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AirPods Max - audio stuttering

tachillon

tachillon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 20, 2018
25
47
Lille, France
I have bought the new AirPods Max on day 1. Very happy with it except that sometimes sound stutters and then turn off, no more sound comes out like the AirPods Max were disconnected ; they are not, they are still seen by the iPhone 12 Pro Max/2020 Intel MacBook Air. Usually taking them off my head and putting them back on resolves the problem... Sound re-enable itself and music starts again... Very strange thing.

I have reset it several times, it works like a charm for a few hours and then it comes back. It is random, sometimes it happens, sometimes I can listen to music for hours without a problem.

Do you guy have experienced already something like this?

Should I return them? Don't know what to do... I hope a software update might resolve this...
 
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I am experiencing this as well. Got it pretty bad while watching on my MacBook last night..

Edit: it’s happening while listening to music on my iPhone as well, but much more intermittent and subtle. It was egregious on the Mac watching Mandalorian last night.
 
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Does it only do this when connected to your M1 Air? Because any bluetooth headphones I attach to my M1 Air exhibits this issue. Not a problem connected to my iPad Air or iPhone though.
 
I had similiar stuttering with my Maxes, but it only happened on conference calls a few times. Connected to iPhone Pro Max, iOS 14.4. With music, they would function at times well for hours, but at times disconnect every 10-20 minutes. The disconnects happen but not quite so often with my Airpod Pros, too.

I think it may be an iOS 14.3 issue. Nevertheless what the root cause is, the disconnects bothered me so much I returned mine after two weeks, as I intended to use them a lot. They are extremely comfortable, excellent sound quality, excellent mic sound for calls, long battery life. So very stupid case, though.

If I read at some point that Apple fixes the bluetooth issues (well, I can sort of confirm with my APPs), I’ll probably buy them again.
 
I’m experienced this as well. I toggle and switch between my Bose Soundlink Revolve and Airpods Max. I encountered the issue when I turned off the Bose but the status in iOS’ Settings>Bluetooth appears to be still “connected”. So I tried to manually disconnect the Bose and that’s how the Airpod Max started working again. I think its an iOS issue (I’m on 14.4) since it was not able to update the connection status of the Bose speaker.
 
this happened to me too and when i took it to apple they told me i should have “troubleshoot” it myself (who knows how to do that??) but they sent it to their engineering and when it came back to turns out the engineering team couldnt “duplicate the issue”! i asked “okay but this happens to me and a lot of other people” and they tried blaming my devices which are a Macbook Air (late 2018), iPad Air (2020) and an iPhone 11 Pro Max
 
I am having this same issue on my AirPods Max and my AirPods Pro. I have another post, which I posted after you posted this one because I did not see it originally, and I included a video in that forum post. I am going to take this video to Apple and hopefully get some sort of resolution. I have had a lot of calls with Apple regarding this. Here is a list of things I noticed:

Around when iOS 14 was released, I noticed a cracking issue with music playing through my AirPods Pro. Through Apple Support, I got replacement Left and Right AirPods, both of which experienced the same issue, and then they sent me a brand new pair of AirPods Pro, and the same thing happened. Recently, i purchased a pair of AirPods Max, hoping the issue was restricted to the AirPods Pro, and they are doing it too! (The audio clip below is an example of what it sounds like, through my AirPods Max). Occasionally, after the cracking occurs, the AirPods stop playing music completely, requiring me to unpair them and repair them to continue listening. I have been in contact with Apple Support since October and they have been unable to solve the issue. Has anyone else experienced this, or a similar, issue? I am thinking it is an issue with iOS 14, or maybe an issue with the bluetooth in the AirPods.

Some things I noticed:
  • This happens in all three modes (ANC, Transparency, and Off)
  • Happens at my work place and at my home
  • Happens when streaming music and playing downloaded music
  • Happened with my iPhone X and then, when I upgraded, my iPhone 12 Pro Max. This also happened while watching the Apple iPad Keynote last year, streaming through my PC (Surface Pro 6).
  • I have tried resetting the AirPods and my iPhone multiple times to factory settings, to no avail
  • When I got my first pair of AirPods Pro replaced, they ran diagnostics on them and found everything was OK, but they were still experiencing the issue
 
I updated to iOS 14.5 yesterday and, after listening to music for a couple hours today, have not noticed this happening. It has been almost unlistenable over the past week, so not having this issue makes me think something has been fixed. I noticed Apple fixed some automatic device switching issues with AirPods, so if the issue has been related to that it may be fixed.

Has anyone else in this thread noticed the issue is gone?
 
I've been experiencing this issue too both with my AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. I've had it with my iPhone 12 running 14.5, MacBook Pro, and even my Apple TV! I think it's due to a bug related to the automatic switching feature or iCloud/Bluetooth (e.g. how it syncs your bluetooth devices with your Apple ID).
 
Happens sometimes. Part of 1st gen woes. Might be fixed in software, might have a replacement program lmao
 
I have experienced this aswell. I never had this with the Bose NC 700 or Sony WH-1000XM3 so it seems to be caused by the AirPods Max, rather than my phone.
 
Repeating this message here as well.

Stuttering and eventually muting started happening to my AirPods Max literally as soon as I put the Spiegen protective plastic ear cups on and the stutter stopped as soon as I took them off. Like clockwork, put them back on, audio started stuttering. So, I am not saying I found the solution to the stutter for all of you but if you do have any after-market accessories put on these headphones, take those off completely and try again. Somehow mine stopped stuttering after a few hours even with the cups on but worth a try.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SJCR8WW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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Echoing here the same issues.
Audio starts stuttering, no real reason for it, just stutters and gets worse and worse. No special gear or add-ons on it, default Space Gray as they came connected via Bluetooth.

Things to notice:
- Resetting it (triggering the amber charging light) via the crown and ANC-switch button fill fix it for the most part (until it triggers again).
- When it's stuttering, pressing the ANC switch on and off will make the music sound fine. It's like if it has to give you the feedback that the Transparency or ANC mode has changed it goes in a state where it won't stutter.

Sounds like a audio buffer thing to me of some sort... when a song stutters at a place, say, a section of a chorus, the song will stutter almost the exact same way at the right place when that chorus section plays again.

That last thing sounds like a stretch to me, but I have no clue and with all the "Audio Computing blah blah" going on it might be possible that it's related to that? It bugs the "Computational Audio"? who knows.
 
I'm mostly listening to my AirPodMax via my M1 MacMini. I have my iPhone nearby, as well as two HomePodMinis, and a Amazon Alexa device. Not to mention a Logitech BT keyboard and mouse. I've rarely had connection issues or drop-outs. But it is hell to figure out what is going on.
 
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jazz1 said:
I'm mostly listening to my AirPodMax via my M1 MacMini. I have my iPhone nearby, as well as two HomePodMinis, and a Amazon Alexa device. Not to mention a Logitech BT keyboard and mouse. I've rarely had connection issues or drop-outs. But it is hell to figure out what is going on.
Click to expand...
Same
 
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