How to Fix AirPods Playing One Channel Only on Windows

by Rian

This problem has plagued me for the past few months. As some of you are aware, I have an Intel Mac, not the latest Apple Silicon hardwares with GPTK or else. This meant that whenever I booted up to Bootcamp Windows, I was facing several challenges. One of them was Bluetooth accessories; I needed to pair them again. My solution to this was to use a Bluetooth audio dongle for USB-C devices. Surprisingly it wasn’t the pairing that I should have worried about.

Symptoms

Whether you are using an external dongle or not, the key here is your AirPods or wireless earbuds (any wireless earbuds with no physical connection between the left and right channel) could be having this problem. When I started searching for solutions, I immediately assumed this might be an isolated issue with Apple’s proprietary Bluetooth implementation. But my query brought back other manufacturers’ earbuds having similar connectivity-like issues on Windows.

The earbud will pair just as normal. It will play just as normal but only on one speaker. But I’m not talking about the hardware problem. In my experience, the issue wasn’t isolated to a single piece of hardware; either left or right randomly did not play any audio. The sound coming out of the one earbud is definitely for stereo. For example, left earbud, if it is the only one playing, would play only the left channel. If one earbud is completely disconnected or damaged, AirPods would play it in mono (i.e. both channels on a single earbud), but that isn’t the case.

It’s also important to note that it doesn’t always have problems; sometimes it just plays in stereo without an issue.

Band-aid Solution

This isn’t a permanent fix. I suspect the actual patch has to come from Microsoft, as I’ve already ruled out Bluetooth card issue by using both Mac’s own and USB Bluetooth dongle.

1. Place the earbud that is not playing back into the case. This will prompt the remaining earbud in your ear to play both channels in mono.
2. Press and hold the button on the back until the LED light flashes. As the light flashes, remove the earbud from the case and put it in your ear.
   

This was the most reliable way I could get both earbuds to play in stereo. Because this is not a permanent fix, it needs to be done every time there is an issue. In my case, AirPods stay connected to a PC proper until it was disconnected. I will update the post if I find out more about the problem.