A generation of AirPods or two ago I had a problem that one side stopped working. I kept the AirPods reasonably clean with Q-Tips etcetera. An Apple Genius tried a last resort idea: using a ball of Blu-Tak (other products are available!) he rolled it across the offending speaker grille. It looked no cleaner than before yet suddenly the audio was back at full volume.
After months of being told my audio in my AirPods 4 with ANC was appalling, and having tried all hints about resetting and changing various settings, I had a brainwave today. You guessed it! I did the same trick as I routinely do on the speaker grilles but on the external microphone grilles instead! Imagine my delight that participants in conversations since then have confirmed that my audio is crystal clear.
Thinking about it this makes sense: we handle the outside of the AirPods and they are routinely exposed to dust and other particles in the air during use.
After months of being told my audio in my AirPods 4 with ANC was appalling, and having tried all hints about resetting and changing various settings, I had a brainwave today. You guessed it! I did the same trick as I routinely do on the speaker grilles but on the external microphone grilles instead! Imagine my delight that participants in conversations since then have confirmed that my audio is crystal clear.
Thinking about it this makes sense: we handle the outside of the AirPods and they are routinely exposed to dust and other particles in the air during use.