Why does my AirPods Pro Transparency Mode keep turning off?

@Rob354 Several times per day? You are very lucky, mine a few dozen times per day. Before iOS 18.01, Airpods Pro 2 finally worked flawlessly for several months. (It was the same issue 6 months ago with iOPS17)

Now that the FDA has approved APP as a hearing aid, I wonder if the development team will address the issue seriously.

I updated to iOS 18.1, which resolved all the disconnect issues. Additionally, Transparency mode now functions like a hearing aid, providing much clearer sound than before. To enable this, you’ll need to go through a few steps, including a hearing test and setting up your AirPods Pro as a hearing device. Thumbs Up to Apple!

Just came back to Iphone after years of Android, picked up 16 Pro Max, Airpods Pro 2, and the Ultra 2 watch. The main reason I bought the Airpods pro was for the "hearing aid" feature through Custom Transparency. I too am having this problem, I turn on transparency and it turns off within 2-5 seconds. As I'm within my return period I plan on returning them by next weekend if I don't discover a solution.

What I can't believe is I've seen threads as far back as 2022 complaining about this and Apple still hasn't fixed this? That's astonishing to me, especially when they've gone to the trouble of marketing these Airpods pro 2 as being hearing aids.

Unless I'm missing something about the hearing aid part these things are duds.

You may be on to something but not entirely. I was able to make the "turning off" go away by turning off my mac (sleep) but maybe it has something to do with the "handoff" feature? Not that I'm confident the problem is resolved.

I'm just amazed at how long this has been allowed to go on by Apple. Threads from years ago and apparently daily comments being ignored by Apple.

I'm the same as you, however after 18.1 now transparency mode has been ruined and can't work as a hearing aid at all.. And I live in the UK where we don't have access to the hearing aids functionality, so apple messed it up big time on us, literally no way to use the airpods pro for assistance to my hearing as I did a month ago

Yes! I have had this exact same issue for few months now. It used to be really good for walking in the city I could hear the cars coming and so on, but now I have trouble hearing anything. Really a bummer.

@ Bassel80, this problem was solved if I turned the iPhone off—the identical as turning the Bluetooth off. Apparently, the iPhone sends wrong signals to Airpods Pro which turns the transparency off. But, TG, my Airpods with iOS18.1 are perfect. Make sure you have the latest firmware and iOS18.1

IOS version 18.2

Air pods firmware version 7B21

custom transparency mode still keeps dropping when connected to IPhone.

if I disconnect it from iPhone it will stay on. HOWEVER! Current IOS version causes AirPods to be locked to Bluetooth on phone and turns all transparency options on AirPods off if I disconnect from iPhone.

if I connect to my iPad then turn off Bluetooth there, it stays on. iPad Pro OS version is 17.6.1.

it’s definitely something to do with the iPhone IOS

In the jump from 17 to 18, I too had Transparency mode fail. 18.1.1 didn't solve it.

In Headphone Accomodations under Control Centre, when adjusting the Transparency Mode Amplification slider nothing audible would change.

Just had a Genius Bar appointment where they ran the AirPods through the 30 minute diagnostic which concluded there were no issues with the AirPods.

I asked the Genius to also test their set. Their personal AirPods had no issues.

This pointed to a potential issue with the phone.

Left with that unresolved. But I didn't want to erase my phone at that point.

Fortunately I had a second older pair to test. They too failed the Amplification Slider test.

Everything now pointed to the phone since two different pairs of AirPods failed.

Two options: General > Reset All Settings or Erase and Restore from an iCloud backup.

Reset All is the less time consuming path.

Tried Resetting All and AirPods are now working with Transparency Mode and the Amplification and other sliders are now working.

Note that Credit Cards, Text, Network and Notifications are all reset as part of this process.

So Reset All is one thing to try. There isn't a lesser version of reset that is applicable to AirPods.

I went through 3 Genius Bar appointments and they still cannot figure out the problem, I did a factory reset and start as a brand new phone and still the issue persists and even with replacement AirPods , case and all and still custom transparency mode keeps turning off 😞

Interestingly, when testing Transparency Mode a Message came in and I heard a notification sound. Sitting at a Mac with the Phone - both are connected to the same set of AirPods.

Coinciding with that notification sound, Transparency magically went into possibly Noise Cancellation mode. Checking the iPhone AirPods was no longer in Transparency mode. But the AirPods weren't the default device - the volume control in Control Centre showed the speaker icon, not AirPods.

You then have to briefly play some audio to kick the phone back into AirPods default out mode.

We are not out of the woods. There seems to be a separate bug which in my case might be triggered by a notification sound that originates from a Mac.

One theory I have is that it has something to do with "energy saving" so when the AirPods stop playing other content they eventually shut down processes to save power. Just an idea.

I'm playing a background sound at a really low level (around level 12) as well as have transparency mode enabled. So far, it hasn't dropped...

Anyone else want to try?

Could also be Mac related too. I did something similar with the Mac.

Was in Transparency on the phone and then played content from the TV app (on Mac). As soon as it started playing, Transparency mode dropped.

Consistent with a notification being played also on the Mac, Transparency dropped shortly after the notification sound played.

Also had Background Sound confused when a call came in. It seemed to stop during the call because the call took over the AirPod in and out sound, but when the call hung up background sounds started playing from the phone speaker, not the AirPods. It didn't remember the prior audio state following the interruption.

I'm going to try Watch > Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Silent Mode. My guess is that it has less to do with Bluetooth but more to do with audio sessions coming and going.

I may have it! Contacted apple support and while texting the in app text sounds disabled transparency every time I sent a message, kept turning on and sent a message back, it went off, reset AirPods and the issue was resolved, the difference is that I had taken a hearing test, the reset cleared that. So I can only assume the hearing test on with transparency mode is causing an issue with in app sounds. Custom mode is off btw. So far it’s stayed on, I’ll report back, maybe try that!

After over 12 months of Transparency Mode not working, making the Airpods Pro 2 useless as hearing aids - I found a solution: Clean all of the microphones with putty (or White Tack).

This worked... Until I restarted my iPhone one day and that was the end of Transparency Mode altogether!

Apple Support have provided me with assistance three times recently. None of the solutions worked, or only worked until I restarted my iPhone.

I have relied on Airpods Pro 2 as hearing aids, even before they got the FDA approval (iOS 18.1 actually made them worse!). I have spent many hours/days trying to get Transparency Mode to work consistently during this time, and it's not worth the time and effort. Looking at other websites and Airpods Pro 2 appear to "fail" after around 12 months.

My Airpods Pro 2 tied me to the Apple ecosystem, but this ongoing problem has made me switch to Samsung: Samsung's Galaxy Buds3 Pro are very similar to Airpods Pro 2 and so far they work better than APP2 did and Samsung's hearing test gave me exactly the same results as my professional audiogram. Apple's hearing test feature was nowhere near as good.