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

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.

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.

Good luck! I have tried all other methods mentioned in the thread and from other sites, and so far, using a product similar to Loctite Fun-Tak has been the only solution for me:

• Exchanged the right earbud at the Apple Store. It worked for a couple of weeks and then failed the Ear Tip Fit Test.
• Sucking on the microphone mesh. Did not work.
• Equalizing my ears by pinching my nose and forcing air out of my ears, as suggested by one commenter here. Did not work.
• Wiping the microphone mesh with soft cloth. Did not work.

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

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

New ones delivered on 19/11 and have been faultless so far. Ear Tip Test passing on both sides with medium or large tips fitted. Been doing the test every day, just to keep tabs.

There was a fault with my original pair and the left never did sound right.

But problem sorted for me. Will reply again if they go wrong....

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.

I have noticed that the Ear Tip Fit Test is OK if you strongly push the EarPods inside the ear, during it, until completion.

So, the air pression seems to be relevant.

Anyone else ?

I experienced the exact same thing. The ear tip test passed for me using the medium tips for a couple of days. Then the left started to fail the test and now both fail consistently (as do the small and large tips). I have no idea if it is degradation of the tips or something in the software/firmware of iPhone and AirPods Pro. The testing is very erratic even doing it multiple times in a row. These sound great and the failed test bothers me because it makes me think I can get better sound and noise cancellation but in reality there is nothing wrong. So providing a unreliable/erratic test suggests a problem with the hardware when there probably isn’t one at all!

Apple came back to me on this but didn’t say much. Standard reply of “have you reset them, tried different tips” etc. So not overly helpful with this response as of course had done so.

I also updated to the most recent firmware that was released a couple of days ago, hoping maybe that might fix. Nope.

However, they offered to exchange them within the 14 day period with new (even though slightly out of the 14 day period) so cannot fault Apple customer service.

Waiting for replacements to arrive in next week or so. Hopefully these will be better behaved.

I will return them back. They only gave us 3 sets. Usually everyone else provides 6 sets. I tried for hours and non of the tips worked. Apple say that it will not provide NC if the seal is no good.

That means we are not getting a full NC when the seal is not complete. I was not able to get a good fit after I tried every tip.

I am sure they are working now on Airpods Pro2 so I am glad I returned it.

Same issue. both ears originally worked with small. Right ear failed one time in first 14 days from Release Day. But on the third week right ear with small tip fails the test. Left ear is good. Right ear with small size fails, with medium results are random, with large results are random too, meaning I don't move the AirPods ran multiple times and results varies.

I went to Genius Bar in SF Union Square, the agent asked me use my AirPods to try large and medium on right ear, and let me try both ear medium (left ear consistently shows green with small one). She did some research in their system, and tell me they will return old and give me a new pair with new warranty date.

I would say in this scenarios just choose a high-ratings Apple Store and ask them check. I feel really bad on some Apple Stores, so do select one feel comfortable.

And, all firmware versions from initial 2B576 to 2B588, I can pass the test with small tips and new AirPods Pro. I think we can basically rule out software update bugs.

It is basically a hardware thing unfortunately. Not my ear either

Yep. Been testing at least once a day. Still good :-)

However I’m taking extra care with them and even drying hands if sweating from gym sesh before touching them.

If it is just sweat getting in from touching the buds in the area of the exterior grille, that’s killing them so easily, this is bad news.

OMG. Hope Apple can tackle this issue and fix the design. If that theory is true, it maybe the next Butterfly Keyboards because I haven't used AirPods Pro for heavy duty tasks...

I decide to postpone my AppleCare+ purchase (I use it for battery service in case) for the new pair for 1 month and see how it goes.