Powerbeats Pro battery drain?

[pinkoos]

Got mine yesterday and charged them to 100% and played around with them briefly before going to bed.

Left them out of the case.

When I got up this morning (about 6 hours later), the battery was down to 76%. I did a 34 min elliptical workout with podcasts playing and battery went down to 70%.

So, the drop from 76 to 70 is fine. I'm concerned about the overnight drop from essentially 100 to 76 with them just sitting outside the case.

I left them out of the case when I left for work this morning and will check what they are when I get home in the evening.

Anybody else seen similar behavior? They were sitting next to my Mac, but I hadn't actually paired them with the Mac yet, so I'm not sure if that would cause the drain.

Thanks.

 

[yoheywut]

That’s totally fine for overnight. Some reviewer measured a 2.5% drop every hour when outside the case. They go to “sleep” sure, but they’re still alive detecting accelerometer movement.

 

[dgreening]

I am curious about the leaving them out of the case. If I am not wearing them they are in the case for 1 main reason - I could lose one or both. Does anyone else leave them out of the case when not using them?

 

[pinkoos]

My thought is that if they're placed back in the case after use, then they are constantly charging, even when they don't need to be charged (ie, the battery is not at a very low level). I wonder if this kind of practice contributed to the original AirPods limited, ~2 year battery lifespan.

 

[pinkoos]

So got home around 6:30 and checked:

Left 42%
Right 22%
Case 96%

I don't think when I checked in the morning that the left and right were split up like that. Maybe they both had the same battery level and so was only listed as a pair.

 

[Renho]

My thought is that if they're placed back in the case after use, then they are constantly charging, even when they don't need to be charged (ie, the battery is not at a very low level). I wonder if this kind of practice contributed to the original AirPods limited, ~2 year battery lifespan.

Lithium batteries Run on cycles tho. If you run them down 10% and put them back in the case, you can do that 10 times and that’s one cycle.
[doublepost=1558160951][/doublepost]

So got home around 6:30 and checked:

Left 42%
Right 22%
Case 96%

I don't think when I checked in the morning that the left and right were split up like that. Maybe they both had the same battery level and so was only listed as a pair.

Just think it’s sleeping with one ear open. If it hears anything it wakes. They say it goes idle so it’s like idling in car, still runs gas.

 

[pinkoos]

So I'm a little confused - if one is supposed to just store them in the case when not in use, why does battery life (and Apple quoting a battery life of 9 hours) even matter? I'm really asking...not trying to be sarcastic.

I realize that if you're on a long flight or something like that where you are going to use these for an extended period of time in one sitting then, yes, battery life matters.

But, I imagine the main use case for these is exercise and, even assuming that the longest session one would do is maybe several hours why, again, would battery life more than that matter if you're supposed to just put them back in the case (where they'll automatically start charging again).

Seems to me that maybe the spec that matters is the battery "life" of the case or how many full recharges a fully charged case can provide to the headphones. Does Apple quote that anywhere in it's marketing material on the website?

 

[pinkoos]

When I went to bed last night, the left was at 52% and the right was at 22%. I did not put them in the case

Woke up this morning and the left was down to 20% or so and the right was down to 5%(!)

Got on the elliptical and unsurprisingly the right died within a few minutes, so my workout was in "mono."

Still not sure if this kind of battery drain is normal and I just need to get used to putting them back in the case after I'm done using them regardless if the battery charge is high at the time, or if I got a dud unit

 

[dmccombs]

With the charging case being the size of small car (lol), I was hoping to use it only to charge the Beats. For carrying around all day, I hoped to use a smaller case that fits in my pants pocket. This is bad news if the Beats discharge, while unused, so quickly. That means that we will indeed need to have the Beats in the case much more than I had planned.

I just picked mine up today, so I will be watching this too, over the next few days.

 

[PhilSaid]

So in my experience I set my PBPro on my nightstand with around 70% life and they have about 25-35% in the morning. I have them connected to my iPad while watching at night and then will transition to wired headphones to watch while drifting to sleep. Not sure if they’re still somewhat awake as the iPad is still being used (albeit with wired headphones) but certainly not the life I had expected.

Anyone have thoughts? I feel like this happens even if I leave the headphones in the other room and not use at night.

 

[pinkoos]

This is my exact experience - unless you put them back in the case each and every time after you use them, you just won't know what kind of charge they're going to have the next time you pick them up and want to use them

The only consolation is that fast fuel gives you 1.5 hours of playtime after just 5 mins charging but that, of course, means you have to have your case with you in order to fast fuel them

 

[pinkoos]

Returned mine today

 

[mulrich]

Returned mine today

I had the same experience and apple support said this was atypical. They said standby battery life should be around 100 hours, meaning about 1% per hour. They had me send my headphones in for service but the replacement headphones behave similarly, losing 2-4% of battery per hour when not in use and not in the case.
I don’t want to rely on the case to get more than a day between charges. I have a plantronics headset with six hours of battery life but a real off switch, so I can go a couple days between charging.
I like the Powerbeats but this is a dealbreaker for me and will probably return.

 

[pinkoos]

I had the same experience and apple support said this was atypical. They said standby battery life should be around 100 hours, meaning about 1% per hour. They had me send my headphones in for service but the replacement headphones behave similarly, losing 2-4% of battery per hour when not in use and not in the case.
I don’t want to rely on the case to get more than a day between charges. I have a plantronics headset with six hours of battery life but a real off switch, so I can go a couple days between charging.
I like the Powerbeats but this is a dealbreaker for me and will probably return.

Was basically *the* main reason I returned mine

 

[Moshe1010]

they will probably fix that with a firmware update later on when enough people will complain

 

[dmccombs]

I am seeing about 5% battery drain per hour when I am not using them or storing them in thier charging case. I have a smaller case I take to work. I am guessing that when I walk around, they sense movement and come out of sleep mode. Do you think that the drain would go down if I turned off Automatic Ear Detection?

I have to find a way to stop losing 5% per hour, and I dont want to carry the large charging case with me everywhere.

 

[Herrpod]

The exact behavior you're seeing is what I saw on my AirPods 2. It's terrible. If left out of the case, they drain like crazy despite being connected to no devices, and the case remains at whatever charge it was at when the AirPods were removed. If I put the AirPods back in the case, they charge to 100 percent and then keep draining and recharging via the case all the time. If this is by design, Apple designers need a kick in the head. I bought them expecting 20-25 hours of use from each full charge of the case/airpods. Instead I'm getting less than half that because most of the drain occurs when I'm not even using them. No amount of resetting or draining fully fixes it, which tells me this is working as (poorly) designed.

 

[mulrich]

I am seeing about 5% battery drain per hour when I am not using them or storing them in thier charging case. I have a smaller case I take to work. I am guessing that when I walk around, they sense movement and come out of sleep mode. Do you think that the drain would go down if I turned off Automatic Ear Detection?

I have to find a way to stop losing 5% per hour, and I dont want to carry the large charging case with me everywhere.

I thought about disabling Automatic Ear Detection but haven't tried it yet. When not in use, my headphone sits on my desk and still drains battery very quickly so I don't think movement is the problem.

Tomorrow's my last day to return the headphones and they will likely go back to Apple. I really want to like the headphones but the battery issue is a dealbreaker. If this problem is addressed in a future firmware update I will gladly buy again.

 

[Herrpod]

I thought about disabling Automatic Ear Detection but haven't tried it yet. When not in use, my headphone sits on my desk and still drains battery very quickly so I don't think movement is the problem.

Tomorrow's my last day to return the headphones and they will likely go back to Apple. I really want to like the headphones but the battery issue is a dealbreaker. If this problem is addressed in a future firmware update I will gladly buy again.

I disabled it and it made absolutely no difference.

 

[dmccombs]

Tomorrow's my last day to return the headphones and they will likely go back to Apple. I really want to like the headphones but the battery issue is a dealbreaker. If this problem is addressed in a future firmware update I will gladly buy again.

I am in the same boat. I have until Friday to decide. 9 hour battery life is good, but only if you don't loose half of it sitting idle before you actually use the earbuds. They have made the earbuds so that they can't survive out of the case for too long, but the case is too huge to tolerate in many instances. Beats didnt think this case very well at all.

 

[gorus]

Mine, charged to 100% in the evening, are at about 50% by the morning, with no use, sitting out of the case on my desk.

I pre-orderd mine from Best Buy and have had them for 3+ weeks. I just exchanged them, hoping they were from an early "bad" batch. Unfortunately, it's the same behavior with the new ones.

These must be currently being sold by the tens of thousands, so I don't understand how this isn't a bigger issue. Everyone should be in the same horrible boat.

I never buy "the first" Apple product specifically for this reason. But to me, these were effectively "rev3" after the first two AirPods, so I'm in disbelief.

 

[mulrich]

Mine, charged to 100% in the evening, are at about 50% by the morning, with no use, sitting out of the case on my desk.

I pre-orderd mine from Best Buy and have had them for 3+ weeks. I just exchanged them, hoping they were from an early "bad" batch. Unfortunately, it's the same behavior with the new ones.

These must be currently being sold by the tens of thousands, so I don't understand how this isn't a bigger issue. Everyone should be in the same horrible boat.

I never buy "the first" Apple product specifically for this reason. But to me, these were effectively "rev3" after the first two AirPods, so I'm in disbelief.

Sometimes problems just take a little more time to gain momentum. And if people actively use the headphones for 7-8 hours per day or always keep them in the case when not in use they may not experience the draining problem. These are just not how I use headphones.

I had really high hopes for the Powerbeats Pro, and aside from this battery issue, really liked them. I'll keep an eye on news to see if a firmware update is able to fix the problem, otherwise I'll keep searching for new headphones (I returned my Powerbeats Pro).

I'll also add, I spoke with Apple Support a couple times regarding this issue, was elevated to a senior advisor who then referred this concern to their engineering group. The engineering group responded today and recommended storing the headphones in the case when not in use. This implies that the battery draining 4% while not in use and not in the case is normal. Too bad for me but this does save me $250.

 

[dmccombs]

Sometimes problems just take a little more time to gain momentum. And if people actively use the headphones for 7-8 hours per day or always keep them in the case when not in use they may not experience the draining problem. These are just not how I use headphones.

I had really high hopes for the Powerbeats Pro, and aside from this battery issue, really liked them. I'll keep an eye on news to see if a firmware update is able to fix the problem, otherwise I'll keep searching for new headphones (I returned my Powerbeats Pro).

I'll also add, I spoke with Apple Support a couple times regarding this issue, was elevated to a senior advisor who then referred this concern to their engineering group. The engineering group responded today and recommended storing the headphones in the case when not in use. This implies that the battery draining 4% while not in use and not in the case is normal. Too bad for me but this does save me $250.

Yes, this is a problem that will turn away a lot of buyers, and gets lots of PBPs returned. The airpods probably acted in a similar fashion, draining power outside the case. But since the case was tiny, most people left them in the case until needed. The case wasnt a bother to carry around.

The PBPs have a big case that won't fit well in pants, cycling outfits, for runners, etc. The case is just too big for many people to deal with, yet you are strapped to it because of battery drain.

Others may hate the idea of this, but I actually wish there was an on/off switch. That way the PBPs wouldn't drain power until I actually wanted to use them. I wouldn't lose 50% during the day at work, before using them that evening, etc...

As they are, we seem to be stuck carrying the big case, or we lose lots of battery life before we even use the earbuds. Bad Choice vs Bad Choice = Bad Design.

 

[pinkoos]

The on/off switch would be good. My Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3100 true wireless headphones have such a thing and I get great battery life from them and only put them in the case to charge, maybe once a week

 

[Herrpod]

The problem being described is exactly the same on Airpods 2. They're just constantly draining battery whether in the case or out of it. Leaving it in the case masks the problem because the case is constantly recharging them, but the problem shows up with how much the case is draining all day. With the AirPods out of the case, the case doesn't drain at all. Apple needs to fix this.

Also wondering if Find My iPhone has anything to do with the drain. Has anyone tried turning that off for the Airpods to see if the problem went away?