What to do if your Apple AirPods won’t charge anymore: Tech Support

Welcome to Tech Support, a segment where I, Dan Howley, serve as your intrepid guide through the sometimes confusing, often frustrating, world of personal technology.

Here, I answer all of your most pressing questions about the various gizmos, gadgets, and services you use in your everyday life.

Have a question of your own? Reach me on Twitter at @danielhowley or email me at dhowley@yahoofinance.com.

Now, on to your questions. This week's dilemma:

“What can I do if my Apple AirPods won’t charge anymore?”

Apple’s (AAPL) AirPods are 4 years old, and that means if you purchased the now-iconic wireless earbuds when they first hit the market you might be getting worse battery performance than when you initially bought them.

Apple says the base AirPods are supposed to get 5 hours of usage out of a single charge, while the AirPods Pros get you 4.5 hours of listening time due to the added drain of their noise-cancelling technology. But if you’ve had your AirPods for a few years, there’s a chance you’re not getting near that amount of use out of them.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to ensure your AirPods are functioning properly. And if they aren’t, I’ll tell you how to get your AirPods’ batteries changed, instead of spending money on a new pair.

Make sure the batteries are the actual problem

Okay, bear with me. But before you decide that your AirPods’ batteries are actually done for, you’re going to want to do a few things. First off, make sure the actual charging case is getting a charge.

The Lightning port on the AirPods’ charging case can become clogged with pocket lint, preventing it from being able to pull in a charge.

If that’s the case, you can use a non-metallic object like a toothpick to try pulling out the obstruction. You can also try using compressed air, but whatever method you choose, you’ll need to be especially careful, because if you damage the charging port, you’re not going to be able to get a replacement through Apple.

If you’re nervous about cleaning out the port, you can try taking it to the Apple Store and ask a Genius to unclog the port for you.

If you’ve been using a wireless charger to power up your charging case, then you should try physically plugging in the case to make sure there’s nothing wrong with the case itself.

If the batteries are the problem

Okay, so the batteries in your AirPods are the actual problem. They’re either running down incredibly fast, or you’re not able to charge them at all anymore.

Before you curse Apple for its product design, it’s important to recognize that the AirPods, like most modern electronics, use Lithium-Ion batteries. And as you’ve probably seen with your other devices, those batteries have a limited effective lifetime.

If you’ve got AppleCare+ for your AirPods, you can take them to your Apple Store and have the batteries changed out for new ones for free. That goes for the charging case too.

Don’t have AppleCare+? You can still get your AirPods batteries changed out, but for $49 each regardless of whether you’ve got AirPods or AirPods Pros. That works out to $98 without tax. And while that’s a pretty price to pay, it’s still a bit less expensive than paying the $159 for a new pair of AirPods with a standard charging case, or the $199 it’ll cost for a pair of AirPods with a wireless charging case.

And it certainly beats paying $249 for a new pair of AirPods Pros.

If you’re not ready to spend cash on battery replacements just yet, and are worried about new AirPods coming out along with Apple’s upcoming iPhone 12, you can always hold off until September when the new phones are expected to be announced.

If you do end up buying a new pair of AirPods, you can drop your old models off with Apple or request a voucher to mail them in so they can be properly recycled.

Got a tip? Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com over via encrypted mail at danielphowley@protonmail.com, and follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

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