AirPods Max Severe Battery Drain

[F23]

This is my experience too. I had been putting them in the case when not using them, and even after trying a factory reset, they were draining 1% per hour in the case. This afternoon I left them out of the case as a test and in 6 hours they haven’t budged a single percent yet.

I wonder why hmm. So the smart case is bugged.
The headphones drain normally outside of the case. I'll test this too.
Alternate days, case, no case.

 

[mostlynameless]

Maybe is connected to other device by the automatic switching feature. Are you sure you performed the hard reset properly? until the white light blinks?
You can verify if you did it well by checking on your devices , on bluetooth settings , that the AirPods max dont appear there anyone. Also verify that in Find My they are not appearing.

It's not impossible that they are finding a device I'm not watching, but I've only ever purposely connected them to my iPad Pro and my phone. The last couple of times, I've only connected to the phone. And, yes, after a reset I looked and they were gone from the phone. Then, when I reconnect, blinking white light, and they do the initial set up again.

It's weird. When I put them in the case, they disconnect from the phone, so they "know" they are in the case but they just never go to sleep. If it was a hardware issue (like the magnets aren't touching what they need to touch), I would think they wouldn't disconnect either.

 

[F23]

it's been over 30 minutes that I left them out of the case, sitting flat on a desk and it's still showing the battery in my widgets. but it's not connected thru Bluetooth. isn't it supposed to not show up after 5 minutes?

 

[Bazooka-joe]

I wonder why hmm. So the smart case is bugged.
The headphones drain normally outside of the case. I'll test this too.
Alternate days, case, no case.

So if the case is the issue, then it probably can’t be fixed through software upgrades to the headphones unless it’s the magnets. It will be interesting to know if anyone is having the same issue with third party cases with magnets. If not then it must be the case rather than just magnets. So I wonder if Apple would send out replacement cases.

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

OK so I stopped using the bra case and the problem has not occurred again in A week. None of this madness of turning Bluetooth off on everything. Just simply stopped using that bra.

I tried this last night and it seems o have worked for me as well. Battery drain has decreased dramatically. Thanks for posting.

 

[rosegoldoli]

so the bra case is behind this..?

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

I believe it may be. When I'm listening to music there is hardly any change in the battery level. Leaving them in the case doing nothing over night uses around 15%. This my not be terrible but it seemed a bit high to me.

 

[doolar]

I’ve stopped using the smart case, and after a charge cycle the prob of excessive discharging seems to be gone. Hopefully Apple can sort this with a software update. I don’t use the case often, but I like to use it when putting the headphones in my backpack going to work. Now I just keep them on my head in the car, but since I mainly ride my motorcycle they need to be stored away.

 

[UKapple73]

Sorry but the power management of these things is a mess
I can’t see a valid reason for even the standard 10-12% per day battery loss, that’s 2-2.5 hours of use time wasted every single day
Just give us a power off mode for crying out loud

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

I love mine, and will be keeping them for sure, but I have been thinking that the whole release cycle was a bit strange. Was there really a need to push them out there right at the end of the year? I'm sure Apple must realise these are a niche product that can't really effect their bottom line that much. Maybe they could have been held over for event in the first quarter of this year allowing a few of these minor bugs to be sorted out.

 

[F23]

I’ve stopped using the smart case, and after a charge cycle the prob of excessive discharging seems to be gone. Hopefully Apple can sort this with a software update. I don’t use the case often, but I like to use it when putting the headphones in my backpack going to work. Now I just keep them on my head in the car, but since I mainly ride my motorcycle they need to be stored away.

so you mean it took a couple days for the drain to become less while using no case?

I just tried leaving them out of the case for the first time, lost 6% in 12 hours, so 12% in 24 hours, the normal drain I see in the case as well. So for me no difference in or out of the case during 1 overnight test. Reluctant to keep trying.
My method of keeping them plugged in works better than being paranoid about battery drain.

 

[UKapple73]

According to Apple , the advantage of the case only comes if you leave them unused for 18 hours, and they then go into deep sleep, as opposed to out of case when it’s 72 hours.

 

[Enygmatic]

Something is up with these, definitely. It wasn’t always present, however mine are exhibiting the exact same nearly-complete drain overnight (after being taken off the charger at 100% - wake up and they’re at 10%). This happens with the Smart Case and with my Waterfield case, leading me to think it’s a software (or worse, hardware) issue. Apple is sending me a new pair, so I’ll hopefully be able to eliminate one of these variables. We’ll see…

 

[F23]

Has anyone tried laying them flat on a table instead of being upright or on a stand? Just another method of testing to try out.

 

[Tulani]

Has anyone tried laying them flat on a table instead of being upright or on a stand? Just another method of testing to try out.

 

[Shadowbech]

I love mine, and will be keeping them for sure, but I have been thinking that the whole release cycle was a bit strange. Was there really a need to push them out there right at the end of the year? I'm sure Apple must realise these are a niche product that can't really effect their bottom line that much. Maybe they could have been held over for event in the first quarter of this year allowing a few of these minor bugs to be sorted out.

Airpods Max weren't the only ones release in December. Even Airpods 1st Gen was also released on December 13, 2016 (even though they announced it during the iphone event at that time).

 

[artfossil]

I love mine, and will be keeping them for sure, but I have been thinking that the whole release cycle was a bit strange. Was there really a need to push them out there right at the end of the year? I'm sure Apple must realise these are a niche product that can't really effect their bottom line that much. Maybe they could have been held over for event in the first quarter of this year allowing a few of these minor bugs to be sorted out.

Apple's fiscal year ends in September. The APM were released on December 15, in the first quarter of FY 21.

 

[F23]

I tried everything. Still get exactly 12% drain per 24 hours consistently. Proving that is the expected/normal drain.
Tried with case, ensuring was not connected to devices. Tried with no case. Tried factory resetting then putting in the case. Tried keeping it upright on a stand. Tried with it laying flat on a table. All with and without a case for each. Every time still got 12% drain per day. The OCD is not worth it. Just plug it in overnight every night like you do with your phone. I give up trying to "fix" the standby drain.

 

[francoc02o]

it's been over 30 minutes that I left them out of the case, sitting flat on a desk and it's still showing the battery in my widgets. but it's not connected thru Bluetooth. isn't it supposed to not show up after 5 minutes?

Yeah. That’s not happening either here

 

[francoc02o]

I tried everything. Still get exactly 12% drain per 24 hours consistently. Proving that is the expected/normal drain.
Tried with case, ensuring was not connected to devices. Tried with no case. Tried factory resetting then putting in the case. Tried keeping it upright on a stand. Tried with it laying flat on a table. All with and without a case for each. Every time still got 12% drain per day. The OCD is not worth it. Just plug it in overnight every night like you do with your phone. I give up trying to "fix" the standby drain.

That’s is the normal. You’ll only see a different drain after 18 hours of continuesly not use (not even check the battery drain).
Everytime you check the baterry of the AirPods max you are waking them up, and the timing starts from 0.

I already posted my drain rates
After the 18 the headphones are draining very low. At the point they support more than 33 days to go to 0%

 

[francoc02o]

the point is that it shouldn’t be 18 hours to get into that ultra low power mode. Which makes no sense at all for a headphones that are going to be at home most of the time.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

the point is that it shouldn’t be 18 hours to get into that ultra low power mode. Which makes no sense at all for a headphones that are going to be at home most of the time.

Apple should be able to tweak that via the firmware. Why they try to be too clever is beyond me. They should just change it to go in to ultra low power mode as soon as you stop using the headphones. Keep it simple.
Apple - “It just works”

 

[UKapple73]

I think the reason they don’t immediately go into deep sleep is for the FindMy function. But seriously....who loses their $550 headphones?? And even if some do, give us a toggle to switch this FindMy off and let them go into deep sleep after 10 minutes or something

 

[RAMM]

Hey everyone, finally read through all 18 pages of this thread. Thanks everyone for your observations and comments, they helped me generate some strategies to figure out what’s going on with my APMs.

I’ve had them for almost one week (they finally shipped here in Mexico!) and unfortunately mine also exhibited the sudden battery drain. I thought I had factory-reset them a couple of times, but the problem persisted (I think I just ‘reset’ them). I factory-reset them again yesterday but I also made sure to disable auto switching from iPhone and iPad. Then about midday yesterday I fired up my MacBook Pro and discovered that the APMs showed “Connected” status! I promptly disconnected them and disabled auto switching as well. I also tried leaving them out of the case all day and overnight yesterday. They’ve lost about 10% charge since then, so that coincides with some of your experiences. Now I’ll put them in the case today and keep watching them.

I don’t think the case is the culprit here; this has to be firmware. When the OG AirPods came out (back in 2016, also a December release), I too was an early adopter and I remember the first generation of their firmware also malfunctioned, with crazy battery drain while the Pods were in their case. I still have my note where I logged battery consumption data! Eventually a firmware update resolved the issue. So, I have faith that this can be fixed via an update. However, I’ll keep an eye on my return window and will contact Apple for a replacement if my cans continue to misbehave...

 

[Bazooka-joe]

So my second set arrived today. Battery read 87%. Charged them up to 100% using a 5 watt charger. Brief test and then stuck them in my Geekria case without the bra and they went in to low power mode and disconnected from my iPhone. Auto switching to iPad is switched off and no connection to ATV or MacBook either. Six hours later, still reading 100%.
Listened to music for an hour, stuck them in the bra still disconnected from my phone and three hours later battery reading 99%.
Will check battery reading tomorrow morning.