Samsung is the biggest electronics company in all of South Korea, so it should come as no surprise that they have thrown their hat into the wireless earbuds market.
Better known for their smartphones and televisions, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds have become a popular alternative to more well-known products like Airpods. Despite a warm reception from reviewers and consumers, these earbuds still have their share of shortcomings.
The biggest and most notorious concern for any earbud-equipped audio enthusiast is the ominously quiet earbud. When you are listening to your favorite playlist during a commute, at work, or at the gym and your entire right side goes quiet, it definitely puts a damper on your day.
Thankfully for your Samsung Galaxy Buds, there are a number of ways to pump life back into your earbud before digging through your junk drawer or email for a warranty.
How To Fix Samsung Galaxy Buds with One Side Not Working (Easy Solutions!)
It may feel entirely futile trying to breathe audio back into an unresponsive earbud, but rest assured it is typically easier than we imagine.
There are a number of reasons earbuds can be unresponsive – especially when they are wireless. Whether it is BlueTooth Range, Battery life, Audio Settings, Dust or Debris, or a myriad of other options, they are almost always mendable.
If you do find that none of the following solutions work, reach out to a Samsung support agent or look to a warranty to see if these earbuds can be replaced. While Samsung doesn’t sell the most expensive earbuds you can find, they are still fairly expensive and you should get your money’s worth regardless of the state of your Galaxy Buds.
Make sure both earbuds are fully charged before attempting the solutions. A dead or low battery may be responsible for your muted earbud and can also negatively affect other fixes.
Reset The Samsung Galaxy Buds
Technically speaking, there are two ways you can approach this solution. You can opt for a manual restart, which may fix the problem without removing stored data, or you can fully factory reset the product.
Factory resetting has the added benefit of completely wiping the product so if it has something to do with an internal glitch, a factory reset might fix it. Thankfully, Galaxy Buds cannot store music so most data losses should cause minimal setbacks.
How To Manually Restart Samsung Galaxy Buds
- Place your earbuds back into their charging case and shut the lid completely.
- Wait for approximately ten seconds.
- Take out the earbuds and they should automatically pair with your preferred device.
How To Factory Reset Samsung Galaxy Buds
- Navigate to the Galaxy Wearable App, or download it if you don’t have it. For users on an iOS device, you will need to reset your earbuds through the Buds app.
- If you are using Buds+, Buds Pro, Buds Live, or Buds2 then select Watch Setting and double tap Reset. If you are using Galaxy Buds, select About earbuds. From there, double tap Reset earbuds.
- Your device should be successfully reset, you can now pair it with your preferred device and test for audio issues.
Give The Galaxy Buds A Cleaning
None of us wanna discuss the uncomfortable reality of what countless hours of in-ear time can do to a pair of earbuds.
Outside of the dust and dirt that you collect when you leave your earbuds out, the sediment that headphones pick up when inside our listening canal (the scientific term for earholes) can often cause issues with the product itself.
Because of technical issues and our own desire for good hygiene, it is important to clean your earbuds out every now and again. Some readers will think that their earbuds are broken and require a more sophisticated solution than a good cleaning can provide — but the internet is filled with thousands of people that are shocked to find that removing some gunk was able to “fix” their earbuds or other gadgets.
Due to the delicate nature of earbuds, you should avoid chemicals, metal objects like pins, or abrasive cleaning materials.
The best and least harmful tools for this job are a couple of toothpicks, a soft or non-abrasive hand rag, a paper towel or dry wipe, and a few minutes of free time. There are cleaning kits specifically for electronics and delicate components, but oftentimes these are overkill.
Because of how tedious this process can feel, it is easy to want to rush through it and be done. This is not recommended, as rushing through the steps or muscling out gunk can cause serious damage to your Galaxy Buds.
Thankfully, it is quicker than it sounds and can comfortably be taken care of in less than ten minutes.
The big problem areas are typically where the earbud charges in its charging case. This connection can become covered with all types of nefarious dirt particles, ruining your earbud’s ability to charge.
To rectify this, gently run the toothpick and wipe over the port to see if there is any resistance or blockages. Make sure to clean around the cracks and corners of your earbuds and charging case as well, as these can rack up quite a bit of unwanted sediment.
Pair With A Different Device
If you are still struggling with a dead earbud, try pairing it with a different device.
As much as it may seem pointless, often times the problem with our audio stems from an inconsistent or glitchy BlueTooth connection. The quickest way to see if this is the issue is to pair your earbuds with another Bluetooth-compatible device.
While most likely know the very brief rundown for removing Bluetooth earbuds from your smart device, we will go over it briefly regardless. Go to the connected smart device, locate the Bluetooth option in Settings, and forget your Samsung Galaxy Buds from the list of connected devices.
Once finished, you can then connect your Galaxy Buds to a new Bluetooth-compatible device to see if both Buds play audio.
If they do, then the problem stems from your previous device’s BlueTooth connection or settings. To fix this, toggle BlueTooth off, reset the device back to its default settings and look for specific fixes for BlueTooth connection issues with your specific phone, PC, or tablet.
If the audio in your dead earbud did not return to normal when switching devices then you can move on to the next solution.
Charge Could Be Depleted
So you’ve paired with a different device, completely reset your product to factory settings, and sanitized the exterior so good you could deliver a healthy newborn off the charging case. It’s time to start getting creative, in the form of switching up your earbuds.
If your Samsung Buds didn’t give you a low-battery alert or you didn’t have them nearby as they pleaded for battery – you may have a dead earbud and not even be aware of it.
The best way to see if your earbuds are dead is to try to charge them on opposite sides of the charging case. If you attempted to charge them at the beginning and didn’t get a full battery notification from one side, it is a good indicator you have a problem with your battery or charge connection.
Place your earbuds on the opposite sides of the case and connect them to the charge port. If you get a connection alert or start to see the earbud charging, then you may have an issue with your charging case or the connection to it.
Make sure you fully charge the earbud before attempting to see if your audio issue has been resolved. If the affected audio hasn’t changed, feel free to scroll down to the next solution.
If it has, then you may need to look into trying to further clean your charging connections or even replace your charging case. While this is not the best solution to the issue, no one wants to have to sit through doubled charge times because only one earbud can connect at a time.
Tweak The Audio Balance
One of the stranger ways to fix your muted earbud is to check your audio settings. If you have an audio balance that is slammed hard to one side – it won’t play audio on the opposite ear.
Because of this, it’s paramount that we check our audio settings before throwing out our triple-digit earbuds in a defeated rage.
Another concern is that your audio channel is set to mono and not stereo. Mono essentially makes it so that your audio only plays in one ear. This is exceptionally helpful if you need to be aware of your surroundings or you are behind the wheel of a car and want to pop in an earbud.
Unfortunately, it can also make it so many people involuntarily have one ear audio without any idea how to resolve it. Thankfully, we have gone through most smart device options to make sure you can access and change these settings should you need to.
For iOS
- Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual.
- Check that audio is played in Stereo and not Mono.
- Shift the Audio Balancer towards the center.
- If the settings are correct by default, ignore this solution. If they had to be changed, test your audio after applying the settings.
For Android
- Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing.
- Shift the Sound Balance toggle to the center until it’s completely neutral.
- Alter the sound channel from Mono to Stereo.
- If the settings did not need to be changed, ignore this solution. If they did, test your audio to see if it’s fixed after applying the settings.
For Windows 10
- Right-Click on the Speaker picture in the bottom right of your screen and pick Sounds.
- Choose the Playback option from the list of bookmarks and then choose your playback device. If you aren’t sure which playback device to use, play sound on your PC. The option that has fluctuating green bars is the one you want.
- Right-Click on the preferred device and choose Properties.
- Select the Levels option and then choose Balance.
- This will show you the balance of your audio, for the average person this will have the same matching numbers (49/49 for example).
- If they do not possess the same matching numbers, change them until they are even then click OK. If they were already the same numbers, you can ignore this solution.
For Mac
- Select the Apple menu > System Preferences > Sound > Output.
- Select your preferred audio option. This is usually the earbuds, the hardwired speakers, or an external audio device that is connected to the PC.
- Once selected, shift the audio balance meter towards the center. If it was already in the center, you can ignore this solution.
- Test to see if your audio is fixed.
Even if your audio balance is correctly adjusted, remember to look at other audio settings on your device. “Audio enhancements,” “position detection,” and auto-pause features can play all sorts of tricks on earbuds.
Conclusion
Samsung Galaxy Buds are not the most expensive pair of earbuds you will buy, but they certainly aren’t hanging from a convenience store shelf.
These earbuds all come with a one-year warranty that requires little more than the receipt of purchase – hold on to it. If you are paying triple digits for a pair of earbuds, you deserve a year of consistent audio at the very least.
In the meantime, should you experience one-sided music again – utilize any of these solutions to get back to fully immersive audio!
