Learning about resetting AirPods or AirPods pro can help you counter these common problems upfront:
- AirPods not connecting to your phones or keep disconnecting from them.
- AirPods not charging.
- You don’t hear anything out of them despite playing the audio.
- AirPods produce low or poor sound quality.
- AirPods not functioning as satisfactory as they did when you bought them.
And the list continues, but what doesn’t continue is AirPods performance; which is why we will learn the easiest and most effective way to reset your AirPods or AirPods pro, enabling them to be as performing for your Androids as for your iPhones or vice versa. So, let’s dig into the article about how to reset AirPods.
You may also read: How to clean AirPods?
How to reset AirPods or AirPods Pro using an iPhone?
Resetting your AirPods using an iPhone is a 7-step process. Follow each step carefully, and you’ll hopefully be using your earbuds without any fatigue.
- Take out their charging case, and put your AirPods back into it. Make sure you close the lid.
- After putting AirPods into their charging case, wait for 30 seconds to proceed further.
- Followed by step two, open your charging case’s lid.
- On your iPhone, head to Bluetooth into settings and tap the “i” or more info button in front of your AirPods.
- There you’ll see “forget this device”, tap on it, and tap again to confirm the action.
- Don’t close the lid yet, press the setup button at the back of your case and hold it for 15 seconds.
- The indicator light will flash amber in the process, and once the process is completed, it’ll turn white.
- To reconnect your AirPods, keep the lid open and AirPods into the case, bring them closer to your phone, and follow the instructions provided on your phone’s screen.
How to reset AirPods or AirPods Pro using an Android Phone?
The process of resetting your AirPods or their pro version is more or less the same for Android as it is for iPhones. However, there are a few following changes you will have to abide by while resetting your AirPods using an Android Phone:
- The first step in the process is the same as that of an iPhone, mentioned above. You’ll have to place your AirPods back into their charging case and close the lid.
- Again, the same step, wait for 30 seconds before you open the lid.
- After opening the lid, head to Bluetooth into settings on your Android, and find your AirPods there, tap the “>” icon next to them (Note: the icons may vary from UI to UI), and click “Unpair” or “Forget this Device.” It may ask for confirmation, if it does, confirm it by tapping the respective buttons.
- Once you have unpaired or forgotten the device from your Android, proceed with pressing and holding the setup button at the back for 15 seconds, until the indicator light turns white from amber.
Note: Don’t forget to switch on the Bluetooth of your smartphones, whether iPhone or Android.
After the status light turns white from amber, the AirPods will be reset to their factory settings, and won’t recognize any device they used to link with. So bringing them closer to your phone and opening the lid will start their setup as it is their first time pairing with the device.
Is it possible to reset AirPods without an iPhone or Android?
It is crucial to disconnect your AirPods from all the devices, but if your AirPods are new or not connected to any device, you can start with keeping the lid open, and pressing and holding the setup button at the back for 15 seconds until the indicator light turns white from amber.
But, on the contrary, if your AirPods are connected to any one or several of your devices, you will have to unpair your AirPods from them. Resetting your AirPods whilst connected will only do you and your earbuds harm, and nothing else.
How to reset AirPods or AirPods if they don’t reset?
One of a few reasons your AirPods are not resetting is the same as described above, i.e., they are not disconnected from your devices. Other reasons may range from the unhealthy status of the charging case, the charging case having dirt on its charging points, or the AirPods themselves having dirt on their charging points.
These are not all, but these are possible, and if you don’t find any of these prevailing, you might want to contact or better visit Apple’s store to claim the warranty, or if they are not in warranty, to get them repaired, or better, to buy a new pair.
However, what if you do find any one of these problems prevailing? How would you fix them? That is precisely what we will discuss below; some of these fixes might already be familiar to you, but some of them might turn out to be entirely new:
- The foremost hack to counter the AirPods not resetting is you might be forgetting to keep the lid open, which is a requirement to reset the earbuds to their factory settings.
- Disconnecting, as emphasized at several places across this guide, is the key to a successful reset. Not only from your mobile device, but you might also be using the AirPods with your iPad or tablet, mac or windows, or your iPods. So make sure you disconnect your AirPods from them all.
- Look for the remaining charge of the AirPods case. If it turns out that the battery is dead, there are absolutely no chances that you can perform a factory reset.
- Your AirPods also need to be charged; once you have charged their charging case, insert the AirPods into it, and let them be fully charged to let you perform a flawless factory reset.
- If despite charging the charging case, you still find yourself unable to reset the AirPods back to their factory settings, you might have to try plugging in the charging case and performing the reset in between. However, you might want to check on the charging case’s battery, if you are able to reset the AirPods with the charging case plugged in.
- Remember the dirt, sitting on the tips of charging points of both the charging case and your AirPods? Well, try cleaning both of them with a cotton swab, but be very gentle with it, as any unexpected enforcement might damage, if not both, one of the accessories, leaving you helpless and disappointed in yourself.
- At times, your AirPods might not have any of the above-mentioned problems, but still, be acting up. There you’ll need to check for updates for your devices’ OS, it might turn out pivotal fixing your issues with the AirPods or vice versa.
Cool Things to do with Your AirPods and AirPods Pro
Now that you know how to counter common AirPods problems and even solve them, learn these cool things you can do with your AirPods too, allowing you to make the most out of your premium yet one of the best wireless earbuds in the market.
Use the AirPods Independently
You don’t have to plug in both the AirPods at once for them to work, your AirPods can also be used independently. In simple words, you can leave one in the charging case, plug one into your ear, and vice versa upon running out of the plugged-in unit’s battery.
This way, you’ll have plenty of battery for your AirPods, allowing you to charge them once in two days, or even more if you don’t have rigorous use. Keep swapping them with multiple time intervals and you’ll notice the difference right away.
AirPods Own Siri
Your AirPods are made for more than only listening to the audio, answering calls, and putting them back into their case. You can have your messages or notifications read or announced out of them, control the volume, play/pause/stop the music, send messages, and whatnot. All it requires of you is to cast a formal “Hey Siri”, and watch how Siri works as your non-existing Jarvis.
AirPods aren’t Limited to the Apple Products Only
That’s right, and some of you might even know about it. You can use the AirPods with Android phones and Windows devices as well. To connect them, you can follow the steps described above, and avail of, if not everything, then most of the features of AirPods with your Android or Windows devices.
Eavesdrop with Live Listen
Introduced in iOS 12, live listening is a feature you can use as a hearing aid or in sarcastic words to eavesdrop on people’s conversation and crack what they talk about behind your back. You can enable live listen by going to settings > control center > customize controls and tapping the + sign right next to hear. Doing so will add an ear icon into the control center that you can tap to enable or disable live listening.
Have them do What You Want
With the option to customize AirPods’ controls, you can change what the double-tap or tap-and-hold gesture for each AirPod does. All you need to do is go to settings > Bluetooth and tap the “i” icon next to your AirPods name. There you can choose from skipping to the next track, playing genre, or simply playing and pausing.
Let Your AirPods Takeover the Call
Your AirPods, as soon as you plug them into your ear, can take over the call from your phone speaker to themselves. It is made possible with “automatic ear detection”, a feature that is by default enabled, but if you don’t find your AirPods taking over the call, you can manually enable it by searching for it using the search bar in settings.
Don’t Panic, You can Find Your Lost AirPods
Apple’s Find My application helps you find or locate your lost AirPods in a breeze, provided that they are set up with Find My app and your Apple ID. The application will tell you the last location your AirPods were used, and if they are still connected via Bluetooth.
Not to forget, Apple has extended the range of the Find My application that lets you locate your lost devices even if they aren’t in the range of your device’s Bluetooth.
Rename Your AirPods
In the room where everyone is using AirPods named AirPods, it can get exhausting finding and pair with your AirPods, that’s too much AirPods for the day. However, you can eradicate this problem by renaming your device with what you can easily recognize.
Final Thoughts
Resetting your AirPods is not a big deal as long as you stick to the instructions provided above. And not to forget the hacks allowing you to reset your AirPods even when they are acting up. Also, you must try those cool things with your AirPods as they are entertaining enough to cheer up your mood or in some cases ruin it, remember live listening?