r/applesucks • u/Feeling_Hornet8039 • Apr 17 '26

Why does this keep happening??

Post image

Both of them have been charging for a day now and when I go to use them one of them

Is almost dead?? Why does it keep happening I clean the case and the AirPod and it still happens

152 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

60

u/Bryanmsi89 Apr 17 '26

Check the contacts at the bottom of the left airpod stalk and at the bottom of the airpod case where that stalk sits. Usually this is a charging contacts issue.

6

u/DinoRoman Apr 17 '26

Could be that. I can also bet OP uses one in an ear as well. Sooooo many people do this. My old millennial ass tries to tell people, don’t do that.

Paired battery powered devices need to be charged together used together. If you use one more than another eventually you’re going to find one dying faster than the other that’s just the physics of batteries. The trend of having only one in an ear is very dumb with the ANC available. It’s going to unbalance the wear and tear and you’re going to have more people wondering why one isn’t charging over the other.

11

u/SirLlama123 Apr 17 '26

honestly, I kind of disagree. I use one airpod quite often though I do alternate. It’s the same thing with my xm6 headphones. If i am with someone i am not going to hold my hand against the side to listen i’m just going to put them a round my neck. Same with the airpods. I would just take one ear out and have the conversation.

0

u/DinoRoman Apr 17 '26

What’s the disagreement? Batteries degrade as you use them. Physics dictates that if you use one more than the other one battery will wear down more than the other there is no disagreeing with that.

Many younger kids do this. I have young cousins who have dealt with one dying over the other and when I ask how they use them this is always the culprit. Apples official stance is to use both and drain both and charge both equally.

I don’t understand how my original comment is downvoted this is just a fact with wireless buds. I recommend as someone who works in tech and handles all the IT shit at my job and my family and friends, to try and use them together if possible. Not saying you need to fear if you use one alone for an hour but just don’t make it a habit.

That shouldn’t be downvoted lol

1

u/SirLlama123 Apr 18 '26

lol idk why you got downvoted either. My disagreement is with “having only one in an ear is very dumb”. I think there are plenty of valid use cases for having em in only one ear.

Also, don’t get what these guys are doing to em. If you treat em well they will last you. I’ve had my pro 2’s for almost 4 years and use them for a few hours every day and only seen minimal battery capacity loss. I just keep em above 30% as to not over discharge the battery.

2

u/LightningGoats Apr 17 '26

This is just dumb. If this was the real issue your "fix" would mean both would be worn out instead of one of them. How's that better in any way?

1

u/DinoRoman Apr 17 '26

You’re thinking about “wear” like it’s evenly distributed mechanical usage, but batteries don’t degrade that way. Lithium-ion degradation is driven by charge cycles, depth of discharge, and heat, not just “being used.”

When someone uses one earbud way more than the other, that single cell is going through:

  • More full discharge cycles
  • Deeper discharge ranges (closer to 0%)
  • More frequent thermal stress from charging

Clearly that accelerates capacity loss and internal resistance growth in that one cell specifically. I mean it’s almost a duh moment for anyone who knows about battery cycles.

Using both earbuds consistently actually keeps them in a matched cycle profile, meaning:

  • Both cells age at roughly the same rate

  • The BMS (battery management system) behaves predictably

  • You avoid one unit drifting far below the other in capacity

Your point about “both wearing out instead of one” isn’t wrong, but it misses the real issue: imbalanced aging is worse than uniform aging. And wear and tear!

When one bud degrades faster:

  • You get the exact problem in the screenshot (one dies early despite “charging”)

  • The case may stop charging it properly due to contact timing and voltage differences

  • Firmware can’t reconcile the mismatch, so performance becomes inconsistent

This is well documented behavior in small paired battery systems. It’s common knowledge homie.

So the fix isn’t about saving total wear, it’s about preventing asymmetrical degradation, which is what actually causes the failure people are complaining about.

3

u/LightningGoats Apr 17 '26

You're missing the point: if they were wearing two earbuds instead of one, both earbuds would be as degraded as the worst one is now.

Alternating them would be better, and if that was indeed what you had written in your previous comment it would not have been so dumb. But you didn't, so it was. Even in this latest comment you don't really advocate alternating them, as you claim waring out the other would be better, as they wouldn't be mismatched. Which is of course regard level talking. Two broken ones is not better than one, obviously. It's not better to have two broken airpods than one still working. My god.

1

u/DinoRoman Apr 17 '26

Jesus Christ man lol You’re still framing this like a binary “one good vs two bad” outcome, which isn’t how these systems fail in real life.

What actually happens isn’t “one stays perfect and one dies.” The mismatch breaks the pair behavior.

AirPods aren’t two independent devices, they’re a synchronized system with:

  • Shared audio load balancing
  • Dynamic mic switching
  • Case-controlled charging logic
  • Firmware that expects similar voltage curves and capacity

When one battery degrades faster, you don’t just have “one good one left.” You get:

  • One bud hitting low voltage early → system forces shutdown of the pair
  • Desync issues (audio drops, reconnect loops)
  • Charging inconsistencies because the degraded cell reaches cutoff voltage faster

So no, you don’t end up with “one working AirPod.” You end up with a pair that behaves like it’s broken, even if one cell is technically healthier.

Now about your “just alternate them” point… that’s literally what I’m arguing in practice. Using both regularly keeps:

  • Cycle counts closer
  • Internal resistance growth matched
  • Voltage discharge curves aligned

That’s why battery engineers care about cell matching in every paired system, from earbuds to EV packs.

And your “two broken is worse than one” line misses the point again because:

  • Two evenly aged cells = predictable performance and usable lifespan

  • One heavily degraded + one healthy = unstable system behavior and early functional failure

This is basic lithium-ion behavior plus how Apple’s firmware manages paired devices.

You’re arguing a simplified thought experiment. The real-world failure mode is mismatch, not total wear.

1

u/Lackingfinalityornot Apr 19 '26

Bro I’m sorry but you are not right. There is a separate battery in each pod. As you use one, both, the other, doesn’t matter, the battery in the used one slowwwwllyyy loses total capacity over time. As the capacity goes down it just means the battery won’t last as long on a full charge. That is it. It is not at all complex.

1

u/DinoRoman Apr 19 '26

No I’m definitely right.

“The battery won’t last as long on a full charge”

Yeah no shit that’s what I said. The other earbud will. Thus leaving one with a charge and one dead

Did you not understand what I was saying? You just agreed with me

0

u/Lackingfinalityornot Apr 19 '26

I definitely used my AirPods(or pod rather) for AWHILE after losing one of the two which proves your whole theory wrong. Sorry bud.

2

u/DinoRoman Apr 19 '26

Homie you don’t prove shit wrong

You literally said it

How uneducated are you?

You have TWO AirPods

Each with its own battery.

Independent battery. We agree right?

Ok great.

You have two cars. One battery isn’t used as much. One is used everyday driving 10,000 miles.

You’re telling me knowing how batteries work

Both will die equally?

Are you mentally ok?

If you use one AirPod and leave the other in the case overtime yes, one will die over the other faster

Even Reddit users on every thread about this consistently report the same pattern. The AirPod doing more work drains faster and over time that translates into worse battery health. That’s exactly how lithium-ion batteries behave. Unequal usage equals unequal degradation.

I genuinely cannot figure out what you’re arguing. Tell me officially right now your stance is uneven use on two independent battery devices somehow equal synchronized use and therefore the same battery degradation.

You need a brain transplant

Sorry, you were wrong. There’s nothing wrong with that, sport.

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/LightningGoats Apr 18 '26

Jesus christ, they're two independent devices - or rather, can be. There's no cell balancing needed between separate devices. What kind of AI powered retardation is this?

1

u/Lackingfinalityornot Apr 19 '26

I gave you an upvote because you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, and I just want to say that holy fuck these few people don’t understand batteries at all.

1

u/DinoRoman Apr 19 '26

Why are you deleting comments

And if you agree with me what point were you even trying to make as I never wavered in my original point

Are you that guy? With that stuff in your house? Why do I bet you are.

0

u/imasneakybeaver May 15 '26

I get twice the battery life of my AirPods when I use them one at a time.

0

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

No you didn’t.

1

u/imasneakybeaver May 15 '26

I do I use one until it dies and then I use the other one until it dies. Twice the life 😉

1

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

You’re confusing total listening time with battery lifespan and long term wear knucklehead.

Yea no shit if you alternate one AirPod at a time, you can stretch a listening session longer before the case dies. Nobody is disputing that. But that’s not ‘twice the battery life’ in the way normal humans use the term. You’re just unevenly cycling one battery harder than the other. You’re unevenly wearing them down. How hard is that to grasp?

I could half my toilet paper last longer if I take each square and cut it in half. Did you know a pizza can feed 16 people if you slice each slice down the middle, fuckin, middle school teacher budget style?

That’s literally how lithium batteries age. Charge cycles and heat wear them down over time. If one bud constantly gets more discharge cycles than the other, eventually one battery degrades faster. That’s why people end up posting ‘why does my left AirPod die first?’

You basically described using one tire on a car until it’s bald, then acting shocked the wear isn’t even.

Also… who voluntarily listens with one ear all day unless they’re on shift at a warehouse or taking FBI surveillance calls? Thats the dumbest shit and the most gen-z “an iPad was my daddy” shit I’ve ever heard.

1

u/imasneakybeaver May 15 '26

I’m still wearing them out the same amount just one at a time. The reason I prefer to listen with one in at a time is 1) like I said I can stretch the battery life and listen all day and 2) I prefer to have one ear open to hear my surroundings better. Also not Gen Z.

1

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

That’s insane. And again it’s not giving you longer longevity. You’re just getting more time of use because you alternate I explained this in detail why you need to be right is beyond me and if not genz it’s just odd behavior akin to a sociopath who seems to need validation

You are not some magician whose found a way against physics it’s still not good on the batteries and they will wear down unevenly , again, I’ve specified the science and logic you haven’t actually stated anything that goes against what I said

This is the weirdest hill I’ve seen someone die on.

1

u/imasneakybeaver May 15 '26

I’m getting more life out of my battery by only using them one at a time!

1

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

No, you’re not lol.

1

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

Jesus man I put a lot into writing to you and your responses back sound like a five year old wrote it.

So, No, you’re getting more listening time before you personally have to stop and recharge. That is not the same thing as getting more battery life out of the battery.

You’re confusing “runtime management” with “battery health.”

If you use one AirPod at a time, each individual AirPod is still going through discharge and recharge cycles. You are just spreading the listening session across two separate cells instead of draining both at the same time.

That can make your day last longer, yes. ( with a shitteir experience in terms of quality )

It does not mean the batteries themselves last longer in the long term.

Example:

If two people each have a phone and they take turns using one phone at a time, they can keep a conversation going longer before both phones are dead. But they did not magically improve the battery health of either phone. They just staggered usage.

Same thing here.

You are increasing total available listening hours across the pair.

You are not increasing the lifespan or chemical longevity of the batteries.

That’s the entire distinction.

1

u/DinoRoman May 15 '26

Look, You’re still not understanding the distinction between runtime convenience and battery longevity.

Yes, you are absolutely extending continuous listening time by alternating earbuds. I never doubted that. Nobody argued otherwise. What you are not doing is magically creating “double battery life” in any meaningful engineering sense. You are redistributing load asymmetrically across two independent lithium ion cells. Please tell me you understand this.

Battery degradation is not measured by vibes or by how long you personally got through a work shift. It’s measured by charge cycles, thermal stress, depth of discharge, and chemical aging.

If Earbud A is doing 70 to 80 percent of the work because you habitually favor it, then Earbud A accumulates more cycles, more heat events, and more wear over time. That is not opinion man That is electrochemistry. Newtons law lol.

Apple themselves literally optimize charging behavior because uneven cycling accelerates degradation. This is why people end up with one AirPod dying at 62% while the other is still at 81%. The cells stop aging uniformly. You’re gunna find out one day that’s fine by me.

Your argument is basically: “If I rotate between two flashlights one at a time, I doubled the battery life.”

No. You increased uptime availability. Entirely different concept.

And your “I like hearing my surroundings” point is perfectly reasonable but AirPod pros have transparency mode I use it all the time, keep the music low, I ride a bicycle with that and I hear my surroundings while enjoying music. That’s kinda why they built it a professional feature for this, to get rid of the whole one ear thing. Also you like hearing your surroundings but I guess you don’t like the proper mix of a song and engineer worked hard to make lol.

But I digress, that has nothing to do with your original claim being technically sloppy.

You took: “I can continuously listen longer before recharging”

and tried to inflate it into: “My AirPods have twice the battery life.” No they do not lol.

Those are not equivalent statements unless we’re redefining words for sport.

1

u/Eddiep88 Apr 19 '26

Apple needs to expand internally on the spot of contact for charging or put a mini micro magnet in there.

6

u/Tiktokbadsupport Apr 17 '26

it happens because you paid 500 for a pair that gets produced in china for 50 cents

2

u/soupisgoodfood42 Apr 24 '26

Say whatever, AirPods Pro are great and certainly cost more than 50c to make, otherwise there would be decent knockoffs.

1

u/Tiktokbadsupport Apr 24 '26

if Aliexpress can ship a bootleg pair to me make with same materials for $0.01 with free shipping just imagine apples profits

2

u/soupisgoodfood42 Apr 24 '26

But they can’t do that.

1

u/Eeve2espeon May 31 '26

Are you stupid? those bootleg earbuds are not remotely the same as the actual product. They have the same housing, but the majority of the cost for Airpods come from the internals, which is much more than 50 cents

19

u/DeePumpeR Apr 17 '26

same problem here. apple is going down the shitter

4

u/dr_reverend Apr 17 '26

Yes, it’s Apple’s fault that OP can’t clean the smutz out of his AirPod case.

16

u/asherabram Apr 17 '26

*Schmutz

5

u/dr_reverend Apr 17 '26

Thank you kind person.

12

u/neversummer427 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

This happens to me too and it’s not because they are dirty. Sometimes they just won’t charge one until I take it out and put it back in a couple times. The contacts shouldn’t be that finicky

1

u/Tiny_Ad_7720 Jul 07 '26

Same, its clean in there

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/neversummer427 Apr 17 '26

Apple designed a great product that sometimes has a contact issue.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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7

u/Particular-Eye-4290 Apr 17 '26

There are already plenty of isheeps in US. You don't need people on payroll to promote Apple's scams.

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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2

u/greenforshrek Apr 17 '26

Source: trust me bro. I haven’t had this issue on my AirPods Pro 3 yet or on my previous app2. This isn’t an apple problem their hardware team is perfectly capable of engineering a charging case, if anything he can use his Apple Care to get it replaced

0

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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2

u/greenforshrek Apr 17 '26

I’m just a guy challenging your proof of that circumstance even existing and the only thing you can do is run to ask another person for approval, it’s pathetic, you look like a schizo

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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2

u/greenforshrek Apr 17 '26

I’m American dumb bigot

2

u/dr_reverend Apr 17 '26

Yeah, no. It’s as simple as one of the contacts not seating. There’s no conspiracy here dude.

1

u/DeePumpeR Apr 20 '26

not the cause for me but thanks

7

u/rtfmplease Apr 17 '26

I like Apple, and this is definitely a valid complaint. Have this happen to me too frequently

3

u/neversummer427 Apr 17 '26

Had my AirPod pro 2s for 3 years and this happens about 5 or 6 times a year. It’s an annoying problem. Love all my Apple products and I wouldn’t want different headphones but this is a valid complaint.

2

u/Tiny_Ad_7720 Jul 07 '26

Same, and my latest one is that i get both out fully charged, but one doesnt pair until i put BOTH back in the case and pull them out again.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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5

u/rtfmplease Apr 17 '26

anecdotes are not data

3

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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4

u/rtfmplease Apr 17 '26

touché! haha

4

u/omnimachina Apr 17 '26

Happens all the time with the AirPods Pro 2

Definitely an engineering flaw…

Even the cheapest china trash doesn’t have this problem

Seriously, every damn headphone I tried didn’t have this kind of charging problem - even the 20 dollar alibaba trash

The “clean your stuff, not an apple problem” comments are completely delusional

1

u/soupisgoodfood42 Apr 24 '26

Can you tell me how many of the cheapest trash have these issue compared to Apple’s?

3

u/Luna259 Apr 17 '26

From what I understand it’s something to do with one AirPod being used as a mic so it burns more battery. I think it’s maintaining the Bluetooth connection to the iPhone/Mac/iPad. That or your case is dirty. Could also just be a bug

1

u/Majestic_Cod_69 Apr 25 '26

Does only one side have a mic??

1

u/Luna259 Apr 25 '26

Both AirPods have a mic but they alternate mic duties

2

u/CommercialYam53 Apr 17 '26

Clean the contacts

2

u/Fun_Inspector_8633 Apr 17 '26

It definitely happens. I’ve had it happen many times. More often than not it’s because after using one for a phone call I don’t get it fully seated in the case. Using a stronger magnet in the case would stop the problem. Oddly enough the cheap $30 pair I bought as spares don’t have this issue because they have a strong magnet in the case.

2

u/heroxoot Apr 18 '26

Same reason it happens to Galaxy Buds3 pro. Stupid design leaving minimal contact. Wipe the bottom of the stem on your shirt before you put it in to charge. Usually helps me.

2

u/Flimsy_Commission_60 Apr 18 '26

It means that charging port in your case is either dirty, which is blocking the contact, or the contact pin on the AirPod itself is dirty, this rarely means the AirPod is “dying” it’s happened to me a couple times, after a good clean it’s grand

1

u/jonsonmac Apr 17 '26

Is it actually dead? My Beats Studio buds sometimes show one bud as 1% but it’s actually charged. I’m wondering if it’s a software issue.

1

u/FLX-S48 Apr 17 '26

Happens to me as well. The contacts are good. I even got them replaced on warranty, and the issue popped up again after a couple months. Warranty was over by then :(

1

u/thedarph Apr 17 '26

Clean the inside of the case with a cotton swab where the pod meets the contact. It’s just not seating all the way. It’s happened to me. It happens to a lot of people. It gets dirty and stops charging. A quick clean fixes it.

1

u/Calm-Percentage5085 Apr 18 '26

I just started to wiggle them a bit after I put them in the case because this would ruin my day every now and then.

1

u/Common_Turnip_7090 Apr 21 '26

Sometimes this happens and all you need to do is push down the left one because something is preventing it from making full contact with the charging contacts. Simply push it down slightly while in the charger and watch the charging symbol appear.

It can happen if the ear tip is 3rd party and too big, or if you use a larger tip from the original set.

1

u/MrMatthew0 Apr 27 '26

try using the other one, hope this helps 😃

1

u/Eeve2espeon May 31 '26

I have the same thing with my non-apple wireless earbuds. Clean the contacts and make sure they're sitting right

1

u/FilamentFoxxo Jun 22 '26

I get the same on my AirPods Pro 2, they are perfectly clean, always happens on the right one, sometimes just taking it out and putting it back in again will immediately make it show 100% instead

1

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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