Allergic to AirPod Pro eartips

And to accompany the Apple support reminder, below is a rundown of symptoms/remedies reported in this group with the AirPods Pro over the past 10 months.

Common Symptoms

• Itching (Very common)
• Pain (Very common)
• Crusting around outside of ear (Very common)
• Fluid drainage (Very common)
• Ear pressure
• Headaches
• Ringing of the ears (later stages for some)
• Partial hearing loss/distortion (later stages for some)

Remedies

• Stop wearing them (best solution)
• Prescription medicine from doctor in some cases
• Time (weeks to months to fully recover)
• Very mixed, often temporary success with coverings or new tips (stop wearing them is best method)

Advocating

• Contact Apple Support directly and report this allergy shared by many of their APP users. Tell the support agent, "I want to raise a Safety Escalation." And relate your story and the stories here.

I'm glad to find this thread. I had no idea what was causing my outer ear infections. After TWO courses of antibiotics and 3 appointments of drainage suction to remove all fluid from my ears at an ENT, my ear infection finally cleared and I got the OK to wear earbuds again just the other day.

I disinfected both ear tips with Isopropyl alcohol for 24 hours and wiped down the body and case of the AirPod pros with alcohol pads in order to kill any possible bacteria on them. Well guess what happened anyway after wearing them? crusting, drainage, flakiness, redness and swelling in both ears. The works.

I cannot believe this is happening. It took months to get my ears clear, and then ONE day of wearing Apple AirPods Pro in order to completely mess up my ears again. Like most people on here, I have never had this with any other earbuds so I didn't even suspect the Apple AirPods Pro. Now I know they are the cause. I wonder if the silicone tips contain rubber? - or some kind of protein derivative of rubber latex, which causes rubber allergy. Who knows?

I ordered the CharJen Pro foam tips and whenever my ears are clear again, I hope these work. If it does not fix the issue, I am starting the dispute with Apple and demanding my money back despite the fact that it has been months since purchase. I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, it does.

I sincerely hope that someone figures out what the "silicone" material of the ear tips is actually made of and makes that information public. That is the only thing that is going to get the full attention that this matter deserves. This thread is huge and full of people suffering. That means there are hundreds or thousands of other people out there who have mystery ear infections and have no idea that their Apple AirPods Pro are the cause! I was one of them just the other day.

Dude just stop using them. They could be causing you permanent damage.

You should be making those demands now, you’ve had to visit medical professionals over this and had what sounds like extensive treatment.

In the end I returned mine to Amazon (who were great and return was swift and easy) after Apple messed me around for weeks. Shockingly disappointed with Apple in this process. I intend to make a formal complaint to them (which needs to be posted, also ridiculous), but a lot of things on my to do list at the moment so hopefully next week.

I don’t believe it is the silicone tips, at least not exclusively. I say this because other areas of my ear also have a reaction. For example my ear lobes (particularly left ear lobe) is still suffering from dryness now, months after I stopped using them.

Just to give you guys feedback:

• Switched official tips for foam tips
• Used a silicon cover for the body
• Also covered the outer tip with plastic
• Waited more than 2 months to try again.
• While healing, used BOSE QC in ear without problems
• Then tried again for 4 hours.

The result was: Ear skin came from completely healed to itchy, reddish and draining within the same night.

My ears have only just fully healed and as much as I love them I’m reluctant to try them on again.

Considering people had the same result with different tips, I wonder if there could be anything within the actual unit which can somehow affect the ear in such a way.

What a disappointment...

Wow, that sucks! For the first few months I had my AirPods Pro (a gift given to me) I was only putting 1 in at a time during short conversations and didn’t make the association between the AirPods and mild itching. It wasn’t until I had one in for a 1 hour+ conversation that I had an extreme reaction with all night drainage and significant itching in my ear. Even then I thought it was probably just a seasonal allergy reaction. It healed in a week. I switched to using the left AirPod and ended up with a reaction in that ear too. That’s when I started to figure it out. After both ears healed I bought a silicone cover, as suggested to me, and tried the right only again with the same severe reaction. This time it started draining while I was wearing it and the day after I also started getting mild drainage and bleeding from my right nostril which seemed to be part of the reaction. All is now healed again. I take Zyrtec. I don’t know if that helped it heal faster or not.

I had the same problem that continues for over a month, i don’t want to go to the doctor because of covid19 so I bought ear oil from amazon to relieved the itchiness and drainage and it helps a lot and I changed the silicone tip with a memory foam that I bought from amazon too and the itchiness and drainage from my ear stops. Thinking I almost gave away my EarPods but it’s too expensive so I just tried to made some changes and it works. and the allergy stops.

And like clockwork, we receive the apple support reminder from the moderators. To accompany it, below is a rundown of symptoms/remedies reported in this group with the AirPods Pro over the past 11 months.

Common Symptoms

• Itching (Very common)
• Pain (Very common)
• Crusting around outside of ear (Very common)
• Fluid drainage (Very common)
• Ear pressure
• Headaches
• Ringing of the ears (later stages for some)
• Partial hearing loss/distortion (later stages for some)

Remedies

• Stop wearing them (best and recommended solution)
• Prescription medicine from doctor in some cases (take this issue seriously, it's your hearing)
• Time (weeks to months to fully recover)
• Very few have had any sustained success with coverings or new tips (stop wearing them is recommended)

Advocating

• Contact Apple Support directly and report this allergy shared by many of their APP users. Tell the support agent, "I want to raise a Safety Escalation." And relate your story and the stories here.

I have had the same experience with silicone, having used silicone tips on multiple occasions with other earbud products and having no reaction. Do we know the exact chemical composition of anything in the APP product? Even then, without someone doing clinical testing, we will continue to speculate about the cause for our symptoms.

thanks for your input foxtail_77!

I browsed multiple Forums and Websites to aggregate information and build a bigger picture. noticed the problem started to occur around November - December 2019 with the usual "am I allergic to Airpods Pro? :(" headline. fits your purchase date.

since then it seems to ramp up slowly but steady.

I hadn’t mentioned this before but I strongly suggest anyone having a reaction in their ears thoroughly wash your hands (fingertips) after touching the silicone tips to remove them or for whatever reason. I accidentally touched one of my eyes and the reaction lasted 24 hours not a pleasant experience. Rinsing, allergy eye drops and Zyrtec did nothing to stop the itching.

I'm glad to let you know that after 6 or so months claiming, eventually I got my refund last week.

Should be an easier process but, for the record, Apple did what asked and got the APP back.

Bottom line: resilience is what you need in all this process. Don't give up.

I had a very worrying problem with an allergic reaction to AirPods Pro ear tips. They were purchased direct from the online Apple Store in May 2020. I reported the allergic reaction problem to Apple in October 2020. My problem report was handled as a health and safety issue. I answered a lot of questions from the Apple support engineering team. I submitted photos of the inflamed skin encrusted with fluid that had seeped from my ear canal openings. They were not pretty images! I had to send the AirPods Pro to the engineers for examination. I requested a full refund which Apple agreed to. I’m now waiting for Apple to offer wireless noise cancelling over ear headphones as an alternative to in ear headphones. It’s a pity because the AirPod Pros fitted well, were comfy (until the allergic reaction started) and most importantly sounded superb.

I can’t believe I found so many people that are going through the same thing as me — Itchy Ears! It is so bad that I thought I was losing my mind. I scratch and scratch and then rub repeatedly and there is never any relief. I tried rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, peroxide, ear wax removal, and ear ache drops. No relief! I finally noticed that the itching is extremely bad when I use my new AirPod Pros. The itching is intense. I really like the AirPod Pros. The sound is amazing. I don’t want to stop using them, but they are so itchy! I feel like I have wasted a lot of money. I hope I can find some other brand of ear tips that will fit and not cause this awful itchy reaction.