 points

Posted on Nov 10, 2024 3:30 PM

If I’m not mistaken, I may have found a workaround for this. I believe I’ve identified a bug in the “adaptive audio” feature with the Generation 2 Pros. Although your adaptive audio feature may be disabled, go into settings and tap on your AirPod Pro 2 set. Then scroll down to audio and then select adaptive audio. After that, set it to “less noise” so that you’ve basically got nothing coming in. I don’t know if this is the exact sequence involved (I went through soooooooooo many different settings last night), but after I did that it completely drowned everything out (finally!!!!!) Even as I’m sitting here typing this, it would have already started letting more noise in at this point. There would be certain sounds that it would try to drown out (heat, fans, humidifiers), and while doing so, it sounded like I was on the freeway with my car window rolled down. Not anymore!!! Works well now 🤩

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214 replies

Pheidl Author

Level 1

149 points

Dec 23, 2024 6:55 PM in response to Johnathan Burger

This is true. If anyone would like to provide feedback to Apple directly, they can do so here: Feedback - AirPods - Apple Or e.g. share this community post elsewhere, as some have already done.

As for this being a community post on a user-to-user forum, the goal is to find out if the issue is unique or if others have also experienced it, and ideally to discover a solution. The specific issue here is the difference in ANC performance before and after firmware update 7A294—it’s not about whether people enjoy their AirPods, but about a noticeable change in how ANC functions. To wit, if there were only a small number of people reporting the same issue, that doesn’t invalidate it. It didn’t seem necessary that a large proportion of Apple users experience the same problem for it to be considered worth discussing here.

Serhii_T

Level 1

8 points

Jan 21, 2025 12:26 PM in response to Pheidl

Noticed exactly same issue. I never heard my Mac keyboard while typing but now i can clearly hear every press, just with slighly reduced volume. Tried to reset them, but didn't help. Then found this thread.

I bought AP Pro 2 in October 2022, basically after launch and was amazed by ANC to say the least.

Now it's awful to say the least, i don't even use transparency mode because i can hear everything with ANC on.

7B21 didn't fix anything, imo it has got even worse. I can hear cars outside, distant noises and so many other things that never bothered me throughout almost 2 years since i bought my headphones.

I'd love to use older software (i never use conversational awareness) but sadly there is no such option. Only one that comes to my mind is to buy new pair of headphones and never use them with any Apple device, but it's not really what i bought them for.

Hopefully this will be addressed soon and we get some response from Apple. Extremely disappointed by latest updates, ANC is a highly valuable feature that was one of the selling points of Pro models initially.

Mar 22, 2025 4:52 AM in response to _-l0

Thanks, I had a great laugh 😂 they should add this to the next ad campaign.

People, please take a second and submit your feedback to

Feedback - AirPods - Apple

where it might actually be heard (no pun intended)

Jul 16, 2025 9:47 AM in response to Pheidl

I am experience all the things people are talking about in this threat. It is incredible how bad is now the NC of my AirPods Pro 2. They used to isolate completely, and you also used to have a lot of controls to set the adaptive mode to your preferences, but now in the NC mode I even listen perfectly the funs of my MacBook while working! It is unacceptable, and it is a software "problem" after lastest firmware updates. I realised that, when I put the AirPods in my ears, I listen a lot of noise with the NC function already activated, but if I go to the AirPods settings, change to other mode like deactivated, and turn on again the NC, then it cancels much more noise than in the beginning, but anyway, it still is really really bad compared with how they used to work in the past. The problem is, are you apple listening to your customers? or are you quite busy building the new "windows vista transparent mode" for your devices that are not taking in care all our replies?

Pheidl Author

Level 1

149 points

Dec 6, 2024 6:39 AM in response to Scootertheshooter

The problem lies in the AirPods Pro firmware itself, independent of any particular iPhone model or iOS version.

Ankhees

Level 1

8 points

Jan 14, 2025 2:17 PM in response to Pheidl

I had the exact same problem, but fixed it by changing the earplugs of the AirPods. Trust me on this one just use the original right size earplugs. Try the every option!

Sep 29, 2024 1:51 PM in response to P1otr

Same for me. From best AirPods with which I bragged to everyone who didn't have a pair of AirPods to checking if ANC is even turned on. We need to get Apple's attention so maybe have everyone else affected, comment on this thread.

Pheidl Author

Level 1

149 points

Sep 29, 2024 7:24 PM in response to corneliu_sava

And the most recent firmware update, 7A305, is no better. I guess, for whatever reason, Apple decided to completely scuff the noise cancellation quality on AirPods Pro. I’m not even sure it makes sense to say the AirPods Pro have “Active Noise Cancellation” anymore. And yeah, that sounds dumb on the face of it, but they’re honestly no better than mediocre earplugs right now.

My guesses are:

Apple ran up against the limitations of the onboard compute, which now has to handle the hearing aids feature, the Siri nod to respond thing, the changes to Adaptive mode, etc.
These new features, in addition to ANC, impacted battery life in an unacceptable way. I’m not actually sure what kind of burden ANC places on the battery, but I imagine that having to be ready to detect speech in real time in Adaptive mode, and having to monitor the kinematics of the headphones to handle the new Siri stuff, has a non trivial impact on the battery.
Apple wanted the ANC on the new AirPods 4 to seem qualitatively similar to the AirPods Pro at launch to drive sales, because they know that reviewers aren’t diligent enough to perform scientific slash objective measures of the noise cancellation performance, especially on older products, and that most users aren’t discerning enough to notice or care?
Enough people complained about “ear pressure” and or someone wasn’t looking where they were going and had a very quiet accident?
Apple were sued and were forced to roll their own ANC algorithm on short notice slash someone has the rights to whatever amazing ANC code they were running?

Oct 4, 2024 9:44 PM in response to Pheidl

7A305 essentially entirely disabled both ANC and transparency on mine. I reset them, cleaned them, everything. I just threw them out, I'm done with Apple hamstringing these AirPods more with every update and now they're essentially useless as the sound quality also took a major dive.

goiy

Level 1

44 points

Oct 6, 2024 6:35 AM in response to Pheidl

Same here - transparency custom mode, headphone accommodations with audiogram are not working since 7A302 IOS18.0.1 (possibly earlier) The 'hearing aid' effect is now gone, after Apple made a fuss about it being FDA approved ! Volume goes up and down randomly too

Oct 9, 2024 10:32 AM in response to Pheidl

I can literally hear water dripping with ANC on on my AP2. It’s mind-boggling that Apple doesn’t allow us to opt out of or at least confirm firmware updates for the AirPods, the same way we do for iOS updates. It’s unfair that they can push out updates that downgrade functionality without giving us a choice.

Oct 15, 2024 2:28 PM in response to Pheidl

I just got new pro2 buds from a applecare replacement, and the ANC is still nowhere near as good as it used to be, if I had to try for an educated guess based on Apple's history, I'd say they are prepping for a new AirpodPro model in the future that will have "The best noise cancelling we have ever made".

I'd like to figure out how to revert to the old software versions to confirm these suspicions.

rloschy

Level 1

20 points

Oct 18, 2024 7:15 AM in response to Pheidl

i have been very impressed with my original AirPod pros noise cancelling. Purchased pro 2 as Apple advertised 2x noise cancelation performance. They currently cancel 50% as well as my old ones did. Generic over ear headphones currently cancel noise better than the pro 2. This has to be a bug. Cleaning does not help. Apple please fix this!

HZoltan

Level 1

32 points

Oct 21, 2024 3:22 PM in response to Pheidl

Yeah 7a305 broke my AP2's ANC completely. I'm certainly Apple's captive, and they can apparently do anything they want to me, but after reading all of this, I'm even nervous to pay their ransom and re-buy AP2's, because apparently it happened to new ones as well. Very, very disheartening for the brand.

Pheidl Author

Level 1

149 points

Oct 26, 2024 8:11 PM in response to Pheidl

Update: Firmware version 7B19 was released. I continue to experience the same degraded noise cancellation effect on my AirPods Pro 2 that was introduced with version 7A294.

More info. on the latest AirPods firmware here: About firmware updates for AirPods - Apple Support

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Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294