Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294

I went to an Apple Store and talked with a "genius", he did a diagnostic and the response was that both ambient mics, that give the feedback for noise cancellation, are not working. So if I want both buds replaced I have to pay 100 € each.

Two things are strange to me: the noice cancellation is working, I hear it's working, but it's not working well, so the answer is that mics are working bad, but are working. It means they are not broken I suppose, and how can be an hardware issue that makes them work but work bad. The second is that it's so strange that both are not working well, it's like to say that I'm running with my car on a clean road and both tires puncture. What do you think, am I wrong?

Same for me. It’s essentionally not existed for me, no difference between on and off . Remember same thing happened to APP1 before APP2 release.

Same here, ever since updating to iOS 18 the noise cancelling option on my Airpods pro 2 has become terrible. Half the time I can’t tell if it’s switched on or not anymore.

no way to downgrade, we gotta eat this or switch to another brand

[Edited by Moderator]

I am experiencing the same issue!

After iOS 18 update my noice canceling is weaker! I am pretty sure thet Apple reduce the noice canceling at least by 30%-50% and i dont know the reason!

i had the best earpods in the market and now its like a usual earpods. You cannot understand a lot of difference between transparency and Noice canceling! Its frustrating!

what is going on Apple? Will this problem solved anytime soon?

Same here. Noise cancellation is worse and very frustrating, especially when commuting or when the someone is watching TV while I'm watching a podcast on my phone. I tried resetting the AirPods to factory settings, tried with another Iphone 14Pro... same thing, ANC is worse than before the update.

Unfortunately, it’s the same for me. Sometimes I even check if I actually have the noise cancellation mode turned on because so many sounds are coming through. I hope Apple will do something about it because, in fact, they’ve ruined my favorite headphones.

I was on a train yesterday and could hear everything. It’s almost completely pointless having noise cancelling turned on.

I’m sat here writing this, listening to the radio as someone sat at a table 2 metres away and I can hear everything they are saying to each other.

Prior to iOS 18 the noise cancelling was decent on these same earphones.

I hope apple fixes this.

Shame to see the best ever feature in the Airpods pro 2 that no one could deny became such a mediocre noise reduction at best, I’ve bought them less than a month ago and I am really regretting my decision now

Same here. It's so frustrating because I am a guitarist of a rock band, and I use my AirPods Pro as ear protection in loud shows. It used to have the perfect amount of noise reduction in adaptive mode. Now, even in noise reduction mode, I can hear much more noise than in adaptive mode. I was so happy to have found the perfect protection for my ears, and now Apple took this out of me.

Same here. I can hear everything in the office now, and even worst when I go into the workshop with all the machinery. Very dissapointed, I hope they release a report explaining what happened and fix it.

It happened to me that someone was calling my friend in a large room and I had the permeability mode on my AirPods pro 2. I had the music completely turned down.. And suddenly I hear as if someone was calling me who was calling her.. Loud and completely clear and I was about 10 meters away from her. She had no idea and I could hear her call beautifully and she didn't have a handsfree..

Same here. Great noise cancellation previously, now basically no noise cancellation. I use them in a noisy office setting and can hear every outside conversation, HVAC noise, etc. as if I didn't have AirPods in my ears at all. I loved these AirPods when I got them 6 months ago, now not sure that they're worth even keeping at this point.

Same here. Noise canceling on my airpod pro2 virtually non existent. It muffles sound slightly, but you can hear conversations, tv almost any sounds. Passed airpod seal rest. Airpods 4 being without rubber tips, are doing better anc at the moment. Not better what airpods pro 2 did. Before on airpods 2 filtered all but very loud or sudden sounds, and those were very muffled. now i can have normal conversations with noise canceling on.

Same here as of 7A305. Huge step back for me. I live in a city with relatively high levels of noise pollution (Hong Kong) and my AirPods Pro 2 used to be life saviors while outside. Now even indoors I am able to hear (and be distracted by) AC and fan noise, street construction noise, etc. Huge +1 for the capability to be brought back at previous levels, hopefully sometime soon🤞