One of the more annoying reasons why your AirPods may not be playing what you have streaming on your iPhone is also one of the most simple to fix. For the AirPods to work, they use Automatic Ear Detection (via proximity sensors) to determine when audio should be playing from the earphones. Your AirPods may seemingly not be connected to your iPhone when, in reality, the proximity sensor has simply failed to recognize that the earbud is in your ear. This could be due to damage resulting from, for example, damage to one of the earbuds that has in some way damaged the proximity sensor, too.
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It’s also possible that there may simply be some earwax or debris interfering with the sensors, so your first step should be gently cleaning the AirPods to determine whether that’s the issue. If you’ve tried that but the audio still isn’t working properly, Automatic Ear Detection can be turned off as a workaround for the problem, as the audio will play through the AirPods even if the proximity sensor is compromised. Turning off this feature may solve your issue, or toggling it off and on in the Settings app may fix it as well, assuming the problem is a temporary software bug.
