--- title: Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of | daily.dev description: iFixit's teardown of the fifth-generation AirPods found that the earbuds themselves can now be opened with gentle heat to reveal a socketed coin cell battery,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of | daily.dev og:description: iFixit's teardown of the fifth-generation AirPods found that the earbuds themselves can now be opened with gentle heat to reveal a socketed coin cell battery,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5mxYjhqbE.png og:image:alt: Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary iFixit's teardown of the fifth-generation AirPods found that the earbuds themselves can now be opened with gentle heat to reveal a socketed coin cell battery, a real improvement over prior fully-glued designs, though the left and right earbud sockets have opposite polarity. The charging case still requires destructive disassembly to reach its battery, so iFixit rated the overall package only 2/10 for repairability, up from prior generations' 0/10 scores. Non-removable batteries remain an issue industry-wide, compounded by the EU watering down its user-serviceable battery regulations. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Can you replace the battery in the fifth-generation AirPods earbuds? Yes, the fifth-generation AirPods earbuds use a socketed coin cell battery that can be accessed after applying gentle heat to separate the glued shell, unlike earlier generations which required destructive disassembly. However, the polarity of the socket differs between the left and right earbud, so batteries cannot be swapped interchangeably. The charging case still requires physical destruction to reach its battery, giving the overall design only a 2/10 repairability score from iFixit. _Anyone weighing AirPods against more repairable earbuds can track teardown verdicts like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [PSA: iPhone Air MagSafe Battery can charge your AirPods](https://daily.dev/posts/psa-iphone-air-magsafe-battery-can-charge-your-airpods-pd23iolba) · Justin Searls · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Apple’s Most Repairable Laptop Is Thanks To Right-to-Repair](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-s-most-repairable-laptop-is-thanks-to-right-to-repair-aur37hdot) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Apple unveils AirPods 5 with improved active noise cancellation](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-unveils-airpods-5-with-improved-active-noise-cancellation-7mbkh6cmq) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news), [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe"},"datePublished":"2026-09-30T18:56:16.233Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T18:56:37.255Z","description":"iFixit's teardown of the fifth-generation AirPods found that the earbuds themselves can now be opened with gentle heat to reveal a socketed coin cell battery,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ba5c9b192ddcc17b2883df56f73a5fd5?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ba5c9b192ddcc17b2883df56f73a5fd5?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"tech-news,apple","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-finally-made-airpods-repairable-sort-of-5mxyjhqbe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Can you replace the battery in the fifth-generation AirPods earbuds?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, the fifth-generation AirPods earbuds use a socketed coin cell battery that can be accessed after applying gentle heat to separate the glued shell, unlike earlier generations which required destructive disassembly. However, the polarity of the socket differs between the left and right earbud, so batteries cannot be swapped interchangeably. The charging case still requires physical destruction to reach its battery, giving the overall design only a 2/10 repairability score from iFixit. Anyone weighing AirPods against more repairable earbuds can track teardown verdicts like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```