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I have my first-gen AirPods now for a couple of years and I have been noticing for some time that my AirPods aren't able to be fully charged to 100% again. Here is a screenshot of my AirPods not getting 100% while being charged:

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So I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening? This doesn't happen for your iPhone. Your iPhone will be charged to 100% although you know the performance gets worse of the battery.

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So I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening?

Batteries age. As they do, their ability to hold a charge decreases. The batteries are designed to have a particular watt hour rating (wH); it’s the battery’s capacity. As the battery gets older, it can no longer charge to that level. Therefore, the current charge level (as measured) never reaches the “hard coded” maximum and thusly, never reaches 100%.

Think of it like a water storage tank that holds 100 liters of water. Over time, sediments will build up so that after many years, it only hold 98 to 99 liters even though it’s “full.” This is analogous to what’s happening in your battery. It’s fully charged but because of diminished capacity, it’s only 98% of what it originally was able to hold.

The fact they are within 1% point of each other says they are deteriorating at a similar rate which is perfectly normal.

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  • I suppose it is somewhat curious why it doesn't charge to 100%, but just degrade faster? At least, this is how it works with the battery management in the Mac laptops - I guess the support logic in the AirPods isn't as extensive as a laptop probably due to size differences.
    – bjb
    Commented Jun 28, 2023 at 17:21
  • It’s the SEI layer (most likely). It’s the layer of electrolyte that allows batteries to work. t’s a double edged sword. No SEI layer, no movement of electrons. Too much layer and your capacity drops. As batteries age, this layer grows. As far as battery management goes, no battery is charged to 100%. It’s all handled behind the scenes. What you see as 100% is really 80-90% raw charge.
    – Allan
    Commented Jun 28, 2023 at 17:30
  • Makes sense. On the desktop OS you can use a tool like 'Coconut Battery' to see original max capacity and current max capacity (my 2019 is around 73% of max), so yeah - I suppose the OS is just determining that 73% is the new 100% and does the appropriate maths :-)
    – bjb
    Commented Jun 28, 2023 at 17:33

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