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How to check the battery on Apple AirPods

In This Article

In This Article

There are few things more annoying than your headphones dying on you just as you start your journey home, but that’s a fate easily avoided by keeping track of how much battery life is left in them.

If you have a pair of AirPods there are various ways to do this. Here’s how to avoid getting caught short.

What we used

What we used

For this guide we used aniPhone 12 Proand a pair ofAirPods Pro, but the process is identical if you’re using a standard pair of AirPods.

The short version

Step1

The proximity method

The simplest way to check how much battery is left in your AirPods is to open the case and hold it close to your iPhone. Wait a second or two and a box will pop up showing the charge status of both the buds and the case.

Step2

The widget method

If you’ve already got the AirPods in your ears, swipe left to right on your iOS device and the batteries widget will indicate how much life there is left in them.

Step3

The Mac method

If you have your buds connected to a Mac, an AirPods-shaped icon will appear in the menu bar. Click on this or the Bluetooth icon and it’ll show you how much battery is left in each earphone. You can also check the case’s battery life by placing one of the AirPods inside.

Step4

The case method

It’s much vaguer, but when you open the lid of your AirPods case the status light on the front or inside also tells you how much battery is left: green shows that there’s a decent amount of juice left, while amber means less than one full charge remains. Do this with the buds inside and it indicates the battery life of the AirPods, while doing so when it’s empty corresponds to the case.

FAQs

If you’re using AirPods with an Android device, you can check the battery life, but you’d need to download additional software in the form of a monitoring apps (such as AirBattery) to do so.

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Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.