How to Clean Apple Earbuds: Apple's Own Method, Timed

Apple's cleaning method for its earbuds is more exact than almost anyone expects. It names two consumer brands of micellar water, it counts the strokes in seconds, and it sets a minimum drying time. What it doesn't do is cover the whole product, because the instruction applies to the speaker meshes and stops there. And that boundary is written down. Apple circles the meshes in a diagram and adds a sentence telling the reader to avoid cleaning any other areas, and that rules out the parts most people reach for with a cloth.

The part to clean is the mesh, and Apple says nothing about the rest

And those meshes are metal, not fabric, and the material matters twice over. Apple's page on wearing its earphones lists nickel in the stainless steel acoustic mesh of AirPods, AirPods Pro and EarPods, and the same page notes trace amounts of acrylates from adhesives. AirPods Max are absent from the nickel line, and that's one of the few places Apple separates the over-ear model from the earbuds by material rather than by price. Anyone whose ears react to a pair has a documented ingredient to point at, though the page that lists it is a support article rather than the specification sheet. The cleaning instruction and the materials list live on different pages, but neither links to the other.

The shopping list, and the two brands Apple names

The method needs six things: micellar water containing PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, distilled water, a soft children's toothbrush, two cups and a paper towel. Apple names Bioderma and Neutrogena as examples of the first, and that's unusually specific for a company that normally refuses to name anyone. The alternative Apple offers is a product rather than a recipe, the Belkin AirPods Cleaning Kit. It costs $12.95, holds a microfibre cloth, a brush and two liquids, and carries 33 owner ratings averaging 3.8 out of 5. That's the only branded item in the whole instruction.

Fifteen seconds a mesh, three passes, then the same cycle again

Wet the brush in micellar water until the bristles are fully saturated. Hold the earbud with the mesh facing up, and work in circles for about fifteen seconds. Turn it over and blot it on the paper towel so the towel touches the mesh. Repeat three times on each mesh.

Then rinse the brush in distilled water and run the entire cycle again with the water instead of the micellar solution. Drying takes at least two hours before the earbuds go back in the case or into an ear, and that wait isn't padding. A mesh is a screen with liquid held in it, and the case is a sealed box. A blocked mesh is one of the few AirPods faults with a documented remedy at all, and that's why this routine appears at the end of Apple's troubleshooting for crackling.

On AirPods Pro the ear tips come off first

Apple keeps a separate page for AirPods Pro, and the difference is a step rather than a substance. The tips are removed before the meshes are touched, and they get their own treatment afterwards. The Pro page also splits into sections the plain AirPods page has no need for: the body, the ear tips, the charging case, and a note about skin irritation.

But two pages for one procedure is a pattern worth noticing. The symptom that sends someone looking is identical on both products, and the search that finds one page won't usually find the other. A clogged mesh is also the only one of the four common reasons cancelling stops working that counts as a fault, so the same fifteen seconds answer two different complaints.

The kit Apple names covers fewer models than the instruction does

Belkin lists its kit as compatible with AirPods 3, AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2, and repeats that list three times on the product page. Apple's instruction is broader than that on its face. The materials page it shares a site with names AirPods, AirPods Pro and EarPods together, and the cleaning page makes no generational exception.

So the owner of an older pair, or of the wired EarPods, is pointed at a product that doesn't claim to fit. The recipe still works, since micellar water and a soft brush have no model number, but the branded shortcut quietly doesn't apply to everything the instruction covers.

What the instruction leaves out

The remote on a wired pair holds buttons and a microphone port, and it's outside the circled areas. So does the cable, so does the plug, and so does the inside of a charging case beyond the wipe Apple describes for AirPods Pro. The sentence about avoiding other areas is a boundary, not an oversight, but it leaves a real object half-covered.

But neither page says how often any of this should happen, and neither says when a mesh is past cleaning. Only the over-ear model has a priced answer to that question, because its cushions are sold separately. An earbud mesh isn't a part anybody sells, so the end of the routine is also the end of the options.

What to do in what order

Take the tips off if the pair has them. Brush each mesh with micellar water for fifteen seconds, blot, and repeat twice more. Rinse the brush, then do the whole thing again with distilled water. Leave the earbuds lying out for two hours. Touch nothing else. The soap-and-water recipe that appears everywhere else in Apple's cleaning documentation belongs to fabric and foam, but none of it belongs to steel.

Sources

1. Apple's instructions for cleaning AirPods: micellar water containing PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides with Bioderma and Neutrogena named as examples, distilled water, a soft children's toothbrush, two cups and a paper towel; the brush saturated, the mesh facing up, about fifteen seconds of circular strokes, blotting on the towel, three repetitions per mesh, the whole cycle repeated with distilled water, at least two hours of drying, and the instruction to avoid cleaning any other areas.
2. Apple's instructions for cleaning AirPods Pro: the same method for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 with the ear tips removed before the meshes are touched, and separate sections for the body, the ear tips, the charging case and skin irritation.
3. Apple's page on wearing AirPods, EarPods and Beats devices, dated 18 September 2025: nickel in the stainless steel acoustic mesh of AirPods, AirPods Pro and EarPods but not AirPods Max, and trace amounts of acrylates and methacrylates from adhesives.
4. Belkin's product page for the AirPods Cleaning Kit: $12.95, a microfibre cloth, a brush and two liquid solutions, an average of 3.8 out of 5 from 33 ratings, and compatibility stated three times as AirPods 3, AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2.
5. B&H Photo Video's listing for Apple EarPods with USB-C: the wired pair that the materials page covers and the Belkin kit does not, with 22 owner ratings.

25 August 2026 is the day these pages were read, and the kit price belongs to it alone.

What we did not do

Nothing here was cleaned at this desk. Every quantity above is Apple's or Belkin's, and what we add is the joining up: which parts the instruction covers, which it refuses, and where the product Apple names stops matching the instruction that names it.