Some AirPods Users Facing Battery Drain Issues With Charging Case

[asleep]

Snagged a pair from ATT,

Offered them to my nephews/niece for Christmas... nobody wanted them.

I guess I'll return them unopened, lol.

 

[Jsameds]

Snagged a pair from ATT,

Offered them to my nephews/niece for Christmas... nobody wanted them.

I guess I'll return them unopened, lol.

Ungrateful little gits!

 

[rGiskard]

Hmm. My AirPod charging case discharges at a rate of roughly 10% per day. Not enough to make it even remotely inconvenience me.

10% per day? When it's not used to charge the airpods? No battery technology should lose so much charge when dormant. What an abysmal failure of design and/or manufacturing quality control.

Edit:

first to clarify -- the pods always charge while in case, from case. so the problem isn't really the case battery discharging, its the pods using power while inactive inside case.

mine does it too. to test i let case go down to 0, then put pods in before bed. 88%. in morning they were down to 53%.

def not normal so will get them replaced.

So it's an Airpod issue. Good job, Apple. Delay them yet still eff 'em up.

Edit2: On further thought, I'm probably being unfair to Apple. It's an entirely new product unlike anything else on the market so a few manufacturing and/or firmware bugs are understandable. Furthermore Apple replace the problem Airpods with no hassel whatsoever.

Actually the more I think about it, the more the Airpods strike me as one of the only recent innovations from Apple that are useful. It's easy to imagine Jobs enthusiastically approving them, which more than can be said for that gimmick touchbar on the laptops. So instead of deleting my comment, I'll leave it up with my appended mea culpa as reminder of how a failure of innovation in what to me is a core product line (Macs) can prejudice one's perception of all their products.

 

[jonnysods]

It happens with tech, this doesn't seem like a big deal to me as its not like its widespread.

 

[Jsameds]

10% per day? When it's not used to charge the airpods? No battery technology should lose so much charge when dormant. What an abysmal failure of design and/or manufacturing quality control.

Yeah, what an abysmal failure rate of TWO WHOLE UNITS

 

[Abazigal]

10% per day? When it's not used to charge the airpods? No battery technology should lose so much charge when dormant. What an abysmal failure of design and/or manufacturing quality control.

My guess is that the airpods is constantly in some sort of standby mode, which consumes small amounts of power every so often (how else does it wake up when you open the case and put them in your ears?). The case is effectively constantly charging the airpods as well to always keep them at 100%.

It's basically using the same concept behind the Apple battery case. Don't think it's the issue you are making it out to be.

 

[meaning-matters]

Probably an issue with a small number of devices. Be glad it's Apple with their amazing customer service.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

oh boy here we go. 2016, the year of battery problems.

I hear there's some amazing products in the pipeline for 2017.

 

[TurboPGT!]

Oh for crying out loud.

This is how its supposed to work. The case charges the AirPods. I know its hard to believe, but that causes the case battery to drain

Get lives people.
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I feel no sympathy for anyone who bought the first batch of these. Looking at the track record of Apple with its products this year, this isn't any surprise.

WTF are you talking about? Products this year have been runaway success. In the real world. Maybe not the fantasy world some of you maintain on the internet.

 

[needfx]

I feel no sympathy for anyone who bought the first batch of these. Looking at the track record of Apple with its products this year, this isn't any surprise.

without terra-formers, we will have no interstellar travel

 

[rGiskard]

Yeah, what an abysmal failure rate of TWO WHOLE UNITS

How do you figure only two units are affected? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Oh for crying out loud.

This is how its supposed to work. The case charges the AirPods. I know its hard to believe, but that causes the case battery to drain

Might want to re-read the article more carefully. Key bit...

The unlucky set of users facing the battery issues, however, are noticing that the AirPods case drains by upwards of 40 percent in mere hours, with the AirPods at 100 percent inside and minimal Bluetooth activation.

In other words, they are not putting drained Airpods in the case and then drawing down power from the case to charge them back up. They are already charged up to 100%. Conceptually, the case should be discharging as little as no stored energy, but some users are reporting up to 40% in "mere hours" in this scenario.

 

[dmylrea]

Curious on an electronics level, where is the energy from the charging case going overnight? Are the Airpods warm from discharging/recharging all night? Is it the Airpods are somehow "on" even though they are in the charge box?

 

[TechGeek76]

How do you figure only two units are affected? That doesn't make any sense.

Bah, NM

 

[The Game 161]

Didn't need To charge mine for about 4-5 days

 

[Macist]

Never buy tech that isn't mature. Especially not from Apple.

 

[zaaach48]

After the AirPods launched online and then arrived to the first set of customers earlier in December, some users have begun realizing that the charging case that comes with the headphones isn't holding Apple's advertised 24 hours of charge. In theory, the charging case should only lose noticeable amounts of charge when the AirPods are low on battery and recharging within the case, and when users flip the pack open to check battery levels or otherwise activate Bluetooth with a connected Apple device.

The unlucky set of users facing the battery issues, however, are noticing that the AirPods case drains by upwards of 40 percent in mere hours, with the AirPods at 100 percent inside and minimal Bluetooth activation.

While some feared this is just the way Apple intended the headphones and companion charging case to work, Redditor severinskulls has posted about his experience with the problem, and the replacement AirPods he got that do not have an apparent faulty charging case. In most cases, the AirPods themselves are not facing any shortened battery life issues.

AirPods Charging Case dropping nearly 50 percent overnight​

The old AirPods Charging Case: The new AirPods Charging Case: When the AirPods first came out, the initial impressions of the battery life for both the headphones and the charging case were overall positive. A handful of MacRumors forum members were fans of the speedy charge rate of the AirPods, the granular settings of the iOS battery widget, and the battery life of the charging case as well. Mentions of battery drainage issues with the AirPods case began about a week ago, around the time the first customers had been using the headphones for a few days.

In a teardown last week by iFixit, it was theorized that the Charging Case was the cause of the AirPods' delay from October to December. The root of the problem was a few empty spaces discovered within the solder joints of the case's chip. This is referred to as "voiding," which iFixit said "could be evidence of low quality standards, or a rushed product release."

The exact scope of the affected AirPods user base is unclear. Some users are theorizing that the problem could be an initial charge cycle hiccup that irons itself out over time, but some that have had the AirPods since day one are still posting about battery drainage with the charging case today. On the other hand, there are many other users who have reported normal experiences with the case and its advertised 24 hours of battery life. Apple hasn't commented on any of the reports.

Article Link: Some AirPods Users Facing Battery Drain Issues With Charging Case

ooooh god here we go again...haven't we all learned that battery technology just kind of SUCKS, regardless of the manufacturer? there are huge margins of error on mass produced batches of li-ion batteries and we all struggle with it. OP did the right thing and got it exchanged, now we move on. There is no conspiracy or "gate" here, it's the reality of tech today - batteries are the Achilles' heel

 

[HowEver]

No issues here.

 

[DanTheAppleMan]

I'm liking the advert for beats wireless headphones that's showing on this page...

 

[Abazigal]

Yeah, what an abysmal failure rate of TWO WHOLE UNITS

For the record, I wasn't implying there was a problem with my airpods.

 

[HoosBruce]

Snagged a pair from ATT,

Offered them to my nephews/niece for Christmas... nobody wanted them.

I guess I'll return them unopened, lol.

I will buy them!!

 

[Jsameds]

How do you figure only two units are affected? That doesn't make any sense.

Those are the ones MR are reporting on. It's in the article. "Some users" = Two.

 

[zaaach48]

Are Apple's products failing at a higher rate than usual, or has this kind of thing been happening at the same rate forever but we are now hearing about it much more often because the vocal online Apple community has grown so much in the last few years?

the latter...people seem to be actively looking for small problems with Apple to support their "Apple is doomed" mindset more than ever. Can't tell you how many complaints I've received over the years about batteries...battery life, the old batteries "explode," i.e expand like they are supposed to when overused, getting "hot," etc

Perhaps part of the problem is that the products are advancing quickly, but the thing that powers them has not changed at all. Lithium ion batteries have been the standard for what now, 10-12 years? Someone needs to develop new battery tech soon
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Snagged a pair from ATT,

Offered them to my nephews/niece for Christmas... nobody wanted them.

I guess I'll return them unopened, lol.

sounds pretty silly if you haven't tried them...unless you just plain have no need for wireless headphones

 

[nt5672]

This is what happens when weak management without technology experience set priorities, deadlines, and assign resources. Running a company like Apple is more than a good supply chain and we seem to not be getting good products or even bad products on time. But I do like the fact that the CEO has time for celebrity interviews, magazine covers, political stands, coffee table books, etc. I'm sure his ego is feeling very good right now.

 

[stanman64]

without terra-formers, we will have no interstellar travel

the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell