AirPods lead a harder life than anything else you own from Apple. They ride in pockets with keys, sit in ears for hours, and collect a fine layer of everything a day throws at them. The good news: ten minutes of care and a handful of settings changes will make them sound better, fit better, and last longer. Here is the whole routine, in the order worth doing it.
Clean without damage
The rule that prevents almost every cleaning accident: nothing wet near the meshes. The speaker and microphone grilles are the most fragile parts of the whole product, and liquid that gets past them has nowhere to go. Everything else tolerates a careful wipe.
- On AirPods Pro, pull the silicone ear tips firmly off their base. Rinse the tips with plain water — no soap, no cleaners — and let them dry completely before reattaching.
- Wipe the buds themselves with a soft, dry, lint-free cloth. If something sticky got on them, dampen the cloth very slightly with fresh water and keep it away from every opening.
- Clear the speaker and microphone meshes with a dry cotton swab. Never anything wet, sharp, or abrasive — no compressed air, no toothpicks.
- For the case, wipe with the same lint-free cloth and loosen lint from the hinge and charging port with a soft, dry brush. Never put anything metal into the port.
Run the Ear Tip Fit Test
On AirPods Pro, the seal is the sound. A tip one size off leaks bass and undermines noise cancellation, and most people are wearing the size that came installed rather than the size that fits. Your ears are not necessarily the same size, either — plenty of people test into a medium on one side and a small on the other.
- Put both AirPods Pro in your ears so they connect to your iPhone.
- Open Settings and tap your AirPods by name at the very top of the list. If they are not there, go to Settings → Bluetooth and tap the ⓘ next to them.
- Tap Ear Tip Fit Test, tap Continue, then tap the play button. A short audio sample runs while the inward-facing microphones measure the seal.
- If either side reads "Adjust or Try a Different Ear Tip," reseat that bud with a slight twist and run it again — then change tip sizes on that side only if it still fails.
Firmware updates itself — help it along
AirPods firmware fixes bugs and occasionally adds whole features, but there is no update button. Updates install on their own when the AirPods are in a closed case, the case is charging, and your paired iPhone is nearby on Wi-Fi. To check what you are running, open Settings, tap your AirPods at the top, and look at the version number under About. To nudge an update along, put the AirPods in the case, plug the case in next to your iPhone, close the lid, and leave everything alone for half an hour.
The five settings worth changing
- Press and Hold, per side. In Settings → your AirPods, assign the left and right stems separately — Siri on one, Noise Control on the other — and trim the noise-control cycle to only the modes you use.
- Connect to This iPhone. In the same pane, switch from Automatically to When Last Connected to This iPhone if your AirPods keep jumping between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac at the wrong moments.
- Headphone Accommodations. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Audio & Visual → Headphone Accommodations, turn it on, and run Custom Audio Setup. Two minutes of listening comparisons, and spoken audio in particular comes back noticeably clearer.
- A volume ceiling. In Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Headphone Safety, turn on the loud-audio limit and set a decibel cap — 80 dB is a sensible ceiling that protects your hearing without flattening music.
- Notify When Left Behind. Open the Find My app, tap Devices, select your AirPods, and turn on Notify When Left Behind — the setting that turns a forgotten case at a café into a two-minute walk back instead of a replacement order.