How to Fix New AirPods (Buttonless) Playing One Channel Only on Windows

by Rian

The new AirPods, AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3, do not have a physical button on the case — both AirPods now have capacitive touch sensor on the front of the case instead. Personally, I prefer where the sensor has been moved; simple tapping motion on the front of the case puts the device in the Bluetooth Pairing mode.

Symptoms

Much like the previous generations of AirPods, latest AirPods with touch sensors can have the same problem:

• The earbuds will pair just as normal, not through “Find My”.
• It will play sounds only from one channel to only one speaker. *
• There are no other hardware problems.

* Not to be mistaken to with the AirPods mono mode for single speaker.

The problem seems to be more prevalent when it is connected to non-Apple devices, especially Windows machines. Any wireless earbuds (any earbuds with no wire connection between the speakers) are susceptible to the issue, even outside of Apple. Though it is often a recurring problem, sometimes AirPods may connect to the host device without a fault.

Band-aid Solution for Touch Cases

Again, this isn’t a permanent fix. More recent support articles I dug up suggested either deleting the Bluetooth driver or reinstalling it, but I suppose there is no need to be so reckless.

1. Place the earbud that is not playing back into the case.
2. Wait until the playing earbud in your ear starts playing both channels in mono.
3. After the green LED on the case is dimmed, remove the earbud from the case and put it back in your ear.
   

Unlike the cases with the physical button, you do need to be patient until the AirPods fully turn to mono mode, and then putting it back on the ear.

I had better luck with this process while I am playing actual stereo audio. There are stereo test audios available on the internet, (e.g. stereo speaker test on YouTube) so you may want to play a media that will also be helpful to identify which speaker is playing what channel of audio. I hope everyone is enjoying their new AirPods. I will post an update if I find more about it.