[_bxg1]

I've had the same issue. And another, more important one: the noise-cancelling/passthrough features have gradually ceased to work entirely. I replaced one bud when this started happening and was making things asymmetrical (super annoying), then noticed the new one was noise-cancelling more than the "still good" one, indicating that the other one had started degrading too. Eventually both of them stopped working for anything but basic playback.

I've heard theories that the outer mics can get clogged with ear wax over time, and I tried several different strategies for cleaning them. I even bought entirely new rubber caps, just in case that contributed. Nothing I did worked. Eventually I just gave up and bought another pair of the regular AirPods, which had always worked reliably (I gave away my first pair as a gift when I got the Pros).

It's honestly shameful that such an expensive product can be so problematic, but I got weary of being upset about it and just wanted to get on with my life.

[lstamour]

I had connectivity issues on mine. One or the other would stubbornly not go into NC mode, or you’d see iOS say “Noise Cancelling” but it would actually be transparency mode, and had not fully shifted. Haven’t had too many issues since I had the entire set replaced, but it was multiple calls and a fair amount of headache when juggling returning each of the AirPods shipments and returns. Two of the boxes, the case and left AirPod Pro arrived one day, the right AirPod Pro was stuck at FedEx and would ship the next day. Why couldn’t they be replaced in one box the way I bought them, I wondered... Overall, the AirPods Pro are impressive but hardly foolproof... yet?

[DominikPeters]

A common theory on forums is that noise cancellation was reduced by a firmware update (to version 2B588), for unknown reasons.

[_bxg1]

That isn't what I'm talking about here. It's most obvious on passthrough: there's simply almost no sound being picked up by the ambient mics.