How to find lost AirPods with the Find My iPhone app

There's no getting around it: the AirPods are small. It's what happens when you chop the cord off a set of in-ear buds; they don't have much mass, and if you don't remember to store them in their pillbox case, you may find yourself frantically searching for an earbud or two.

Thankfully, if you've accidentally misplaced one of your AirPods, iOS 10.3 and Apple's Find My iPhone app will let you hunt it down as long as you're within Bluetooth range.

To start, you'll need both iOS 10.3 and the Find My iPhone app.

How to find missing AirPods earbuds

Note: This feature is primarily to locate individual missing AirPods earbuds — the AirPods case itself doesn't have speakers, and the earbuds themselves won't make a sound until they come within range of your iPhone.

Open (or download, if you don't yet have it) Find My iPhone.
Sign in with your iCloud account.
Tap on the entry for your AirPods.
Select Actions.
Press Play Sound.
Both earbuds will start making a triplicate chirp — quietly at first, then increasing in volume. If you're trying to find just one of the buds, you can mute the left or right earbud to focus in on finding the other earbud.

Still can't find your earbuds?

If your missing AirPods earbud is out of charge, you may be out of luck in locating it via the Find My iPhone app. That said, you can still go about finding it the old-fashioned way — back-tracking where you had them previously.