AirPods Max Severe Battery Drain

[yegon]

I just took my AirPods Max out of its storage bra after not using them for a week . I stored them away charged at 100% and the battery drained down to 53% .

Crazily, this is probably normal, expected behaviour for a week.

I love the always on aspect during the day, but the absence of a full shutdown is a critical design failing imo. Sure, I probably will use them almost every day. But sometimes I wont. Equally I won’t be using them for a third of my life (when I’m asleep).

In contrast, I use my XM4’s only at work. Every 2.5 weeks I get 6 days off in a row when I don’t use them. When I go back to them, the charge is identical to how I left them. If I had the same usage pattern for the APMs...well, they’d feel plain broken.

 

[Huntzjr]

your profile pic is my reaction

My Wife is on vacation so I had to hide them . She doesn't know I bought them ?

 

[Lundmark]

I love the always on aspect during the day, but the absence of a full shutdown is a critical design failing imo.

You won't find a full shutdown on any pair of wireless headphones. You won't on most consumer electronics actually. There are no circuit breakers and the buttons need power to even turn stuff on.

These are no different. They have other mechanisms that buttons, but no matter if you use sensors or buttons they are just electronic toggles for low power modes.

The lack of button isn't the issue. This drain issue seems like a bug.

 

[haruhiko]

Crazily, this is probably normal, expected behaviour for a week.

I love the always on aspect during the day, but the absence of a full shutdown is a critical design failing imo. Sure, I probably will use them almost every day. But sometimes I wont. Equally I won’t be using them for a third of my life (when I’m asleep).

In contrast, I use my XM4’s only at work. Every 2.5 weeks I get 6 days off in a row when I don’t use them. When I go back to them, the charge is identical to how I left them. If I had the same usage pattern for the APMs...well, they’d feel plain broken.

I charged the AirPods Max to 100% last night, and then unplugged it and put it into the bra case. This morning, the battery was down to 54%. I don't think this is normal behaviour. Apple needs to address this bug as soon as possible since the bra case was supposed to put the AirPods Max into sleep mode. Apparently 50% battery consumption overnight means that for some reason it didn't go into sleep mode at all.

I don't care about a power button as much as everyone here, but Apple needs to make the experience seamless so that I really don't need to care about the power button.

 

[Lundmark]

I've had mine drain from 100% to empty in just 2-3 days while hanging on a stand, but when trying to replicate I haven't been able to. This poor standby behavior isn't consistent so I'm thinking it's a bug.

 

[ffOpusx]

Been having the same issues. To test I fully charged my AirPods Max to 100% and then unplugged them and put them in the case. After 8 hours I was at 36%. I have done this a few days in a row and same issue 100% to anywhere below 40% every time. Hope Apple fixes this issue ASAP.

 

[ffOpusx]

Been having the same issues. To test I fully charged my AirPods Max to 100% and then unplugged them and put them in the case. After 8 hours I was at 36%. I have done this a few days in a row and same issue 100% to anywhere below 40% every time. Hope Apple fixes this issue ASAP.

So I just used my AirPods Max, that was charged to 100% and then unpluged, say for 7 hours and was at 42% to watch I video on YouTube and they are now at 27%. This better get fixed quickly.

 

[F23]

My Wife is on vacation so I had to hide them . She doesn't know I bought them ?

your profile pic is my reaction part 2 ??

 

[F23]

I don't think lack of power button is the problem. it's the software. if they properly worked in low power/standby with minimal drain both in and out of the case, these would be the most flawless product. I hope apple won't be stubborn and addresses this bc it can be easily fixed with an update. just need to make enough noise so they hear us. fellow macrumorians, we control our fate

 

[error]

90% when I took them off last night, 60% when I woke up, not in the case — I live in a house with three floors, I am not going the move the case to every floor I am while using these headphones.

My AirPods Max have the latest firmware. Going to try the forget and reset ‘solution’ today and see what happens.

 

[Qwerty Key]

For those facing battery drain issue are you connecting APM to multiple devices and switching between those or is it with single device also?
In my case I can replicate the issue with multiple devices but if I just connect and use my iPhone then don’t face the issue.

 

[LEDOLPH]

I’ve had this happen once. Almost a full drain. I have the latest firmware. I’m sure it’s just a software hiccup. Did a reset. Put them in the case and they lost 2% overnight. I’ll try leaving them out without the case tonight.

Does anyone remember the 3rd gen iPod that swapped stereo tracks every time you pressed play / pause? That got sorted pretty quickly.

It’s week 2 of a Rev one Apple product - if we all had more restraint we’d have waited till the quirks were sorted.?

 

[yegon]

You won't find a full shutdown on any pair of wireless headphones. You won't on most consumer electronics actually. There are no circuit breakers and the buttons need power to even turn stuff on.

These are no different. They have other mechanisms that buttons, but no matter if you use sensors or buttons they are just electronic toggles for low power modes.

The lack of button isn't the issue. This drain issue seems like a bug.

Whilst technically true, there is a very real difference between the ability to “turn off”* the Sony XM4’s and the inability to “turn off” the APMs. If you can’t recognise the difference you’re being unnecessarily nit picky and pedantic.

Equally, it goes without saying there will always be some degree of drain, however slight, with Li-On batteries. But it is absolutely trivial in the example of the XM4’s and absolutely non-trivial in the example of the APM’s, even when they’re behaving as the manufacturer intended.

*I am putting this in quotation marks to acknowledge that you’re correct. I’m explaining this so we don’t engage in a needless round about internet argument that is a complete waste of time, that quickly loses sight of the issue at hand

 

[yegon]

I charged the AirPods Max to 100% last night, and then unplugged it and put it into the bra case. This morning, the battery was down to 54%. I don't think this is normal behaviour. Apple needs to address this bug as soon as possible since the bra case was supposed to put the AirPods Max into sleep mode. Apparently 50% battery consumption overnight means that for some reason it didn't go into sleep mode at all.

I don't care about a power button as much as everyone here, but Apple needs to make the experience seamless so that I really don't need to care about the power button.

This sounds like my experience when it happened three times. It’s not happened since I did the following -

-unpaired
-factory reset
-paired, but left BT off on one of my iPads (which I only take to work when BT is on)
-not used the case at all

I’ve since used it with Apple TV, one iPad and my iPhone, making sure to forcibly switch it back to iPhone when I’ve finished using them with the Apple TV.

Again, I’ve not used the case, just left them on the coffee table and drain when not in use has been trivial. A few % overnight, that’s it.

Whether it’s multiple iPad or case related I don’t know, and it’s silly to have to jump through these hoops, but they are at least working (mostly) as advertised for now.

Edit: Also, I have a big head, the APM’s at maximum size. When I use the case I don’t shrink them. Could it be that they’re angled such that the magnets in the case aren’t communicating properly? They do sit differently in the case at max size. I have a very low opinion of the case generally and nothing would surprise me. The way the metal clanks together, unless you handle them very carefully, is the sort of lack of attention to detail that Apple traditionally likes to deride it’s competition for. There’ll be a LOT of dinged headphones in that spot in 6 months.

 

[francoc02o]

For those facing battery drain issue are you connecting APM to multiple devices and switching between those or is it with single device also?
In my case I can replicate the issue with multiple devices but if I just connect and use my iPhone then don’t face the issue.

Exactly the same here. The factory reset is a solution, but I was able to replicate the problem when using several devices. And I suspect is was while using the Apple TV 4K. It has problems with YouTube there.

Has anyone else tried to connect his AirPods Max to the Apple TV 4K while playing YouTube first (when YouTube was already open and playing) ?

 

[francoc02o]

Exactly the same here. The factory reset is a solution, but I was able to replicate the problem when using several devices. And I suspect is was while using the Apple TV 4K. It has problems with YouTube there.

Has anyone else tried to connect his AirPods Max to the Apple TV 4K while playing YouTube first (when YouTube was already open and playing) ?

im sure is a software bug , cause the battery draining average rate is 4-5% per hour, same when listening. So it mean it’s processor is still working even when not using it, even inside the case.

The SOLUTION is performing the factory reset.
BUT, the problem would happen again if you keep the same pattern of use.

when I use Only with my iPhone, There is no battery drain. But when using it with several devices it happens again. maybe by the switching feature.

I’ve been doing several tests during this week, and when I used it with my MacBook and Apple TV 4K the problem appeared again. Maybe is not related to a specific device, but to the fact is switching among devices , until the processor get stuck in a loading infinitive loop, than can only be stopped by a factory reset.

 

[StevesSweater]

That is a little discouraging to read. But anyone wanting to return them already, it seems like a software bugg for sure.

 

[francoc02o]

This YouTuber is talking about this problem, and by reading the comments on the video, I see there’s a lot of people with this issue.

So far, as long as you factory reset your AirPods max, and ONLY use it with your iPhone, I believe you won’t have the problem

 

[ffOpusx]

This YouTuber is talking about this problem, and by reading the comments on the video, I see there’s a lot of people with this issue.

So far, as long as you factory reset your AirPods max, and ONLY use it with your iPhone, I believe you won’t have the problem

One of the selling points of AirPods is that you can switch between devices quickly so this has to be fixed. At least for now we can somewhat stop the problem. Again hopefully Apple will release a firmware update that will correct this issue soon. 549. Is a lot of money for something that does not works as advertised. At least not 100% as advertised.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

So here is what I have noticed since posting on Monday. (Full charge, minimal usage to check for battery, maybe 60 minutes a day). Since then I am now at 64% battery. What I have noticed is that when I put them in the case, or sometime just disconnect, it still shows that it is connected to my iPhone. So what I do is when I am done using it, put it in the case. Manually reconnect to the AirPods then disconnect again. When I do this, it seems to properly disconnect and the battery issue seems okay. I'll keep checking and update but so far it seems to work. Hopefully this gets addressed with next update but for now, it may be good enough? (And yes, I am really trying to avoid using it on MacBook and iPad as I think MacBook seems to drain. I guess that will be the next test). Hope this helps.

Edit: The reason why (when the AirPods are in the case) I will reconnect and then disconnect is that I think another device, iPad/MacBook, may still passively connect to it, which causes the drain. (I will still see it showing on the widget sometimes if I don't do the reconnect/disconnect). Also, just went through my numbers and I figure I am losing about 7% of battery charge per day while it is in the case.

 

[mobutt]

Just posting that I’m experiencing the same.

 

[error]

50% battery drain in on night inside the 'smart' case, with the latest firmware and after a hard forget/reset. These headphones are going back to Apple next week.

 

[yegon]

I’ve stopped using the case altogether, had almost a week now of normal behaviour, minimal drain.

Had three chronic drains prior.

 

[MecPro]

Seems like a similar problem that the APP also have.

My biggest issue with Apple not having a simple power-off button is literally what you guys experience now.\

I think if you're going to be so radical to not have a power-off button and instead have an ultra-low sleep mode, then you need to make sure its 100% out of the gate.

I believe Apple will release a patch for this soon and are already working on it, but it just doesn't sit well with me that there's this issue AND no power-off button and you're at the behest of whenever Apple engineers figure out the fix.

 

[LeonPro]

I'm one of the lucky ones that isn't experiencing severe battery drain issues. I never used the "Smart Case" since taking the headphones from the box.

The APM is just hanging from a headphone stand and after staying there overnight is just reporting a 1% loss in battery.