AirPods Case Flashing Red, Green, Or White? Here's What You Need To Do
While part of the appeal of AirPods may be the fairly minimal design, that minimalism can result in confusion. Since Apple's earbuds and charging case have no built-in digital screen, they have to rely on an assortment of LED colors to tell you what's their status.
This is generally pretty easy to parse when the lights are off (no power), reddish orange (currently charging), or green (fully charged and finished charging). It's become fairly universal visual language for modern electronics, but sometimes you might come across less obvious light patterns.
Flashing lights typically denote that something has gone wrong somewhere, but that particular visual language isn't quite as universal for all tech. It may not be quite as obvious what the problem is if you suddenly see your AirPods' charging case flashing green, red (some call it orange), or white. What do these indicators mean, and what can you do to fix whatever might be wrong?
The meaning behind flashing red LEDs
When the AirPod charging case starts flashing red (or orange/amber, whatever people want to call it), it's often a sign that the case itself is running low on power. Of course, AirPods get their charge from the case, but the case itself still needs charging from time to time.
You have a couple of options for case charging: You can plug the case into the included Lightning cable, then connect the USB end of the cable into an outlet adapter, Mac, etc. to start recharging. Or you can place the closed case on a compatible Qi wireless charging mat.
However, it could be an error rather than a power issue. If you believe the case and AirPods have a decent charge but are still flashing, try resetting the AirPods. On your iPhone, open Settings and select Bluetooth, tap the information (i) icon for your AirPods, then choose "Forget this Device." Once the AirPods are disconnected, re-pair them. If the flashing continues, your best bet is to contact Apple Support.
The meaning behind flashing green LEDs
Persistent green flashes, on the other hand, are more likely indicative of a connection issue of some kind. The AirPods could be having trouble connecting to your paired device. In this case, you'll need to restart the AirPods by putting them back in the case, pressing and holding the pairing button on the back, then removing the AirPods and re-pairing them.
That green flashing could also mean an issue with the case recognizing one or both of your AirPods, though. In this instance, resetting your AirPods will still be the way to go. A reset should allow your AirPods and charging case to reconnect to each other.
On iOS, open your Settings, then go to Bluetooth, select the information (i) icon next to the AirPods, and choose "Forget This Device." If you're on macOS, open Bluetooth settings in System Preferences and then select the "X" next to your AirPods to forget them. Either way, once the AirPods are forgotten you'll then need to re-pair them to finish the reset.
The meaning behind flashing white LEDs
As irregular as it might be to see a flashing white light on an electronic device, it's actually the least-problematic of the potential issues. For AirPods, flashing white indicates that the earbuds (or case) are in pairing mode and searching for a connection. More specifically, your case can't locate your AirPods for some reason.
Fortunately, the fix is simple, and pretty much identical to dealing with either of the other error indicators. It all comes down to resetting your AirPods. Though, if the white flashing is coming from the earbuds and not the case, you may just have to attempt to pair them again.
In that instance, press and hold the setup button on the charging case, then open the case and put it close to the device you want to connect it to. It should recognize the AirPods' attempt at pairing, at which point you can follow the on-screen instructions to finish connecting them.