AirPods Max Severe Battery Drain

[Bazooka-joe]

I’m assuming this low drain is when they are in case and in ultra low power mode?
Problem is, this mode only kicks in with 18 hours of no usage, if you’re using more regularly than that, it never gets the chance to enter this mode

I think it takes 18 hours to go on to ultra low power mode but yes they do need to go into the case. So I charged mine up to 100% at 9 o’clock last night and left them in the case. 12 hours later they were still reading at 100% so mine continue to perform as I would hope

 

[Shadowbech]

One thing I noticed is that when I leave it on the case and then take it out to listen, my airpods max appears to have an issue with connecting. It does connect but then the sound gets a bit distorted and I have to factory reset them and after that it's back to normal. I'm not sure if it's the case issue or if it's my airpods max but seems to be fine without the case. I don't experience any battery drain when it's not on the case either.

I have a friend who never puts it inside the case and he doesn't experience battery drain either. I think I'll leave it out of the case for now and will only use it if I need to take it out. However, it stays at home 100% of the time so I'll put the case in the drawer.

 

[jterp7]

Bra or aftermarket case?

 

[Shadowbech]

Bra or aftermarket case?

Just the case that it came with. Sorry I'm not going to call it with that as it's not a proper name for it.

 

[jterp7]

did you do the bazooka settings changes or all stock?

 

[jterp7]

if you have big sur I believe you have to change the setting there as well

 

[Shadowbech]

did you do the bazooka settings changes or all stock?

I changed the settings to connect to last. So it's not set to automatic on all of them. but now that I did reset it, I will need to do that on the MBP M1.

 

[Shadowbech]

Regardless, i likely won't be putting in that case and I'll just put the case back in the box. I might buy something like this:

ZtotopCase Case for Airpods Max, Velvet Lining, Compatible with Airpods Max Headset with Apple Smart Case, Storage Bag with Accessories Organiser, Grey

Case for Airpods Max

www.amazon.com

 

[jterp7]

for me this was the only way that it stopped draining 12% each day, so i'll put up with the minor inconvenience to save the battery cycles.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

So today’s update. i checked them tonight as they have been sat in the Apple case fully charged since 9pm last night U.K. time and have lost just 1% since charging them up 21 hours ago.
The process I use is clunky but it does seem to help the battery. So to repeat, I have the AirPods max connected to my phone and no other device with automatic switching set to off on my phone. I have used it twice with ATV. I have not connected them to my iPad or my MacBook Pro at any time.
Anyway as soon as I put them back in the case, I go to the bluetooth settings and within 10 seconds they change to disconnected in Bluetooth settings. I can then check the battery status any time I like simply by reconnecting the AirPods Max in Bluetooth settings and then swiping right to check the battery status. Within 20 seconds of that they automatically disconnect from Bluetooth again
However after seven or eight hours they seem to go into some sort of deep sleep mode where I can’t actually reactivate them from the Bluetooth settings and I have to physically take the AirPods max out of the case and then they automatically activate and connect To my phone. So, for me they do seem to go into immediate sleep mode as soon I put them back in the case and then go into a deep sleep mode after a few hours.
I’m not saying that what I do is right or wrong and they are only 12 days old. But the only thing I can think of is because they are recent stock, they came with 3C16 firmware already installed so I didn’t have to do a firmware update and I’ve had to do no factory resets so far.
My first pair of AirPods maxes that I sent back after two days were also showing the same type of battery life that this pair are and so this re-connect/disconnect process works well for me but it really should be showing this sort of behaviour without automatic switching disabled

 

[francoc02o]

That was from 10 pm to 7 am.

That’s 9 hours . That drain is normal, because is only on low power mode. Just after 18hours untouched inside the case it gets into the ULTRA low, which is a are of 0.125drain per hour, so it can last up to a month. But everytime you wake up the headphones by taking them out of the case or connecting them they count starts from 0.

 

[jterp7]

Second time 9% over 51.5hrs. Not sure what changed this time

 

[jterp7]

Really weird. I left it in case at 33% at 1030pm and this afternoon i get the low 20% warning on the phone (which hasnt connected to the apms in a while).
Quick math is 13% lost over 17hrs. Looks like im getting the weird hyper drain issue now.

 

[RAMM]

Really weird. I left it in case at 33% at 1030pm and this afternoon i get the low 20% warning on the phone (which hasnt connected to the apms in a while).
Quick math is 13% lost over 17hrs. Looks like im getting the weird hyper drain issue now.

That sounds a bit high, especially if you didn't use them at all. But performance seems to be all over the place... In my observations, I've lost roughly 20% every 24hrs, but that includes 2 hrs of usage each day. To me, the really high drainage issues that I’ve seen are in the order of 30-40+% loss in just a few hours.

 

[jterp7]

For bazooka, i noticed that this time i can do the quick connect to check battery before it disappears off the widget. To me this is showing that its not dropping into the ultra low mode.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

For bazooka, i noticed that this time i can do the quick connect to check battery before it disappears off the widget. To me this is showing that its not dropping into the ultra low mode.

Yeah that takes a few hours before it drops into the ultra low mode. So I checked mine at 9 am this morning and it had lost 3% in 13 hours. I checked it this evening and it had lost another 3%but I had to take the headphones out of the case so I could connect to them.
I’m going to try and measure how long they have to be in the case before you can no longer connect to them without taking them out of the case

 

[magdor]

I've been having problems with mine for the last several weeks. Heck, I couldn't get them to charge past 75% for the first 2 weeks of ownership. Finally spoke with again Apple about it today, we were able to diagnose that it was still connected to one of my devices (iPad) even though the headphones were in the case. This caused them to lose 70% of their charge overnight. They did set up a replacement, but I have little faith that this will fix the issue. I suspect that there is something to do with the headphones that are leaving them connected to a device.

A simple power switch would have eliminated this problem from ever happening. Although, I've used the regular AirPod Pro's for years and never had this problem.

 

[Deliro]

In the same boat now. Brand new a couple days back. Goes to 1% by the following afternoon. In the case. I know this has been beaten to death, but why did Apple not just implement a on/off button? Ya I know Apple wants to be on this ahead of the curve type of kick, but sometimes tried and true methods don't need to be mucked with.

Reading this thread people have had success, temporarily, in resetting the cans. I don't think this is an hardware issue, so replacing them thinking that will solve the issue isn't happening. There is a flaw in the software, something is remaining active while not in use. And I refuse to turn off BT as a bandaid to fix an issue on $550 dollar headphones..

 

[cheekyjeremy]

• Connect your AirPods to the iPhone.
• Open Settings.
• Tap Bluetooth.
• Find your AirPods in the connected devices list and press the small (i) button on the right of the row.
• Tap ‘Connect to this iPhone’ setting.
• Change the setting from ‘Automatically’ to ‘When Last Connected to This iPhone’.

Make sure you have done this on your other iOS devices as well.

• View attachment 1731350

So far, this appears to be working for me. I am not seeing any relevant loss now. In hindsight, I'd say that the connection to the Mac was the main source of pain.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

So far, this appears to be working for me. I am not seeing any relevant loss now. In hindsight, I'd say that the connection to the Mac was the main source of pain.

Yep that’s exactly the process that I’ve always followed and it works for me so I think it’s a bug in the firmware when connecting to other devices

 

[RAMM]

I am not seeing any relevant loss now. In hindsight, I'd say that the connection to the Mac was the main source of pain.

I can report a similar experience. It’s now been 16 days since I factory-reset my APMs. I had disabled auto switching from my iOS devices but later discovered that my Mac was constantly connecting to the APMs as well, so I disabled that promptly. No drastic battery charge losses in that span.

On average, with moderate usage, I‘m charging them every 3 to 4 days. They’re currently in the midst of an “extended” span of no usage (36 hours in the case), as I wanted to test the purported “ultra low power mode.” I can report that the APMs only lost 5% battery in that 36-hour period. Would I like these headphones to consume less battery? Yes, I would. But so far I would say the factory reset and disabling auto switching has stabilized performance.

Will continue to wait for a firmware update... But I am definitely less anxious now!

 

[Shadowbech]

I put it in the case last night and 13 hours later I took it out to use it. Lost 10%. I don't think this is normal. Looks like I get better battery life without being in the case at all. Time for the case to go inside a drawer and collect dust.

 

[EntropyQ3]

That’s not bad. How many hours was that? I’m still losing around quarter of a percent an hour so I am well pleased

That’s terrible! It’s loosing charge at the pace of 15%/day doing nothing inside it’s case! Also due to (sorry Apple) idiotic engineering choices it keeps discharging until the battery is drained which damages battery longevity.

 

[UKapple73]

Apple :
Please implement a long press of crown button for 5 seconds to power off
Problem solved

 

[Stratus Fear]

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 after a few more weeks of using the headphones, what I've noticed is that it doesn't seem to matter whether or not the headphones are in the case. They arbitrarily don't go into sleep mode either in the case (when they should sleep immediately) or after five minutes idle outside of the case. I've had them sleep properly in the case and only lose 2-3% in 3 days, also had them not sleep properly in the case and lose 50% overnight. Also had them sleep properly outside the case, and lose 50% again overnight outside the case when idle. Something with the sleep trigger code is busted and probably requires a firmware update.