How to Improve or Fix AirPods Battery Life

If you’re using first-generation AirPods or even heavy use of second-generation AirPods, your battery life for your Apple wireless earphones may be diminishing. But there’s one tip worth trying, which may possibly improve your battery life.

According to a post on Reddit, the following steps doubled the battery life of a user’s first-gen AirPods from 1.5 hours to 3-3.5 hours, saving the user’s earphones from ending up in a landfill.

1. Completely reset the AirPods case by holding down the white button on the back for over 10 seconds.
2. Re-pair the AirPods with your iPhone.
3. Fully drain both AirPods down to 0% and case down to 0% through normal usage.
4. Put drained AirPods into the dead case and charge both up to 100%.

Redditor ‘smakusdod’ writes, “This combination of reset/drain/recharge seems to have re-calibrated the battery life measurement system, and they no longer die at 1.5 hours. I’m now getting double that at around 3 – 3.5 hours, which is great for such an old pair. Hopefully this helps anybody experiencing this same thing. Try this battery recalibration!”



After trying this recalibration trick, the user writes the AirPods also drain “evenly” now. Previously, one AirPod would see its battery life drain faster than the other.

Apple’s battery service fee in Canada costs $65 CAD for each AirPod, regardless of generation. If you have AppleCare+ for Headphones ($39 CAD), it “offers replacement coverage if your AirPod or Charging Case battery holds less than 80 percent of its original capacity.”

Anyways, the steps above are definitely worth trying if you have aging first-generation AirPods. Let us know if it makes a difference.