PSA: lock in your audiogram with your old AirPods before iOS 18.1

iOS 18.1, and the "clinical grade hearing aid" transformation of AirPods Pro 2, are just around the corner, but as of today, not yet officially released.

For years now, though, I've been able to tune my first-generation AirPods Pro and my Lightning AirPods Max to the hearing test results I got from my audiologist. This allows me to hear music and phone calls in a way that compensates for specifically for my hearing loss.

I discovered the other day that I can't on 18.1.

But what I did discover is that, before upgrading, I could lock in an audiogram tuning before the upgrade. Once.

This needs to be done on 18.0.1 or earlier. If you're already on 18.1 and your Custom Audio Setup is missing the audiogram option like mine, you must roll back first—but keep in mind that might not be an option for long, and it's incredibly time-consuming and possibly destructive. Roll back at your own risk.

You may not need to do this, mind. Reports have varied a bit and the variables are unknown to me today—I have some theories, but not enough to say for sure. Regardless, it doesn't hurt if you're still on 18.0.1.

Here's what I did.

1. Make sure there's an audiogram entered in Health. (Under Hearing, it's possible to enter your own audiogram results if you haven't already. You don't need an app or to take any kind of hearing test on your device.)
2. Make sure your AirPods are connected and are the selected sound output. Control Center is an easy way to do this.
3. On 18.0.1, open Headphone Accommodations (Settings → Accessibility → Audio & Visual).
4. Turn it on and select Custom Audio Setup.
5. Pick the audiogram.
6. Listen to the difference. (Isn't it wonderful?)
7. Repeat for any other AirPods you have (other than AirPods Pro 2, which will be handled differently once 18.1 releases) starting at step 2. (I don't know if this is completely necessary, but it doesn't hurt.)
8. Once everything is all set, you should be ok to upgrade to iOS 18.1 when it becomes available.

Do this separately for every iOS device—Health data, and your audiogram, can sync through iCloud, but the setting does not.

And that's it. I've already walked through this and upgraded to the 18.1 release candidate, and I'm able to keep my audiogram tuning for my first-generation AirPods Pro and my Lightning AirPods Max. It also looks like I'm free to adjust Hearing Accommodations—turn it off, use any of the other settings, and so forth.

However, it's worth noting: what I am not able to do is use Custom Audio Setup ever again to select a new audiogram. So it seems that I will be stuck once I get a new hearing test. Unless this functionality gets restored somehow, this won't last forever. My hearing will change, but I will not be able to adjust my AirPods for it.

This is, needless to say, still extremely frustrating. I bought my AirPods Max specifically because I have hearing loss and because of the audiogram feature. And I'm now also very wary that even this workaround will fail at some point in the future.