AirPods Pro Ear Tip Fit Test fail (seal is actually good on both sides)

I can confirm the Loctite Fun-Tak solution worked for me. I now have the good seal on Fit Test for first time since week 1 of owning them. I had the same deal as a lot of people on here - the fit test worked for the first few weeks, then failing each time I've tried since then. (I've had them about 3 or 4 months now). I picked up some Loctite Fun-Tak and went to work.

It was a trial and error, as I didn't know how much I had to press and pull, I used the magnifier on iPhone to check my progress. I finally ended up with a 100% clean sensor screen, and the fit test started working. What I found best was covering the sensor with the putty, apply some pressure, and quickly rip it off (like a stuck band-aid). I also did some rapid-fire dabbing as well. A combination of those techniques cleared the crud out. (note: don't press so hard that you get putty stuck in the grooves... I did that at first but was able to get it back out).

For a comparison, like I mentioned above, I used the Magnifier tool on iPhone to view a "before" and "after". Note that you can't see any of this with the naked eye, you really need to magnify it. Here's a before and after. (The "before" looks pretty gross - the grooves are filled with dead skin, oil, wax, whatever it is). The "after" shows them very clean. I shower every day and wash my ears out just like everybody else, but this shows it may be time to start Q-Tipping each day as well, to further my effort in keeping the AirPods clean.

Before: Note the crud stuck in the sensor grooves/dimples, and also around the perimeter:

After: Note the entire sensor is clean:

For those of you doing the "suck out the crud" method, after seeing this you may think twice about that now :D

I purchased a set of AirPods Pro on the day they became available in store. I personally had problems with them. The noise reduction seemed to work sometimes and just stop working and then start working again. Sometimes better in one ear than the other. I found the Ear Tip Fit Test and ran it. Both sides indicated failure. Long story short, I tried every possible combination of tip sizes and was never able to get both to pass the Ear Tip Fit Test. Left would pass and right would fail. I would adjust the right and then the right would pass and the left would fail. Out of frustration I took them into the Apple Store where I purchased them. They had me try the demo pair (which was pre-installed with medium tips on left and right). I paired the store demo AirPods Pro with my iPhone and placed them into my ear. They passed both left and right immediately. I switched to the small tips and tried again. Both sides passed immediately. I switched to the large ear tips and repeated the test. Both sides passed on the first try. I placed the medium demo tips onto my personal AirPods and tried the test 10 times. It failed every single time despite adjusting and pressing them into my ears between tries. At the end of the Genius session - the very nice Apple Store employee took a new pair off the shelf and exchanged them for my bad pair. It was clear that the original pair had some type of issue. If you are having trouble getting your AirPods Pros to pass the Ear Tip Fit Test, I would take them back and exchange them. They are probably defective. I am so happy that Apple fixed the problem as soon as I took it to them.

Your mileage may vary.

There is a fast growing forum thread over at MacRumors that is reaching the conclusion that this is a hardware/design issue. Dirt, sweat or some other substance gets thorough the mic grills and affects the fit test. Cleaning the mic grills doesn't seem to help, as the substances may have already passed through them.

Folks have been shipped new AirPods Pro by Apple and the test result is initially a "pass", even with ear tips from an original pair of AirPods Pro. AirPods Pro that are several days old fail the test with the original ear tips or new ear tips. So, the ear tips don't seem to be the issue.

"Fail" results always happens after several days or use of the new AirPods Pro (time for foreign substances to get through the grills and to the mics, etc.).

Unfortunately, this seems to be a product design/hardware issue.

Sucking on the mesh of the inward-facing microphone and equalizing my ears did not work for me. What eventually did, as I just tried moment ago, is to use a piece of Loctite Fun-Tak (more generally known as Blu-Tack) on the inward-facing microphone mesh. I rolled up a ball of Fun-Tak, pressed onto the mesh and then removed the Fun-Tak. I repeated this several times. Now both ear buds are passing the Ear Tip Fit Test - they had failed the past couple of weeks. The sound coming out of the AirPods Pro is significantly better. Perhaps AirPods Pro failing the test is also an indication that it's time to clean your ears :D

I purchased custom skinned AirPod Pros from a 3rd party and started to experience the same issue with my right ear. I sent them back for troubleshooting and they found under a microscope that the mesh area on the body of the earpiece was clogged with oils and earwax. You couldn’t see it by the naked eye. Once that was thoroughly cleaned with a brush and wiped down, perfect seal test again. Apparently the mesh area contributes to measuring the seal. My retailer sent me a cleaning kit to help keep them clean going forward.

This may sound weird, but I discovered that due to weather changes or what ever my sinuses and/or eustachian tunes have been slightly blocked. I did the breathing exercise where you hold nose and force air to unclog ears. I thought just maybe this was affecting the ear tip test results due to a balanced pressure in ears. And it worked! Tried a few times to test this, and it kept giving me GOOD SEAL in both ears

I think is worth trying to see if others get same results. It’s not the Pros are defective, it’s our ears and all it’s parts responding to weather and pressure changes I believe. I would love to hear if anyone else gets the same results.

Have you tried this?

"Sucking on the mesh of the inward-facing microphone and equalizing my ears did not work for me. What eventually did, as I just tried moment ago, is to use a piece of Loctite Fun-Tak (more generally known as Blu-Tack) on the inward-facing microphone mesh. I rolled up a ball of Fun-Tak, pressed onto the mesh and then removed the Fun-Tak. I repeated this several times. Now both ear buds are passing the Ear Tip Fit Test - they had failed the past couple of weeks. The sound coming out of the AirPods Pro is significantly better."

Bought some Loctite Fun-Tak on Amazon for $4. Your suggestion really worked. I just found that you have to push it into the mesh firmly and do it several times as my first attempts did not get the job done. I just use it to clean all the meshes and the microphone hole. Not sure which one fixed it, but it now works perfectly. And I had tried all of the tips several times before, adjusted, cleaned, etc., but nothing worked. But the Fun-Tak did the trick, so great suggestion, and many thanks. It definitely improved the sound and noise cancellation.

As a few of us have reported here, the issue is primarily due to ear wax clogging the inner-ear facing microphone mesh. You can fix it on your own by using something like Blu-Tack. I used Loctite’s Fun-Tak with great success.

@Matblaxck: AirPods Pro uses both inward- and outward-facing microphones to adjust its noise-cancelation (200 times per second). If the mesh covering the microphone is clogged, it is less effective. I can actually tell the difference in sound quality even when the active noise-cancellation is disabled when the earbud is failing the ear tip fit test.

The inward-facing microphone mesh on your AirPods Pro is most likely clogged with ear wax. I have great success using a product similar to Blu-Tack (or Loctite Fun-Tak) to clean the clogged microphone mesh. Just roll a ball of Fun-Tak, press it firmly against the inward-facing microphone mesh, remove the ball of Fun-Tak , and repeat this process a few more times. That should take care of it.

I'm somewhat happy to report that I'm another Blu Tack success story. I tried everything else everyone has mentioned and NOTHING work. I wish the APPs had been better designed to avoid this issue altogether but I can also confirm the Blu Tack solution does work. I discovered you have to really push the tack down on the mesh to get it to work but I'm now getting a good seal confirmation from the fit test now. Note: despite the failed fit test message, my APPs never sounded bad or failed to get the noise cancellation seal it needed to perform. I wish I didn't have to clean the APPs as thorough to get a passed fit test but the Pods have always sounded great. And that's coming from a musician who uses $1000 custom molded In-Ear Monitors regularly. I'm going to add the Blu Tack to my normal cleaning routine and I hope the issues doesn't resurface.

Hi - I had the same issue. The right earphone always failed the seal test. I tried the methods listed here (and the company I bought them from also asked me to try them) but none worked. Ultimately I got them exchanged and the new pair passed the seal test immediately. As others have said, I think it’s a hardware issue.

That's just the thing, all of the ones in this thread worked when they were brand new. Only stopped working after having them for awhile. There's no hardware issue when they work brand new. To me it's faulty test software. I don't sweat it though, as the sound is great despite the fit test failures. I can clean the mesh on mine and the fit test starts working again. I've just learned to get that mental block out of my head, and clean them once in awhile.

This is ridiculous but this actually worked.

Good seal for both on day one. Left started to fail on week two. Tried replacing tips and adjusting ad nauseam, to no avail. Today both failed. Checked this thread, checked that MacRumors link, sucked out both pods multiple times, and now I get a good seal on both again. Bass seems to have improved too. For a few minutes there’d be occasional clicking though—I’m guessing that’s just the vents adjusting after the thorough sucking.

Ridiculous. I’m happy though

Have your AirPod Pro ever passed the ear tip fit test? If they used to but not anymore, try using something like Blu-Tack (I used Loctite Fun-Tak) on the inward facing microphone mesh. I described that in a few comments above. I agree there's definitely a design issue with the AirPod Pro. A user shouldn't have to resort to cleaning the microphone mesh with a ball of sticky Blu-Tack or sucking on them.