airpods earbuds with phone at home listening to music
Swapping out your AirPods Pro’s ear tips can improve their comfort and sound quality.
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  • You can change the ear tips on your AirPod Pro earbuds to clean or replace them.
  • Every set of AirPods Pro comes with three sets of ear tips, each one a different size.
  • Taking the Ear Tip Fit Test on your iPhone can help determine which ear tip size is best for you.
  • Visit Business Insider’s Tech Reference library for more stories.

Rubber-tipped earbuds have been around for years. In most cases, however, they all come in a single size – and if that size doesn’t fit your ears, you’re out of luck.

Apple developed a solution with AirPods Pro. Each pair of AirPods Pro comes with three different sets of rubber ear tips, each one a different size. This means that you can adjust them to better fit your individual ear shape. You can even take a free test to see which size suits you best.

However, it’s not entirely obvious how you remove the tips when you want to change them out. Luckily, it’s not as hard as it seems.

Here’s how to change the ear tips on your AirPods when you want to change or clean them.

How to change your AirPod Pro ear tips

It shouldn’t take much effort to remove the tips on your AirPods. You should always remove them if you’re going to clean the tips or the earbuds themselves.

1. To remove your AirPods Pro’s ear tips, pinch your fingers on either side of the rubber insert firmly. 

2. As you pinch, pull the tip straight away from the AirPod until it clicks off. This will take some force, but don’t worry, it won’t break them. If you’re concerned about ripping the rubber, invert the tip (as shown below) before you begin. 

How to change AirPod Pro Tips 1
To remove AirPods Pro tips, pinch on either side of the rubber insert and pull straight out until it pops off.
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3. Choose a new pair of ear tips from the box – Small, Medium, or Large. 

  • The tips that come attached to your AirPod Pro earbuds when you first open the box are the Medium size. If you find that they frequently fall out of your ears, try going down a size – if they hurt or irritate your ears, try going up. 
  • A simple side-by-side comparison should tell you which tips are the Large and which are the Small, but if you ever mix them up, the associated letter is printed on the inside of each tip, near the base.

4. To attach the new pair of tips, line up the oval on the edge of the tip with the oval on the AirPod’s speaker, and gently press the tip in until it clicks into place.

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To reattach tips, line up the ovals properly and click it into place.
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How to use the AirPod Ear Tip Fit Test to find the best ear tips

It can be difficult to determine which ear tips are right for you. If the feel alone isn’t enough for you to make a decision, you can try the Ear Tip Fit Test. To run the test, your iPhone needs to be running iOS 13.2 or later.

1. Put your AirPod Pros in your ears and open the Settings app on your device.

2. Tap «Bluetooth,» which should appear high up on the Settings menu.

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In the Settings menu, tap «Bluetooth.»
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3. Find your AirPods Pro on the list of Bluetooth devices and tap the «i» info icon to the right.

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Tap the info icon next to the name of your AirPods.
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4. On the AirPod Settings page, scroll down and tap «Ear Tip Fit Test.»

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Tap «Ear Tip Fit Test.»
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5. Tap «Continue,» then tap the «Play» button when you’re ready to begin the test. Your phone will play a few seconds of music through the AirPods to determine the quality of the seal between a given headphone and your ear.

If it determines that the seal is tight and allows for adequate noise cancellation, then the image of the AirPod on your screen will say «Good Seal» in green underneath. If not, it will turn yellow instead, and read «Adjust or Try a Different Ear Tip.»

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If you’d like to conduct the test again, tap the blue «Play» button.
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Note that it’s possible to get «Good Seal» results from all of the ear tips, regardless of which one is the most comfortable. The test is a good indicator of whether a given tip doesn’t fit in your ear at all, but if it determines that any of the three form a good enough seal, you’ll have to make your judgement based solely on comfort.

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