Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294

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 🤩

Solved for me - as another post advised - taking the hearing test seems to restore the noise cancellation to its original ( or even more powerful ) level.

I’m sat in a shopping centre now in almost perfect silence.

Thanks for the tip - without doing this the recent updates render ANC near useless.

Apple released firmware updates for both the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 yesterday.

7B21 for AirPods Pro 2

7B20 for AirPods 4

Both iPhone and AirPods must be on their chargers for the update to happen. The user cannot, repeat, cannot force the update. It happens automatically.

AirPods Firmware Update

About firmware updates for AirPods - Apple Support

I experienced the same issues that others have posted here. I’m on version 7B19 and was still experiencing poor noise cancellation. The fit test often failing one or the other ear and after fiddling with it I could correct it. I am using the large tips. I then bought some memory foam tips, took the foam off its plastic tip and added it to the apple tips such that the original AirPod tip outer sleeve rolled back over the foam. The AirPods now fit in my ears firmly without any fear of them falling out and the noise cancellation is excellent. I can only summize that my AirPods did not fit right even when the fit test passed.

I've got Airpods Pro 2 and have this same issue as everyone else. I have however noticed how it might have been changed to work differently.

When I start using my Airpods, like everyone, I can still hear everything around me with ANC turned on with all the settings optimised for minimum surrounding noise.

If I listen to music for around 5-10 minutes, the ANC does reach a point where it is as good as it was with older firmware. This only happens with music, and not at all if I'm listening to voice e.g. a podcast.

It looks to me like ANC is also doing some adaptive ANC when you use them.

Tip: if you want normal ANC, listen to music for 10 minutes.

I think this is an awful user experience however. I commute on the train in the morning and like to listen to podcasts. If I don't want to hear the train and people talking I have to listen to music for 10 minutes then switch back to my podcast.

Apple, please please please, let us turn on ANC when we want to. Leave noise adaptation to the adaptive noise setting only.

Guys I just found something interesting! Maybe even a fix? Idk, but in my opinion the sound quality and ANC got a whole lot better after the following the steps below.

Basically I was browsing reddit trying to find out more about the issue and found this post that said that the personalized Spatial Audio got better with the new firmware update.

1. So what I did was to go into my AirPods settings and click "Stop using Personalized Spatial Audio" (since I had already set it up before)
2. And then just set up Personalized Spatial Audio again, and idk maybe it's placebo but to me there is actually huge difference in sound quality after following these steps and it seems like the ANC is also improved (not sure if it is back at previous levels but I think it might be as I can no longer hear myself type on my keyboard.

More specifically I agree with the reddit author that bass is very much improved

Lmk if this works for you :p

Also the OP on reddit also wrote a longer article about it on medium

I did factory reset by opening the case and holding the button for 15 sec. After I pair it back looks like ANC started to work again. At least loud TV became hardly heard. I will test it more next few days.

Since the update to ios 18, this is not the case. It defaults back to "off" when you remove one airpod. However, I have discovered the solution is in accessibility settings, of all places. There is a switch there to allow noice cancellation with only one airpod in at a time. Finding that settings has done the trick.

EVERYBODY GO INTO SETTINGS RIGHT NOW!

click on AirPods, then “take a hearing test”. Fill out the form and BOOM!!

THERES OUR OLD NOISE CANCELLATION!!! this proves they still have the software for it, and that there definitely is a massive change. So WHY????

Why ain’t everyone in this thread filing multiple bug reports on this? Honestly they don’t read the forums and don’t care while they’re selling millions. It’s either get media involved or constant bug reports for every firmware that doesn’t fix / makes worse.

I keep filing them, but apparently not many others are - because with 600 people marking me too ok this one thread - it’s enough. Failing that start sending email to Tim Cook - he won’t read it but someone will. Title “continuing degradation of AirPods and failure of post purchase support”

instead of moaning here - let’s do something about it.

Oh my God! At last! I've been searching for so long & "finally" found fellow sufferers. I thought my hearing was broken because Apple support staff said the problem wasn't known & some on Reddit also said I was imagining it. (But many others didn't either.) So I'm all the more pleased that you (unfortunately) feel the same way.

Here's my story. It started for me after 7B19. I was always very fond of the ANC on my APP2 and my APM. For example, I remember the first time I tried on the APM in the Apple Store & everything around me got so quiet - including and especially voices/high-pitched sounds! (I say that because some smart alecks think it's never been like that because ANC isn't designed for it).

What I also remember well is stepping outside the door when I go to work, sticking the APP2 in my ear & everything around getting wonderfully quiet. Sound or audiobook at 60% volume & everything faded out. On the Vespa I could comfortably listen to Audiobook & can't hear the engine (I know, not so much allowed.) In the tram/train I could block everything out. No announcements, no conversation, no noise.

And then. The shock overnight. I'm sitting on the train with the APP2 & wonder what's so loud. I take a look. ANC on?

What? I clean the APP2 in the evening with Neutrogena micellar water. (Everything 1:1 as recommended by Apple). Nothing. I call Apple support. Replacement device, but same effect. None at all.

Desperate, I take my APM & hope it's better there. But here, too, I can clearly hear announcements and conversations. I could cry with sadness and anger. Honestly. This noise I perceive now makes me so aggressive because I was just used to how well the ANC worked on both and used to an effect kicking in then not coming. I can only listen to audiobooks at 90-100%. Audiobooks in other languages, like Obama's biography in English, are not possible because it's not my native language.

I have to listen to music loudly to block out my surroundings, which I also don't like because loud music is not my thing.

Please fix that. For me, the devices are not only worthless, they even increase my frustration! I've never posted on reddit or anything, but because the feature is so important, I'm really desperate!

If I go into my AirPod settings and select Take a Hearing Test, it’s like the noise cancelling actually turns on, though still only to 50% of what it was when I first got them. Sadly, it stops working as soon as I go to a different app. But it’s frustrating to know that they are 100% reducing the effectiveness from what it used to be.

I've just searched to see if there was anything outside this thread that could be useful, and I found several threads from a year ago of people complaining about the exact same thing after the IOS17 upgrade!!! replies stop around January but nobody goes back to those threads to say if it was finally fixed or not.

In one of the threads someone pointed to this feedback form to direct our complaints:

Feedback - AirPods - Apple

Everything was simple and clear before the recent airpods pro 2 firmware updates: 

If you want to hear all of the outside sounds — use transparency mode.

If you want balance between ANC and transparency — use adaptive mode.

If you need to completely block the outside environment — use ANC mode.

So what do we have after the update:

Transparency mode amplifies the external sounds by 200-300%. What for? We paid for headphones with good ANC, not for medical hearing aid device! 

Adaptive mode - what is it now for? I don’t understand.

ANC mode - is completely funked up. It leaks so many high pitched sounds, which are quite distracting. In fact, in many cases it’s more annoying with ANC than without. You can clearly hear speech, transport noises, etc, while ANC is on. Which is disgusting and not how it used to be and not how it’s supposed to be and not what I paid for, in my humble opinion.

Apple, why not keep it working like this:

Transparent is transparent, ok.

Adaptive - keep it adaptive, balanced.

ANC - noise cancellation! Cancel out 97% of external noise, which is technically possible, as we remember from life before the  dreadful update

Rhetorical question. Of course they follow this topic, but will never react 🧐🤣