AirPods Pro 2 users bombarded with notifications requesting “battery replacement”

Launched last month, the AirPods Pro 2 earphones may seem like disposable accessories after notification messages requesting battery replacement began appearing on the screens of connected phones.

Like other wireless headphones, AirPods Pro 2 have rechargeable batteries that should last at least 1-2 years, not disposable batteries. But that seems to be exactly the assumption made by Apple’s engineers, who created the firmware for the most advanced AirPods using copy/paste code samples. Most likely, the bug resulted from “plagiarizing” firmware developed for the AirTag accessories, which do indeed come with disposable batteries that require replacement when they run down.

Although marked “CRITICAL”, the alert displayed by the Find My app itself (responsible for managing AirTag tags) should not be taken too seriously, signaling only that one or both of the headsets require charging in the carrying case.

The irony is that, like most Apple devices, the AirPods Pro 2 headphones were not designed to be repairable, with any warranty claims for warranty repair of defects related to premature battery wear being resolved by partial or full replacement of the product. In other words, “battery replacement” on AirPods Pro 2 is almost impossible without irreversible damage to the headphones.

Most likely, Apple will fix the reported bug with an update to the Find My app.