What to Do If You Hear Static From Your AirPods Pro 3
If you’re an Apple user, AirPods Pro are among the best earbuds you can buy. They sound great, are compatible with a variety of Apple devices, and come with features like Adaptive Transparency and a built-in heart rate sensor . They’re even FDA-certified as hearing aids . Not bad for $249.
But all these benefits don’t mean Apple’s AirPods Pro are perfect. In fact, you can ask any of the users complaining about static noise coming from their AirPods Pro 3 when nothing is playing. As MacRumors reports , this seems to affect some AirPods Pro 3 users when using Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Transparency, and Transparency modes, but only when there’s no active audio playback. ( One user claims they can’t use their AirPods even when playing music at 30 dB or lower because the static drowns it out.)
Some users describe the noise as similar to static, white noise, hissing, rain, or like holding a seashell to their ear, although the exact cause is unclear. There are differing opinions as to whether both earbuds are affected equally, or whether the static is specific to one, and resetting the AirPods doesn’t seem to help.
Reading headlines like these, it’s easy to assume the issue is unique to the AirPods Pro 3, but isolated issues like these are difficult to pinpoint. It’s possible that a small percentage of AirPods Pro 3 owners are experiencing this issue, and those who have encountered it are openly discussing it on forums and social media. However, I must say I’m a bit stunned by the number of users claiming to have encountered this problem in this Reddit thread .
What to do if you hear static on your AirPods Pro 3
If you encounter this issue, the first step is to contact Apple support. If possible, take your AirPods directly to an Apple Store. While there’s no guarantee this will affect everyone, Apple appears to be replacing problematic AirPods for some users. According to this MacRumors author , an Apple Store specialist they spoke with confirmed that Apple instructed employees to replace problematic devices even if they passed diagnostic testing.
If true, this could indicate a hardware issue that Apple hasn’t yet identified. However, I’m hopeful it’s a software issue that Apple can fix in a future update. Speaking of software, the issue seems to go away when disabling noise cancellation. A short-term solution is to disable Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes, although this deprives the AirPods Pro of many of the features that make them so appealing.