The Apple air pods can be a little difficult to keep clean, but with a few simple tips, they can be kept in good condition. These instructions will show you how to clean the earpieces and the charging case and some ways that you might not have thought of on your own.
First things first: Make sure to use a soft cloth or something similar to clean the earpieces and the charging case. You don’t want anything abrasive on any of these pieces as they could scratch them.
If you don’t have anything like this around your house, such as old t-shirts, microfiber clothes would work well also if they are lint-free.
This step is especially important if there is dust on those surfaces as it means there is the potential for scratching the surface during cleaning if it comes into contact with something abrasive.
A toothbrush can be used to remove any dirt or dust from the charging contacts and air vents on the side of the charging case. It might take a little time and elbow grease, but sometimes that’s what it takes to get things clean!
This will help remove anything like this which may not have been removed by water alone. This likely does not need to be done more than once every week-ish or so, depending on how often you use them and where they are kept when not in use.
Now we’ll get into the less common and more niche cleaning methods.
The first of these is using a q-tip. Use the cotton swabs to wipe down the opening for each earpiece on both the outside and inside. The wax that comes out of our ears can build up in here over time, so it’s important to clean them every now and again. This gets everything off your air pods have collected while they are being stored or are not being worn.
Another thing you might try doing if the above methods do not work well enough is putting some rubbing alcohol onto a cloth or paper towel or something similar and using that to wipe down any metal components on either side of your charging case.
This includes parts like the power button, volume controls, Siri button, etc. You’ll want to make sure not to get this on your skin or any of the plastic parts of the case, though. Just metal components, please!
If you notice that one earpiece charges but not both or that they constantly disconnect while syncing music or something similar, then you may need to do this step before they will work correctly again.
The last thing is to make sure to clean the air vents on either side of the charging case. The air inside the case flows through these vents and if there’s anything blocking them it could affect how well the case can cool your air pods or how quickly that happens.
If you’ve tried all of the above and nothing has worked, then it might be time to consider getting a new charging case for them. This usually only needs to be done every couple of years if they are taken good care of as long as everything is cleaned as recommended above.
That’s all there is to it!
Follow these steps and your air pods should stay clean and functional for a long time to come.