How to Check If Airpods Are Stolen

Losing stuff is unfortunate but it’s bound to happen from time to time. Obviously, it’s much worse if you lose something valuable, like your Airpods or iPhone. Sometimes when we lose things, we immediately assume that they were stolen.

Thankfully, there’s a way you can check if you lost your Airpods, rather than had them stolen. This article will show how to find your Airpods if they’re in close proximity to you, i.e. your iPhone or other devices connected to your Airpods.

In addition, we’ll provide many useful tips for preventing your Airpods from being stolen in the first place.

How to Keep Your Airpods Safe

Preventing Airpods from being stolen should be your priority because getting stolen goods back is virtually impossible. You should keep your Airpods safe – after all, like most Apple products, they’re not cheap and thieves will naturally target them.

The advice that follows is only practical if you’re cautious. If you roam around carelessly with expensive items in your possession, you aren’t doing yourself any favors.

Firstly, consider purchasing a case for your Airpods. They’re relatively low-cost and can attach to a belt loop or even your key ring. Amazon has a variety of them so you can check there for something unique that works really well. To avoid any mishaps of losing the entire setup, this case is a great idea.

Be mindful when they’re in your ears. The easiest way to lose an Airpod is to forget that it’s in your ear in the first place. Although you can purchase a replacement Airpod, it isn’t cheap. This means that you’ll shell out a pretty penny if you lose one.

Next, make a habit of putting your Airpods back in their case. From personal experience, it is too easy to pocket your Airpod never to see it again.

Be sure to zip up your pockets, if you carry your iPhone in your jacket of jeans. Although it’s even safer to carry valuables in a bag. Some modern backpacks, for example, are specifically designed to be steal-proof. Look into buying this type of backpack if you’re worried about your belongings being stolen.

Additionally, you should be aware of your bag or backpack at all times. If you’re carrying it on your back, make sure that you put your valuables in a hidden compartment of sorts. Sadly, in the world we live in today, Airpods and iPhones aren’t safe even in backpacks anymore.

Check If Your Airpods Were Stolen

Before you start panicking and calling the authorities, you should double-check if your Airpods were stolen. Perhaps you left them in the case, which is always the first place you should check. If they’re not in there, you can use an app developed by Apple specifically for situations like these.

The app’s name is Find my iPhone and hopefully, you already have it installed on your iOS device connected to your Airpods. Alternatively, you can use the iCloud.com website to find your lost Apple products.

How to Find Your Airpods Using Find My iPhone

Unlock your iPhone and navigate to the Find My iPhone app. If you don’t immediately see it, swipe all of your pages to the right and you can access a search bar to type in “Find My iPhone.” This will bring up the application. If it doesn’t, you may need to download it from the App Store.

You may need to sign in using your Apple ID and Password. Once there, you will see a list of all your Apple devices. Locate your Airpods and tap on them.

A map will appear with your Airpods’ location. Depending on how far they are away from your iPhone or another Apple product, this map will show the current location or the last known location.

From this screen, you can sound an alarm to help you locate them, or get directions to where they are. You can also mute your left or right earpiece in case you only lost one since this sound is very loud.

If you see a gray dot instead, this means that your Airpods are turned off, ran out of battery, or outside the Bluetooth radius.

Using iCloud

Follow these steps to find your Airpods on iCloud:

Visit the icloud.com website.

Use your Apple ID and passcode to sign in.

Click on Find iPhone.

Select All Devices, and then select Airpods.

You should know that there’s no other reliable way of finding your Airpods (at least on Apple’s part). If your Airpods are offline, you’ll have to use intuition or try and jog your memory to find them. But if they were really stolen, there isn’t much that you can do.

If somebody steals both your iPhone and Airpods, you might track them down using the Find my iPhone feature if they’re connected to the internet. Don’t pursue the thief on your own, however, leave that to the authorities.

Frequently Asked Questions

If someone pairs my Airpods to their phone, will I know?

Unfortunately no. Finding your Airpods will only work through Find My iPhone, and if they’re connected to another person’s phone, it becomes part of their Find My iPhone setup.

If your Airpods are stolen, they’ll likely show up as “Offline” in the iCloud because they’re no longer attached to your iCloud.

What does “Offline” mean?

Offline could mean that your Airpods are not charged, or that they aren’t connected to your Find My iPhone anymore. If you try to track your Airpods and it says they’re Offline, your best course of action is going to be to retrace your steps to where you last had them.

When “Offline” appears next to your Airpods you can generally still click the option to play a sound which will help you locate them. If they were in fact stolen, it’s not likely at this point you’ll ever get them back unfortunately.

Final Advice

If you can’t locate your Airpods using the Find my iPhone site or app, you can always contact Apple support and inform them about what has happened. Perhaps, they’ll agree to replace your Airpods, but we can’t guarantee that they’ll do it for free.

Hopefully, you’ve only misplaced your Airpods and manage to find them. If you’d like to add something or share your story, use the comments section below.