Drainage and itching when using AirPods Pro

I was given some Pro's for Christmas and the night after a workout, I noticed I had some drainage and assumed I had obtained an ear infection somehow. Didn't use them again for a few days and the itching and drainage stopped, used them again and the drainage came back with a vengeance that night, with severe itching and swelling in the external part of my ears. The drainage is clear, serous fluid, like that of an allergy.

I have purchased the Comply ones from Amazon and will be trying those later today.


[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Jan 4, 2021 11:52 AM

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Posted on Jul 9, 2021 10:26 PM

  1. So glad I found this discussion. I’ve been trying to figure out what is going on with my ears. I have itching, crusting, flaking, pain and drainage. I thought I had some type of dermatitis I picked up and have been treating the inside of my ears for a few months. It started after I had the AirPods Pro a month or so and I thought I had touched something then transferred it to the AirPods Pro then to my ears. I completely cleaned them but my ears hurt too much when I wore them I had to stop wearing them to let my ears heal, only they didn’t heal completely so I started using my old AirPods while they did and they finally had stopped draining and were only slightly crusting but didn’t get worse. Today I had to be on a Zoom meeting at work and decided to use my AirPods Pro again for the noise canceling. I only wore them for 45 minutes and within 30 minutes after taking them out, my ears started to drain, itch and swell. Within an hour my ears were almost swollen shut and my hearing sounded like I still had cotton in my ears. It became really painful. My first thought was that I hadn’t been able to clean them well enough to remove whatever I was getting an allergic reaction to so I cleaned my ears with peroxide and applied cortisone cream. They continued to swell really bad so I took a Benadryl and finally after 2 hours the swelling is starting to go down but they are still swollen and draining. While I’m extremely upset the AirPods Pro are what has caused my ear problems and the fact that Apple has been made aware of it and chosen to ignore everyone that has posted here at least I now know the cause and won’t be using them again and will make sure everyone I know hears about it. Hopefully my ears will heal completely soon.
62 replies

Nov 30, 2021 3:40 AM in response to Farz15

Hello . This is exactly what is happening to me . What we can do ? I just used twice and I can’t stand the itching and sore . I’m using this droop but is $250 products so how Apple can reward customer that can proff this is what the AirPod is causing ? I used other (cheap one ) and never happened. I’m cleaning every time I tried to used and nothing help . Definitely Something in the AirPod cause allergy. Plus the battery charger is not longer that should be .

Aug 27, 2021 1:45 AM in response to KellyKoch

Same issue here, I used my AirPod Pro's for a few months with a distinct recollection that I used to get quite itchy ears but no discharge..

During a recent holiday I wore the AirPod's for an extended period of time and I had the usual itching but then also started to get some swelling and clear discharge from my ears.

I used some Antibacterial ear drops and the irritation and discharge quickly cleared up. However every time I put the airpods in my ear, even for 5 minutes, would cause a flare up and discharge.

I then purchased the foam Comply tips as I assumed the silicone tips were the cause of the issue, but sadly they did not make a difference :-(.

Now I'm in the same situation as many of you that I will give up the AirPod Pro's and look for an alternative.

The lack of feedback from Apple is really dissapointing, even if it was just that they are looking into it and may make a change to whatever is causing these issues in future AirPod generations. BtW, I had no issues with the original AirPod's.

@Apple Support ... I would really appreciate a reply.

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Drainage and itching when using AirPods Pro

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