Some AirPods Pro 2 owners complain of audio playback issues

AirPods Pro 2 on a mosaic table
(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future)

Some owners of the latest AirPods Pro 2 are complaining of issues relating to how sound is handled by the earbuds. In some cases, the left and right earbuds are falling out of sync with each other.

In other cases, users report that there is a notable delay between what is happening on-screen when watching content, and what's heard via the AirPods Pro 2.

Delays

When we talk about Apple and delays we're normally talking about how long it will take to get hold of an iPhone 14 or an Apple Watch Ultra, but in this instance, it's a delay between what's happening on an iPad or iPhone screen and what people are hearing. People have been taking to online forums to complain about the issues, with 9to5Mac reporting. More people complain that the earbuds are sometimes out of sync with each other.

"I’ve had a similar issue with my APP2. I’m using spatial audio and watching YouTube, and for almost videos, after an ad plays, the AirPods go out of sync with each other. As if one is slightly lacking behind the other," one user says.

In other instances, audio seems to move from one ear to the other, before "eventually going silent altogether."

While some people complain about these issues while Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking are disabled, others suffer with them turned on, suggesting neither feature is related to the problem.

9to5Mac notes that so far Apple is yet to comment on the issue, so it isn't clear whether this is a software problem or not. It seems most likely, but the question is whether this requires a fix at the iOS/iPadOS level, or if a new AirPods Pro 2 firmware release can fix things for good.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.