If one AirPod is louder than the other

When I listening to my AirPods it sounds like my right AirPod is slightly louder than the left. I even replaced the left one on an Apple Store, but still having the same issue. Unpair/Pair was another try.


Has anyone else experienced anything like this?


Thanks!!



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

AIRPODS

Posted on Apr 5, 2017 4:47 PM

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Posted on Mar 21, 2021 8:25 PM

There are two main problems that could be causing this: volume settings or dirty airpods.


The former is simply fixed by going to settings -> general -> accessibility -> audio/visual and then scrolling down to the bottom to see the scroll bar that controls how loud one speaker is over the other. Adjust it to your needs.


however, if you still find that your airpods sound muffled or that just didn’t plain work, the solution is cleaning them. You should already have a set cleaning regime for them to improve and maintain good sound quality. However, I will share mine (that includes the suction method that some mentioned here as well minus the gross sucking-with-your-mouth part).


  1. take a vacuum cleaner, shop-vac, or something of that nature with a small nosil. put the AirPod up to the nosil and turn the vacuum on. create a suction by patching up most air pockets. hold this at 15 second increments for 2-3 times per/AirPod.
  2. next, take a toothpick and scrape the inside edges where a lot of ear wax, hair, and dirt builds up. Repeat this for ALL THREE holes on the AirPod (although you may think you don’t need to clean the other two holes, you do).
  3. Next, take sticky tack (like, the stuff you use to hang up posters) and taking a small bit, mold the sticky tack to the inside of the hole and press down to where the sticky tack is now inside the hole. Pull upwards and repeat as many times as needed (make sure to change out your sticky tack frequently and do this for all three holes).
  4. Finally, to finish this off, take a cotton swab and douse it with rubbing alcohol. Wring it out slightly and rub it all over the airpods (including inside the holes).


Now, if neither of these things work you may have broken/damaged airpods on your hands.


as shown by the image, I had the latter as my problem and this cleaning method worked really well and now my sound quality and volume is 100x better for both airpods! This is what came out of my airpods using the sticky tack, and I can only imagine what came out with the suction.

1,187 replies

Mar 9, 2020 10:59 PM in response to paulosoaresf

Not to join the bandwagon train here but this really does work. My left AirPods was playing louder than my right even though they were both fully charged and I cleaned them both. I found this thread and sure enough after sucking on the right one the volume is balanced again. You should be able to hear the air as you suck and it does taste quite weird but bottom line it works :)

May 7, 2020 12:10 PM in response to Marie-Claude Leblanc

Yeah, I can't believe it but sucking the big speaker on the quieter Airpod really does work. Prior to reading this thread I returned my Airpods to the Apple Store 4 times!! They kept returning me new Airpods and telling me to update the software on my computer, which had nothing to do with this issue and was patronizing. I finally took things into my own hands and looked up this thread and saw this response. Completely changed everything for me. I'd be going crazy right now during Coronavirus lockdown if I had this issue and didn't know about this trick unable to go to the Apple Store to get them replaced.


Apple, if you're reading this, give this man a medal.

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If one AirPod is louder than the other

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