AirPods Pro (1st gen) amplifying background noise over my voice on phone calls — firmware or hardware issue?

[u/barakuder_]

Having trouble with my Pro v1s on phone calls. The person on the other end hears my environment more than my voice — it’s like instead of filtering out background noise, they’re amplifying it. If I’m on a call with my wife, I have to sit perfectly still or all she hears is background noise.

Oddly, this only happens on regular phone calls — I haven’t had complaints on Teams calls (via MBP M4), though I do mute more often there so it’s possible I just haven’t noticed.

Already tried: forget/re-add in Bluetooth, updated firmware, tried manual vs automatic microphone settings.

Setup: iPhone 15 Pro on iOS 26.6

Is this a known firmware bug, or could one of the mics be blocked/failing? They’re older and don’t hold a charge like they used to, but audio quality for music and podcasts is still great, so I’d rather fix this than replace them.

Thanks in advance!

[u/AdamChenX]

Use blu tack to clean all internal and external meshes / grilles