Dear MPU Friends,
Until two days ago when the screeching and cutting out started, my AirPods Pro 3 have worked seamlessly on my iPhone 16 Pro and 2024 Macbook Air running the M4 chip since I bought them last fall. As someone with a vision impairment, I’m clinging to Sequoia and iOS 18 for dear life, so nothing changed before the AirPods started acting wonky. I took them to the Apple Store where they ran diagnostics, they replaced the bud part but not the case, and I still had the same problem. So they’ve sent old case and new replaced buds off for further review. Meanwhile, I bought a replacement new pair while I wait. Alas, these new ones don’t work with the laptop at all; even though they’re connected, no sound comes through. I tried pairing, unpairing, restarting the device, the usual dance, but no luck.
Does anyone have ideas about a) what might have happened all of a sudden, and b) what I could do to fix this short of installing Tahoe? The new OS is so bad for me visually that I once i am forced to use it (it’s only a matter of time), I will probably have to abandon Apple, which is so depressing because it’s been such a leader in accessibility.
The only thing I can think of is that AirPods get their software updates by stealth at indeterminate times. There was one relatively recently, I think. I’d guess there is a good chance the replacement buds would have been on the latest release, so that could be the common factor.
Also… Apple’s “magic” Bluetooth just… sometimes… decides to be an idiot. Usually not consistently though, in my experience.
Of note… when I got my AirPods Pro 3s, on that first weekend, I had serious problems with them sounding very ‘tinny’. Part of the problem turned out to be a setting I had ‘played with’. But they still weren’t working right. A colleague suggested a complete reset and set up as new. After I did that they have been solid. Except for those moments of idiocy.