Did You Know: The Left and Right AirPods 5 Batteries Are Not Interchangeable

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Did you know that the two earbuds in a pair of AirPods 5 do not use the same battery? When the repair firm iFixit took Apple’s new earbuds apart for a Sept. 29 teardown, it moved the battery from the left bud into the right one and got nothing. The app showed the bud charging, but it held no charge. With the batteries put back on their original sides, the buds showed a partial charge again. iFixit said it first wondered whether Apple was blocking the swap in software through some kind of parts pairing. The cause turned out to be physical. The polarity on the two batteries is reversed, and the prongs are welded slightly off center. “These batteries are physically ever so slightly different from left to right,” iFixit wrote.

Photo: Apple

The detail matters because AirPods 5 are the first AirPods that iFixit thinks skilled technicians, and even intrepid DIYers, can re-battery with a decent success rate. Each bud’s battery connects through a pair of metal prongs instead of tiny soldered leads, a design Apple used in AirPods 3 and dropped for AirPods 4. “If you know how to plug a lamp into a wall outlet, you already know how these work,” iFixit wrote. The buds opened cleanly around the speaker driver on both sides, and once the strips of glue beside the battery were removed, the cell popped out with its prongs attached. Replacement batteries are not on sale yet. When they arrive, iFixit’s advice is to “make sure you’re getting the correct battery for the bud you’re trying to service.” A listing that says only “AirPods 5 battery” may not be enough.

Photo: iFixit

iFixit also tried the repair without professional gear. Specialist shops use jigs to clamp the buds during surgery, but the team managed to open one with a household hair dryer on its lower heat setting and an ordinary clamp, keeping the dryer at a distance and moving the heat around so the plastic would not melt. It is still not an easy fix. An earlier attempt to open a bud through the stem melted the plastic, and the successful method took careful heating and patient prying. Deeper in the stem sit the H2 chip that runs active noise cancellation and three MEMS microphones. iFixit added an editor’s note that the capacitive touch layer it found there is present only in the model with the Wireless Charging Case.

Photo: iFixit

The charging case is another story. iFixit called it “still a disaster.” Its seams are tight, plastic welds sit where screws could have allowed disassembly, and the case was destroyed by the time the team reached its battery. Apple offers no AirPods 5 parts or repair manuals, and its Self Service Repair program does not cover the buds. Even so, iFixit gave AirPods 5 a repairability score of 2 out of 10. Every AirPods model before it scored zero, a streak 9to5Mac traced back to the original AirPods in 2016. Apple announced AirPods 5 on Sept. 9 with open-ear Active Noise Cancellation that it says removes up to 50 percent more external noise than AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation.

Photo: iFixit

Watch: iFixit’s AirPods 5 teardown, including the battery swap and the hair dryer opening Video: iFixit on YouTube