Apple to Start Sharing What's New in AirPods Firmware Updates Via iOS 16

Apple plans to begin listing new features and changes in AirPods firmware updates in a forthcoming support document on its website.

airpods pro black background
In the fifth developer beta of iOS 16, navigating to Settings → General → About → AirPods and tapping on Firmware Version leads to a new page indicating that AirPods firmware details are available at support.apple.com, complete with a link to a support document that will likely be published by the time iOS 16 is publicly released in September.

The new AirPods support document will likely be similar to one that Apple published for AirTag firmware updates earlier this year.

iOS 16 beta 5 AirPods Firmware Version

The new AirPods firmware version screen in iOS 16 beta 5 via Reddit

As noted on Reddit, the new Firmware Version page displays the firmware version for both AirPods and the charging cases. The latest firmware version for AirPods was released in May and is listed as "4E71" in the Settings app. There is still no manual way to update the firmware on AirPods, with updates installing automatically.

Related Roundups: AirPods 4, AirPods Max, AirPods Pro
Related Forum: AirPods

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Top Rated Comments

fwmireault Avatar
37 months ago
Good news! Now, having a procedure to force update AirPods would be a nice next step
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vasilioskn Avatar
37 months ago
Omg how brave!!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
retrac1324 Avatar
37 months ago
Finally
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johnediii Avatar
37 months ago

Good news! Now, having a procedure to force update AirPods would be a nice next step
My AirPod Pros are stuck on a 2 year old firmware and will not update automatically no matter what I do. The Apple Store manually doing it for me is not convenient. I'd even accept having to plug them into a Mac to do it. Just let me do it.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
webbuzz Avatar
37 months ago

Good news! Now, having a procedure to force update AirPods would be a nice next step
Let's not get crazy now.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
svish Avatar
37 months ago
Good to see this change.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)