If one AirPod is louder than the other

I had this problem until I went further into the comments and read what people suggested. Here is what worked for me:

Take an old toothbrush you don't use anymore, and some alcohol wipes. First, use the alcohol wipes and wipe the screen of the pod face down (so othat no liquid goes inside). Then use the toothbrush and scrub the screen of the pod gently. Next, I know it sounds gross, but using just the edge of your lips, suck the pod to get any stuck ear wax out of the pod. Then repeat the process until you visibly can't see any earwax on the rim of the airpod.

My airpod fixed itself as soon as I did this, but make sure to check if you can hear from both sides clearly. Hope this helps!

To fix your sound issue, take a softly bristled clean toothbrush. You can then carefully brush the larger opening of the Earpod. then, (bear with me) suck on the larger opening until you can feel that you are causing air to come through. Then, brush again. This should solve your issue

Hello, i found something that might help.

Go to your settings and find Accessibility.

Scroll to “Audio/Visual”

Scroll all the way down, you will see a scale to which you can balance the sound in your headphones. If the left airpod isn’t playing as much sound as the right one, or vice versa, go to the middle, and scroll the scale just a tad bit to the side who isn’t playing as much sound. This is what’s helped me. :)

My left Airpod was about twice as loud as my right one. I took photos with my iPhone of both Airpods and the right one had a slight film, probably ear wax, covering the screen surface. I dipped a toothbrush into rubbing alcohol and rubbed it on the screen surface of the right Airpod. I gently wiped the Airpod dry with a soft cloth. I tried both Airpods again and the sound level was identical for both Airpods.

The first photo below is of the right Airpod before I cleaned it. The second one is after I cleaned it.

-I tried cleaning the wax with a toothpick and a cotton swab and it made it worse (I think this is actually pushing more wax inside the tiny openings)

-I tried sucking and worked partially; I noted some more equal volume between the left and right.

-tried with compressed gas duster, and this worked great: it not only equaled the left and right, also the volume increased in both left and right, and the sound is like new. Point the nozzle at a shallow angle to the screen. Do not point directly inside the screen which might damage the internal parts.

Been reading the different replies to one airpod louder than another, or one not as loud as the other, in this instance there seems to be more left AirPods with reduced volume to the right. Yes, in accessibility in settings you can adjust the balance, but that doesn’t fix the problem. That merely lowers the volume of the right side. Then I read a number of posts about sucking the affected lower volume AirPod. To my amazement the left side was difficult to get any air to pass through, initially. I tried the right, and completely free flowing air. I kept at the left side and finally air started to flow. Kept at it for a while until they were almost equal, but still a slight resistance on that left AirPod. However I connected them and listened and they were now almost equal in Volume. Something, probably dried earwax, was/is blocking a port, probably a bass reflects port, which would keep the small diaphragm of moving as easily.

Try the lower volume AirPod and compare it to the other side when sucking on it and you will immediately notice a difference if it’s the same problem. Best, Seth

I just had this issue. I'd first try the AirPods on another iPhone to see if the issue is the AirPods or the phone itself (they didn't work properly on my phone or my daughter's, but did work on my partner's - all iPhones).

I cleaned them first, no joy.

Found a solution after quite a bit of searching: Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset All Settings.

I was having the exact same issue and weird enough someone said suck the bigger mic on the airpod because wax gets stuck on the speaker and when I did it surprisingly it freaking worked. Just make sure to wipe the airpod before and after to avoid wax in your mouth and a wet ear lol. Good luck!

This started about a month or 2 ago for me. Thought I was crazy. Maybe my son and I mixed up AirPods? No, I could hear sound from both, but left was significantly quieter.

Suck on the affected AirPod until you can feel the air flowing thru - immediately heard the difference. Disgusting, but useful solution.

For anyone else still searching for the answer, I had one AirPod that was nearly dead. I was balancing 30% to the right to level the sound. First, I used the end of a paper clip to gently scrape out the accumulated ear wax. Then I took a cuetip and soaked it in 99% isopropyl. I cleaned out both pods and the balanced sound was restored.

i check the settings and everything seemed balanced, nevertheless one ear was still louder. The solution is cleaning out the ear wax stuck in the AirPod. I couldn’t suck it as one person commented on here, but I used an antiseptic wipe to clean out the wax then blew into the AirPod from the smaller outlet by the side so the air forced out the wax stuck in the main sound outlet and I wiped some more and kept blowing it out till I was satisfied and voila my AirPod is back to life 🤭

I could only hear the left speaker on my Airpods pro (version 1) whilst running which was annoying. Tried all the usual steps listed in other posts, but this just worked for me: On Apple Watch Ultra 2 (but any Apple watch i guess) go to General / Accessibility / Hearing just below RTT (off), mono audio (off), is a slider - Tap so that left bar is green to middle. Solved!

I didn’t think this was going to work at all honestly and I thought I was going to have to get a replacement AirPod. I was very supprized on how well it worked. What I did is I found an unused toothbrush and used that to clean the grates and used a q tip to clean off whatever came out. Then after a good bit of doing that,( fyi sounds a little but weird but stay with me) suck hard on the grate thing if your airpod then you are finished. Have a good day😁

I cannot believe this actually worked 😂 I was sceptical but I got out an old toothbrush and started to clean out all the crevices especially the smaller speaker at the back of the AirPod. You would not believe how much wax accumulates there. I used a Q-tip with barely there rubbing alcohol to give it a wipe after the toothbrush cleaning. Then sucked the earphones inwards. I re-tested the AirPods and now both work perfectly at the same loud volume. Now I’ll get the family to clean theirs lol

THIS ACTUALLY WORKS****

go to setting>accessibility>audio/visual and mess around with the balance till it sounds more equal. I just played music and messed around with it till it sounded even.