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AirPods Case not charging

I'm having a very frustrating issue, my Airpods case will not charge.


I went for my run today and pulled out my Airpods, only to find the case was on 0% and the Airpods were on 11%. This was odd because I gave them a full charge just a couple days ago. Paying it no mind I tried to squeeze some play time out of the Airpods and I put the case on the charge plugged into my computer. However when I got back from my run I found the case had not charged at all! I switched the cable out and plugged it into the wall socket instead. After 30 minutes there was still no charge on the case. I tried wiggling the cable, cleaning the charge port, but nothing.


Currently when I'm plugged into the wall I get a flashing amber/orange light on the case. I look at my phone and the little lightning bolt icon next to the case is blinking. I read you can reset the Airpods by holding the button on the back for 15 seconds, however that doesn't seem to be working, I've tried it both plugged and unplugged to the wall.


Any advice is welcome, I'm not sure what to do at this point 😟


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on May 8, 2017 7:44 AM

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Posted on Aug 17, 2017 2:59 PM

Did you sort out the problem? I haven't used my airpods for a couple of months. I wore them the other day, until the point that they went flat. I put the airpods in the charging case and charged them (case was showing at 1% charge). The next morning my airpods were charged at 100%, but the case was showing at 1% and no charging indicator next to it. The light on the case wasn't lit. I tried another cable and left it for 10 hours (initially when I plugged it in it was showing as charging on my phone and the amber light was lit, i saw the charge creep up to 4% and then I left it Charging. After ten hours, the case was showing at 1%, and no light on the case, also no charging indicator on the phone. I am now trying a third cable and will leave it overnight. Can anyone help? Am I doing something wrong?

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 17, 2017 2:59 PM in response to SET0TITAN

Did you sort out the problem? I haven't used my airpods for a couple of months. I wore them the other day, until the point that they went flat. I put the airpods in the charging case and charged them (case was showing at 1% charge). The next morning my airpods were charged at 100%, but the case was showing at 1% and no charging indicator next to it. The light on the case wasn't lit. I tried another cable and left it for 10 hours (initially when I plugged it in it was showing as charging on my phone and the amber light was lit, i saw the charge creep up to 4% and then I left it Charging. After ten hours, the case was showing at 1%, and no light on the case, also no charging indicator on the phone. I am now trying a third cable and will leave it overnight. Can anyone help? Am I doing something wrong?

Dec 29, 2017 8:09 AM in response to SET0TITAN

Tested and the reported is true! It doesn't charge in the wall outlet... but it does work on my MacBook Pro. What the ****? Since Steve is gone I've been getting more and more disappointed with Apple. First Magic Mouse, iPhone 7 without headphone port, iOS 10 and 11 full of severe bugs, old iPhones CPU clock being throttled, now this... I'm seriously considering getting out of Apple's ecosystem.

Sep 6, 2017 6:54 PM in response to Luke680

Hi Luke, not really. I blew air into the lightning socket a couple of times and tried my 3rd cable, which worked/charged perfectly. I used them again and tried charging them again last week with one of the cables that didn't work before, only this time it charged up OK. So it's either a bit of dust in the port that might have been removed or an intermittent fault with the airpods? I've heard that iPhones can suffer with a speck of dust in the lightning port stopping it from being charged?

Feb 6, 2019 11:01 AM in response to SET0TITAN

Hello brother

same issue happend with me too

i left my airpod case on charging and after an hour i unplugged it and kept it home and in the very same evening when i pulled it to use the case showed no lights nothing at all but the airpods were working fine

i tried everything cleaning, changing lightening cable etc

but the charing case won’t work

very ashamed of this apple product

and i bought it a month earlier

Feb 24, 2018 12:35 PM in response to SET0TITAN

I was trying to charge on multiple wall outlets with various official apple cords, but nothing worked. I switched to my laptop as someone mentioned above, and it began charging! It seems that for a decent amount of people, switching the power source from wall to USB or vice versa is working. Hopefully, this isn't a common problem and is a one time issue. Thanks!

Oct 2, 2017 2:41 PM in response to SET0TITAN

I encountered this charging problem too. To figure out the charging issue, I installed a Drok USB current meter in between to see if there is a current draw. It turns out whenever the USB meter is installed, there is a current draw and it is indeed charging. Without the USB meter, it is unlikely to be charging with a general USB wall charger.


I suspect it has something to do with the power source/adapter. When the same cable is plugged in to an USB high end wall charger (e.g. Anker QC3.0 USB wall charger) or a MacBook Pro USB port, the charging is likely to work but not with a general USB wall charger (2A output) originally for an Android phone.


This is more like a workaround but better than nothing.

May 9, 2018 6:48 AM in response to SET0TITAN

Mine charges with a port I have a home and it’s connected to a different charging cube which ig it’s a 12volt or 6volt and it has the original AirPods charging cable, that’s what I use to charge them, mine aren’t charging but it seems that’s the AirPods are charge and the case feeds off of them, try charging your AirPods all the way and let the case drain the battery off of them to charge your case

P.S do not let your case die completely nor open it to much because that kills battery and it’s life charge it even if it’s on 20% oh and The AirPods to be fully charge takes about 15 mins

Nov 20, 2017 9:32 AM in response to SET0TITAN

Followed suggestions here about plugging it into a PC vs wall charger... wanted to report my weird findings that it seems like my AirPods will charge only when I plug them into my MacBook, but not on my Windows PC. No idea what's going on there as the Windows PC is a desktop and has fully powered USB ports (tried a 2.1 and a 3.0 port). Not sure if I want to go through the hassle of replacement since I found a work around, but still odd.

Apr 12, 2019 5:12 AM in response to SET0TITAN

I had the same issue with my case not getting above 4% before it stopped charging and dropped back down.

After plugging and unplugging, I was able to get a steady charge, but here’s what I did. I left the lid open so I could make sure it kept charging. That took the case and headphones back to 100%.

Not sure if this makes a difference, but I also used a wall charger instead of a USB. Hope this helps.

AirPods Case not charging

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