5 sourced reports, with what to check before you buy. Each one links to the page it was reported on.
Costly or dangerous
Redmi Buds 6 Active left earbud goes silent and never charges (TR market owner report)
A Turkish buyer reports the left earbud produced sound for only ~1.5-2 minutes then went permanently silent, and the Xiaomi app showed the left bud never charged. The seller refunded after the complaint.
What to check. Test both earbuds and the case charging contacts immediately on purchase; a left bud that never charges is a hardware defect, not a setting. Return within the seller's window rather than troubleshooting.
Redmi Buds 6 Active battery drains fast and dies in the case despite high charge
An owner review reports the buds and case drain to dead after 3 days of minimal use despite showing 92% the morning before, i.e. high standby drain in the case.
What to check. If you store the buds in the case for days between uses, expect them to be drained; charge before each use. This undercuts the advertised 30-hour total figure for intermittent users.
Redmi Buds 6 Active fail to reconnect over Bluetooth after switching devices, needing a reset each time
A user reports the buds will not reconnect after being used with another device; they must be deleted from Bluetooth settings and reset via the case button each time. Note this evidence is Windows-PC pairing specific.
What to check. If you switch the buds between phone and PC often, expect re-pairing friction. This is reported mainly on Windows; phone-side behavior was not established in this run.
Redmi Buds 6 Active one-side earbud drops to very low volume after months of use
A Turkish owner reports one earbud dropping to very low volume ~4 months in, then the other side doing the same; forum replies call it a common fault of these budget buds and advise sending to service.
What to check. If one side goes quiet after a few months, try a reset and cleaning first, but treat persistent one-side low volume as a defect and use the warranty service rather than living with it.
Xiaomi FAQ acknowledges real-world battery life of Redmi Buds 6 Active runs shorter than advertised
Xiaomi's own global FAQ confirms the advertised battery life comes from lab conditions and that real-world use (volume, temperature, interference, aging) will run shorter.
What to check. Treat the advertised playtime as a best case; expect less at high volume or in warm/cold conditions. This is manufacturer-acknowledged, not a defect claim.
These reports come from the pages linked under each item: owner forums, repair guides and workshops. They are not a diagnosis of any one unit, and a careful check of the one you are buying still applies.
Text from the Kriko Wireless earbuds catalog, version 0.1.4, under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 license.
