As an owner of AirPods Pro, I know how frustrating it can be when the noise canceling feature stops working. I had the same problem recently and after some research and trial and error, I finally figured out how to get it working again. In this blog post, I’m going to share with you the causes of this issue and the fixes that worked for me. Hopefully, this will help you out if you’re ever in the same situation.
Likely reasons why noise canceling is not working on your AirPods Pro are that you have not been turning it on correctly, you are not using large enough ear tips, or that you need to try resetting your AirPods.
| Cause | Details | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Incorrect Activation | Not turning on noise canceling correctly | Hold down the stem until hearing a downward ding sound |
| Low Battery | Insufficient power in AirPods | Charge AirPods and check battery levels |
| Resetting AirPods | AirPods might need a reset | Forget, reset, and reconnect AirPods to devices |
| Wrong Sized Ear Tips | Ear tips not large enough to block external sound | Try larger or different material ear tips, perform ear tip fit test |
| Dirty Microphone Grills | Dirt in microphone grills affecting noise canceling | Clean grills using a q-tip or sucking air out |
| Outdated Software | Software bugs on Apple devices | Update software on connected Apple devices |
Table of Contents
Why is noise canceling not working on my AirPods Pro
To turn on noise-canceling, you just need to hold down on the stem of the AirPods for a few seconds until you hear a downward ding sound. If you hear an upward beep sound, that is the sound that tells you transparency mode has been turned on.
When the noise canceling turn on, you should hear a lot less of the sounds going on around you.
You can check to see if your AirPods are in noise canceling mode using an iPhone, iPad or Mac. On iPhone, you need to go to settings then bluetooth then click the “i” next to the AirPods. Then you can see there if noise canceling is turned on or not.
Not hearing the ding sound
Read more: Mic not working on AirPods
If you are not hearing the ding sound, it could be because your AirPods are out of power. It would help to make sure that your AirPods have power in them. You can do this by opening the case near to an iPhone or iPad where a popup should appear showing you how much power is in the AirPods. You can also click on the AirPods in the Bluetooth settings on a Mac.
It might also be because you need to reset your AirPods. Even if you do hear the ding sound, this would be worth a try.
To reset your AirPods, do the following:
- Forget your AirPods from your devices
- Put them in the case
- Open the lid
- Hold the button for 15 seconds until the light flashes orange then white
- Reconnect your AirPods to your devices
Wrong sized ear tips
If you are hearing the ding sound, the issue could be that you are not using large enough ear tips. If your ear tips are not large enough, they will not be able to block out much sound around you. In this case, the best thing to do would be to try larger ear tips. You can also try using ear tips made from a different material such as memory foam.
One way to tell if your ear tips are large enough is to do the ear tip fit test. To do this, go to the settings on your iPhone then click Bluetooth then click the “i” next to your AirPods then click the button that says “ear tip fit test”.
Clean the grills
Read more: One AirPod keeps disconnecting
Dirt in the microphone grills on the AirPods can also cause the noise canceling mode not to work properly. It would help to try cleaning the speaker grills by rubbing them using a q tip or you can try sucking the air out of them instead.
Update your Apple devices
A recommended step by Apple themselves is to make sure that your Apple devices are up to date. If they are not, try doing a software update since it could be due to a software bug.
