AirPods causing tinnitus?

I have a horrible feeling this is happening to me as well. I’m getting tinnitus where I didn’t have it before, and the only thing that has changed is use of the AirPod Pros. The more I’m using them, the worse it is seeming to get. It didn’t occur to me before as I’m not using them on loud volumes, and mainly on transparency mode.

the worrying thing is that it is not going away. I think I will have to stop using them.

I have zero proof of course. Just correlation. It’s the only thing that’s changed,

I'm posting after I first posted here 3 or 4 months ago. I have been to various doctors and I will tell you about my experience. I am NOT a doctor, but I can speak to what I have experienced. Did AirPods cause tinnitus? I don't know. And it is practically impossible to prove either way. I did several rounds of audio testing and it was discovered I had no hearing loss associated with the tinnitus. It was so bad for 2-3 weeks - it was unbelievable. This was in late January and mid-february. Since then it has gone the way my doctor said it likely would. It has slowly, very slowly, decreased. Now I am affected by it less each week than I notice it. I don't know if this will happen for everyone, but it happened for me. I was told that the majority of tinnitus cases will see a decrease severity across the first 6 months or so. I still notice it at times (I seem to be affected by salt, but I can't completely confirm that). When it does get worse, it usually goes away within six hours or less. When I was first affected by it I also suffered dizziness and exhaustion. It's possible I had a virus, there were signs of a sinus infection (Had an MRI) and you probably found out reading about tinnitus, there is no easy diagnosis or cure. I stopped most of my salt intake, next to no foods with added sugars. So I don't know what worked or if anything did. But it did get better. It is getting better, but very slowly.

Congratulations. It seems your tinnitus isn't related to any damage inside the cochlea.

Mine almost certainly is. It has been going on for a year now, not much of a decrease except for somewhat varying perception of the sound and its annoyance throughout the day, depending on the surroundings and how focused I am at a task that I'm doing. Also could confirm some hearing-loss at around 4-8000 Hz.

Also have some ear pain now and then and feeling of ”ear fullness”.

Important to note that I didn't user AirPods when my (latest) tinnitus got triggered. I was using an iPhone 12 Pro Max in speaker mode and hand a ”Sleeping Music” album from the service Tidal set to play in a loop all night during sleep. This had worked fine for months (to mask my other, rather mild tinnitus sounds), but it seems this week of my latest onset I fatigued my ear over the edge and a new much more intrusive, high pitch tinnitus sound was triggered. :(

Be careful and take listening breaks! Especially when using in ear headphones. If listening to music at night, be really careful with the volume and set a time so that the music stops after an hour or so when you have fallen asleep.

75-80% of the time I no longer notice it. I'd guess about 10% of the time it is loud enough to distract me. But the first 2 or 3 weeks it was INSANELY loud. Horrible. I've been warned it's a 6-8 month process.

I am positive I got tinnitus from Airpods Pro.

It started randomly one night after a call.

Has been using them for ~2 years, always on low volume as I am very protective of my hearing (the irony).

I will try not using them at all for a couple weeks.

I got a hearing test done at the hospital - physically, my ears are fine. So they do not appear to have been damaged. They don’t know why the tinnitus has started. It could be stress etc. However, it did start after I started using the AirPod Pros. I can’t prove anything. It’s just a rather big coincidence.

There's a lot of people with fine audiograms that still have tinnitus. But the thing is an audiogram doesn't tell the whole story of the inner ear's health – for one it doesn't usual test hearing above 8 KHz. The other is the concept of synaptopathy that can happen with the nerve cells connected to the hair cells. The result of that is to my understanding shown as "hidden hearing-loss" which is something that makes it more difficult to follow conversations in a noisy environment:

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/hidden-hearing-loss-revealed

It might be that you have some of that, but it also might be that you are just fine in your ears and still have tinnitus. Difficult to know as we don't have a full understanding of howand why tinnitus is perceived. There are some theories and maybe the cause are different for different people.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-models-—-learn-how-tinnitus-originates.47546/

Whatever the case, I hope you are okay with it! :)

I am not. :( At least not yet.

I started using Airpods Pro on December 2020. Just after began using it, i had a weird pressure on my ears. I had been loyal to apple for 20 years, trusted the product and kept using it. (on low volume with ANC) and After a few weeks, i realized the tinnitus is constant and stopped using them. But, it was too late. I have tinnitus and hearing loss since then. I wrote an e-mail to Apple last year but no response. Unfortunately I might loose my job since it requires a good hearing capability.

Just adding yet another voice to this issue. I have always been very careful with my ears and protective of my hearing. I purchased my AirPods Pro in January 2022, and I most frequently use my AirPods Pro in noise cancellation mode, and listen to podcasts or music and very minimal volume (typically as calm background music while working). About a couple months ago, I started noticing increasingly persistent tinnitus in both ears. The ringing occurs at two distinct frequencies, which I can only describe in words as one being a very high pitch, and one being a very very high pitch. The only thing that has changed significantly in my life leading up to this that is related to my hearing and/or listening habits is my switching from using my wired Apple EarPods to using my new AirPods Pro.

As many have said, this may only be correlation and not causation, but I find the amount of people sharing similar stories here to be concerning.

I've tried to do a little digging of my own unsuccessfully, but if anyone has found any link(s) to any kind of detailed, unbiased, thorough study of the Apple AirPods Pro and whether they have been found to emit any high frequency sound in and of themselves, and/or anything to do with possible damage caused by their method of connectivity (e.g. anything related to Bluetooth, the head tracking functionality, etc.) please share.

You are kidding, i bought Air pods 6 months ago, never had tinnitus now i have extreme tinnitus in both ears and i use them for business calls only no loud music...... Jeezez.... This was the Airpods!!!!! its only happen since i bought them..... I was starting to wonder as that's the only variable in my life and i type this in the internet and its happening to people.... No way.... Apple you have some serious issues to answer for and compensate..... My life is different due to your products!!!!

I've got my Airpods Pro in Christmas (Dec 25, 2021). Then, in January I had 4 episodes of Vertigo, and I've started developing Tinnitus (right ear) and Pulsatile Tinnitus (both ears).

I thought it was caused by Covid or Vaccination, so... I visited my primary doctor and got a MRI that came clean of tumors and stuff.

Then I visited an ENT doctor who diagnosed hearing loss, but I didn't notice it, except the Tinnitus.

Since then, I've changed Airpods configuration to avoid loud sounds.

I've changed my diet, by avoiding caffeine, sugar, salt, alcohol,

I've suspended all medications, nicotine, mmj.

I'm still using my Airpods for Sound Therapy, workouts, audio books and meditation.

Always using the noise cancellation and head tracking features. I used to love these features, but now I feel scared of them.

It's June 5, 2022 and I feel desperate to hear the silence again, not a high pitch ringing or alternating with the pulsatile tinnitus.

I came today to this forum to realize the amount of people affected by these Airpods. It might not be a coincidence that everything started a week after I've received them.

I'm not here to blame or complain about Apple, perhaps it was my fault. I'm just sharing my story and trying to find similitudes, solutions or at least testimonies from people who has experienced the symptoms and has overcome from this frustrating and debilitating noise, it's disrupting the way I'm seeing life now.

I just want to be in silence.

SO, If someone has stopped completely the use of Airpods Pro, have you found any improvement after a while ?

Thanks,

I have experienced a very slow recovery. Across 6 months or more. Not gone completely. But much less. I stopped using AirPods. I also don’t know if they are part of the problem or it’s a coincidence. But I no longer use them.

Tinnitus is such an odd physical and neurological condition and it’s important to note that most hearing health organisations do recommend noise cancellation to make music listening easier on the ears. But I can’t ignore how I feel now that I have tinnitus.

If I sit with only the noise cancellation on, the quiet humming I sometimes hear does come with a little bit of pain and a slight increase in the humming in my left ear. I’m starting to feel that - regardless of volume - my AirPods Pro do make my tinnitus slightly louder regardless of what I’m doing. Let’s remember though, that noise cancellation and transparency mode do both play a frequency, albeit inaudible or unnoticeable, directly down the ear canal. It’s natural to assume that this will have an impact of sorts. For ear protection in general, over-ear headphones are clearly far better than in-ear earphones and if I’m honest with myself, I’ve not really taken care of my ears over the years. It’s a real shame that apple’s HomePod mini has such high bass, even on ‘reduce bass’ mode - Apple isn’t that concerned with general hearing health as it claims to be with its watch features. I’d say use with extreme caution and favour over-ear cups wherever possible, always taking care with volume.

There’s doubtless nothing Apple can do with this AirPods Pro technology for people with sensitive ears, given how the buds need to fit snugly inside the ear, playing a frequency that combats noise, right down your ear canal at a volume equal to the noise it’s drowning out.

I suffered from tinnitus after airpod pro use for 6 months. It finally subsided. Then months later someone brought a pair of AirPods into my home and left them in my kitchen and as I walked by them the tinnitus started again. I didn’t even put them on and they emitted something that caused my tinnitus to return. :(

Yeah, I think they’ll never admit it or get to the bottom of it because it’s such an odd condition that can affect anyone for any reason. My aunt got lifelong tinnitus after a bad ear infection and she never listened to loud music. Interesting to see so many people sharing this feeling though.