Perhaps it has happened to you that the volume of your AirPods are automatically adjusted. Suddenly your music is played softer and the noise reduction is reduced. The cause of this ‘problem’ is adaptive audio.
With this smart audio function, the AirPods can decide for themselves what the best degree of transparency or noise reduction is at that time. Only there are not all AirPods users waiting for that. We tell you how you can disable this.
Adaptive audio
Adaptive audio is an important function for the AirPods Pro 2nd generation and AirPods 4th generation with noise reduction. This function combines active noise reduction and the transparency mode to adjust the noise suppression level for you based on the circumstances in your environment.
AirPods automatically adjust the volume
Do you no longer want your AirPods to automatically adjust the volume? Then switch off adaptive audio. You can do this via the control panel.
- Open the control panel while playing music on the AirPods
- Put your finger on the volume sliding bar for AirPods
- Tap the current mode (out / transparency / adaptive / noise reduction)
- Choose a desired mode, except adaptive
Change to adaptive switching off
In addition, you can also hold down the stem of the AirPods to switch between mode. It is advisable to disable this behavior to prevent you from accidentally switching on adaptive audio. You can do this via Settings â–¸ AirPods â–¸ Hold AirPods and you can disable adaptive left or right.
Change adaptive audio
Since iOS 18, iPados 18 and macOS Sequoia you can decide for yourself whether the audio should let through more sound or just filter away. Automatic adjustment of the audio continues to work, but you can decide for yourself whether you want more noise control or more transparency. You can read how you do that in the highlighted article below.