AirPods Won’t Connect To Android Device? Here’s The Fix!

Your Apple AirPods won’t connect to your android device and you don’t know what to do.

Your smartphone’s software, hardware, and Bluetooth all need to be set up correctly whenever you use your AirPods, so tracking down the problem can be tricky — but I’ll walk you through the process.

In this article, I’ll show you why your AirPods won’t connect to your Android device and how to fix the problem for good.

How to Fix AirPods Not Connecting to Android:

1. Charge Your AirPods

If your AirPods won’t connect to Android devices, it could be because of low or depleted batteries. Charging your AirPods ensures that they will have enough battery life to function properly. AirPods are charged using the Charging Case.

1. Put your AirPods in the Charging Case.
2. When your AirPods are in the Charging Case, the Status light will indicate the amount of charge your AirPods have.
3. The Status light will turn green when your AirPods are fully charged.

2. Charge The AirPods Charging Case

It may be a mouthful, but the Charging Case needs to be charged in order to charge your AirPods.

1. Plug a Lightning cable into the Lightning connector on your Charging Case.
2. Plug the other end of the Lightning cable into a USB port or wall charger.
3. It may take a few hours to fully charge your Charging Case.

3. Clean Your AirPods and Charging Case

If dirt, dust, or other debris gets into your AirPods or Charging Case, it can affect their functionality and cause hardware problems. For example, if there is debris in your Charging Case, your AirPods may not charge properly.

1. Get a soft, lint-free cloth. Don’t use tissue or cloth that will break up inside your devices.
2. Gently wipe your AirPods and Charging Case with the cloth.
3. For more compact debris, you can use an anti-static brush or new toothbrush to clean it out.

4. Make Sure Your AirPods Are In Range Of Your android device

If your AirPods aren’t within range of your android phone, the devices won’t be able to connect to each other. AirPods connect to your android device through Bluetooth, which only works when your devices are within a certain range of each other.

5. Turn Bluetooth Off And Back On Again

Turning Bluetooth off and back on again is sometimes enough to fix minor connectivity issues between your android device and airpods.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Bluetooth.
3. Tap the switch next to Bluetooth to turn it off.

6. Reset Your AirPods

Since it can often be time-consuming to investigate the root cause behind connectivity issues, resetting your AirPods (Gen 1, 2, 3) or AirPods Pro will usually do the trick.

Resetting deletes all data on your AirPods and restores them to factory default settings. This makes them forget all cache or ‘memory’ and erases any setting issues that may be causing the problem. Additionally, a reset helps clear bugs, glitches, and any potential firmware issues your device may be facing.

Here’s how you can reset your AirPods or AirPods Pro:

1. Place your AirPods (Gen 1,2, 3) or AirPods Pro back into the charging case and close the lid for about 30 seconds. This will restart your AirPods.
2. Press and hold the Setup button located on the back of the charging case for about 15 seconds. The status light should change from flashing amber to white, indicating that your AirPods are fully reset.

7. Connect Your AirPods to Android the Right Way

Because AirPods are primarily made for Apple devices, you may occasionally encounter issues pairing your AirPods with Android due to limited functionality or features.

For instance, AirPods normally connect to iOS devices through an automatic pairing function, which is unfortunately not available to Android users. The only option is to manually connect your AirPods to your Android device whenever you want to use them.

Here’s how you can do so:

1. Open up Settings on your Android device.
2. Select Connections.
3. Toggle the Bluetooth feature to turn it on.
4. Place your AirPods (Gen 1,2,3) or AirPods Pro back in the charging case and open the lid. Then, press the Setup button at the back of the charging case until the status light flashes white.
5. On your Android device, scan for Bluetooth devices. You should see your AirPods appear under the listed devices in the Bluetooth menu.
6. Click on your AirPods’ name to successfully connect them to your device.

8. Disconnect From Apple Devices

Apple devices generally enjoy a seamless connection with each other. All you have to do is pop open the charging case’s lid containing your AirPods (Gen 1,2, 3) or AirPods Pro, and any nearby iOS devices will instantly detect them.

While this is convenient for owners of Apple devices, doing so has reportedly caused problems for users trying to connect or reconnect to Android devices. One reason for the same could be that even though your Android device is closer to the AirPods, your AirPods’ pre-existing connections with Apple devices interfere with their ability to connect to your Android.

Given this glaring incompatibility, Android devices can fall a bit short when competing for the AirPods’ Bluetooth signal.

There’s a way to solve this problem: go into your iOS device and manually turn off Bluetooth or remove the AirPods from their existing Bluetooth connections.

Here’s how you can remove your AirPods (Gen 1,2,3) or AirPods Pro from Apple devices’ Bluetooth connection:

1. Connect your AirPods normally to your iOS device.
2. Go to Settings and select Bluetooth.
3. Tap on the ‘i’ icon next to your AirPods.
4. Selecting ‘More info’ option on AirPods
5. Select ‘Forget This Device.’ This will disconnect and remove the existing Bluetooth connection with your AirPods. Your AirPods will no longer be visible under the ‘My Devices’ list.

When your device forgets your AirPods, they will no longer automatically recognize each other. Instead of automatically connecting, opening your AirPods (Gen 1,2,3) and AirPods Pro’s charging case will kickstart the setup process.

9. Disable Other Apps

Another possible reason for airpods not connecting to android phone issue might be interference from other Bluetooth apps.

Typically, a phone has many apps running in the background that use Bluetooth, like Fitbit or heart-rate monitor apps, which can sometimes prevent AirPods from establishing a connection.

More recently, users have also reported that using the COVID-19 contact-tracing app, TraceTogether seems to interfere with AirPods, causing them to disconnect intermittently.

TraceTogether app turns your phone into a Bluetooth beacon and uses the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to detect other devices in close proximity.
While this technology has helped monitor and combat the spread of COVID-19, constantly detecting nearby Bluetooth devices may prevent your AirPods from properly connecting to your Android device.

If this is the case, you may want to disable Bluetooth for these apps on your Android device.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to your device Settings.
2. Tap Privacy settings/Protection.
3. Tap on either ‘All Permission’ or ‘Permission Manager.’
4. Tap on either ‘Bluetooth’ or ‘Nearby devices.’
5. You should see a list of all the apps that are currently using your device’s Bluetooth signal. From this, tap on the specific app you wish to turn off Bluetooth access for.
6. Tap Dont allow to stop that app from accessing your Bluetooth.

10. Restart Your Android Device

Restarting your device is a popular method that can help resolve many other software issues such as lag or unresponsiveness. It acts as a soft reset which closes all apps and removes all cached data stored in the Random Access Memory (RAM).

Once your phone is rebooted, you can reinitiate the connection process with your AirPods on a clean slate.

Here’s how to restart your Android device:

1. Press and hold the power button on your phone until you see a few options appear.
2. Tap Restart.
3. Wait around one minute for your device to turn back on. Then, try reconnecting your AirPods.

Your AirPods Are Connected To Your android device!

Your AirPods are now connected to your android and you can finally start enjoying your Bluetooth headphones!

Now you know exactly how to keep your AirPods connected to your android.

Thanks for reading our article and we hope you share this with all the AirPods lovers you know. Feel free to leave us a comment down below if you have any further questions, or if you just want to tell us what you think about your AirPods!