One of Apple’s greatest achievements of this decade is beyond the Apple Watch, the Homepod or even the iPad. Instead, it’s the Airpods, Apple’s wireless earphones launched after removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. The Airpods found a huge fan base thanks to their ease of use, their long battery life, and their automatic connection function.
Of course, if your Airpods don’t work, or you’ve just received a new phone, you may have to restore your Airpods. Unfortunately, the design is so simple that it actually makes things a little confusing when it comes to solving problems. Let’s take a look at how to solve problems with your Airpods.
UNDERSTAND WHAT LIGHTS MEAN
AirPods have a single light indicator under the hood. Specific combinations of lights can indicate various problems, depending on where AirPods are located at any given time. It is important to understand this before starting recovery.
STATE OF THE BATTERY
You will not be able to know exactly how much energy is left in the battery. But if you see a green light while the AirPods are in their case, it means you have enough battery life for normal use. If you see a green light and your AirPods are not in the case, then the case still has at least one available charge.
When the AirPods are connected to the charger, the yellow light indicates that the AirPods are charging. But if the AirPods are not in the case at that time, this light can also mean that the case has less than a full charge left. The
CONNECTION
Does the yellow light flash? This indicates an association error with one or more of your devices. It could mean that you have to break the connection and try again by resetting the AirPods. A flashing white light indicates that the AirPods are ready for connection with Apple devices.
Obviously, if there is no light on the case and your AirPods are inside, it means that the charging of the case is completely exhausted and needs to be recharged.
HARD RESET
Restoring AirPods can be a quick solution to a number of common problems. In particular, the restoration of the AirPods is performed to resolve problems relating to the battery or to audio problems, for example when only one of the AirPods emits sounds. You can also use it to solve connectivity problems.
Here’s how to perform a restore:
- Lift the upper part of the case
- Hold the button on the back
- Wait for the light to flash
- Release the button when the light flashes red
Note that this will disconnect your AirPods from all connected devices. You will need to repeat the configuration wizard to be able to use them. Wait until the light blinks white again. This is the signal that you can try to re-establish one or more connections.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR TROUBLESHOOTING
Relying on lights is not the only way to determine what is wrong with your AirPods, it is only useful when your phone, tablet or Mac is not at hand. If you open the case next to a connected iOS device, you can press the button on the back of the case and open the display for reading the battery status.
This will tell you exactly how much battery is left. You can do this when the lights are not working properly if you have forgotten what each sequence indicates or if you have heard a beeping sound. This music box indicates that you are under 10%.
Some users may confuse audio problems with low battery power. If your AirPods seem muffled, the first thing to check is whether they are clean or not. Get rid of wax, dust and all other debris before repeating the test.
Alternatively, try AirPods on different devices before you worry about restoring them. One last thing to note is that a reset may not solve the charging problems of your AirPods. You can try to clean them up a bit and make sure the connectors are working properly. But failure to recharge is usually a hardware problem that cannot be easily solved.
CONCLUSION
Apple’s AirPods are super easy to use. However, it is a pity that they no longer have official support and guidelines. Instead, users must use online tutorials to be guided through these simple processes.
As you’ve already noticed, restoring AirPods doesn’t solve everything. Proper maintenance is more useful in many cases.
