AirPods causing tinnitus?

I have suffered from tinnitus for over 30 years. I recently had a barotrauma injury to my left ear on a recent flight causing increased tinnitus. After having the fluid clear and the tinnitus level return to original normal, I visited the ENT who checked out everything. My ears were fine, albeit with tinnitus that returned to the prior level.

I purchased the AirPods Pro and was amazed by them right out of the box. They indeed provide immediate noise-cancellation. I have an air purifier running in my living room, and while I wouldn't describe it as noisy, the AirPods Pro immediately eliminated the noise from the air purifier I thought the electric had been cut, but the TV was still on and I could hear it clearly. I took the right pod of out of my ear and both turned off and I could instantly hear the air purifier as I normally would. I found this amazing.

After listening to podcasts for about 2-3 hours -- no loud noises, no music -- I took the pods out of my ears to watch TV instead and I noticed that my tinnitus is louder than ever. This is very disappointing. Since tinnitus is a noise recreated in the brain due to the lack of a signal from some part of the ear that the brain expects to receive, I have no idea how noise-cancellation technology could be making this condition worse but that is in fact what is happening. I can listen to podcasts for 2-3 hours on a plane ride using a cheap pair of wired Sony earbuds or even the older wired Apple earbuds and I never experience an increase in tinnitus.

I cannot use these AirPods Pro, and I will return them. As a sufferer of tinnitus, the last thing you want is for it to get louder. Had I even know this could possibly be an issue I wouldn't have bothered to order them.

I ended up using the Apple Support app and starting a chat with a rep. They arranged for me a callback from another rep at a higher level, which was done right away; and that second rep set me up with a Genius Bar appointment, which was earlier this afternoon.

They tested my AirPods Pro and said that they were both defective. I asked for the nitty-gritty technical details, and he said that they put them in a sound-isolating box with a sort of receiver inside, play a controlled ambient noise signal into the box, and measure the output response of the earphones. Both of mine failed the test, so he gave me two new replacements.

I have the case number and documentation by email, and can reopen the case if I notice any more problems.

I’m going to stop using them for a few days and see if the ringing subsides, then maybe give them another chance.

It is such a relief to find that there are others who have experienced the same problem. Until I found this site I thought I was alone with tinnitus. I had occasionally used Airpods when sitting in a cafe, mainly for listening to podcasts and other talk programmes. Earlier this year, I decided to listen to them in bed before going to sleep. This was mainly so as not to disturb neighbours, which was ironical actually because, soon after that,one of them turned out to be very noisy herself. However, on two occasions I fell asleep with the Airpods still in. And in a day or two I started to experience a horrible ringing sound in one ear and realised I had tinnitus. It was as if someone was standing beside me with one of those musical triangles one sees in an orchestra. This went on for weeks and I found it very distressing. I then had an examination with an audiologist and later a surgeon, but neither could find anything wrong with me, although I had started to get some hearing loss years ago. I did wonder if the cause was the wearing of the Airpods and stopped using them for a while. Eventually the tinnitus almost disappeared, although occasionally I did get a slight tingling noise in either ear. This week I thought I would try the earpods again and only listened to a couple of podcasts. Sure enough the tinnitus returned. It is not very strong during the daytime, when I am out and about, but at night, when I am still and quiet, it comes back again. I am hoping the tinnitus will go away completely eventually, and I shall definitely never use the Airpods again. Never!

it would appear, that on a structural level, an ear is not damaged by the use of headphones, noise cancelling or otherwise, unless used at abnormally high volumes (e.g., > 80db for extended periods)

that being, said, there is little doubt that tinnitus can be caused by (especially noise cancelling) headphones, if you go see your ENT or audiologist, there is not likely to be anything (structurally) found that explains your symptoms, and you probably will pass a hearing test with "flying colors," assuming you had no prior / pre-existing issues

think of it like this, the ear and its many fine parts are the receiver, but the brain circuitry is the amplifier, so if you "shut down" or limit the receivers capability, then your brain will try to amplify any little signal it gets, and this will get worse with time, hence causing tinnitus...

this is why tinnitus (most of the time) is associated with hearing loss, the hearing loss (structural damage) comes first, and then your brain tries to amplify what signals it still gets from the damaged receiver (your ear), even if the receiver is completely removed and the person becomes deaf, there still may be sounds / tinnitus perceived in your brain, just like a person who has a leg amputated, may wake up and experience pain in the missing limb, a.k.a., phantom pain...

a noise cancelling headphone, is artificially creating "hearing loss," and your brain (amplifier) will not know the difference between this and real structural damage... the loss of signal is the same...

most of the time, this will go away, when the headphone is not used, but it may take a long time, and if the headphone is used extensively, it is, at least theoretically possible, your amplifier (brain) will be "rewired" for good and the tinnitus will never completely go away...

in short, if you are experiencing tinnitus following noise cancelling headphone use, 1) go see an ENT and audiologist to verify there are no structural issues with your receiver, i.e., your ear and its circuitry, 2) if number one does not find a cause and there is no hearing loss, then it is STRONGLY advisable you STOP using your noise cancelling headphone for good, as, and at this time, there is ZERO data nor any good scientific evidence, for how long tinnitus will last and / or whether (in some cases) it can progress to permanent rewiring of brain circuitry, i.e., you will essentially induce a phantom hearing that will not go away...

if you already are one of the people (nobody knows how many are affected) whom is suffering from long term tinnitus and has no structural damage to the ear, then, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, likely is your best option, also you can try other things such as "white noise" distraction, mindfulness and meditation, there is no pill, vitamin or other supplement that will help

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.

They are the AirPods Pro 2, the latest ones it seems.

I talked with Apple support and they helped me out!

They found out that it was one of the defective parts apparently when they got produced in 2020 I think?

👁️ got my replacement AirPods and have yet to test them over time.

When I have active noise cancellation on, taking off one pod, I notice there’s a sound wave distortion feeling as the ANC turns off in that ear. This is something that didn’t happen with my older defective ones. Might be a good thing?

Yes, tinnitus wasn’t an issue before. I always use hearing protection in loud environments.

I'm thinking there was a chip or software issue within the pods that caused this.

I have Headphone accommodations turned off. Personalized Spatial Audio on. The larger ear pieces (which are more comfortable than the medium or smalls I recently found out) for better ANC power.

Under accessibilities, definitely turned down the tones of the pods, not sure why they’re so loud to begin with.

If I get a reminder in a few weeks I’ll gladly give feedback how the replacements do with this issue here. 😊

This happened to my Airpod Pros. They would emit a high pitched sound when put them in the ear before music is played. I ended up getting them warranty repaired because they were defective. I believe it had to do with something being wrong with the exterior mic and when the sound cancelling turns on it would do that. If yours does, warranty it, then you can sell them as refurbished if you want to get something else.

@Ben-13

My AirPod Pros were screeching, and the ANC sounded like everyone/thing around me was under water. I had mine replaced twice through this:

AirPods Pro Service Program for Sound Issues - Apple Support

[Edited by Moderator]

I just found this thread. I opened my own thread here: AirPods Pro & Tinnitus - Reversable? - Apple Community

In it I laid out a timeline of events.

Tuesday: Got AirPod Pro 2s as a gift (was very excited to use them as I had been running a lot)

Friday: Noticed a ringing in my ears, but not that bad (like a 1-2)

Monday: Ringing was worse and not going away; called the audiologist (like a 3-4)

Friday: Audiologist found that I lost some upper ranges, but I'm in my upper 40s and not abnormal, everything else looked great.

Monday: Got off the phone with a friend after a 45 minute conversation. Took the AirPods out and the ringing shot up to a 7 . And that's when it hit me that it was AirPods causing it.

Tuesday: stopped using the AirPods completely and started to take Lipo Flavonoid

Wednesday (today). Back to 3-4. Hoping the trend continues and will be back to a 1 or lower by the end of the week (or two).

All in all, in a two week span these have really affected me for the worse. I know this thread is probably the 0.1% but Apple sells a lot of AirPods, so I'm sure there is a lot more that are affected.

Also, there is a Class Action Suite started. Look up Schmidt Law and you can sign up.

At last the tinnitus has eased off and I am hoping it will not come back. Last night was the first one that I managed to get to sleep, without the loud tinkling sound going on in my ears, preventing this. As was the case the previous time I stopped wearing the AirPods, in early summer, there is just the odd "ping" sound. It was only when I started wearing them, a couple of weeks ago, just to listen to talk podcasts (no music), that it had returned. I had never had any form of tinnitus before I started using them. I shall certainly not be wearing any form of ear pods ever again. Am not even sure I shall go back to wearing headphones either.

melodye128 wrote:

There are several people who can direct you how to heal this issue.

Yes, they're called "otolaryngologists" or "ENTs". If you have insurance, your insurance provider probably has a website that will allow you to search for one in your area covered by your policy. Or, you may need a referral from your primary care physician.

I have reduced the ringing by taking the following steps after using AirPods a few times so I’d like to help. I’m four months away from having used them. Once the ringing started and wouldn’t go away I stopped using them entirely. I used masking sounds overnight and a retraining video - basically sounds near to the pitch of the ringing that would distract my brain and make it harder for the sound to be reinforced. I knew it helped because after the video the ringing went away briefly, so it was a lifeline for a time. I am not able to use headphones or earbuds without exacerbating the ringing, so I’ve switched to just using computer mic and speakers. I also use a small wearable external speaker at home when I’m listening to stuff around the house. It clips on to clothing so it’s not near enough to my ear to spike the ringing. I wish I could use earbuds again but this is better than making the ringing worse. I did go to an audiologist who said the ringing could take months to diminish, which has been true. It is still there but I only notice it at very quiet times.

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.

About 1 year ago, I'd started to experience a low frequency hum in my ears noticeable at night when going to sleep. I thought it must be a motor or perhaps some nearby neighbours pool filter running at a certain frequency.

Then a few months ago, the noise started to follow me around during the day and was a permanent condition.

I tried to pinpoint what may have been the beginning of the condition and thought it may be the iPod pros. I knew that since buying them, they were being used up to 4 hours a day for both phone calls and podcasts.

The hope was that in stopping using them, maybe the hum would go away. I still can't believe it but after only a week of stopping to use them, the hum has completely gone away. Its been about a month now.

Im sure this is rare and does not effect most 99.99% of users. I would never put those iPods pros in my ear again in the case that they trigger that hum again and that it becomes an irreversible condition for me.

I know for a fact now that my tinnitus is caused by the AirPods, tested it out.

Didn't wear them for a week at one point, ringing lowered, then one night with a loud A/C unit turning on since it heated up a bit, I placed them on for the night with their ANC to cover that noise.

The next morning woke up with the ringing back at its worst once again.

Stopped using it for another few days after I realized that they seem to affect me, the ringing went down again. I’m waiting for the ringing to go away for a while, and as others have mentioned, the right ear rings more than the left.

I have hypersensitivity on my ears, I’m surprised I didn’t catch this initially. I work with music and lately I haven’t been able to hear pitches like I used to causing me to get discouraged on my work.

I think I’ll be reaching out to Apple about this soon. Thank you for starting this thread.