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Apple Officially Retires Beats Updater Utility in Favor of Over-the-Air Firmware Updates

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Apple has officially retired Beats Updater, the software utility that lets users update the firmware of their Beats Wireless headphones, earphones, and speakers.

beats updater
Beats Updater allows users to plug their Beats product directly into the USB port of their computer to check for firmware updates online, but with Apple's growing tendency to deliver over-the-air updates to wireless products via iOS and iPadOS, the company clearly feels the utility has reached the end of its life.

Beats Updater is still available to download for use with the following products, but Apple says no new versions will be available in future.

  • Beats Solo2 Wireless
  • Beats Studio Wireless
  • Powerbeats 2 Wireless
  • Beats Pill 2.0
  • Powerbeats
  • Powerbeats Pro
  • Powerbeats3 Wireless
  • Solo Pro
  • Beats Solo3 Wireless
  • Beats Studio3 Wireless
  • BeatsX

If you have one of the Beats headphones or earphones listed below, pairing them with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will update them automatically. If you have an Android device, download the Beats app for Android from the Google Play store to update your firmware.

  • Powerbeats
  • ‌Powerbeats Pro‌
  • Powerbeats3 Wireless
  • Solo Pro
  • Beats Solo3 Wireless
  • Beats Studio3 Wireless
  • BeatsX

Apple recently released over-the-air firmware updates for AirPods (second generation), AirPods Pro, Powerbeats, ‌Powerbeats Pro‌, and Solo Pro. The new firmware adds automatic switching support to these models and requires iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, or later. In addition to automatic switching, AirPods Pro also gained a new spatial audio feature.

Tag: Beats

Top Rated Comments

az431 Avatar
az431
72 months ago

Apple getting rid of something that just works...
What a surprise!!!
I must have missed the part of the article where it states that wireless updates usually don't work.


Just like getting rid of iTunes 12.6.5.3.
So, we have to download the same thing over and over if we have multiple products.
This is the way Apple considers "for the environment".
A firmware update doesn't affect the environment any more than your post.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
cmaier
72 months ago

Great. So now you plug them in and wait for them to update when they feel like it like the AirPods? STUPID
No. They update when paired and not in use. Just like AirPods.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
cmaier
72 months ago

Apparently you haven’t been one of many here where this just doesn’t work that way. There are entire threads dedicated to it.
Correct. It always just works for all the AirPods and AirPods Pro in this house. But, then, we aren’t obsessed forum members who demand the update immediately and aren’t willing to wait a day until it updates.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jbachandouris Avatar
jbachandouris
72 months ago
Great. So now you plug them in and wait for them to update when they feel like it like the AirPods? STUPID
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
-DMN- Avatar
-DMN-
72 months ago
Apple getting rid of something that just works...
What a surprise!!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
cmaier
72 months ago

Just like getting rid of iTunes 12.6.5.3.
So, we have to download the same thing over and over if we have multiple products.
This is the way Apple considers "for the environment".
Turn on caching on your mac and it will download once and then be served to everything on your network.

And over the air means that there are more zeros than ones in the updates, which means less power usage /s
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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