Apple’s AirPods are wireless earbuds that have swiftly gained popularity compact size, wireless capabilities, and excellent quality of sound. But no matter how premium your earbuds are, even the most advanced Bluetooth headphones can fail, causing audio to become muffled or distorted.
Apple’s AirPods are not just built for ease of use, but also high-quality sound. The sound produced by AirPods is clean in the mid-tones and is ideal for listening to podcasts and most music. AirPods should preserve this great sound quality for the duration of their life, so if you notice that the sound is muffled or distorted, you may need to change it using one of the solutions listed below.
Many Apple customers may be wondering why their AirPods sound muffled or have a decrease in audio quality with time. The most obvious reasons may be that your AirPods have gotten dirty with time and the speaker vents might be clogged.
If you’re wondering how and where the dirt got into your AirPods then keep in mind since AirPods sit directly within the ear canal, earwax and other debris can accumulate over time, diminishing the sound quality. Other possibilities include Bluetooth interference or the need to reset your AirPods.
Having said that, the most typical reason for muted sound is an accumulation of undesirable dirt and filth on the speaker grills. It’s not pleasant to imagine, but everyone’s ears create earwax, and there’s nothing to be embarrassed of.
Just remember to be cautious when cleaning your AirPods, as it’s all too easy to add to the problem by diving in with a sharp item or violently wiping the dirt away.
To clean this dirt and debris getting stuck in your AirPods, you can clean the outsides of the AirPods with a micro-fiber cloth. You can do this after every use to maintain the sound quality of your AirPods for a longer time and increase the life span of your AirPods overall.
This is the first method that you should try before you move on to other fixes as this usually fixes the problem for the majority of the users.
Cleaning your AirPods case may also help with keeping your AirPods performing just fine as sometimes dirt and lint from pockets might get into the casing, but this too can be cleaned with a micro-fiber cloth to remove all the excess buildup.
Dirt and loose particles may not be the case with your AirPods sometimes, as the AirPods use Bluetooth technology which is used to transmit data across short distances and since Bluetooth has a relatively low battery usage, it is an excellent choice for exclusive and third-party accessories like as Apple’s AirPods.
Bluetooth is a wireless radio band that, like Wi-Fi, can have connection issues. Sometimes restarting the connection on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is all that is required.
In most cases, an unstable Bluetooth connection results in muffled or crackly sound. Because this is the only method AirPods will connect to your device, the connection must work properly. If it isn’t, it’s most likely due to Bluetooth interference, especially if other Bluetooth devices are close.
One method of cleaning out your AirPods is by literally sucking on them. While it might sound gross, it has fixed the problem for a lot of users in the past and has a pretty high success rate. Just make sure your AirPods are clean before you try this fix, you wouldn’t want any ear wax or dirt getting into your mouth.
Another method that you should check on before you move on to other options like resetting your AirPods is to check the iOS version on your AirPods and your Apple devices and to check if there are any new updates available for your devices.
If you’re having trouble connecting to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, it’s possible that you don’t have the most recent iOS installed on your device. Apple releases significant upgrades to iOS on a regular basis, which generally includes a new version of its operating software. The most recent major iOS version, iOS 15, was released in September of 2021.
If you are using an earlier version, you must upgrade your smartphone to guarantee that you are always running the most recent version of iOS; this is especially important if you use several other Apple products.
No matter how well your AirPods performed in a prior version of iOS, if you aren’t running the most recent version of iOS or macOS, you are losing out on the most recent fixes.
If even this does not seem to help solve your problem, then another method you can try is to reset your AirPods. Resetting your AirPods might assist you with a variety of headphone problems. In addition to a possible sound quality improvement, it is said to have resolved battery difficulties in early versions.
Keep in mind that after your AirPods have been entirely reset, they will need to be repaired to your iPhone, Mac, or another device and as discussed above, rebooting gadgets works surprisingly frequently, and AirPods are no exception to it.
To save time, first, test your AirPods on a device other than the one with which you originally encountered issues. You should have done this as part of your Bluetooth troubleshooting, but if you haven’t, connect your AirPods to a completely new device and listen to something other than what you were listening to before. The objective here is to make sure that no external factors may be influencing the overall sound quality of your AirPods.
Ideally, you should clean your AirPods after every 2 or 3 uses but even after trying all the above methods and still not coming to a solution to your problem, then you may consider contacting Apple’s customer service helpline or taking your AirPods to an Apple service center. If your product is still under warranty, Apple may be able to repair or replace a faulty item for free or at a reasonable price.
Robert Smith is a technology lover and loves to write about laptops, monitors, printers, tablets, Apple products and anything that's related to computers and games. He is passionate enough that he maintains this blog regarding tech updates on a daily basis.
Robert Smith is a technology lover and loves to write about laptops, monitors, printers, tablets, Apple products and anything that's related to computers and games. He is passionate enough that he maintains this blog regarding tech updates on a daily basis.
