Allergic to AirPod Pro eartips

This has been a maddening experience to say the least. I bought my AirPod Pros back in November 19. Wore them pretty regularly for several months, including through workouts, etc., without any issues. Interestingly, at some point back when we were still allowed to travel, I wore them home on the airplane at realized that I was having trouble popping my left ear. Not sure it was related, but I generally don't have those issues. I chalked it up to maybe having a slight cold, but looking back based upon what's happened since, I can't say I'm so sure that's the case.

Fast forward to late spring, early summer, i noticed that my ears were becoming dry and itchy, with flaking skin. I couldn't understand why my ears were so bothersome, but I did notice that when I wore the airpods, the drainage from my ears was quite extensive. But again, I just chalked this up to the fact that i was wearing them a lot more for conference calls than I had normally done previously. By August, I developed a pretty serious ear infection in my right ear (swimmer's ear) and had to go to the doctor to receive prescription medication drops. A few days after developing the infection in my right ear, I also developed one in my left ear! Both ears were completely infected! It took 10 days of strong antibiotic drops in each ear several times day before they cleared.

Surprisingly, I still hadn't connected them to the Airpods themselves because I've never had issues wearing them before, never had issues wearing similar products before, and haven't noticed any other adverse allergies since then (note i have no known allergies). It was baffling, but assumed that since i was wearing them several hours a day, the drainage buildup and cleaning them might have contributed.

I waited nearly two months before I tried to use the Airpods again. After using them for about a half hour, I noticed that my ears started to become uncomfortable and overnight, by ears started to itch even more and become filled with fluid. Since then, every time I've tried to use them, I have the same result (although to be fair, I haven't tried them all that often since making the connnection....i'm not a sucker for pain).

I've started the process with Apple support, but I'm really baffled as to how we've gotten here. Why could I wear them for months before hand before developing issues? Why haven't I noticed an allergic reaction to anything else that might be also made of the materials used in the AirPods? Why are some people not able to use them even when changing ear tips? It's almost as the biology of our ears has changed somehow by wearing them extensively? It's all very ood.....

I hate to not be able to use them, because I love the Apple ecosytem design, they are compact, the sounds is pretty good for earbuds, and the noise cancellation is really good; but my favorite feature is the ability to turn off the ANC and "listen through" so that you can keep an ear on things around you. Very disappointing to say the least.

After a day I’ve still had no reaction to the new memory foam tip I placed in my left ear. I’m going to try using it attached to the AirPods Pro in my left ear only today. My right ear is still mildly irritated & itchy from putting the silicone tip in it a few days ago so I’ll let that heal completely before experimenting with a memory foam tip in my right ear.

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I purchased my iPod pros and I also am experiencing an allergic reaction to the silicone buds. I experienced itching, ear liquid buildup. I’ve also experience it dries up and leaves scabs. My ears feel sensitive to loud sound and I have inflammation.

My right ear is currently mildly itching & draining because I put one in a few days ago to take pictures for Apple. They’re reviewing now. I only had it in for about a minute to take a few pics. As far as I can tell my left ear feels is fine and I didn’t put the silicone tip in that ear. I think I may be using these different than most people in that I usually want to hear what’s going on around me so I usually only wore one at a time thus only had one ear affected at a time. If it’s not better tomorrow I may try to find out if my doctor can take a look and tell me what’s going on inside. That may not be possible with coronavirus cases way up again, she may be booked way out for in office appointments and I don’t want to go to a clinic for this unless it gets worse. Normally it gets better until I put it back in again.

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

We want to make sure you reach the right team for help with your AirPods. We recommend that you contact Apple Support directly. Depending on your region, you may be able to reach them here: Get Support

I did the same **** thing. Everybody here is keeping their pros looking for solutions and getting ear infections over and over again and complaining they can’t get Apple to refund their purchase. I’m over here just selling my pros and got a 2nd gen AirPods. Easy peasy

apple is lucky I don’t sue. I have long term hearing damage from using the pros

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

We want to make sure you reach the right team for help with your AirPods Pro. We recommend that you contact Apple Support directly. Depending on your region, you may be able to reach them here: Get Support

I bought mine when they came out. Loved them. Hated that I had to stop wearing them. I got double ear infections that the Patient First was shocked had happened from earbuds. It was bad. I tried to give them another shot for one afternoon in October this year. My ears started the itch and ooze right away. Sadly I can't use them. I've never had a problem with in ear buds before.

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

We want to make sure you reach the right team for help with your AirPods Pro. We recommend that you contact Apple Support directly. Depending on your region, you may be able to reach them here: Get Support

This is upsetting, but not unexpected.

The most problematic part of the response is that they say to continue wearing. No one who is having this reaction should continue wearing the APPs unless support specifically indicates that the materials have been changed to specifically address the skin reactions occurring...which is just not going to happen.

The reason I say it’s not unexpected is that the engineering team likely was not briefed on the reason the APPs were sent back, were told “check these for RF anomalies, contaminants in the silicone, etc” and found that everything on the APPs were functional and working to spec. Of course they’re going to say the APPs didn’t “cause” the issue because...it’s our bodies’ fault? I think that’s dumb but honestly their logic.

This is very similar to what happens with watch band issues. They take the idea that their product could malfunction and cause an issue very seriously, hence the sending the APPs back for testing, but it’s really annoying that when a minority of customers has a reaction to the product it’s still considered “not their problem.”

I have been to the doctors today as my ears have gotten so bad after my post yesterday. I have been in contact with Apple and opened a case. I have been told to send pictures of my ear canal ???? Not something I can take . Pictures of the products itself and after her telling me not to put them back in my ears she hen said to take a picture of them in my ears !! No way am I putting them in my ears again.

tonight I am in excruciating pain. My right side is so so inflamed the ear canal is completely swollen and closed over. I can not hear from it and I have a lump under my ear . I’ve been crying with the pain. The doctor has given me steroid spray, told me to take anti inflammatory, anti histamine and Paracetamol.

please if you have had any itching do not carry on putting these in your ears as I’m now in so much pain and deaf in one ear . (Hopefully my hearing will return)

in the meantime regardless of trying to get a refund I actually feel like taking this to the press.

I told them about this feed today and she didn’t seem interested.

even if it’s just a minority of us I feel this matter should be taken more seriously

They definitely put me through the ringer to even consider giving me a refund. Like many others have described, I spent a good 2+ hours on the phone with them answering questions & was asked to submit supplemental photos & medical documentation. I had trouble uploading my photos to the link they sent me so I had to call again & found out that photos taken on an iPhone aren’t compatible with that link. HA! Genius, that would’ve been nice to know ahead of time. And also doesn’t make much sense! Once I was finally able to upload the photos, I didn’t hear back from anyone for several days. So I sent three follow up emails, called customer service again & basically had to start all over because they’d somehow misplaced all of my info. I ended up having to start over & spend a couple more hours on the phone answering questions again & sending photos again. Thankfully things moved along from there & the associate I worked with said the engineering team would have to contact me to ask more questions (I told him I’m not sure what else I could give them at this point besides a blood sample?!) - and was transferred to someone else who said they’d help with a refund. I hope others have a simpler experience; key takeaway is that you’ll have to exercise patience with the process.

I was testing previously different setups. I taped over black parts of APP so i can rule out the mesh grill with nickel and still had the reactions. Now i tried swapping to foam tips and after one hour my ears are itchy. I guess its time to sell my APP and stop using inear devices. Still makes me wonder the cause. Maybe after first reactions my ears are now too sensitive for in ear headphones. With foam eartips i did not feel same heating sensation as i got with silicon but after one hour it still gives the itching that has been lasting for two days now. Also with foam tips APP passed seal test pretty badly. Have used over 20 hours to get this work to no avail.

Had you tried foam tips and still got a reaction before trying these ones? I’m asking because I tried foam tips and they didn’t help (if anything the issue was just as bad or maybe even worse). It makes me think it’s actually not the silicone on the original tips the pros come with, but rather something in the AirPod itself (maybe in the speaker part) that’s causing the reactions. Most people here mentioned they only got reactions to the AirPod pros and not the standard AirPods, and if you think about it the pros are made totally differently (I.e. noise cancellation and the two microphones). I’d imagine there is something in the pros speaker part of the headphone that is also causing reactions.

that was a very long way of saying I’m unsure if these new tips you suggested will work, so my way to figure out if they’re effective is to see if you’ve tried the foam tips with no success, and then are suddenly seeing success with these! Thank you!!