How to Find AirPods That Got Lost or Stolen

Jun. 3, 2023

AirPods are counted among the most popular audio accessories in the world. These feature-rich truly wireless earbuds are cute, sleek, & portable. While all this is true, we just can’t escape how easy it is to lose your AirPods. They can easily go missing on your couch, fall under your office desk, get stolen, or you could forget them at a cafe. Fortunately, there are a few ways to find your lost or stolen AirPods. In this detailed guide, we will tell you how to find AirPods using Apple and non-Apple devices.

The methods below will work for AirPods, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro models. Without any ado, let’s see how to get back your misplaced AirPods.

How to Set Up Find My to Track Missing AirPods

Apple offers the Find My app to locate and find lost devices. So, it’s essential to enable Find My on your paired Apple device to track your AirPods. More importantly,you have to turn on Find My before your AirPods go missing. Otherwise, you will not be able to use Find My to track your lost AirPods. Also, there’s no way to turn it ON after your device goes missing.

Note:For the best experience with Find My, Apple recommends installing the latest software update on your paired device. Also, make sure toupdate your AirPods with the latest firmwareregularly, it makes the tracking easier.

Note:

After you have set up Find My on your paired Apple device, you can see the current or last known location of your AirPods. The steps remain the same to find both or one lost AirPod.

In case your AirPods are lost in different locations, Find My app will initially show you the location of one AirPod. Once you get one of your AirPods, put it back in the case, open Find My, and you will then see the location of the other AirPod in the app. If you have got AirPods Pro 2nd-generation, you will see thelocation of each AirPod and the charging case on the Find My app.

Another way to track your lost or stolen AirPods is using your Apple Watch. Here’s what you need to do:

Apart from Apple devices, you can also track your stolen AirPods from a PC using iCloud. It is also one of the best ways to find lost AirPods using an Android smartphone. Here’s what you need to do:

If you have lost your AirPods nearby, you can play sound on them to quickly retrieve them. Here’s how you can play sound on AirPods using different Apple devices and iCloud.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open theFind My app -> Devices -> [Your AirPods]and tapPlay Sound.

2. On your Mac, head to theFind My app -> Devices -> [Your AirPods], click thei (Info)button and selectPlay Sound.

3. On your Apple Watch, go to theFind Devices appandchoose your AirPods.Now, tapPlay Sound. Make sure your Apple Watch is connected to the internet.

4. If you are using iCloud.com, sign in with your Apple ID, selectAll Devices -> [Your AirPods],and selectPlay Sound.

Find My app also offers a“Lost Mode”that lets you mark a device as lost and create a custom message with your contact information. It’s worth mentioning that Lost Mode doesn’t do anything automatically or stop anyone from using your AirPods. But when the lost or stolen AirPods are connected to a new device, it will show the customized message and the owner will be notified of the updated location. Here’s how to enable Lost Mode for AirPods or AirPods Pro:

On iPhone 12 or newer models, you can set up separation alerts to prevent yourself from leaving your AirPods at an unknown location. When enabled, theNotify When Left Behindfeature will send you notifications if you leave your AirPods behind.

Apple offers a single AirPod if you have lost just one from the pair. Unfortunately, you’ll have to buy a new one if the entire AirPods set has lost.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can track and find your lost AirPods using the Find My app on iPhone, iPad, or Mac. In addition, you can locate your AirPods using the Find Devices app on your Apple Watch. Lastly, you can get back your AirPods by using iCloud.com on PC, laptop, or Android device.

On iOS 15 and later devices, you can track your AirPods no matter how far they are. The Find My app will work even if the AirPods are outside the Bluetooth range of your Apple device. On iOS 14 or previous versions, you can find your lost AirPods only if they are within 30 feet of your connected device.

If yourAirPods are entirely out of chargeor appear to be offline, they can’t transmit signals to show their exact location. So, the Find My app will show you the last known location. You can try & find them around that location. Once your AirPods are online, your connected Apple device will get a notification. However, sometimes the Find My app might display “Offline” or “No Location”. You can place your AirPods in Lost Mode so you can find the updated location if it’s used by someone else.

Yes, AirPods can be tracked if they’re out of the case. You can also play sound to find your lost AirPods. If you own AirPods Pro 2, you can even play sound on the charging case.

You can use the Find My app to locate a single missing AirPod. OpenFind My app, tapDevices, chooseyour AirPods, and you’ll see its location. If you’ve got AirPods Pro 2, you can see the locations of left and right earbuds individually.

If you own the 2nd-generation AirPods Pro, you can easily find your lost AirPods case without AirPods. Now, that’s because AirPods Pro 2’s case has a U1 chip designed for precision finding. Open theFind My app > Devicesandtap your AirPods name. TapCaseand hitFindto locate your missing charging case. You can also play sound for easier tracking.