AirPods causing tinnitus?

How is everyone doing that posted on here? I searched this forum almost a year ago. Had exact same experience. Low volume podcasts while I walked and now a year of tinnitus. It’s spiking right now and LOUD. Anyone still experiencing the tinnitus?

At this point, no. I’m hoping it does. It changes pitch now, jumps to higher pitch then drops down again. Saw an ENT yesterday for vertigo and the tinnitus. Related? Not clear. I’m hoping in time it will go away…

that is interesting about the vertigo. I had a bout of positional vertigo....thought it went away for a good month and then it returned so I went to PT and it worked out well. Right around this time is when I started using the Airpods. I know I'm not going to get anything from Apple and I don't want to assume but what a coincidence. I plan on reaching back out to the ENT this week b/c this spike is pretty bad but the whole family is a little under the weather.

Yeah it seems like this all kicked off with some illness or extreme anxiety/stress (death in the family) tested neg for Covid but friends at hospitals say a high percentage of Covid patients end up with similar issues. Perhaps a thickening of the fluid in one part of the ear. But I never ran a fever. I’ve AirPods for years - but I’m not discounting them as playing some part.

I have not had any improvement. I bought a new phone and Air Pods December 13th

and stopped using them at the end of January. Just five weeks to do damage to

my hearing. Going to see an audiologist next week. 

I submitted a support claim to Apple on February 7th and NO RESPONSE AT ALL.

Same, have it since early November , noticed if i use the again, the high pitch tinnitus gets a bit louder for about 3- 4 hours then settles back down to prior level. Good friend mentioned it is the seal that they create as the major defect, lack of airflow and concentrated sound for hours is the culprit supposedly, Sony just introduced a set with airflow

It hasn't been long enough for me to say yet. I got mine in Dec, two months ago; Apple replaced them last weekend and said my first pair were defective in their testing. I wore the new pair on my commute yesterday and today, with noise cancellation Off most of the time and turning it On only when the environment was at its loudest. I'm not commuting till next Tuesday so, starting Thursday, I won't need them for five days in a row. We'll see how I feel by Monday evening.

Got Airpods (3) for Christmas 2021. 54 years old. Walk and talk long distance with them twice a week, otherwise do not use. Have been loving the wireless but now have really loud ringing in my ears. Only new variable is airpod use. Really unhappy. Would never have used them, had I known.

I've worked in professional audio for almost a decade and have a HIGHLY trained ear. My hearing was excellent up until a few days ago, then suddenly... I noticed tinnitus in both ears one night. I was shocked, I've basically been in a quiet environment for the last 2 years thanks to the pandemic, and have no other health issues.

I have been using Airpods Pro for about 4 months, so decided to see if anyone else had perhaps had a similar experience and... Can't believe how many people have had the exact same experience. Correlation does not = causation, but it does mean this should be investigated more deeply. This could be huge. Tinnitus can be temporary, but just as often it can be permanent, i.e. you'll hear that high pitched ringing in your ears for the rest of your life. It's a deadly serious condition, and I am not being hyperbolic in the slightest.

As an audio professional, my ears are my livelihood. Knowing this, I am always-always-ALWAYS extremely careful with them.

FWIW, I've had issues with my right earbud not working in ANC or Transparency mode 90% of the time, so I usually do not use those features. I took them into the Apple Store once for repair, they swapped the right earbud for a new one, which surprisingly had the exact same problem as the first one. Thousands of posts on forums, as well as the Airpods Pro replacement program already setup by Apple, indicate that these faulty modes are common, and that the product is widely defective.

If you have had a similar experience, please share your story.

I'm in the process of putting together all of the relative dates and doctor's visits since late December 2020 when I first started using the Airpod Pro. I only used them on 5-7 walks around the neighborhood and only listened to podcasts at a low volume. I sold them in March 2021.

The tinnitus started in January 2021. I made my doctor aware and have had an MRI, visited an ENT, a neurologist and even had my dentist look into tinnitus issues with the jaw. I now wear a mouth guard to see if that has any affect. It does not. Nothing has worked and in the past 3 weeks my tinnitus has grown worse in my left ear.

With none of these doctors visits and dentists visits working I am feeling that this is permanent and now my goal is to prevent it from getting worse. The current spike is feeling less like a spike and more like the new normal. I am at home 98% of the time with the pandemic and I am not around loud noises.

With all of these eerily similar experiences on this forum you have to figure there are others. At what point can something be done? This feel permanent and has impacted my day to day life. I can't imagine it getting worse. I don't wear headphones ever. I rarely wore them before the pros and only over the ear. Sony came out with an in ear and it has airflow built in.

[Edited by Moderator]

pppearrr wrote:

Gathering anecdotal information on the thread topic. Feeling less alone.

As long as you don't expect that you're providing Apple with information by posting here.

Thought that would be pretty obvious.

I avoid jumping to conclusions.

I too am experiencing this as a result of wearing AirPod Pros for a few weeks before returning them--they were simply physically uncomfortable compared to the original AirPods--too large for my ears. I replaced them with 3rd Generation as the were more similar in shape to the original AirPods which were physically comfortable. After just a few wearings for 45 minutes each on walks, I got the same high pitched ringing people are describing. The answer you give, while thinking you are being responsible is actually not. It's irresponsible. Tinnitus can be caused by these devices as is quite obvious from the variety of people reporting issues. Of course there are other causes to that--but these reports follow people wearing these AirPods. The ringing is constant and certainly worse at night when it is quiet. I continue to have it after immediately returning the 3rd Generation as well and not using anything--for about 2 or 3 weeks now. I never had this issue with the original version. It's quite clear what the cause is, but it's less clear it will ever clear up and go away.

I’m a medical professional, and have been using the airpod pros since launch . I used the basic ones prior to the pros. Since using the pros I have noticed moderate hearing loss, and more and more frequent tinnitus bilaterally. I need the sound reduction but also don’t want permanent hearing loss . I have taken time off of the AirPods and the frequency of occurrences reduces. However when I wear them for calls for 2-3 hours I surely lose low frequency sounds and more tinnitus. I think a retrospective study should be done by all users. This is highly correlated, and until I have read this forum , I thought I was alone .

I reported to Apple last week that I got tinnitus after wearing their Air Pods a very short time. I used the original ones for years quite comfortably. But after 6 weeks of AirPod Pros (which I returned because they were uncomfortably big for my ears even with the small tip) and after just a few days of wearing 3rd Generation, I was pulling them out while on my walks. I heard something odd and the sound, even at the lowest level which I always kept it at, was doing strange things to my inner ear. Once I got into the house, I heard what I'd describe as extremely loud room tone. Subsequently I realized that was what others called ringing in their ears. I immediately returned those as well. It could have been a combination of the two models, but my problem was not noticeable till after I wore 3rd Generation. I never set up Noise Cancellation manually in the Pros, but it's entirely possibly I inadvertently set it up as I often carried the air pods around in my hand before putting them away or putting them on. By the time I got 3rd generation, which doesn't have noise cancellation, the damage was done and soon became noticeable. My ENT confirmed a little hearing loss, though not necessarily anything other than natural progression. But he said most people getting tinnitus from these air pods who he has seen as patients, had Noise Cancellation on. My call with Apple was recorded as "feedback." No one feels responsible for giving people a condition which may last their entire lives, often being quite disruptive. I almost never listened to music--instead, used them indoors on phone calls or outdoors listening to people speaking on news stations. I always made a point to turn commercial blocks off and listened at the lowest level...and still, I got tinnitus from them. That tells me these are not safe and when I read here what others experience from them, I would say there is a substantial portion of the population getting ear damage in some form or other directly from Apple's AirPods.

Purchased Airpod Pro on Feb. 21, 2022. No history of tinnitus. Used sporadically for first few weeks, but used extensively on March 5 (mostly noise-cancelling and some music). The next day, I experienced ringing like a cicada concert in stereo in my head, which has since been non-stop. The pods were purchased at Best Buy - return policy 15 days, but I was out of the country. I'm not as upset about missing the return deadline, but I would like the return of normal hearing and prevent others from experiencing the same. Maybe a causal relationship between Apple's Airpod Pro, but from the many in this forum expressing similar experience, it definitely warrants further investigation. But how to go about this?

Does anyone know of a 3rd party who could test my Airpods?