AirPods are legendary headphones, arguing with this is absolutely pointless. At the time of their release in 2016, they made a splash in the mobile device market, and competitors could not come up with at least something similar for a long time. But, like any other gadget, AirPods are not without flaws. You can often hear that headphones have poor sound quality or poor autonomy, but this is all for an amateur. The real problems start when the AirPods stop charging or one of the earbuds suddenly turns off on its own. And this is despite the fact that there are no falls or other objective reasons for such an ailment. Often noticing this, users write off everything as minor bugs and wait until everything goes away on its own. But in fact, this has a completely reasonable explanation – the next AirPods firmware update.
AirPods won’t charge in case
About a week ago, Apple users started complaining en masse about AirPods charging problems. Their headphones simply do not charge when connected to the case. However, there are no objective reasons for this.
Apple itself does not write almost anything about this. If you open the article “ If AirPods are not charging ” on the official website, then you will find only general recommendations like charging for at least 15 minutes and recommendations for using the original cable.
It is clear that before blaming Apple itself, it is necessary to exclude other reasons why AirPods stopped charging. Most often this happens due to contamination of the contacts on AirPods, or the accumulation of debris inside the case. We have already written to you a thousand times and we will say it again. Buy you finally a special cleaner. It costs nothing, but the result is obvious.
Caring users found out that in addition to pollution and other nuances, the reason may lie in the new AirPods firmware – 4E71. Apple released this AirPods update about a week ago, and it’s been since then that similar issues have been observed.
How to Check AirPods Firmware
To check AirPods firmware, you need to:
- Connect headphones to your iPhone.
- Next, on your smartphone, open Settings, and Bluetooth.
- Find your AirPods among available devices.
- Click on the “i” icon next to your headphones.
- Scroll to the bottom of the list and find Version.
One AirPods disconnects
The most common problem that has arisen just the other day is the sudden shutdown of AirPods. Some owners write that one of the headphones turns off every 5 minutes, others say that every time they use the AirPods, they have to reconnect them using the button on the back.
In Cupertino, the problem has not yet been commented on, so you should not blame the update for everything. As a solution, our colleagues suggest unbinding AirPods, changing the name of your iPhone, and pairing them again. Here’s how to do it:
- Connect your headphones to your iPhone.
- Next, on your smartphone, open Settings, and Bluetooth.
- Find your AirPods among available devices.
- Click on the “i” icon next to your headphones.
- Scroll to the bottom of the list and click Forget this device.
- After that, go back to Settings, go to General, About this device, Name.
- Change the name of your iPhone and connect your headphones again.
I can’t say for sure that this method will work, but it helped some. It is not known if this will completely solve the problem or if it will only allow you to use AirPods for a while without hassle. One thing is certain: if AirPods are disabled due to firmware, Apple will fix it in a future update.
Why do AirPods take so long to charge?
Some users were affected by another problem – their AirPods began to slowly discharge. Most often, charging stops at some value and does not exceed it. That is, charging AirPods becomes simply an impossible task.
The decision did not have to wait long. Apparently, in the new AirPods update, many are experiencing problems with optimized charging. You probably already know that headphones charge smartly and fill up the rest of the charge right before you take them off the charge.
If your AirPods are starting to charge slowly, try turning off the Optimized Charging feature in Settings:
- Connect headphones to your iPhone.
- Next, on your smartphone, open Settings, and Bluetooth.
- Find your AirPods among available devices.
- Click on the “i” icon next to your headphones.
- Disable the toggle switch next to Optimized Charging.
On the good side, the feature is very useful and allows you to seriously extend the life of your AirPods battery, but in the latest update, apparently, the feature does not work quite correctly. With the release of the new firmware, it will be possible to turn everything back on.
It is not possible to say at this time which particular AirPods model was affected by these issues. On my AirPods 3, everything works as usual, although the firmware is the latest. Most often, firmware owners complain, but you can also see complaints about AirPods 2 in the Reddit thread.
