AirPod low volume in one ear? Try blowing into it before replacing it

My left AirPod 4 had been playing at maybe 20% of the volume of the right one for about a week. I’d written it off. I’d priced out a single replacement bud, read up on Apple’s out-of-warranty fees, and mentally moved on.

Then I blew into the speaker mesh. Like inflating a balloon. It works again.

That’s it. That’s the whole post, really, but here’s the rest of it anyway.

Apparently I’m not the only one

After it worked I got curious whether other people were running into this, so I checked Google Trends:

So this is a real, recurring thing, which is exactly why I’m writing it down instead of keeping it to myself.

Two things worth knowing

A bud that is quiet but otherwise clean is usually just blocked. Mine looked spotless from the outside, so brushing the mesh did nothing. Blowing into it reached what the brush couldn’t.

And before you blame the hardware at all, check Settings → Accessibility → Audio & Visual → Balance. A slider nudged off-center imitates a dead bud perfectly.

Did this work for you?

Let me know in the comments. I’m curious whether this is a common failure or whether I just found a creative way to break my own hardware.