How to Reset AirPods: Your Case Probably Has No Button

You went to reset your AirPods, found a guide that said to hold the setup button on the back of the case for 15 seconds, turned the case over, and there was no button there. You are not going mad. If you want to know how to reset AirPods in 2026, the honest starting point is that the method changed, and most of the pages telling you how to do it are describing hardware Apple no longer sells.

Apple currently sells four sets of AirPods: AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Max. Three of those four have no setup button at all. The 15-second press that dominates the search results works on AirPods 1, 2 and 3, and on AirPods Pro 1 and 2, which is to say the older ones sitting in a drawer, not the ones in the shop.

So here is the whole thing, split by which AirPods you actually own, plus the step almost every guide leaves out entirely - the one that decides whether the person who buys your old pair can use them at all.

How to reset AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3

These are the current models, and they are reset by tapping the case rather than pressing anything. There is no button on the back. The whole sequence happens against the front of the case, where the status light sits.

• Put both AirPods in the case and close the lid. Leave it shut for 30 seconds.
• On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, then Bluetooth, find your AirPods in the list, tap the info button and choose Forget This Device. Do this before you touch the case.
• Open the lid and leave the AirPods in the case.
• Double-tap the front of the case while the status light is on.
• Double-tap it again when the light flashes white.
• Double-tap a third time when the light starts flashing faster.
• Wait for the status light to flash amber, then white. That is the reset finishing.

The three taps are on the front of the case, not the top and not the back. They also need to be reasonably brisk - a slow double-tap reads as two single taps and nothing happens. If you get to the end and the light never goes amber, close the lid, wait another 30 seconds and start again rather than tapping harder.

Apple documents this method on its Restart, unpair or reset your AirPods guide page, which is currently the fifth result for the query and sits below three third-party pages that describe the button method instead.

How to reset AirPods with a setup button

If your case has a small dimpled button on the back, you have AirPods 1, 2 or 3, or AirPods Pro 1 or 2. This is the method every guide describes, and for these models it is correct.

• Put both AirPods in the case, close the lid and wait 30 seconds.
• On your iPhone or iPad, open Settings, then Bluetooth, and choose Forget This Device for your AirPods.
• Open the lid.
• Press and hold the setup button on the back of the case for about 15 seconds.
• Release when the status light flashes amber, then white.

Fifteen seconds is longer than it feels. Most failed resets on these models are people letting go at about eight seconds because nothing appeared to be happening. Count it out.

How to reset AirPods Max

AirPods Max have no case button and no case to tap, so they use a button combination on the headphones themselves.

• Press and hold the Digital Crown and the noise control button together.
• Keep holding for around 15 seconds, until the status light changes from flashing amber to flashing white.
• Let go once you see white.

There is a trap here worth naming. Holding those same two buttons for about 10 seconds, until the light flashes amber and stops, is a restart, not a reset. It is a different operation with a different outcome, and the only thing separating them is roughly five seconds of your patience. If the light flashes amber and you release, you have restarted them. Keep going to white for a full reset.

A reset does not unlink AirPods from your Apple Account

This is the part that gets left out, and it is the one that costs somebody money.

A factory reset wipes the pairing on the AirPods. It does not remove them from your Apple Account. Apple is unambiguous about this: AirPods can only be paired with one Apple Account at a time, and they must be removed from yours before you sell or give them away.

Skip it and the buyer gets a message telling them the AirPods are paired to another Apple Account, and they cannot use them. Worse, you cannot fix it for them from a distance without going back into Find My yourself, and Apple will not remove that association on your behalf. Apple's own wording on the device connected to another Apple Account page is that it cannot remove Find My Lock for you. Only the original account holder can.

This is the same failure mode as selling an iPhone still signed in to iCloud, and I wrote about the version of that trap that catches people in how to erase an iPhone before selling. AirPods get it worse, because a reset looks complete. The lights flash, the AirPods vanish from your phone, and everything about the experience says finished. The account link survives all of it.

How to remove AirPods from your Apple Account

• On iPhone or iPad, open the Find My app, go to the Devices tab, tap your AirPods, swipe up on the card and choose Remove This Device.
• On a Mac, open Find My, go to Devices, select your AirPods, click the More Info button and choose Remove This Device.
• You only need to do this on one device. It takes effect everywhere.

Do the removal before the physical reset if you can, because it is easier to find AirPods in Find My while they are still associated and still nearby. If you have already reset them, they should still appear in the Devices list - go and remove them now rather than posting them off and finding out later.

If your AirPods are covered by AppleCare, that is a third step: cancel the plan or transfer it to the new owner. Worth checking who is actually covered if you are on a multi-device plan - I went through what AppleCare One does and does not cover in the AppleCare One UK breakdown.

Why this matters more in September than usual

Apple's event is on 9 September, and AirPods 5 is expected to be on it - two models, reportedly, one with active noise cancellation and one without. I went through what that means for anyone about to buy in the AirPods 5 buying guide. Treat the specifics as rumour until Apple says otherwise; the date is the bit the reporting is most consistent on.

The practical consequence is a wave of second-hand AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 hitting resale in the days afterwards, sold by people who reset them and assumed that was the job done. If you are selling, the account removal is what protects your buyer. If you are buying second-hand, ask the seller to confirm they have removed the AirPods from Find My before you hand over any money, because once they have posted them and stopped replying to messages you have bought a paperweight.

It is also worth saying that this is not a reason to reset AirPods you are keeping. A reset is not maintenance and it is not a tune-up.

What resetting AirPods actually fixes

A reset is worth doing when the fault is in the pairing rather than the hardware. That covers a fairly narrow set of problems:

• AirPods that connect to one device and refuse to hand over to another
• One AirPod that plays and one that does not, when both are charged
• Automatic switching that fires at the wrong moment, or never
• AirPods that show as connected but produce no sound
• A stubborn pairing that will not clear after you have already tried Forget This Device

It will not fix a dead battery, a case that has stopped charging, water damage, or one AirPod that has genuinely failed. It also will not improve battery life, which is the most common thing people hope a reset will do. If your AirPods last two hours instead of five, that is cell wear and a reset does nothing for it.

Before you reset, try the cheaper things first: close the lid for ten seconds to restart them, check both AirPods and the case are actually charged, and make sure Bluetooth is on and the volume is up. A reset means setting up your AirPods again from scratch, including any custom controls and ear tip fit test, so it is not free.

Common questions

Does resetting AirPods delete them from Find My?

No. A factory reset clears the pairing on the AirPods themselves, but they stay associated with your Apple Account until you remove them in the Find My app. These are two separate actions and doing one does not do the other.

Why does my AirPods case have no reset button?

Because AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 do not have one. Apple moved the reset to a triple double-tap on the front of the case. If you are holding a current pair and looking for a button on the back, you will not find one - use the tap method above.

How long do I hold the AirPods Max buttons to reset them?

Around 15 seconds, holding the Digital Crown and the noise control button together, until the status light goes from flashing amber to flashing white. Releasing at roughly 10 seconds, when the light flashes amber, restarts them instead.

My take

The reset itself is a 30-second job once you know which of the three methods applies to your hardware. The genuinely important step is the one Apple puts on a different support page from the reset instructions, which is why almost nobody does it: open Find My, remove the AirPods from your account, and only then post them to a stranger.

If you are clearing out a pair before the 9 September event, do those two things in that order and you will not get a message three weeks later from someone who cannot pair the AirPods they bought from you.

Source: How to reset your AirPods and AirPods Pro, Apple Support