Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294

Yep, I'm glad it's not just me that has found the ANC on my AirPods Pro 2 to be noticeably worse since the clusterf* of iOS18 began infecting our devices.

At this point I'm beginning to wonder if Apple is purposefully using iOS18 to ruin our devices so when the next gen is released with a new iOS they take the bugs back out so we all think it's amazing and rush out to buy new hardware...

@Mfittko, you have no idea what *you* are talking about, so I hold little hope that you understand what *we* are talking about.

Noise cancellation and the 'hearing aid' function (not available in all areas) are not the same feature.

Hearing aid functions are not the issue here and are not being discussed here.

The entirely separate function of ANC, used in isolation of hearing aid functionality, is what is being discussed.

Rather than trying to act the 'Big I Am' with your foolish '1+1' comments, maybe spend a bit more time properly considering what you impulsively reply to on the internet...

That's interesting... Is it just Airpod Pros that you say are insufficient for hearing protection or ANC in general? I used to shoot shotguns a lot and most colleagues used ANC ear protectors, the same as me, and they worked exceptionally well at muffling the sudden and very loud sounds of a shotgun at close proximity. There was certainly no damage being done and quite a lot of protection...?

Agreed on all fronts. I bought my Apple AirPods Pro 2 exactly one year ago, and now I feel a ≥50% reduction in the Active Noise Cancelling feature to the point that I can hear someone typing next to me at the office.. while I have music playing simultaneously.

Actually when you have one AirPod in your ear and the other one in the case it won’t let you do noise canceling or transparent noise because it’s a function of the product. But if you just take one out and leave it out the case it can stay in noise cancelling once you press play for audio.

Sorry about assuming that the sudden lack of working ANC had anything to do with the introduction of the new hearing aid feature which coincidentally was introduced at the exact same time, but could we at least have some explanations from Apple themselves? Was it that they had been sued due to the use of a patented algorithm of a competitor? Is it correct that this downgrade happened with old AND brand new devices at the same time?

I really need apple to address this issue, its driving me crazy. I can hear minor keyboard clicks, mouse clicks, very light snapping, even my girlfriends phone volume on 10 percent across the room with the ac on, I hear the AC AND MY GIRLS PHONE VIDEO with noise cancelling on, this is awful from apple, its like its not even on.

Edit for context these are air pod pro 2s only 1 week old. Brand new from best buy, ear tip test was fine, they are clean as they are brand new, the music quality is great, the noise cancelling is awful.

Same for me.

My APP1 were running low on battery and wanted to go full USB-C.

Heard APP2 ANC was much better than the 1s so I had high expectations. Well, I can would almost compare APP2 ANC to APP1 Transparency mode. Highly disappointed, I’m considering returning the APP2 and keeping the 1s as they are much better.

I raved about my AirPods. Just bought another pair too. Now I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone and debating returning the ones I just got. They are horrible now with noise cancelling. I would often just wear 1 AirPod so I could hear my podcast/book clearly while still being alert of surroundings. Now I have to wear both and still can’t hear audio well. Apple needs to update and figure this out. My cheap ones from amazon are better than my AirPods.

I thought I was going crazy. I kept checking to see if I had accidentally changed to transparency but it’s always on noise cancellation. Not only can I hear everything now, there’s a noticeable fan like sound when ANC is on for me. It’s ok when I’m listening to music but I listen to a lot of audiobooks and it just sounds bad now

Maybe it belongs to their deeper marketing strategy? Cutting the ANC, so customers need to listen lo music much louder than before (to overlay traffic or gym noise i need to turn up the volume at least to 90 % now). And this Max Loudness leads straight into the hearing aid feature and the need to buy some new airpods than :D :D

See, and here I thought it was just me or my imagination that the ANC got worse. I swore that I could hear better with the ANC on rather than a few months ago where I couldn’t hear anything with it switched on.

I can hear someone talking to me clear as day whom normally I have trouble hearing with my AirPods Pro 2 off my head.

So yes, I’m experiencing this issue, too. Hopefully Apple fixes this because sometimes that feature is needed in my case.

I thought my AirPods were getting old so bought new ones. Seems it’s software issue I work in a nightclub and before my set i would relax and listen a podcast without problems, now I can not hear one word they say the noise cancellation is totally gone. Seems it’s been months without a fix do I really have to go to another brand?

User to user support forum.

Apple isn’t here and doesn’t respond to any posts here.

With tens of millions of AirPods being sold every year, a few disgruntled people on a user to user support forum means nothing.

mine are great and I’m very pleased with them.