AirPods Battery: Remaining percent reported incorrectly?

[HylianKnight]

I am sure many MacRumors forum members understand that lithium ion batteries degrade over time. Those of us with AirPods I feel are acutely aware of this. And then there is of course the issue of one AirPod draining significantly faster than the other. I was under the impression that I have been experiencing this difference in draining. I would be able to watch about an hour of video before I would hear the low battery tone.

In my case, my left AirPod will drop to 10% while the right AirPod is somewhere around 50%. Pretty significant difference. I attributed this to just the microphone being used on the left side more often than the right (even though I have it set to auto). Tonight I heard the tone and placed my airpods back in the case. I snapped the lid closed when curiosity struck. I immediately pulled one AirPod out to see the battery level of each individual AirPod. No more than five seconds had passed. To my astonishment, both airpods were almost at the exact same battery level.

TLDR: My question then for all of you: Do the AirPods charge THAT fast or could it be that there is a problem with how the left AirPod is reporting its remaining charge? Both AirPods have unfortunately been dropped several times, while in and out of the charging case. I wonder if this could play a factor. Then I wondered if I should be worried about tiny lithium ion batteries exploding in my ears, but that’s a topic for another time.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Can’t say that I had a problem like that with either my series one or series 2 AirPods. They both drain at the same rate and recharge at the same rate so I can’t really help you I’m afraid

 

[Anuba]

I have a similar issue with my 2 year old series 1 AirPods, but it's intermittent. The mismatch can occur both while charging and discharging.

On top of the occasional individual glitches they report incorrectly combined, too. They start at somewhere between 95-100% when I take them out of the case, drop very rapidly to around 75% and then it slows down. From the 10% point and down they will usually go for half an hour (the first 90% took 1.5-2 hours, weird math). So they last 2.5 hours but the battery indicator is waaaay more pessimistic than that.

Supposedly you can calibrate them by discharghing completely and recharging, but the problem is that after I've put them in the case they IMMEDIATELY report 55-65% charge. From that starting point they climb to 100% at a more leisurely pace. So the calibration never gets a chance to stick. It misreports on both the way up and the way down. I've done the deep reset thing that initializes the name etc. No difference.