Why does my AirPods Pro Transparency Mode keep turning off?

Yes! After a year of this ongoing problem I’m thinking that it’s something to do with the connection to my Apple Watch too. Possibly a problem with handoff, but turning handoff off on the Apple Watch renders it pretty useless.

Apple really need to sort out how their devices work together - it doesn’t “just work”

I think it is fixed. Make sure you have at least iOS 18.0.1 and your AirPods are 7B13d or more recent. I’m not sure when the latest version update occurred. But it may have been this upgrade that fixed it.

@jbartiny, It's not the Firmapdate that is the issue. Its iOS18.01. Select the custom transparency mode. Then, turn your iPhone off and see if the transparency mode will drop. On my end, it did not. But you end up without a cellphone while using AirPods Pro. :o)

I think you’re right, Bassel80. I turned off Bluetooth on my watch and it solved the problem.

I shouldn’t have to choose between the hearing aid functionality and connecting my watch. I guess I’ll start looking at Samsung’s watch.

Crazy this hasn’t been fixed yet.

I’ve noticed something strange with the Transparency mode in Headphone Accommodations. It seems to toggle off only when I have my Apple Watch on. If I don’t have my Apple Watch turned on, it doesn’t happen at all. I think there might be a connection between the two.

Now that I'm back and (somewhat) working on 18, I now see various issues when Transparency drops out. Here are my observations to see if any of you are seeing similar state of the on screen controls.

• For some reason, even though AirPods are connected they stop being the default audio output device - I notice this because the volume slider in Control Centre goes from the AirPods icon to the speaker icon. If I play music, it comes out of the phone speaker, not the AirPods - even though bluetooth says the AirPods are connected.
• There are times when you enable background sounds and it goes out of the speaker not the AirPods - not what you expect
• The music widget in Control Centre continues to show the AirPods icon even though the volume slider shows the speaker icon - so there is an inconsistency of audio output being shown across two controls
• When the speaker icon is default on the volume control going back to Hearing Accomodations you see that Transparency Mode is either not present under Media and Phone anymore, or the previously visible check mark has gone.
• When Transparency drops there is still very quiet audio being heard, and Settings > AirPods still shows the mode as Transparency. Switched to Noise Cancelling and then back to Transparency and the audio is noticeably different. So the EQ that is being applied due to Transparency custom settings is no longer working. Having just disconnected the AirPods from Bluetooth, this might be the equivalent of "AirPods off" in your ears when there is no active noise cancellation - you still hear something.

I was able to fix the issue, and here's how I did it. Hopefully, it works for you as well.

The problem seems to be caused by the Apple Watch. When it connects to the AirPods Pro, it resets the custom transparency mode. Here's what I did:

1. Backed up my iPhone using "Apple Devices" on my PC.
2. Reset the iPhone.
3. Reset the Airpods.
4. Restored the iPhone backup from my PC.
5. Reconnected the Airpods.

After the restore, the Apple Watch reconnected to the iPhone, but this time, the Airpods didn't appear in the watch's settings. Since then, I haven't faced the issue again. However, I can no longer use the Airpods with the Apple Watch (for music or podcasts), as they now only connect to the iPhone.

My AirPod Pro version is 7A305, which the Apple site shows to be the latest version.

Even updating to 18.1, the issue still persists

@kevosmin… I just upgraded to 18.1 and everything seems to be working perfectly.

This is still an issue in Australia, IOS 18.1 constant custom transparency mode drop outs.

I’m on 18.1 now, it’s still happening. I use it on both my 16 Pro Max and 13, same problems for both phones.

Same issue!! They do not seem to care. Went to Apple Store, in the past, replacing them has worked—they were not going to do it this time, but since they were so condescending and rude—which made me upset, they gave me a new tech, who replaced them. Unfortunately, it has not worked, they do it less, but still shut off:( the next step is to go through support again and the the issue be sent to an engineer or something like that. If I have time for that nonsense, I’ll update.