If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, AirPods Pro are just about the best earbuds you can buy. They sound great, work across your various Apple devices, and ship with features like Adaptive Transparency and a built-in heart rate sensor. They’re even FDA-certified hearing aids. Not bad for $249.
But all those perks don’t mean Apple’s AirPods Pro are perfect. In fact, you can ask any of the customers complaining of a static noise coming from their AirPods Pro 3, when nothing is actually playing at all. As reported by MacRumors, it appears this is affecting some AirPods Pro 3 users when using Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Transparency, and Transparency modes, but only when there’s no active audio playback. (That said, one user claims they can’t even use their AirPods when they play music at 30 dB or below, because the static overtakes it.)
Some users think the noise sounds like static, white noise, a hiss, rain, or like holding a seashell up to your ear, though it’s not clear exactly what’s causing it. There are varying reports as to whether both earbuds are equally affected, or whether the static comes through one earbud in particular, and resetting the AirPods doesn’t appear to help.
It can be tempting to read headlines like this and assume this is a problem plaguing AirPods Pro 3, but these types of anecdotal problems can be tough to gauge. Perhaps a small percentage of AirPods Pro 3 do indeed have this problem, and the affected users are vocal about it on forums and social media. However, I will say I’m a bit taken aback by the number of users who claim to be experiencing the issue in this Reddit thread.
What to do if you hear static with your AirPods Pro 3
If you’re among those experiencing this issue, the first thing you should do is contact Apple Support. If you’re able, take the AirPods directly to the Apple Store. There’s no guarantee this will apply to everyone, but it seems Apple is swapping out affected AirPods for some users. According to this MacRumors contributor, the Apple Store specialist they talked to confirmed that Apple was directing employees to swap out affected units, even if they passed a diagnostic test.
If true, that might suggest this is a hardware issue, one that Apple hasn’t been able to identify yet. However, I’m holding out hope this is a software problem that Apple could fix with an update down the line. Speaking of software, the issue does seem to go away when you turn off noise controls. As a short-term solution, you could avoid using Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes, though that takes away quite a few features that make the AirPods Pro so appealing.
