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AirPods causing tinnitus?

After using my AirPods for a while, I noticed a high pitched ringing in my ears (that doesn't go away). I didn't know what it was, so I looked it up and it turns out to be tinnitus. Now understand, I don't listen to music, or anything for that matter, loud. As a matter of fact, I carry a pair of earplugs in my pocket, just in case I encounter anything loud that would damage my hearing.


Having said all that, now I notice that when I put my AirPods in my ears and have nothing playing, they emit a high pitched tone that I would say exactly replicates the tone of my tinnitus, leaving me to believe that the AirPods actually caused my tinnitus.


[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Nov 24, 2019 10:46 AM

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Posted on Jan 12, 2023 5:35 AM

This happened to me too. I already had some mild tinnitus and using AirPod Pro 2’s seems to have aggravated it to the point where it is very noticeable all of the time more so in the left ear. I’m going to stop using them altogether in the hope the volume of the ringing returns to normal.


it’s very disappointing as the sound quality is excellent and the ANC makes such an improvement, but I’m worried I’m permanently damaging my ears using these.


For info my AirPod 2 (not pro) never gave me this issue and we’re used daily. It’s also not a volume issue as I can keep volume lower than ever with these being in ear and with the ANC.


Has anyone had any breakthroughs with this by getting them replaced?

623 replies

Oct 25, 2022 10:47 AM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

Having experienced the same issue and narrowed it to my AirPods I googled the issue and found this thread. I can’t believe it’s still active after 3 years. I’ve been suffering with tinnitus for months and there’s been no known cause. Therefore the ENT prescribes mindfulness and better stress management.


Adjusting my AirPod usage to zero significantly reduced my tinnitus and on a few days it was even gone. When I started to use them again it was immediately aggravated and I knew then the AirPods were triggering to noise.


I haven’t been able to get it to fully go away yet but I was a 12 hr/day user.

Oct 27, 2022 5:29 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT

JimmyCMPIT — That support article about iOS automatically warning you if you've turned up your earbuds too loud...


Nope, that's not what I'm doing. I've never gotten that warning. I keep the volume on mine as low as reasonably possible while still making out the podcasts I'm listening to or the Teams calls I'm on. That's an average of maybe 60%-ish.


But there's other weird sounds that I've heard when there's nothing playing and ANC turned on. I'm on my third pair of first-gen AP Pros now (all replaced by Apple on their dime), and I think these are worse than the first two — there's a subbass rumbling at times when nothing in my environment is making that type of noise, for example.


So, I try to use them normally, without ANC or Transparency Mode or anything. I think that helps. I may set up yet another Genius Bar appointment to get this third pair tested and see what they say.

Oct 30, 2022 6:41 PM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

I’ve been wearing in ear wired headphones for many years with no problems. A few weeks ago I decided to finally get on board and get the new AirPods Pro 2nd gen. After noticing how good the ANC is, I’ve been using it a ton. Within a week I noticed this very loud high pitched ringing that just doesn’t go away. My wife said the same thing is happening to her. There is zero debut in my mind the problem is coming from the AirPods. Very sad because they work so dang well. :-(


Nov 1, 2022 5:34 PM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

Same here. Have used my pros off and on for a couple years now. Had them in for a 2 hour low-volume soft music session and when I took them off I’ve had the ringing. Left ear is more pronounced than right. Very high pitch ring like an old tube TV. It’s been 5 days and based on the comments I don’t think it’s gonna go away which is really frustrating considering I had no hearing issues before.

Nov 7, 2022 6:12 PM in response to peleh

The only comfort in reading other’s experiences is that my suspicion are true. It is not a coincidence. I have listened to music my whole life. It wasn’t until I started using AirPods Pro 2nd gen (never used any other AirPods), that tinnitus is onset and loud. I’m pretty upset that now I have hearing damage. The sound doesn’t go away, and keeps me awake at night.

Nov 10, 2022 6:17 PM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

It’s 11/10/22 and I’ve had AirPods Pro second generation for about a week. Me and my partner tried them with noise canceling and she immediately took it out because of some noise that messed with her head, while trying to put it in. I noticed it too, but because it’s my first time trying noise canceling I thought that’s how it’s supposed to be. Like a high pitch sound that’s strong. And now I have tinitus !!!! Are u kidding me ? Apple you damaged my hearing and now I have to live with this ? Clearly there’s people talking about it and having same issues, how is this not surfacing and how r u still making these products ? I cannot believe this. I’m returning my AirPods Pro tomorrow this is insane!

Nov 11, 2022 5:41 AM in response to Mac Gilbert

Since posting, I've quit using my AirPod Pro Gen2's cold turkey. Thankfully my annoying ringing sound has died back down. I still have some very slight ringing but it's not so loud that it distracts me like it was before. I may try to keep using them in transparent mode now just to see if the ringing gets loud again now that I know it's a temporary thing. Regardless I'm never using the ANC again.

Nov 12, 2022 2:43 PM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

I recently returned my ear-pod pro’s due to a known fault and had them replaced.

After a short while I noticed a high pitched sound I can only compare to pushing a wheelbarrow with a squeaky wheel each time the wheel goes round I get an intermittent high pitched squeak.

I mostly use just one at bedtime as they are quite bulky to rest on and more often than not drift off to an audiobook or some relaxing music.

The problem occurs when I awake, it’s quite torturous and continues even when the EarPod is removed, this does not happen with the standard wired earbuds and I can only assume it must be something to do with having a battery near my ear or maybe another component… not sure.

Any one else experience this?

Nov 12, 2022 10:23 PM in response to MacbookProRetinaGuy

Hetep 𓊵, as you will see many of us in this description have had the same experience.


Some suggestions when you want to check your audio level in your headphones control center. Two of you’re listening to the audiobook of music or anything you want to have some kind of time and ****, so whatever you’re listening to turns off in 15 or 30 minutes. You certainly das you will see many of us in this description have had the same experience.


Some suggestions when you want to check your audio level in your headphones control center. Two of your listening to the audiobook of music or anything you want to have some kind of time and ****, so whatever you’re listening to turns off in 15 or 30 minutes. You certainly don’t want to plan half the night in your ear.


But isn’t it interesting how Apple doesn’t really tell us these things to look out for. The information is there on your phone but you gotta dig it out and then only usually happens after you have a problem.


Interesting point you make. We never had these problems with wired earbuds. Yours started with this wireless stuff. It must be something in there.


Oh, and I think most of the people on this thread with tend to agree.


The question is what is it and even more importantly, how do we overcome it.


AirPods causing tinnitus?

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