AirPod Pro Ear Tip Fit test not working...Not the only one

[michaelant]

I've noticed that bone conduction has increased when I walk, every time I set down my fot when walking there is this "thud" that is so common with in-ears but wasn't when my Airpod Pro were new. Then I tried the ear tip test, it failed on both ears, first I thought it was the new 2D15 firmware screwing with things but after some googling and finding all these threads complaining about this issue, I decided to try cleaning the inner vent with Q-tips and isopropylalcohol, it didn't do much difference for the bone conduction issue but at least the test did pass on several occasions on the right pod this time. I finally tried some Blue Tack treatment, viola, both pods test PASSED and now there is much LESS audible bone conduction from my feet when walking.

This is an obvious design flaw with the Airpod Pro. I REALLY hope they'll fix this in future revisions as I now will have to carry around a small bit of tack tucked into the round holes in the case for occasional cleaning.

Can I ask how long you've had them? I had mine for six months before trying/realizing I could try the blu tack, and while I got some improvement, it's not back to passing the fit test or the great initial noise cancelling I had for the first month of having them.

 

[JoelArt]

Can I ask how long you've had them? I had mine for six months before trying/realizing I could try the blu tack, and while I got some improvement, it's not back to passing the fit test or the great initial noise cancelling I had for the first month of having them.

I've had them since launch in Sweden, roughly 6 month as well I guess. Noise cancellation has more to do with firmware if you get a good seal. I'm just saying that I've stated to notice more thumping when walking than I used to, I hadn't tried the fit test in while and it used to pass with flying colors but suddenly is wouldn't not matter how I seated them in the hears concha. After cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol and Q-tip rubbing I managed to get the right tip to pass the test a few times, but not consistently. After some heavy dabbing with blue tack it suddenly passed the test for both tips and the thumping while walking is much reduced.

 

[dscox]

Firstly, I'd like to say thank-you to everyone here. I've been following this forum for some time and I feel like we're all brothers and sister in this screwed up situation. My story (short) is I bought the Airpods Pro a week or so after they were released. Right one went. Took them back to Apple who swapped it out for a new right one. Then the left one went a week after that. Took them back again and asked for a brand new set. They agreed to only provide a left and a new case - this was two weeks after release so they were trying different things. At the time, the geniuses knew nothing - the product was too new. So, that was a Friday. I put the two AirPods in the case and left them till Monday. That morning, the left one was dead. OMG. Lost my shizzle, let me tell you. So, took them back and got my money back. BUT, man I love these things, and six-ish months later I went and got some more - I know, glutton for punishment, but I thought maybe they'd ironed out some bugs in that time. I was running fit tests once a day, everyday. This was usually an indicator of a problem. For a week, first thing in the morning all was green ticks. Yay! And then on the day of the new update after the update had been completed I checked again (right earbud, no fit). WTF! Now I don't know if it was a coincidence. Don't care, really. But, I went a week with green ticks, and after the update, right earbud gonski. Now... I'd read these forums (again, thank-you all) and I thought I'd try the old blu-tac technique. But didn't have any. Except on the wall... Hmmm. So used that and it got stuck in the grill! I tried to wash them out with a damp cloth and alcohol wipes. Stuck right in there. So, I did what anyone would do... I took them back and lied about how the update killed them (kind of did lol) and got a new box (brand new). Nice! Now.... nine days later, the right earbud has gone. Not surprised. Got nine days out of them, guys!!! Nine days! Awesome, eh? LOL. So, I contacted Apple and they're sending a new right earpod in the post. Never done this before so should be a good laugh. Probably by the time it arrives the left will have "died". I haven't actually tried a blu-tac clean since then. To be honest, I'm terrified about doing it. Terrified! I have a new pack of tack (that rhymes!) but yeah too scared to use it. So... again, thank you my brothers and sisters. At least it's not just me.

 

[michaelant]

Firstly, I'd like to say thank-you to everyone here. I've been following this forum for some time and I feel like we're all brothers and sister in this screwed up situation. My story (short) is I bought the Airpods Pro a week or so after they were released. Right one went. Took them back to Apple who swapped it out for a new right one. Then the left one went a week after that. Took them back again and asked for a brand new set. They agreed to only provide a left and a new case - this was two weeks after release so they were trying different things. At the time, the geniuses knew nothing - the product was too new. So, that was a Friday. I put the two AirPods in the case and left them till Monday. That morning, the left one was dead. OMG. Lost my shizzle, let me tell you. So, took them back and got my money back. BUT, man I love these things, and six-ish months later I went and got some more - I know, glutton for punishment, but I thought maybe they'd ironed out some bugs in that time. I was running fit tests once a day, everyday. This was usually an indicator of a problem. For a week, first thing in the morning all was green ticks. Yay! And then on the day of the new update after the update had been completed I checked again (right earbud, no fit). WTF! Now I don't know if it was a coincidence. Don't care, really. But, I went a week with green ticks, and after the update, right earbud gonski. Now... I'd read these forums (again, thank-you all) and I thought I'd try the old blu-tac technique. But didn't have any. Except on the wall... Hmmm. So used that and it got stuck in the grill! I tried to wash them out with a damp cloth and alcohol wipes. Stuck right in there. So, I did what anyone would do... I took them back and lied about how the update killed them (kind of did lol) and got a new box (brand new). Nice! Now.... nine days later, the right earbud has gone. Not surprised. Got nine days out of them, guys!!! Nine days! Awesome, eh? LOL. So, I contacted Apple and they're sending a new right earpod in the post. Never done this before so should be a good laugh. Probably by the time it arrives the left will have "died". I haven't actually tried a blu-tac clean since then. To be honest, I'm terrified about doing it. Terrified! I have a new pack of tack (that rhymes!) but yeah too scared to use it. So... again, thank you my brothers and sisters. At least it's not just me.

Hey dscox, thanks for sharing your story. I can say, if you have new blu tack (I used Loctite fun-tak) you really have to try hard to get it stuck in there. And if you do, it'll just come out with the next tack roll over it. I've pressed that stuff onto the meshes now probably 100 times each pod, and I only got a little stuck in there like twice. Which came right out next time. And I've actually been using the same bit of tack for almost all that. I warm it up first by rolling it in my fingers a bit, and I put it back in the package under the plastic cover, I'm guessing it doesn't dry out that way.

 

[IRF]

So my AirPod pro story ended! Just swapped my unit for a full refund and got me a pair of Jabra elite 75T active... So blowing away the app! Better sound and louder, ip57 rating 7,5h battery life, and THANK GOD no vents and software to mess around with!!! Just use em like you want without thinking over stupid premature technology that cam fail every day.

 

[Phone Junky]

I've pressed that stuff onto the meshes now probably 100 times each pod

Sounds like something I would really want to have to do with my $250 earbuds to keep them working properly.

 

[michaelant]

Sounds like something I would really want to have to do with my $250 earbuds to keep them working properly.

Exactly. It's a flawed design. However, when they are working properly they are great. I'm hoping AirPods Pro 2 will have a design fix. Until then, though..

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Eldiano]

I think the biggest problem is when you mess around with the ear tip test DAILY, it’s a test for one time use to make sure you get a good seal between ear tip sizes from small, medium or large it’s not meant to be used EVERY day or everytime you place them in your ear. These are just digital canceling Earpods by using the envinroment, they don’t use analog(physical eartips to cancel the noise out) if you guys wanted true noise cancellation apple is not your brand, they don’t even use foam tips that completely seal off your ears, it’s just rubber and everyone’s ears are a bit different.

I have had these since day one and these are my second pair of airpods pro, i got these swapped at first because the right airpod was having connectivity issues and having the red exclamation mark issue where it wouldn’t charge or work, ever since they work as intended, but i feel it’s Not necessary to use eartip seal TEST EVERY time and use a factor to judge a defective product just because, it’s just a small perk.

The airpods pro work as intended, it’s not like we are traveling by train every day

 

[Arran]

Exactly. It's a flawed design.

Yes and no.

A hot, sweaty, waxy ear (sorry for the graphic language guys) is a pretty hostile environment for a tiny piece of sensitive electromechanical audio equipment.

Not making excuses but, you know, reality.

 

[dscox]

OK, I bit the bullet; or the blu-tac, so to speak. Had the same issue (again) after a week, and I thought bugger it, I'll use the blu-tac technique. Well, low and behold, works flawlessly. I currently work from home, so these are in my ears ALL DAY. That's from 8:30am-5pm (with a re-charge at lunch) and I have to use the blutac daily... does that sound normal? How many days do you guys get after a BTC (Blu-Tac Clean)? Or are my ears just a cesspool of dirt and grime? Don't know if I can be bothered doing this every day; only takes a minute, but still...

 

[Duncan68]

OK, I bit the bullet; or the blu-tac, so to speak. Had the same issue (again) after a week, and I thought bugger it, I'll use the blu-tac technique. Well, low and behold, works flawlessly. I currently work from home, so these are in my ears ALL DAY. That's from 8:30am-5pm (with a re-charge at lunch) and I have to use the blutac daily... does that sound normal? How many days do you guys get after a BTC (Blu-Tac Clean)? Or are my ears just a cesspool of dirt and grime? Don't know if I can be bothered doing this every day; only takes a minute, but still...

I finally after some repeated practice actually got the Blu-Tac method to work. I can't really be bothered anymore, but when I do the test every 5 days or so, I find that it fails again. I use them maybe 3 hours a day at the most. TMI, but I have oily rather than flaky earwax.

 

[vinegarshots]

OK, I bit the bullet; or the blu-tac, so to speak. Had the same issue (again) after a week, and I thought bugger it, I'll use the blu-tac technique. Well, low and behold, works flawlessly. I currently work from home, so these are in my ears ALL DAY. That's from 8:30am-5pm (with a re-charge at lunch) and I have to use the blutac daily... does that sound normal? How many days do you guys get after a BTC (Blu-Tac Clean)? Or are my ears just a cesspool of dirt and grime? Don't know if I can be bothered doing this every day; only takes a minute, but still...

Only real options are to either decide to ignore it, or blu-tac it daily. It won't be any better until Apple designs a V2 that addresses their multiple design flaws.

 

[DigginOnJamesBrown]

First-time listener (specifically for this thread); first-time caller. I'm not a sound-engineer or Apple Genius or HID professional, so... yeah.

My experience w/APP: Just got them two days ago; one bud passed the test the first couple of tries while the other failed, and now they both fail regularly unless, it seems, I'm pressing them harder into my ears during the test. I've ordered the foam tips from CharJenn (sp?), but probably won't receive them for another week.

The over-arching problem is that the buds, or more specifically the tips, don't sit deep enough in the ear canal. No matter the material used for the tip, if it isn't inserted deep enough into the ear canal, it won't make a good seal. And as noted previously in this (loooong) thread, without a good seal, you won't get good bass response or noise-reduction/-cancelation.

I'm not sure yet what purpose the opening everyone is cleaning with tacky goo serves, but my suspicion is that what makes it help is that the users are also cleaning the surface of the buds, making them stick for a minute deeper in their ear canals. It's great that it helps, and good for y'all if you don't mind doing that regularly, but... that isn't a fix for the overall problem. Our ears will get "dirty" (for lack of a more disgusting term), and anything designed to be inserted into our ears needs to account for that truth.

I think the answer is: deeper insertion, either in the form of longer tips or some extension that can be securely inserted between the bud and the provided tips. If your ear-structure is such that you get a solid, quiet seal already, you're good to go; if you don't, then the deeper reach of these extended tips will probably resolve the problem. (It might also be true that *bigger* tips would work -- big enough that they can get a good grip inside your ears despite not being inserted deeper into the ear canals. If the foam tips I ordered don't work, perhaps I'll try to make bigger tips myself somehow, maybe by inserting something underneath the outside flap of the current large tips to expand them, or by surgically affixing the outside flap of another silicone tip over the APP large tip to add heft.)

The most important thing to me is the sound-quality of my headphones/earbuds, and it seems like the APP are really good given their limitations (small, wireless buds versus large, wired, over-the-ear headphones) -- so, I want them to be able to work as well as they can. I'm pretty confident that the solution would be longer tips/deeper insertion.

Just my $0.02.

 

[vinegarshots]

I'm not sure yet what purpose the opening everyone is cleaning with tacky goo serves, but my suspicion is that what makes it help is that the users are also cleaning the surface of the buds, making them stick for a minute deeper in their ear canals. It's great that it helps, and good for y'all if you don't mind doing that regularly, but... that isn't a fix for the overall problem. Our ears will get "dirty" (for lack of a more disgusting term), and anything designed to be inserted into our ears needs to account for that truth.


Just my $0.02.

Nope. It’s because whatever algorithm the AirPods are using to determine a perfect seal partially relies on the pressure vent being 100% clear, and if it’s not, it gives a failed result.

 

[Duncan68]

Nope. It’s because whatever algorithm the AirPods are using to determine a perfect seal partially relies on the pressure vent being 100% clear, and if it’s not, it gives a failed result.

Yes, I've gotten to the point where I can use Blue-Tac to get them to pass again every time. A few days later they're failing again.

 

[DigginOnJamesBrown]

If it's just a pressure vent, then it being a little gunky shouldn't affect the seal, just the amount of pressure you feel when you push the buds into place. (If it's *completely* blocked, then maybe you won't get a good seal because the bud can't be inserted all the way because of the resistance air pressure... but we should notice that when we try to insert it and it hurts.)

That being said, it's entirely possible that the ear-seal test is affected by the gunkiness of this vent, and therefore contributes to the test failing. But I'm less worried about the failed tests than I am getting a good seal for the best possible bass and noise-exclusion, and I think that has more to do with the depth of the tip-insertion. (And maybe if the tips extended farther, this vent wouldn't contact the ear so much and get so gunky.) Again, though, this is just my speculation, and I'm certainly not disagreeing with anyone who tacks the vent regularly and feels like they get better performance as a result of doing so.

 

[vinegarshots]

If it's just a pressure vent, then it being a little gunky shouldn't affect the seal, just the amount of pressure you feel when you push the buds into place. (If it's *completely* blocked, then maybe you won't get a good seal because the bud can't be inserted all the way because of the resistance air pressure... but we should notice that when we try to insert it and it hurts.)

That being said, it's entirely possible that the ear-seal test is affected by the gunkiness of this vent, and therefore contributes to the test failing. But I'm less worried about the failed tests than I am getting a good seal for the best possible bass and noise-exclusion, and I think that has more to do with the depth of the tip-insertion. (And maybe if the tips extended farther, this vent wouldn't contact the ear so much and get so gunky.) Again, though, this is just my speculation, and I'm certainly not disagreeing with anyone who tacks the vent regularly and feels like they get better performance as a result of doing so.

To be clear, it's not the vent that's affecting any kind of actual "seal." It appears that having ANY kind of tiny blockage in the grilles changes some kind of small pressure/sound dynamic inside the AirPods that's being used to calculate a proper fit, and the software reports a failed seal.

And, it also appears that this same dynamic also affects the quality of the sound processing (again, independent of an actual proper seal between your ears and the eartips). Often just cleaning the grille with blutac improves the overall sound quality, in addition to making the fit test pass.

 

[Artanis]

I’ve been following this post for quite some time with everyone monkeying around with suggestions for tape, blue tack, sucking, cleaning, etc. why should anyone HAVE to clean any pair of earbuds or headphone so frequently? I’ve owned many different brands of headphones and earbuds in my 70 years and have never had to baby them to receive acceptable results. In fact, I refuse to. Therefore, I switched to the Sony brand of ANC earbuds. As a bonus, the sound better as well. I plan on trying the new Jabra Elite 75ts next week. No ANC, but is hear the seal is so good it filters out most outside noise anyway.

 

[zhenya]

For anyone who thinks this issue is specific to the AirPods Pro...

I just today tried to use my wife’s Airpods Gen 2 as they were handy and already listed in my bluetoth devices. The left bud was barely audible - I thought it must be damaged. Decided to take a closer look and the grilles indeed looked dirty. Pulled out the blu-tack and it was kind of gross what came off of them. A few minutes on all of the grilles on both and they are back to normal.

As an aside, this was the first time I’d bothered to take the time to listen critically to them side by side. This confirmed my impressions - the APP’s are a huge step up in sound quality. The regular Airpods are bright and a bit strident on the high end. Individual instruments don’t really stand out - everything is kind of mushed together. The Airpods Pro stop me multiple times every day as I get absorbed by the music - and the sound always leaves me wanting to listen more. After decades of listening closely to and reviewing headphones, this is how I’ve learned to pick which equipment I really like. The regular Airpods had me bored of the music in about 5 minutes.

 

[GigabitEthernet]

The Bluetack trick works for me but I do a lot of running and it only resolves the problem for a day or two. In my view it's a design flaw.

 

[RumorConsumer]

My right one always fails but I detect literally no loss of bass or cancellation or fidelity.

 

[SaSaSushi]

This is purely anecdotal but I believe the Blu-tack "fix" may be related to issues with internal damage related to the "rattling" problems described in threads like this one, perhaps due to debris inside the AirPods.

I recently had both sides replaced for rattling and I had been frequently applying Blu-tack.

I've had no further problems over the past month or so with the replacements, haven't applied Blu-tack and have decided to stop running the Ear Tip Fit Test.

My right one always fails but I detect literally no loss of bass or cancellation or fidelity.

I also have no complaints about audio quality or ANC.

 

[biscuit]

Following up on my earlier posts. I had mostly stopped using the fit test but still found occasional blu-tak application to be beneficial. Seemed they were mostly working, though I noticed that the left APP would make a weird feedback noise if I was speaking loudly. This was the one that has been replaced.

Anyway just the other day the left one started to crackle if there was external noise. This only happened with noise cancellation or transparency on.

Got in support chat, went through the usual tests and they said they’d send another replacement. During this I noticed the RIGHT ‘pod was failing fit test consistently, so at the last moment I asked if they’d replace both, which they have done.

Have done the repairing. Had to do it a couple of times as I ended up with two sets of paired pros in Bluetooth the first time.

Just charging them up a bit then we’ll see what the change is like...hoping that I won’t have to get replacements every few months for the rest of time.

 

[TheSynchronizer]

After replacing my airpods pro 3 times now, I’d like to offer a solution that has seemed to stopped the problem happening for me once and for all, for anyone still experiencing the issue.

What I have done is a fairly simple fix. As the root of the issue is the inward vents being blocked up inevitably within a matter of days before needing to ‘suck’ on them again to restore performance, I have simply attached small pieces of transparent tape to both airpod pros where the vents are.

This has not affected the performance in anyway, ear detection still functions normally, and best of all it seems it has stopped the vents being blocked and therefore the issue doesn’t return. Finally I can enjoy my airpod pros without needing to worry about replacing them every week.

I hope this helps anyone experiencing this issue. Seems like there really is a design flaw with these, but as long as I can correct the design flaw the airpod pros are excellent headphones.

 

[Macine Toc]

I have tried this tape "fix". No more APP Bluetooth connexion ! OOOOPS !!