Earbuds make our lives easier in more ways than one. Their size makes them extremely portable, and you can easily carry them around to work or commute.
However, their convenience is also a weakness. Their size makes it easy to misplace them and relatively challenging to find once they are lost.
It is frustrating when you’ve searched the entire house, and there’s still no sign of them.
Worry not; this guide will provide you with some effective strategies to help find your earbuds, along with some extra tips to hopefully not lose them again.
How to Find Earbuds? First Steps to Take
Let’s explore some of the most effective strategies to help you find your earbuds:
1. Retrace Your Steps
What were you doing the last time you were using your earbuds? Were you listening to your favourite playlist sitting on your couch? Or were you preparing dinner while tuned in to your favourite podcast? Remembering the last time you were using your earbuds will help you identify potential places to look for them.
Or is there a regular place where you tend to keep your earbuds? Like your bedside drawer or on the tray with your keys and wallet just next to your front door?
When you’re panicking about losing your earbuds, it’s easy to overlook certain places. Go back and look properly one more time. If you’re looking through a drawer, pull out everything so you can have a proper look.
2. Look in High-risk Places
We’re sure you want to get back your earbuds, but let’s also make sure you find them relatively unharmed. Earbuds are small enough with the case, and individual earbuds are even smaller.
Make sure to check all the places where they could get stepped on and be damaged. Run a quick torch light through places like under the sofa, in the footwell of a car, and try to locate them.
If you have kids or pets at home, ensuring they don’t ingest them becomes even more critical. Take a quick run-through of places like your kids’ play area or your cat’s feeding area and try to see if you find something.
Most earbuds are also prone to water damage. If you place your earbuds on the edge of your bathroom sink or bathtub, then make sure you look at those places. Any amount of water could do irreversible damage to your earbuds, and you won’t be able to use them anywhere.
3. Look Under And Between Objects
Since earbuds are so small, there is a high chance they would have slipped through tiny nooks and crannies, making it difficult to find them. Go through all those blindspots and hard-to-find places because there is a high chance your earbuds might be hiding somewhere.
Check between your sofa cushions, under furniture, or in the crevices of your car seats. Also, go through places with a cluster of items like your bag, laundry basket, or even your bedside drawer.
4. Seek Assistance From Others
If you’ve thoroughly scanned your entire house and your earbuds are still nowhere to be found, then it is time to seek help. There are a lot of times when someone else might have found what you were looking for and kept it in a safe place without letting you know.
They might also have noticed it somewhere and assumed you had left them there.
If no one has found them yet, letting other people know also allows more people to be on the lookout for your lost item, and more pairs of eyes are more likely to find the product rather than just one.
Even after all this searching, you couldn’t come across any clues? Here’s what you can do next.
Apps And Tech to Find Your Earbuds
Here are all the apps and technology you can use if you weren’t able to find them manually:
1. Use a Bluetooth Detection App
If you lost your earbuds while still using them, there is a chance they could still be turned on if they have enough battery. In that case, they would transmit Bluetooth, and you can detect them. You can use a Bluetooth detection app to let you know if they are nearby.
One of the most trusted apps is Wunderland which is an app that lets you know how near or far the device is. You’ll be able to locate your earbuds if they are nearby.
2. Check The Device History
If you have no idea where your earbuds were last, reviewing your device history would be a good idea. The last location they were detected is a good place to start looking for them.
Go through the list of devices you’ve been connected to and where your earbuds could be in relation to them.
3. Trigger Audio Playback
Most Earbuds experience some sort of sound leakage when you play them at 100% volume. If your earbuds are nearby and still connected to your phone, you could try playing audio at full volume to notice if you hear anything.
An alternative to this will be to see if your earbuds have a “find my device” feature that is similar to phones. You should be able to activate it from any devices you previously connected to. Once activated, keep an ear out for any sounds and beeps that could be coming from your earbuds.
4. Use a Metal Detector
If you or your neighbours have any metal detectors handy, then now is the time to put them to use. Most earbuds have some metal components handy, so a metal detector will be able to detect them.
Go through all the areas where you’re likely to find your earbuds with your metal detector and pay close attention to any signals you get. If you start to hear a beeping sound, do a thorough scan of that area. Chances are that your earbuds might be somewhere near.
Precautionary Measures to Take
Scared of losing your earbuds again and want to find them easily? Here are some things you can do to protect them:
1. Use an Air Tag on Your Earbuds Case
The problem a lot of users face with AirPods is that the built-in tracker isn’t useful once someone else has found them. All they have to do is reset them, which changes their location, and then once they connect your AirPods to their iPhone, they become untraceable. A lot of users have complained about this.
A good solution to this would be attaching AirTags to your case. Remember that you need to have an iPhone 11 or above for air tags to work. If your earbuds are nearby, you can play a sound using the built-in speaker.
There is also a precision finding option that leads you to the object by giving you directions to where you can go to find them. You’ll know exactly how far to go and in which direction.
If you can’t find your AirPods at home and you’ve left them somewhere else, there is another option to find them.
Through Find My Network, your AirTag sends a Bluetooth signal that devices in the Apple Ecosystem can detect. These devices help locate your AirTag and send its location to iCloud. You can then go to the Find My app and see the location on a map.
You can also activate lost mode, which will send you a notification as soon as it is detected by another device in the network.
Don’t have an iPhone but looking for a similar solution? No worries, as there is an alternative that also works with Android devices.
2. For Android – Use a Tile Tag
One of the best devices we found is Tile, which works with both Android and iOS devices alike. They work similarly to AirTags and can be located through an app on your phone.
You can make the Tile play a tune if you’ve lost it and want to locate it. If it’s not in the range, you will be able to see the last location it was tracked to, so you can track it down.
If your Tile isn’t nearby, it functions similarly to an AirTag, and there is a larger Tile community that helps detect the location of your Tile. If another Tile user detects your lost Tile, then the location will be passed to you, and this is all done anonymously.
3. Bright Coloured Earbuds
If you’re someone who loses their earbuds, chances are you have them in a neutral colour, making them blend in with your surroundings and are hard to find when looking. Then it is probably time for you to invest in a distinctive pair of earbuds with a colour that stands out.
Don’t want to invest in a new pair when your old earbuds work perfectly fine? We have the perfect solution for you. You can try out earbud skins. These are essentially stickers that wrap around your earbuds to give them an entirely different look. They are available both for your earbud case and the earbuds themselves.
The next time you lose your earbuds, having colourful earbuds will increase your chances of finding them way sooner.
4. Use Reflective Earbuds
Bright-coloured earbuds are easy to find, but there’s something else that will make your earbuds way easier to find. You would’ve noticed that some earbuds have a reflective design. This can be seen on earbuds like the OnePlus Nord Buds, where on top of the stems, there are glossy silver finish touchpads which function as touch controls.
Since the touchpads are reflective, if you were to shine a light on them, they would reflect the light back, and you’d easily be able to find them even among several things.
You can either opt for earbuds with a reflective design or even go with a reflective skin on top of existing earbuds so they are easier to find.
Conclusion
Losing your earbuds can be frustrating. Especially when you spend all day with them, and they accompany you on all different tasks.
Hopefully, by following all the steps in this guide, you will be able to reunite with your earbuds soon.
Remember to stay patient during your search and look through all places thoroughly.
Also, don’t forget to take the precautionary measures we’ve listed, like putting on a different skin or an AirTag on your earbuds so they become much easier to find the next time you lose them.
Samreen Parvez found her love for tech by messing around with the settings on her family’s old digital cameras. This led to a passion for different gadgets and a fascination with all the things they can do. Her interest in all things tech related, combined with a love for writing and research, led her to craft content at Tech Wizard.