How to Find a Lost AirPods Case

If you have lost your AirPods case, whether you can find it depends almost entirely on which model you own. AirPods Pro 2 and later cases have their own speaker and location chip and can be tracked on their own. Every earlier case has no independent connection at all, and Find My can only show you where the earbuds last were. Work out which situation you are in first, because the two need completely different approaches.

Step 1: work out whether your case can be tracked

Only some AirPods charging cases can be located independently. The dividing line is whether the case contains a speaker and a U1 ultra-wideband chip.

• AirPods Pro 2 and later, including AirPods 4 with ANC: the case has a speaker and appears as its own item in Find My. It can be made to chime and, on supported iPhones, guided to with Precision Finding.
• AirPods 1, 2, 3 and the original AirPods Pro: the case has no speaker and no independent radio. Find My can show the last location where the earbuds were connected, which is often close to the case but is not the case itself.

If you are not sure which you have, open the Find My app, go to the Devices tab and select your AirPods. If the case is listed as a separate line under the earbuds, you have the trackable kind.

Step 2: use Find My properly

Open Find My, tap Devices, and select your AirPods. What you do next depends on what the screen shows you.

If the case appears as its own item

Tap the case entry and choose Play Sound. The chime is not loud, so search a room at a time with everything else switched off. If the map shows the case nearby and your iPhone supports Precision Finding, tap Find and follow the on-screen arrow, which will guide you to within a few centimetres.

If only the earbuds appear

You are looking at the last place the earbuds connected to a device, which is a starting point rather than an answer. Note the location and the timestamp. If the pin is your home, the case is almost certainly indoors and the map will not narrow it further, so switch to a physical search.

If the location shows as offline

Offline means nothing in the Find My network has seen the item recently. Turn on notifications for when it is found, then leave it. Cases are frequently picked up by the network hours later when someone with an iPhone walks past.

Step 3: search the places cases actually end up

An AirPods case is small, smooth, light and pale, which gives it a specific set of hiding places. In rough order of likelihood:

• Down the side of a sofa cushion or between the seat and the arm
• Inside a coat pocket you have not worn since, especially a jacket hanging up
• In the bottom of a bag, under the flat panel at the base
• Under a car seat, having slid forward under braking
• In gym kit, a laundry basket, or a washing machine drum
• On a bedside table, behind a book or a lamp base

A torch helps far more than you would expect. The case has a glossy finish that catches light from an angle even when it is mostly hidden, so sweeping a phone torch low across a floor at eye level often finds it faster than looking directly.

Step 4: if you find the earbuds but not the case

This is common, because the earbuds are used in a different place from where the case gets put down. The earbuds themselves are still fully usable with any charger until you find the case, and you do not need to buy a whole new set. Apple sells replacement charging cases separately, and third-party replacements exist for older generations. Before ordering, be certain of your exact generation, because cases are not cross-compatible.

Step 5: stop it happening again

Every fix here is the same idea: make the case bigger, brighter, or attached to something else.

• Attach it to something. A cover with a keychain loop clipped to a bag strap or keyring is the single most effective change. A case that is physically joined to something larger cannot be lost on its own.
• Make it a colour. White is the worst possible colour for a small object that lives in bags and pockets. A saturated or patterned cover cuts search time dramatically.
• Give it one home. A dish by the door, a specific pocket, the same side of the bag. Almost all losses happen when the case gets put down somewhere new.
• Add an AirTag to the bag. This does not track the case, but it tracks the bag the case is usually in, which covers the worst version of the problem.

Frequently asked

Can I track an AirPods case without the earbuds inside?

You can track an AirPods Pro 2 or later case without the earbuds inside, because that case has its own speaker and location chip. Earlier cases cannot be tracked separately at all.

Why does Find My show an old location?

Find My shows the last point at which a device was seen by the Find My network. If nothing has passed near it since, the pin stays where it was, which is why the timestamp matters as much as the map.

Will a replacement case pair automatically?

A replacement case needs to be paired to your earbuds by holding them together with the lid open and following the on-screen prompt. Genuine Apple replacements pair reliably; third-party ones vary.

Shop this guide

Make the case findable next time: AirPods cases with keychain loops, cute AirPods cases in colours you can actually spot, and AirTag cases for the bag it usually lives in.