Airpods only work 1 at a time. Alternate

Question

Level 1

25 points

Airpods only work 1 at a time. Alternate

Day 1 my Airpods worked in stereo and had no issues on my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. Day 2 only the left one worked so I removed the bluetooth profile and re-paired them. Now only one works at a time. Basically if I take the left one out of the case, it connects but I can't add the right one. If I only take the right one out, it works but putting in the left one nothing happens. iPad works the same way. When I open the case, it rarely brings up the screen on the iPhone, but if it does it only shows the battery life of the case and which ever ear bud last worked even if they are both in the case. Battery life is 90%+ across the board.

I did try the suggestion to hold the button on the back for 15 seconds until the amber/white light happens. It briefly showed battery life of all 3 things, but again only the first airpod out of the case will actually function.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Posted on Dec 21, 2016 10:09 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

helpful2

Level 1

9 points

Jan 14, 2017 8:15 AM in response to C310Pilot

Identical problem. After 2 weeks only right AirPod worked after both were working fine on all iOs and MacOs devices. Forgot devices, re-paired, rebooted devices nothing worked. At one point had one AirPod playing from one iOs device and the other playing from another device. Talk about scrambled grey cells! Spent ages on line with Apple Support and they eventually said hardware problem and take to Genius Bar. Tried holding down the pairing button on the back of the case for an extended time. Green -> flashing white->flashing orange (short time). Still didn't help. Then read somewhere about doing this for an extended period like 40 seconds. Did so and the cycle of flashing white->flashing orange repeated about 5 times. Then voila tried pairing again. Has worked for 24 hours now on all devices after re-pairing to all of them. Still keeping the Genius Bar appointment. Hope this helps.

Reply

Answer 2

SPD626

Level 1

13 points

Jan 29, 2017 7:20 AM in response to helpful2

Holding down for the extended period of time worked perfectly. Thank you!

Reply

Answer 3

Jonathan UK

Level 10

163,871 points

Dec 21, 2016 10:15 AM in response to C310Pilot

Hi

Given the steps that you have already tried, I suggest that you contact Apple Support or make a Genius Bar reservation for assistance:

Reply

Answer 4

BHM_Mac

Level 1

21 points

Apr 1, 2017 2:11 AM in response to helpful2

This worked perfectly for me too. Used the extended hold down method to reset one of the air pods, the repeated it for the second (both inside the case).

Reply