Learn what to do if you want to turn off all listening modes (Transparency, Adaptive, and Noise Cancellation) for your AirPods on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, but you don’t see an option to do that.
AirPods 4, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max have three Listening Modes that block outside noise (Noise Cancellation), let noise in (Transparency), or mix the two (Adaptive).
You can switch between the three Listening Modes by:
- Pressing and holding the stem on regular AirPods or pressing the listening mode button on AirPods Max
- Expanding the volume slider in Control Center and tapping Listening Mode
- Going to AirPods settings
However, if you don’t see an ‘Off’ option, that’s because by default, Apple enables Loud Sound Reduction to help reduce your exposure to loud sounds, which needs Listening Mode to be always on. Secondly, Apple wants you to use the default Adaptive feature (an intelligent mix of Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes), so it can differentiate its expensive models from the entry-level one that don’t have this feature.
But if you don’t want these effects active all the time, there is a way to turn them off. Plus, disabling them will also boost the battery backup as your AirPods microphones don’t have to do extra work to block the outside sound (Noise Cancellation) or amplify them to come through (Transparency). And on top of that, disabling Listening Mode also eliminates the weird AirPods hissing sound you may hear at times.
Reveal the option to completely turn off AirPods Listening Mode
1) Connect your AirPods to iPhone, iPad, or Mac. You need to follow this procedure on only one of your devices.
2) Open the iOS Settings app or macOS System Settings and select your AirPods.
3) Tap Audio & Routing.
4) Scroll to the bottom and turn on the switch next to Off Listening Mode.
5) Tap OK on the Loud Sound Reduction popup.
Here’s how this setting looks on Mac:
Now, head to Control Center or the previous AirPods settings page, and you’ll see an option to turn off Listening Mode.
To also be able to turn off Listening Mode directly from your AirPods stem, head to AirPods Settings > Controls & Gestures > Left or Right and mark Off as one of the options. After this, you can press and hold the AirPods stem to cycle between all the marked Listening Modes, with ‘Off’ also being one of the options.
In case you still don’t get the option to turn off Listening Mode:
- Restart your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
- Disconnect and reconnect your AirPods.
- Turn off Bluetooth from iOS Settings (not Control Center) and turn it back on.
- Reset your AirPods, then repeat the steps above.
- Turn off AirPods beta updates and wait for the non-beta version to install automatically when it’s available.
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