Used AirPods issue frustrating new owners, thousands of sales halted

A "flaw" has halted sales of tens of thousands of refurbished Apple Airpods, according to a report. 

Consumers, in some cases, are being warned that their AirPod belongs to the previous owner, Business Insider said on Wednesday.

"Affected units have the display name ‘AirPod Mismatch,’ rather than ‘New Owner Name's AirPods,’ in Apple's Find My app," the report said. 

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A pop-up message says the refurbished AirPods are linked to a different Apple ID, the report added.

A message like this might pop up when, for example, you accidentally put a friend’s AirPods in your case. But when a "feature" like this is scaled up to thousands of refurbished AirPods, it can become problematic. 

One potential issue is a data breach of users' iCloud information.

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goTRG, a company that handles returns for major retailers such as Walmart, has been forced to stockpile more than 30,000 affected AirPods, Business Insider said. 

David Malka, chief sales officer at goTRG, told Business Insider that most people forget to unlink their AirPods from their iCloud account and that there isn't a way an independent refurbisher can remove AirPods from someone else's iCloud account.  

The pop-up message can be avoided if the original owner remembers to unlink their AirPods from iCloud. 

About eight in ten AirPods that come through goTRG have the issue, Malka said. 

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"It's like me telling you, 'hey, if you sell your car, you have to make sure you unplug this wire, if not somebody's gonna be able to trace you,'" Malka said to Business Insider. "It doesn't make sense."

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.