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Just chiming in to say I had the same problem and found a solution.

For some reason, my AirPods silently connect to my iPhone while they're in their case and both devices are asleep. Why they do this, I have no clue. Just quality 2020s Apple programming.

Anyways, there's an easy solution: go into the settings app (not the drop down menu) and turn off Bluetooth on your phone/ipad when you don't need it. Your AirPods will no longer randomly drain at night. Neither will your Apple Pencil, if you have one of those.

You'll find a lot of comments on Apple support forums/reddit/etc saying it's impossible for it to be Bluetooth and that you should never turn it off for any reason because it's crazy. People for some reason are very assertive about that. But they're wrong. I now make a habit of only turning Bluetooth on precisely when I need it and immediately turn it off afterwards and now nothing gets drained needlessly.

Now the only AirPods bug that drives me insane is the volume randomly shooting up halfway to max randomly sometimes when I connect to my computer, but I made a script to somewhat fix it.



Can’t you just turn off Bluetooth easily via Control Center? Top left Bluetooth symbol


That doesn't turn Bluetooth off. It's deceptive. It simply "disconnects" it, but it'll still connect at a random point in the future. It also doesn't really disconnect it since it'll still detect devices and burn away your battery life. And I experimented with it countless times over a couple years.

That's why I said you need to do it through settings directly. Otherwise it won't do anything.


Yes it does. Once you tap that button Bluetooth will remain off.


It absolutely does not. I've tried it countless times and my AirPods still drain overnight if I use the drop down disable. I've also disabled it that way and seen an "AirPods detected" message minutes later.

Apple themselves even says if you want to turn off Bluetooth, you need to do it through settings: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102412


Yes, but only until the next day.


This is accurate.


It is not. Apple themselves say you need to go to settings to turn it off: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102412

Otherwise it's merely a temporary disconnect.




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