AirPods 2 Sound Low

[Philip Fisher]

I have a pair of AirPods and the sound is muffled and low. I have tried it on my phone and Mac with the same result. I have cleaned the AirPods and my ears. No change. Yes the volume is up. They are fully charged.

Also, I have reset them and did the usual "forget" and "disconnect" on my phone and no change.

I don't know if some liquid got into them to cause this issue or something else is causing it.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Check out the recommendations found via this wiki page - https://www.wikihow.com/Fix-Muffled-Airpods

 

[Up_And_Away]

It doesn’t sound like this applies to you. Yours sounds like it may be wax build up, water/liquid/perspiration got in, or simple age. Except for the liquid issue, you likely will have seen audio degradation happen over time versus abruptly. But as an FYI, you can go to General Settings > Accessibility > AirPods > Audio Accessibility Settings > Headphone Accommodations > Custom (I believe there is a more direct route). I haven’t used this in a while and never on a non AirPods Pro (apologies if this doesn’t apply to AirPods 2). But I recall it has a sound check test which will give some ability to, what I’ll call, check and enhance the volume on AirPods. But also note a user can cause the audio to be notably lesser too (turn off accommodations, see if default sounds better).

If it is age and needs replacement, here is a low cost suggestion: the AirPods Pro 2 intro is likely coming in 2 or so months. These going on sale may see friends or family (or acquaintances of them) getting rid of their existing AirPods on the cheap. Aftermarket on AirPods is an interesting dynamic. Provided you don’t mind buying used and performing a (careful) deep dive cleaning, this may be a great option ((though hopefully you can remedy your existing AirPods 2. BOL))

 

[Wotchered]

A couple of weeks ago something happened to the volume on my wired headphones, I thought as you would, it was the phones because it usually is. Not so this time. I tried every setting pertaining to sound on my XS and eventually sound returned to normal ( can’t remember what did it). The point of all this rambling is that I believe that recently some update turned something off ( cut volume by about 50%). Probably hearing safety related. So check all audio settings, and then look for more !