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Here’s how to get your AirPods back when you drop them down a storm drain …

AirPods may make for convenient listening on the move, but having one fall out of your ear and drop to somewhere inaccessible – like a storm drain – can be an expensive event.

But a little old-fashioned ingenuity can save the day, as the CEO of an app development company demonstrated …

Business Insider describes what happened. After initially thinking of fishing for it with some string a hook, Maz CEO Paul Canetti hit on a better idea: a magnet.

After testing to make sure the magnet could be applied to his other AirPod, Paul tied the rope around the “super magnet” pole and went AirPod fishing. “After a couple of tries, I was able to get it in the perfect spot and I heard the satisfying click of the AirPod sticking to the magnet. Then I carefully pulled it up, but it got stuck to the grate again on the way up! I was afraid of it falling back in, but I carefully guided it out,” Canetti said.

The AirPods case use a magnet to snap the earphones into place, so it’s not surprising that the approach works.

The lesson seems to be that if you’re going to drop an AirPod, try to do it near a hardware store …

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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