When Xiaomi Mi True Wireless Earbuds or Redmi Airdots wireless headphones stop working in pairs, it is one of the most common problems for budget acoustics owners. Instead of playing stereo, the device starts streaming music on one side only, or the phone sees two identical mono devices on the Bluetooth list, which is due to the dissynchronization of the left and right channels, which makes full use of the headset impossible.
Fortunately, most of the hardware is intact, and the problem is only a software pairing failure: You don't bring your gadget to the service center if you know the right sequence for forced module pairing. In this article, we'll look at a detailed algorithm for restoring speaker-to-speaker communication for the Airdots, S, and Pro series.
Before you start to do complex manipulations, you need to understand how these devices work: one of the headphones (usually the right one) acts as a wizard who connects to the smartphone, and the other connects to the wizard. If the connection between them is broken, the chain breaks. It is critical to understand that in order to successfully restore communication, both earphones must be completely severed from the phone at the time of setting up.
Reasons for the desynchronization of wireless modules
Understanding the problem helps to avoid recurrence in the future, often users accidentally activate pairing mode on one of the headphones while the second one is already connected to the phone, which confuses the logic of the firmware, and also failures occur after updating the smartphone operating system or the battery discharge of one of the modules below the critical level.
Another common reason is that the phone has old connection profiles in its memory. If you have previously connected these headphones to another device or used them with the same phone before, but did not delete the profile correctly, there may be MAC address conflicts. The system may try to connect to a "ghost" device, ignifying the real one.
Physical factors also play a role. Moisture, a strong impact, or just long storage in a discharged state can cause the Bluetooth module to go into deep sleep or lose calibration. In such cases, standard inclusion does not help, requires a complete reset to factory settings.
⚠️ Attention: If one of the headphones is showing signs of life (flashing the indicator), and the second is silent even after charging, it may be a problem in the oxidation of the contacts of the charging case.
And don't ignore the software conflicts on the smartphone side, because some MIUI shells or third-party launchers can aggressively save energy by forcibly shutting down Bluetooth background processes, causing communication between channels to break spontaneously while listening to music.
Preparation for the reconnection procedure
To complete all the steps successfully, you need to create a “clean” Bluetooth protocol. Start by going to your smartphone’s wireless network settings, find your Xiaomi Airdots (or Redmi Airdots) on the list of available devices, and select “Forget Device” or “Disable” option.
After that, it is highly recommended to completely turn off the Bluetooth module on the phone, this action will clear the cache of connections and prevent the smartphone from automatically trying to connect to the headphones again during the setup process. While the phone is looking for the device, the reset procedure may not go correctly.
Make sure that the headphones are charged at least 50%. If the battery sits down while you're flashing the communication modules, you can get a brick that you have to repair through special engineering menus. 10-15 minutes, even if they show a charge.
☑️ Checklist for preparation for discharge
It is also important to close all applications that can use audio output: Music players, instant messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp), video hosting (YouTube) – all of them can block access to audio devices, preventing the completion of the setup procedure.
Step-by-step: Hard Reset headphones
The most effective way to get the left and right channels to see each other again is to perform a hard reset, and there are several variations of this procedure depending on the particular model (regular Airdots, S, Pro or Youth Edition), but the basic algorithm is the same.
Remove both earbuds from the charge case. Make sure they're off. If the lights are on or flashing, press and hold the touchpads (or physical buttons) on both earbuds simultaneously for 5-7 seconds until they turn off. The indicators should go out.
Now the most important step is to keep your headphones on, press and hold the touchpads again. This time, you need to hold it longer, about 20-30 seconds. First, the indicator will light up red (off), then flash white (on), then start flashing red and white (pairing mode), and only then, if you hold on, there will be a reset. The indicators should blink quickly several times (usually 3 or 5 times) and go out or go into standby mode.
| Action. | Duration of retention | Indication | The result |
|---|---|---|---|
| First press. | 5-7 seconds | Red is burning. | Shutting down the device |
| Second press (start) | 10 seconds | White/Red and white | Phone turn on and search |
| Second press (continued) | 20-30 seconds | Fast blinking (2-3 times) | Resetting (Hard Reset) |
⚠️ Note: Taming may differ by 2-3 depending on the version of the headphone firmware. 30 No reset seconds have occurred, repeat the procedure, holding the buttons a little longer.
Once the lights are gone after flashing fast, put the headphones back in the case. Let them lie there for 5-10 seconds to stabilize the charge and internal logic. Then re-extract them. Now they have to be ready to pair with each other first.
The link between left and right channel
Once the reset is done, the headphones go into standby mode, at which point they start looking for each other, and normally the right headphone starts looking for the left headphone (Slave), which takes 3 to 10 seconds.
Visually, it looks like this: once removed from the case, the indicators will flash white often, which means they are in search mode. In a few seconds, one of the headphones (or both) should blink once and go out (or switch to a rare blink once every few seconds), which is a signal that the internal communication between the channels has been restored.
What to do if the indicators flash differently?
Now you can turn on Bluetooth on your smartphone. Start looking for new devices. Only one device called Xiaomi Airdots or Redmi Airdots should appear on the list. If you see two identical names (for example, two "Mi True Wireless EBs Basic R"), then the reset procedure failed, and you need to repeat the step with Hard Reset.
Click on the name of the device to connect. Once the connector is successful, the system will report the connection to "Media Audio" and "Call Audio." Check the sound: it should go stereo. If the sound is mono, check the settings for special features in Android, there should not be activated "Mono-audio" mode.
Setup through the Xiaomi Earbuds app
For owners of smartphones based on MIUI and HyperOS, advanced settings are available through the system menu or a separate application. Although the basic Airdots do not have their own application, newer models (Airdots 2, 3, Pro) can display the charge of each headphone and allow you to reassign touch control.
To access the advanced settings, go to Settings → Bluetooth. Find the connected device and tap the gear icon or arrow next to it. Here you can see the exact percentage of charge on the left and right earphone separately, which helps diagnose battery problems.
This menu also has a headphone search feature, so if you lose one of those, you can make it squeak loudly, and you can check the firmware version here, and sometimes Xiaomi releases updates that fix connection bugs, although this is rare for budget models.
💡
For stable operation, update the list of paired devices: if old Airdots are hanging in the list of Bluetooth","Airdots_R","Airdots_L" — Remove them before you try to connect again.
If you have a global firmware version installed, some features may be hidden, so you can try changing the region in your phone settings to China (this is data-safe), reboot and check for additional options in the Bluetooth menu.
Diagnostics of microphone and sound problems
Often, the headphones are connected, the phone sees the stereo, but the sound is coming from only one channel, or the microphone is not working. This may indicate that the TWS mode (True Wireless Stereo) is not fully activated, and the phone thinks that it is connected to a mono headset.
Check the balance of sound in the phone settings. Go to Settings → Sound and vibration → Balance. Make sure the slider is right in the center. Shifting towards L or R can create the illusion of one of the speakers breaking.
If the microphone is not working, check the permissions for applications. On Android 10 and above, the first time you call, the system asks for permission to use the microphone for the headset. If you accidentally click "Disable", the sound will go, and the interlocutor will not hear you. Reset the resolution to Settings → Apps → Bluetooth → Permissions.
⚠️ Note: Cheap copies of Xiaomi Airdots often don’t have a full-fledged logic TWS. In these devices, it's not software-enabled to connect the headphones, because each channel works independently.
You can also check the audio codec. You can find Bluetooth Audio Codec settings in the developer options. Try switching from SBC to AAC or aptX (if supported), this can improve connection stability and sound quality.
Frequent Questions and Answers (FAQ)
Why does the phone see two Xiaomi Airdots devices?
Can you use only one Xiaomi headphone?
The headphone indicator flashes red and white, but does not connect.
How to enter the conjugation mode forcibly?
💡
The secret to success is patience with button holding. Pressing too short just turns on the earpiece, not resets it. Hold 25-30 seconds for guaranteed results.
In conclusion, reconnecting Xiaomi and Redmi headphones is a process that requires precise timing. If none of these techniques worked and the headphones are still behaving incorrectly, there is a high probability of a physical malfunction of the Bluetooth antenna or power controller, which requires the intervention of specialists.