Allergic to AirPod Pro eartips

I got a pair of the Beats Studio Buds as soon as they came out. I’ve been using them occasionally and only for short periods of time, but so far i haven’t had any problems. With the APPs I start having problems right away.

Its been a week since I didn't use the APPs.

Used completely different foam tips today and have had the exact same issue, currently have leaky/itchy ears.

I strongly support the idea is that its the APPs themselves, not just the silicone tips.

As much as I love them Im going to have to return them, I cant use them anymore.

Good new day. My first iPads pro did not me allergies. Second pairs did so bought new others. I bought a pair Bose and they got allergic to about the ipads pro. Then I bought a pair of Sennheiser and now no problem and they are great hearing I hope this helps anyone

Yeah I had MONTHS of issues related to wearing my airpros. I now have tinnitus that won’t go away. My ear infection lasted for months. I know it was the airpros as I started using them when I began working from home and immediately had ear drainage, crusting etc. I’ve spent so much money at the ENT. They caused a staph infection in my ears. I feel like Apple should be reimbursing people for this issue and replacing the product with something that can be used. I’m scared to stick anything in my ear at this point.

I’ve ordered the foam tips from Amazon but many people report that it doesn’t help. Supposedly Apple is aware of the issue and collecting info- I will do so as well.

My previous headphones were also noise canceling from a different maker and I never had any issues there.

One theory I read is that it could be the body of the AirPods Pro as people report no issue with the older AirPods.

My company manufactures jewelry and nickel allergies is a big concern on anything touching ears. I wonder if maybe the body doesn’t have a component that’s made from nickel or an alloy containing nickel. That would certainly trigger allergies in some people.

Though what’s strange is for me it’s inside the ear canal and I believe only the tips are there.

So I ordered the COMPLY foam tips from Amazon. Initially they seemed to work well as I was able to put them in and didn’t have the itching and watering that would start with the regular tips. Noise insulation was a bit compromised as the foam doesn’t have as good a seal, but it seemed to be working. Ended up wearing them for my whole commute (45min).

But after taking them off I found that it was delaying but not stopping the reaction. After an hour or two there was a lot of itching and this morning my ears are very irritated again. Going to take a break to avoid another ear infection.

As mentioned before I don’t have any issues when using my old Bose Quietcomfort so it doesn’t seem to be the noise cancellation. I know people have similar reactions to nickel content in jewelry but there doesn’t appear to be any direct contact.

This looks to be the end of my saga as the AirPods are basically non functional. Such a disappointment.

Does anyone have a good way to report this to Apple?

An interesting data point:

My wife has 2 APP units. One unit has an older serial number. The other unit is more recent. She uses them interchangeably, and noticed that the newer one causes discomfort, while going back to the older one does not.

My APP always caused terrible contact dermatitis. As an experiment, I tried swapping my tips with ones that came with my wife's older unit. Sure enough, I had the same experience as her--no discomfort using the older tips.

Maybe Apple changed something in manufacturing the tips, as production evolved over time? I know many folks do not believe the tips are the sole cause, but this was an interesting twist that I observed. I have no idea, and I doubt Apple will ever share any knowledge or data.

Just another experience I wanted to share.

Great to see I am not alone! Have had my AirPods since Feb '20 and became aware late last year and was continually woken during the night with itchy ears and feeling like something was draining out of them.

Saw doctor and was given drops but they just stung my ears. Bought new tips and still have itchy ears. Very frustrating as I love the product, but it is not right that one should be getting an infection from using them. I agree Apple needs to investigate.

In a crazy way reassuring. I bought Pros when first released. No problem, but then returned in early 2021 due to sound issue recalls. New AirPods, all of the symptoms described by others. Clear running fluid from ears. Terrible itching, skin then crusting over during following week. I followed advice and bought COMPLY tips, no improvement. I don’t understand how it can relate to charging case as they don’t replace case with recall. Therefore, I have old case and new headphones. Never had problem with original air-pods, or AirPods pro, other than sound problems. Therefore, cannot be the charging case, if it is the new tips, why do the Comply behave the same? Is the thing that fixed the sound problem with the original pros, the thing that is causing these issues? So sad. Great headphones. Expensive and now damaging to health, thus making them unusable.

I ordered AP3 yesterday when I saw the announcement. To be delivered Oct 26. I am hoping they will resolve my issues, since I never had any problem with the old AP.

But I am somewhat skeptical, and will be monitoring closely for the first 14 days return period. I have tried the APP without silicone tips, and still had the same issues. So its not the silicone for me, but something else in the APP. Maybe its the noise cancellation, or the design of the mesh air vents. The original AP does not have those mesh vent. However AP3 does have the same design as APP, just without noise cancellation and without silicone tips (although I can't conceive how noise cancellation would cause contact dermatitis). So many variables, and its frustrating that Apple has not been more definitive about the root cause. But I am hopeful for the new AP3!

I also initiated the return process with Apple, which has to be escalated because I am outside the warranty period.

Weird thing is that this started when I bought a replacement set the pro 6 months ago. I had a early set of pro that I purchased in the UAE from a Virgin Store that were coated to be black. (I previously refused to buy them as long as they were white). Heck I slept in these modified pro versions for months and months when I was home because my lovely snores a lot and i might watch a movie to fall asleep and not wake our baby. I really wore them allot in the daytime as well to be hands free on the phone. I like them so much after using them, I even bought this white pair because I missed using them. So, I mention to ask the question "did they change anything?"

I will not be the one to waste my money to try the 3rd version unless Apple mentions they have change the materials they use in manufacturing. (or see what their manufactures are using). Seeing testimony on the new version here would change my mind possibly as well.

Bear

I got a pair of the AirPod 3’s today and wore them for a few hours - no issues so far. With the Pros I start having issues after about 20 minutes.

I’ve now tried the AirPod 3, Beats Buds, and Airpod 2’s with no issues. I only have issues with the AirPod Pros.

But it does look like whatever the problem is with the AirPod Pros, they corrected in the new AirPod 3s. The AirPod 3s sound better to me than the Pros, but they don’t have ANC. The Beats Buds do have ANC, but are missing many other AirPod features (and don’t sound as good).

Hopefully this means if they ever make an Airpod Pro 2 they’ll have fixed the issue, but in the meantime the AirPod 3’s may be a good option.

So I had issues with the APP like most others on here and got the AP3 today. Sound great and no problems so far. Be interesting to see if Apple do a v2 of the APP now and address the many problems people have had because it’s too widespread to not be a design flaw.

I was apprehensive about trying the AirPods 3 after having bad reactions to the AirPods Pros. Especially after testing I had a reaction with the tips installed, removed and tips alone even after cleaning them with alcohol. I am happy to report I have no reactions with the AirPod 3's.

I had the APP for 6 months without issue. Then one day one of the buds started to have a static sound so they were sent back to Apple. When they were returned (replaced I assume) the irritation and clear discharge started. I tried cleaning them, replaced the tips with Comply ones, using just one at a time but still the same issue. Eventually Apple refunded me. I tried another set 6 months later and same situation.

I then tried the AirPods 3 hoping that without the tips and noise cancelling I would be ok but the same happened again (though slightly less irritation) so stopped using them. Today I bought the Beats Studio Pro but now I’m getting a load of clear discharge and irritation.

Apple wired headphones are fine (been using them in between wireless headphones) but this is really frustrating as Apple won’t state what the issue could be - sure some cases will be a reaction to the silicone but reading through this thread it’s obviously not just a silicone issue so is it the other materials used in their construction ? The ANC or Spatial Audio tech? Definitely could do with some honest answers here