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Reviews & Guides · Instruments & Audio

Shokz OpenFit: Cleaning Contacts Revived Earbuds Left Unused for a Year

I left my 2023 Shokz OpenFit unused and uncharged for about a year; cleaning its charging contacts restored Bluetooth pairing and let the case charge again.

A hand holds a closed beige Shokz charging case with the SHOKZ logo visible and an amber indicator light illuminated on the front.
Open beige charging case held in a hand showing a pair of Shokz OpenFit open-ear earbuds resting inside with amber indicator LEDs illuminated.
Screenshot of a SHOKZ flagship-store customer-service chat showing OpenFit earbuds in their charging case, highlighted touch-control areas, and Chinese troubleshooting instructions about the case indicator light and Bluetooth pairing.
Screenshot of a customer service chat with the official Shokz store, where the representative advises cleaning the unlit earbud and charging case contacts with a small amount of alcohol on a cotton swab.

My husband bought me the Shokz OpenFit in 2023.

I used them intermittently and thought their main advantage was that wearing them over my ears did not hurt.

However, I did not find the sound quality especially good, and they were not particularly water-resistant either.

So last year, in 2025, when I went swimming,

I specifically bought a pair of waterproof underwater earphones.

I gradually stopped using the OpenFit and left it aside.

It was not until today, when I found it again,

that I realized it had probably been sitting unused for about a year without being charged.

After charging it overnight, I found that it still would not charge properly—the battery display appeared to show a phantom charge, as in Photograph 1.

Although the green light was showing, I could not switch it into Bluetooth mode, as shown in Photograph 3.

When I opened the case, it showed an amber light, as shown in Photograph 2.

So I thought the earphones were broken.

That was until customer service gave me a method to try, as shown in Photograph 4.

I did not believe it would work at first, because the earphones had been inside the case the whole time.

I did not think dirt could have caused poor contact.

Use an alcohol wipe to clean the metal charging contacts on the earphones and the metal contacts inside the charging case. After wiping them, press the touch-control area. The earphones immediately showed a green light and connected to Bluetooth. The case showed that its battery was extremely low, but it could now finally accept a charge properly.

Source: 🍇葡淘柠萌🍋 · Xiaohongshu · 2026-05-22 · 久置不用的韶音耳机以为坏了|已修复. Search this Chinese title in Xiaohongshu to find the original post.

Before You Buy

Models in your region

The owner identifies her product as a Shokz OpenFit bought in China in 2023, but does not provide a full model number. The official US page describes the original US Shokz OpenFit; the owner’s exact configuration has not been matched to the US version.

Model in this review Related regional model What to know
Shokz OpenFit Shokz OpenFit (US) The owner bought the original OpenFit in China in 2023. The official US product page covers the original OpenFit and lists up to 7 hours per charge, 28 hours with the case, and IP54 earbud water resistance, but the owner’s exact regional SKU and specification parity are unverified.
Model in this review
Shokz OpenFit
Related regional model
Shokz OpenFit (US)
What to know
The owner bought the original OpenFit in China in 2023. The official US product page covers the original OpenFit and lists up to 7 hours per charge, 28 hours with the case, and IP54 earbud water resistance, but the owner’s exact regional SKU and specification parity are unverified.

Regional model and specification context

The owner’s experience concerns a China-purchased OpenFit used intermittently before being left uncharged for roughly a year. Because no full SKU is supplied, buyers should treat the official US specifications as regional reference information rather than proof that the owner’s exact unit is identical.

For the original US Shokz OpenFit, Shokz lists up to 7 hours of battery life per charge, up to 28 hours with the charging case, and IP54 water resistance for the earbuds. These are listed product specifications, not measurements from the owner’s unit or a swimming test.

What the charging failure suggests

The owner first interpreted the green light, failed Bluetooth mode, amber case light, and inability to charge after an overnight charging attempt as a dead product. Her account ultimately reports a successful recovery after cleaning the earbud and case charging contacts and pressing the touch-control area.

The reported fix is a troubleshooting step supplied by customer service: gently wipe the charging contacts with a small amount of alcohol, then use the touch-control areas while the earbuds are in the case to enter Bluetooth pairing mode. The account does not establish whether every long-unused OpenFit will recover this way.

Buying and use trade-offs

In the owner’s use, the open-ear design was comfortable around the ears, but she did not consider the sound quality especially good and chose separate underwater earphones for swimming. That makes comfort, sound preference, and the intended water-use setting important selection questions rather than assuming one pair will cover both everyday listening and swimming.

For a product that may sit unused, the owner’s experience adds a practical maintenance consideration: an apparent charging failure may be worth checking at the contacts before concluding that the earbuds are irreparably broken. This is a single owner report, not a guarantee of battery recovery or long-term reliability.

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