One earbud not working? Test it, then reset the pair
Which earbud is silent?
Put both earbuds in, keep the volume low and listen for each side.
Test finished
Left and right tones in the matching ears mean both earbuds play. A side that sounds quieter or muffled points to a blocked mesh or the Balance setting.
Tone finished
Wear both earbuds, set the volume low and press Start. A tone plays on the left, then the right, then both, so you hear which side produces nothing.
One earbud not working is almost always a charging or pairing problem rather than a broken earbud, and the fastest route through it is the same on every brand: prove which side is silent, charge both in the case, then reset the pair. Only the reset gesture itself differs from model to model.
The test above settles the first part before you change anything. The sections below cover the checks that apply to any pair of true wireless earbuds, the one step you have to look up for your own model, and how to tell a dead bud from a radio problem that only looks like one.
Why only one earbud works
A silent bud has four plausible causes, and three of them are fixed from the case. Working through them in order costs a few minutes and rules out the expensive explanation last.
| Cause | What you notice | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| That bud never charged | The case or app shows one bud low or absent | Clean both sets of contacts, charge, re-check |
| The pair lost its link | Both charged, one still silent | Both buds in the case, lid closed, then re-open near the phone |
| Pairing record is confused | It worked on another device but not this one | Forget the device in Bluetooth settings, reset the buds, pair again |
| Interference | It cuts in and out as you move | Move the phone closer and away from radio sources |
| The bud has failed | Still silent after a full reset | Single replacement bud, or service |
If your earbuds are AirPods, Apple publishes the whole procedure step by step and it is worth following exactly rather than approximating it — that version is on if the earbuds are AirPods.
The checks that work on every brand
These steps do not depend on who made the earbuds, because they address the charging contacts and the link between the two buds rather than any brand feature.
Step 1
Look at both sets of contacts
The metal pads on each bud and the matching pins in each well of the case. A smear of earwax or pocket lint on one side is the commonest reason one bud stays flat.
Step 2
Wipe them dry
A dry lint-free cloth on the pads. Nothing wet goes near the contacts, and nothing sharp goes into the wells.
Step 3
Charge both together
Put both buds in, close the lid, and leave them for a few minutes. Then check that the case or the app shows both charging, not just one.
Step 4
Re-open the case near the phone
With both buds seated, open the lid beside the phone. This is what re-establishes the link between the two buds on most designs.
Step 5
Test the silent side alone
Wear the problem bud with the other one shut in the case, and play audio. If it works alone, the pair had a link problem rather than a hardware one.
The isolation test in the last step is the one that actually tells you something. With the other bud shut in the case there is no second earbud to take the audio and no stereo channel to hide a silent side, so the result points at one thing: either that bud makes sound or it does not.
The one step you have to look up
Resetting the pair is where general advice runs out, because the gesture is specific to the model and getting it wrong just does nothing. There is no universal long-press.
The pattern is similar everywhere
Most designs want both buds in the open case and either a long press on the case button or a touch held on both buds, until a light changes colour or flashes.
The details are not
The hold duration, which light, and whether the case lid must be open or closed vary by brand and often between models from the same brand.
Forget the device first
On the phone, remove the earbuds from the Bluetooth device list before resetting them. A stale pairing record on the phone survives a reset of the buds and can recreate the same fault.
Look the reset up for your exact model rather than a close relative, and do it after the charging checks rather than before. A reset on buds that never charged tells you nothing, because the silent side was never awake to be reset.
When it is interference, not a dead bud
A bud that cuts out as you move, rather than staying silent, is describing a radio problem. Apple’s page on wireless interference, published 23 April 2025, lists Bluetooth audio that skips, stutters, cuts off or has static as a symptom, and that applies to any Bluetooth earbuds rather than to one brand.
Its practical content transfers directly. Common sources are power cables, microwave ovens, fluorescent lights, wireless video cameras and cordless phones; Bluetooth shares the 2.4 GHz band with Wi-Fi; and of the physical obstructions, Apple rates metal as very high interference potential — which is why a phone in a back pocket or a metal locker produces exactly this complaint.
The test is to walk. Start the tone above, hold the phone in your hand, then move to a different room and listen again. Dropouts that follow the phone’s position were interference; a bud that is silent in every room was not.
If the earbud makes noise rather than nothing — static, buzzing, crackle — that is the same interference family seen from the other side, and the checks are on noise instead of silence.
Quiet is a different problem from silent
It is worth being precise about the symptom, because a bud that plays faintly has a different cause list from one that plays nothing. Debris on the speaker mesh, a volume cap on the phone and an ear tip that does not seal all make one side sound weak while it is working perfectly.
The tone test separates them in seconds. A side that produces nothing at all on the left-right sequence is the subject of this page; a side that produces something thinner or quieter than the other belongs with the caps and the mesh routine on quiet rather than silent.
Water is the other case worth ruling out early, because it produces a silent or very faint bud that still charges normally. Earbuds need time to dry before any test means anything, and the model-by-model rules are on earbuds after a splash.
To check the same left and right channels on a laptop, a phone speaker or wired headphones rather than wireless earbuds, the left and right through earbuds test plays the same sequence through whatever output the browser is using.