Chosen Solution

So I have Gen 1 AirPods with the 2nd Gen Wireless Charging Case. I’ve noticed that my right AirPod is actually dying quicker. I charge them both to 100% and use them at the same time. My mic for them is set to automatic, not on specific side. Any ideas on what could be causing this? Thanks!

Hi, This is likely because of the physical battery in the device. If you use one of them significantly more than the other it can negatively affect the battery. Using one a lot more than the other will cause it to have more cycles and cause the battery to deteriorate faster. Unfortunately, the batteries on airpods tend to die after ~ 1 and 1/2 years, and the batteries are essentially unreplaceable. It might also be that you keep one plugged in far too much, causing the battery to deteriorate from always being connected to power. Edit: As mentioned below, you could also disable siri in one of the airpods, which may decrease power consumption. Apple tries to do always on Siri so that it is always listening and ready for you, but this isn’t always necessary and can be a drain on battery.

I had the right earpod configured to use Siri and that one was draining about 5-6 times faster than the left one. I set both earpods to play/pause on tap today and since then they seem to be charging at the same rate. Indeed it displays a single charging pod icon on my phone when I pop the case open where earlier it was displaying separate ones for left and right pods.

Not buying AirPods again on principle till the battery life improves. Expect $150 headphones to last more than 2 years. Can’t be a good thing for planetary trash situation.

For everyone that reads this in the future, I purchased Airpods Pro which had this issue on second use. (first use, it went to 100%). on the next uses, the left pod could not go higher than 70% charger. and when using it, 70% of charge finish in just 30min, where the right side was normal. I called apple, at first, i was told that i have to use my airpod for 1 week and battery will settle by itself. I told them I “want” to use it, but it do not allow me. it keep go off after short period of time. so they agree to exchange, but apple exchange would take 14 days where I am. so I went back to the same e-commerce website that I purchased it from (tiki.vn), they send a bike to collect airpod from me, they investigate and after 3 days, they send another bike to deliver a new box to me (completely new). new box does not have this issue anymore.

I had the same problem, Primary problem is that these batteries are so tiny that they will charge faster and as we all know whenever these Pods are in case are always on charging mode and due to this batteries deteriorates faster. Apple don’t seem to have any solution yet. (I recommend keep out your Pods from the case whenever it’s not in use.) For me I cleared all the dust from the case and then parity was restored. Dust causes charging malfunctioning and you’ll always see charging differences from one Pod to another. I hope this is helpful. :) Good Day!!

Wow, this is wild to hear. That’s exactly what happened with my Gen1 AirPods. Loved and used them so much but a little after a year the right one died and they were like, “sorry your two-months past.” Purchased a second pair, Gen2, loved and used them so much especially for work now that all is by distance…would you believe the same thing happened again with the right side? I noticed it faintly getting progressively worse about a year out. I tried for weeks to contact the store where I purchased to no avail, just not answering and I live an hour’s drove from the city: not going to drive two hours and expose to crowds unnecessarily during the pandemic without even knowing if this could get solved. I eventually contacted Apple…after an hour on the phone with a lame tech who seemed to know less than me (am an everything Apple person for decades) I finally got a Supervisor, explained the situation that I started trying to address this right around the one-year mark but now it’s three months past. He took it all in and ordered a warranty exception to replace both buds but I had to return the originals. Guess I’m a believer and loyal Apple man again, but we can say the right earbud problem is replicated, and twice for me across two generations.

Mine is airpod pro… I purchased it days ago and right now the keft ear only last for 2minutes while the right ear last longer… It’s very annoying though… I need help to equalize the two ears

old post, but in addition to Siri, having your mic set to “automatic” will still result in only one of them having the mic being the faster one to die. I also think that when they are put in at the same time, Apple prefers one side, even when set to automatic. For example, if you have the mic set to automatic, and always put your AirPods in at the same time together, the right one will have the mic. Only if you take the right one out and put it back in will it switch to the left.

Slight variation on the answers to date, however my AirPods Pro had one headphone drain to 0% whilst the other would still have 50% despite always using and charging them together. I found that wiping down the inside of the AirPods charging case with a dry cloth tissue solved the issue. Turns out that if there is even a hint of a foreign substance (Eg. Crumbs, fluff, wax, liquid) on the inside of the case where the AirPods are charging, this may prevent one or both from charging adequately, if at all. I wiped the inner case, put the Pods back in, and they both charged again and return to equal battery use. This was after resetting the case, disconnecting and reconnecting the AirPods, using the “forget this device” method and anything else I could find. If that proves useful, then great!