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Wireless Charging Issues with Airpod Pros

Dammit Cubs

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
2,108
696
I am curious if people are using the wireless charging feature on the Airpod Pros. Since I have both a wireless stand in my home and in the office, I like to put my airpods on this "cheap" Amazon ordered wireless charger which works for my Iphone.

When I put my airpods on there, I can see it charging but sometimes after maybe 5-30 minutes, the charging will stop. I would think it is charged but when when I check it was partially charged.

It could be an alignment issue but are the airpods that sensitive?
 
T

ttforever

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2015
176
60
Exactly the same for me on a ravpower one, charges my phone and galxy buds ok, but airpod pros turn off after about 30 mins too

Dammit Cubs said:
I am curious if people are using the wireless charging feature on the Airpod Pros. Since I have both a wireless stand in my home and in the office, I like to put my airpods on this "cheap" Amazon ordered wireless charger which works for my Iphone.

When I put my airpods on there, I can see it charging but sometimes after maybe 5-30 minutes, the charging will stop. I would think it is charged but when when I check it was partially charged.

It could be an alignment issue but are the airpods that sensitive?
Click to expand...
 
T

ttforever

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2015
176
60
yeah I know that, was just replying to the question - my case will not charge to 100% on wireless, just tried it on lightning cable and its the same with that, might make a "genius" appointment to get the case tested - the light on the case is always amber regardless of how much charge there is in them
 
Dammit Cubs

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
2,108
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To answer the questions: yes, there are two indicators. The wireless charger has a LED Light which would indicate that wireless charging has been enabled. This will be “green” for some products. We understand that the actual AIRPODS PRO turns of it’s LED after 8 seconds but checking on the device HOURS later, i can see only 30% charged. If i take it off the wireless charger and put it back on, then It will charge again.

That’s what I noticed but I’m still investigating.
 
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Paco II

Paco II

macrumors 68020
Sep 13, 2009
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706
Is it worth identifying wireless pads that seem to not work, to see if it is a pad versus case issue?
 
T

ttforever

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2015
176
60
Exactly the same for me, mine will charge to 90% off lightning, but only around 30% on wireless
Dammit Cubs said:
To answer the questions: yes, there are two indicators. The wireless charger has a LED Light which would indicate that wireless charging has been enabled. This will be “green” for some products. We understand that the actual AIRPODS PRO turns of it’s LED after 8 seconds but checking on the device HOURS later, i can see only 30% charged. If i take it off the wireless charger and put it back on, then It will charge again.

That’s what I noticed but I’m still investigating.
Click to expand...
 
darrinS

darrinS

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2011
1,053
885
So Cal
I have a Mophie Wireless Charging Base, which has a light indicator when it is charging. When I place my APP on it, the light turns on but less than 5 minutes later it turns off. It does the same thing with my 2nd gen AirPods. I would like to find a charger that works with the APP.
 
zhenya

zhenya

macrumors 604
Jan 6, 2005
6,929
3,677
I suspect this has to do with the relative size of the charging coils. The coil in a device to charge a phone is much larger than the coil in the AirPods case which makes getting the two aligned in such a way they transmit power efficiently difficult. I have similar behavior as reported in this thread with my phone charger, but the charger for my Stryd running footpod, which is similar in size to the case, charges the case just fine.

This is why the AirPower charger was expected to have a series of large and small overlapping coils.
 
StarBr33z3

StarBr33z3

macrumors newbie
Feb 4, 2017
29
31
It turns out that the problem with a plenty of Qi chargers being unable to fully (> 80%, approx.) charge AP2/APP is that case charging power (wattage) is not constant but in range of ~0.25...2.5 Watts. When charging power drops below ~1..1.2 Watts some Qi chargers (esp-ly cheap ones) "think" that device was removed and turn the coils off.

Thus the only solutions is to replace the charger, AP replacement won't help much.

AP2 charging graph:
jU2rmXN.png


AP2 charging process in details:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bpian9
 
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Dammit Cubs

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
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StarBr33z3 said:
It turns out that the problem with a plenty of Qi chargers being unable to fully (> 80%, approx.) charge AP2/APP is that case charging power (wattage) is not constant but in range of ~0.25...2.5 Watts. When charging power drops below ~1..1.2 Watts some Qi chargers (esp-ly cheap ones) "think" that device was removed and turn the coils off.

Thus the only solutions is to replace the charger, AP replacement won't help much.

AP2 charging graph:
jU2rmXN.png


AP2 charging process in details:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bpian9
Click to expand...


OMG YES!!!! DATA!!!!
 
L

ls7

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2019
27
39
Finally a thread on this subject with some real data!

I have exactly the same issue with my Airpods gen2 with wireless charging case in combination with wireless charger Belkin Boost Up (F7U050).

Problem:
It will charge at first, with the "battery percentage" for the case going up at a normal rate.
After a few minutes, the light on the wireless charger turns off (I know that the light on the case itself will turn off after a few seconds, but in this case it is the pad itself indicating that charging has stopped).

Leaving the case on the pad for any amount of time after this does not make it charge more.
The case gets quite warm (I would guess around 40 degrees celsius on the outside) but the pad's light is off (sometimes it's orange, indicating an issue with the object on the pad) and battery percentage stays the same.

What I tried:
* Two different charging pads
* Returned the case and airpods to Apple, and got a new exchange product back.
All with the same result - charging stops after a few minutes.

Also:
* Charging different phones on both charging pads - working flawlessly from 0-100%

So, two different chargers that works flawlessly with other products. Two different airpods and cases that does not work on any of the chargers. This is clearly some fault on Airpods side.

I have even raised this issue with Apple Support, they did some remote debugging but could not give me any solutions. Finally they wanted me to send in the Airpods and Charger to Apple for them to debug. I have not done that because they needed to keep it for multiple weeks which would suck. But it could potentially help to sort this issue out... Anyone that can stand being without Airpods for a number of weeks should contact them.
 
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whsbuss

whsbuss

macrumors 601
May 4, 2010
4,181
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SE Penna.
ls7 said:
Finally a thread on this subject with some real data!

I have exactly the same issue with my Airpods gen2 with wireless charging case in combination with wireless charger Belkin Boost Up (F7U050).

Problem:
It will charge at first, with the "battery percentage" for the case going up at a normal rate.
After a few minutes, the light on the wireless charger turns off (I know that the light on the case itself will turn off after a few seconds, but in this case it is the pad itself indicating that charging has stopped).

Leaving the case on the pad for any amount of time after this does not make it charge more.
The case gets quite warm (I would guess around 40 degrees celsius on the outside) but the pad's light is off (sometimes it's orange, indicating an issue with the object on the pad) and battery percentage stays the same.

What I tried:
* Two different charging pads
* Returned the case and airpods to Apple, and got a new exchange product back.
All with the same result - charging stops after a few minutes.

Also:
* Charging different phones on both charging pads - working flawlessly from 0-100%

So, two different chargers that works flawlessly with other products. Two different airpods and cases that does not work on any of the chargers. This is clearly some fault on Airpods side.

I have even raised this issue with Apple Support, they did some remote debugging but could not give me any solutions. Finally they wanted me to send in the Airpods and Charger to Apple for them to debug. I have not done that because they needed to keep it for multiple weeks which would suck. But it could potentially help to sort this issue out... Anyone that can stand being without Airpods for a number of weeks should contact them.
Click to expand...
Great write-up. You would think Apple support could grab the same Boost UP charger to test, since they sell it.
 
Dammit Cubs

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
2,108
696
I haven't tried if there is a difference in chargers. In order to isolate the issue, i had to move the "problematic" one which is near my bed onto an independent power source so that the data can be consistent.

I couldn't sleep last night (not because of this LOL) but as I keep waking up, i would check the charger, and I can see it move from Green light (the wireless charger) to red then 10 minutes later green, then red....It's as if the wireless case is modulating the charging. I thought maybe it was the position of my coils.

This could be the result of a crappy amazon charging chase but none of my iphones have this issue so I wonder if it's just the power watt issue. I need to create experiments in order to go closer to this. I do not think this is a product flaw (i.e. mine has an issue that others don't). I think it's rather systemic and once we understand the issue then we can understand the capabilities of wireless charger with these airpods better.
 
A

aloper

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2015
454
466
Rocklin, CA
Dammit Cubs said:
I am curious if people are using the wireless charging feature on the Airpod Pros. Since I have both a wireless stand in my home and in the office, I like to put my airpods on this "cheap" Amazon ordered wireless charger which works for my Iphone.

When I put my airpods on there, I can see it charging but sometimes after maybe 5-30 minutes, the charging will stop. I would think it is charged but when when I check it was partially charged.

It could be an alignment issue but are the airpods that sensitive?
Click to expand...

The other issue could be heat...Some cheaper chargers will shut themselves off if they get to warm. I had this issue with a cheap charger I bought off amazon last year. It would charge my phone for awhile, then shut off...same thing would happen to my Airpods. The better chargers can manage this, and keep charging. The ok kind of chargers will shutoff, then once they cool down, will continue charging. The cheap ones will shut off, but never reset themselves...
 
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