Clean Your AirPods With This Rough but Effective Method
If you’ve purchased a pair of AirPods, you want them to stay in top condition – and yes, that means they need to be cleaned periodically. One sign that your AirPods need cleaning is that they are quieter. It turns out the pods can be clogged with your natural earwax.
To get rid of the wax, let’s turn to a 2017 Quartz article that mentions a tip from a 2014 post on the Apple Communities Forum. In the post, the user noticed that his left earpiece is quieter than the right one, and asks the question: “Am I deaf in my left ear, or is my earpiece broken at all?” User Frankie 1413 suggested:
Use a clean, soft-bristled toothbrush to solve the problem with sound. Then you can gently clean the larger hole in the Earpod. Then (bear with me) suck on the larger hole until you feel like you are forcing air to come out through it. Then brush again. This should fix your problem. The main reason why this happened is the ears with excessive [sic] wax that melts in the headphones.
I’m trying to put up with you, Frankie. I’m trying to. Luckily, I don’t have clogged AirPods that require suction play. However, Quartz’s Kira Bindrim tried Franky’s approach. Her answer? “The flawless sound has been restored. Bass is bass in a new way. (Have I really dealt with my AirPods? Of course. But I won’t apologize for that.)
Therefore, before replacing AirPods, you can try this seemingly effective (albeit very crude) method. If that doesn’t work, take your AirPods to the Apple store and request a replacement if they still have a one-year warranty.
This story was originally published in 20187 and has been updated with new information on 3/4/2020.