Apple’s tiny true wireless earphones are an important part of your everyday luggage, useful for traveling with music and taking Zoom calls without distracting others. Handy buttons offer instant pairing with all your favorite iOS and Mac devices, a host of customizable controls, premium sound, and a great way to interact with Siri.
Unlike some earbuds, though, you won’t be able to simply tap your AirPods multiple times to check each earbud’s battery levels. That said, there are other ways you can quickly and easily find out how much juice your AirPods (and their charging case) have left.
In the guide below, we’ve outlined several methods you can use to check the battery level of AirPods, with step-by-step instructions for each strategy.
Check the battery of your AirPods with an iPhone or iPad
If you own a pair of AirPods, there’s a good chance you own an iOS device as well. Whether your mobile hardware of choice is an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you can use each of these iOS devices to check the battery level of your AirPods.
For this method, you will need both your AirPods and your AirPods charging case.
Step 1: If your AirPods aren’t already paired with your iOS device, you’ll need to pair them first. To get started, place your AirPods in their case, close the lid, and place them near your iOS device.
Step 2: From the home screen of your iOS device, tap settings > Bluetooth. At the top of the page is a Bluetooth toggle switch. If it is off, be sure to slide it to the on position before continuing.
Step 3: Select your AirPods from the list of available Bluetooth devices. Once the state changes from Not connected to Connectedthis means that your AirPods have been successfully paired with your iOS device.
Stage 4: Now all you have to do is open the lid of your charging case. After a few seconds, a battery reading will automatically appear at the bottom of your iOS device screen. This graph will show you how much battery is left for both your AirPods and their charging case.
Step 5: If you want to check the battery level of each individual AirPod, remove one of them from the charging case and wait a few seconds for the reading to update.
Step 6: This process works the same for iPads, but be sure to give your AirPods a few seconds to connect while open if you don’t regularly use them on iPad.
Check the battery of your AirPods with a Mac
If you have a Mac, you can use your desktop or laptop computer to check the battery level of your AirPods. Here’s how to do it.
Step 1: Make sure your AirPods are in their case with the lid closed.
Step 2: From your Mac desktop, at the top right of the screen, click the Bluetooth icon. If the emblem is not showing here, there is an easy way to add it to the command queue. just open System preferencesthen click Bluetooth. At the bottom of the page, check the box next to Show Bluetooth in menu bar.
Step 3: When you click on the Bluetooth icon, your AirPods should appear in the list of available devices. If not, make sure your AirPods are not connected to any other Bluetooth devices. It might also help to reset and re-pair your AirPods. To do this, make sure the charging case lid is closed, then press and hold the Setting on the back of the case until a white indicator light begins to flash.
Stage 4: You can select your AirPods with your mouse cursor or open the lid of your AirPods case. Once you do this, a battery reading will appear next to the name of your AirPods, showing you the charge level of the left and right AirPods.
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Check the battery of your AirPods case without an iOS device
While not as detailed as the other methods on this list, you can use the status light on your AirPods case to get a rough idea of how much battery is left between the two buttons.
Step 1: Make sure you take the AirPods out of the case. Then go ahead and open the lid.
Step 2: Look at the charging case status light, located inside or on the front of the case (depending on the model of AirPods you have). If the status light turns green, it means the charging case is fully charged. If the indicator shows amber, it means your case only has enough charge left for one recharge of your AirPods.
Check the battery of your AirPods without the case
All three of the above methods require you to use your AirPods charging case to check the battery level of the AirPods as well as the case itself. However, if your case isn’t around and you want to check the battery on your AirPods, there is another way to get a reading from an iOS device.
Step 1: Make sure that Bluetooth is enabled on your iOS device and that your AirPods are connected.
Step 2: Touch and hold any blank part of your device’s home screen. Once the apps start shaking, you’ll be able to start editing parts of your device’s layout, apps, and widgets.
Step 3: Tap on the Further icon in the upper left corner of the screen. You will now be taken to a dropdown menu of widgets that you can add to your device screen(s). Select batteries from the list of options, then choose what size widget you’d like to add. When you are done, select add widget.
Stage 4: After selecting where you want your widget to live, touch Made in the upper right corner of the screen
Step 5: Now when you open the Batteries widget, you will be able to check the battery level of each AirPod. This works even if your AirPods are connected to another Bluetooth device.
Are you looking to get more out of your AirPods battery life? The more advanced AirPods have a special feature called Optimized Battery Charging. It’s available on AirPods Pro, AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods 3, and is usually enabled automatically, though you can enable or disable it in your AirPods settings.
This feature learns your AirPods charging habits and when you’re most likely to use them, and keeps them charged to approximately 80% until just before you normally need them, at which point the case will charge them up to 100%. This helps extend overall battery life over time and prevents your battery from dying down so quickly… or if that’s too intrusive, you can turn it off at any time.
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