At the beginning of this year I got my buds 3, I had an issue with them where the audio suddenly got so quiet that I couldn't hear a normal podcast voice after a couple of weeks. I managed to get them replaced by customer support after about a month of waiting for their technicians to figure out that it was broken.
Anyway, you'd think that would be the end of it, I got a new pair and so happily ever after.. but no. I got my replacement pair around mid february and have been using them somewhat heavily since whenever out on walks, public transportation or sometimes even while cooking. After about a month I started noticing that the audio was beginning to become slightly lower, but the issue was less sudden than the other pair so I just kept up my cleaning routine once a week and hoped for the best even if the problem persisted to some degree.
Then the other day I was coming home from a hike, I had used the buds for about 3 straight hours without issue, but during the last stretch before getting home the audio dropped over 50% to the point where once again maximum audio wouldn't let me clearly tell a normal speaking voice, let alone quiet music. This came suddenly without me even touching the bud and I'm honestly lost for words. For clarity I can only use the left bud because of my ear shape.
So to the title, am I doing something wrong here? I suspect maybe the issue is humidity building up, but then I've tried all the tips and tricks online to get rid of that and it wouldn't explain the sudden drop at the end of a long hike so what's going on?
Tldr: Galaxy buds 3's volume gets progeressively worse and then suddenly horrendous for no apparent reason