Whenever you complain of faulty AirPods, Apple examines the same and decides whether or not it qualifies for a replacement. Once the replacement is approved, Apple ships it to you. A new issue has cropped up wherein Apple is sending single replacement AirPods with an unreleased firmware.
Typically in order for your AirPods to work, both the buds should be installed with the same firmware. Many AirPods users have taken to Reddit and other social media after they discovered that replacement AirPods comes with firmware 2D3 which is not yet released. One of our readers sent a screenshot that best describes this issue.
Updating is out of the question as both AirPods are required to be running the same version of the firmware. Even Apple technicians were left in a lurch and it seems like there is no way the problem can be solved. This particular Reddit thread tells us how AirPods user reached out to Apple but to no avail.
The issue seems to be affecting AirPods 2 and also AirPods Pro. Replacement for both the AirPods is arriving with firmware 2D3. This is what one of our readers had to say,
I have second generation AirPods with the left (a recent replacement) on firmware 2D3 and the right on 2A364. They won’t sync up of course but apple hasn’t made 2D3 public yet so I’m out of luck.
Apparently, Apple is sending the right AirPods with 2D3 firmware while the left earbuds still come with the older version. Apple could solve this issue by offering an update to 2D3 firmware or they will have to replace the affected AirPods with new ones that run older firmware.
If you are facing a similar issue on replacement buds do let us know in the comments below.