How to Find Your Airpods With Your iPhone

AirPods: Those tiny little devices that most of us use on a daily basis that also happen to conveniently hide somewhere out of our reach when we need them the most. If this happens to you more often than you’d care to admit, and you’re starting to think the memory cortex of your brain is going the way of cottage cheese, cut yourself some slack. You’re not alone in the battle of the elusive earbuds. In fact, losing AirPods is so common that Apple has decided to do something about it.

What you’ll need:

• An active iCloud and Apple account;
• “Find My” app - installed to the device that your AirPods are paired to.

Just two things! Now, let’s get into how you’ll actually use these to find your AirPods. Full disclosure: these steps will vary according to which AirPods model you have, but the steps are easy to tweak. So, let’s get down to business.

“Find My” App – A Guide to Installation

Download the “Find My” app from the App Store. Run through the setup and confirmation requirements. You can do this on any of your Apple devices, but it would be best to do it with the device that’s paired to your AirPods.

You’ll be able to see the location of your AirPods under the Devices tab. The great thing about this app is that it logs the last known location of all your devices if they happen to run out of battery life before you can get to them. It’s probably not going to be much help if someone has made off with them since then, but if you’ve just misplaced them somewhere around the house, this is a great feature.

NOTE: For the older versions of AirPods (Generations 1 & 2), you’ll be provided with a Directions function that will guide you to the last known location of your AirPods when they were PAIRED to your device. If you lost them when your devices weren’t paired, you’re not going to have much luck but at least you’ll be closer to finding – or remembering – where you left them.

Newer generations will allow you to use the Find feature to track them with more accuracy and that’s thanks to their new and improved ultra-wideband chip. Another huge pro of newer generation AirPods is that you can track a single earbud at a time. So, if you’re walking down the street without anything streaming (no judgment; a lot of us do this) and realize that your left earbud has fallen out, you can track just the left earbud. How cool is that?

TOP TIP: If you’ve followed the directions to the last known location of your AirPods and you still can’t find them, head to Notifications and toggle Notify When Found on. You can also use the Play Sound feature so that you can hear where those little devils have wandered off to.

Man AirPods Overboard!

You might be thinking, “Well, that’s great, but what if I’ve lost my AirPods on a plane, or cruise ship, or a dingy bathroom at a truck stop on my last road trip?” For this, you’ll need to find Device Information in your “Find My” app, click on Mark as Lost, and then hit Activate.

Using the same technology as AirTags, Apple securely uses other Apple devices to hone in on the beacon that your AirPods are emitting, triangulating their estimated location. Sounds like something out of the CIA’s bag of tricks, right? Well, special intelligence aside, it really works!

The bonus with this is that if someone finds your AirPods, they’ll get a push notification on their own device screen that provides your details. Be sure to enter a valid phone number or email so that they can get in touch with you and arrange to have your devices sent over to you.

If someone tries to make off with your AirPods once they’ve found them, they’ll never be able to use them. They’re paired indefinitely to your Apple ID for as long as they’re in Lost Mode. More importantly, you’ll get their exact location once they come in contact with your AirPods.

NOTE: If you ever want to remove a device from the Find My app, just scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the device’s entry list and click on Remove This Device.

Never Lose your AirPods Again

If you keep misplacing your earbuds and you really don’t want to have to hunt them down like an undercover agent ever again, then you need to take advantage of another incredible feature on the “Find My” app. Toggle the Notify When Left Behind feature in the app and you’ll get a notification as soon as your paired AirPods are out of range of your device. (See why I said having “Find My” on your paired device is recommended?)

Now you have all the tools at your disposal that you’ll need to ensure you never lose earbuds ever again!