AirPods Max Severe Battery Drain

[Dammit Cubs]

I'm definitely seeing the battery drain as I charged them in the case and they were at 68% - 6 hours later when I was just in the airport and put them on. This isn't the first time I have seen these. I wonder if it has to do with having them connected to a laptop. Im trying to figure out if this MacOS issue or iOS issue or both.

it's actually the one negative that is bothering me the most about these headphones - more than the price.

 

[jterp7]

I dont use the case and im seeing about the 1% every 2hr as mentioned

 

[AppelGeenyus]

Well in my case, I turned them on in the morning (took out of case) and they said 1% and then I tried to use them and they died after like 2 minutes. So I suppose it wasn't a false battery reading.

But 1% should be at least 12 mins battery life

 

[francoc02o]

When I don’t use them., And is not aprubtally draining , I see a drain of 10% per day.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

It just drained on me last night, after I used it for a conference call which was connected to a MacBook. I think it's not disconnecting and slowly draining.

It's really frustrating. I would check to see if there is a clear difference between MAC users and Ipad/iPhone users.

 

[jterp7]

It just drained on me last night, after I used it for a conference call which was connected to a MacBook. I think it's not disconnecting and slowly draining.

It's really frustrating. I would check to see if there is a clear difference between MAC users and Ipad/iPhone users.

I manually disconnected mine earlier and its dropped less than usual. Im on catalina since my og rmbp misses sur cutoff

 

[Herrpod]

When I don’t use them., And is not aprubtally draining , I see a drain of 10% per day.

That is unbelievably awful for a pair of wireless headphones. A proper pair will lose 0 percent.

 

[kirk.vino]

When I don’t use them., And is not aprubtally draining , I see a drain of 10% per day.

In the same boat!
I think it’s normal, as they’re never really off since they’re supposed to be detectable via Find My. I guess, that’s part of the reason why there’s no on/off button. That would‘ve been useless anyway.

 

[kirk.vino]

That is unbelievably awful for a pair of wireless headphones. A proper pair will lose 0 percent.

Truly it’s the end of the world! LOL
They’re always “on” for Find My to function properly with them. I don’t find 10% per day to be that awful. You would normally charge them a couple of times a week anyway.

 

[BaddAdvice]

I wonder how hard it would be for Apple to have these actually turn off after 15 minutes of non-use (or some other preset timeframe). The XM3s and 4s do that and I rarely, if ever, worry about the battery on those guys.

Here's hoping a software update brings that and/or the ability to use button combos to turn these off.

 

[kirk.vino]

I wonder how hard it would be for Apple to have these actually turn off after 15 minutes of non-use (or some other preset timeframe). The XM3s and 4s do that and I rarely, if ever, worry about the battery on those guys.

Here's hoping a software update brings that and/or the ability to use button combos to turn these off.

I don’t think they’re supposed to be completely off, as they need to work with Find My.

 

[AndreGB]

I really just wanted to voice my +1 here (first time posting on this thread, by the way, so count me as a "another" person with the same issue).

I have performed the full reset/repair and I will check later. I bought these on release, they arrived mid December and I haven't had any problems until last week.

Now, my question is: do Apple employees even use their own products? I cannot believe no Apple employee hasn't experienced this issue yet.

 

[BaddAdvice]

I don’t think they’re supposed to be completely off, as they need to work with Find My.

Make sense.

So, I guess don't use the cover when you're not using the cans and just plug them in every (or every other) night to avoid the drastic drain - that seems to be what I'm taking away from this thread. At this point, the cover seems to be even more useless than initially thought!

 

[kirk.vino]

Make sense.

So, I guess don't use the cover when you're not using the cans and just plug them in every (or every other) night to avoid the drastic drain - that seems to be what I'm taking away from this thread. At this point, the cover seems to be even more useless than initially thought!

I’m seeing a 10% drain per day while in the case, so I wouldn’t say it’s that terrible. Not ideal, but not awful either.

 

[GeekPandaCH]

Guys, I had the same Issue.

I got them a week ago, in the release day, and they were working perfectly. At least until Friday. That I charged them fully, and by Saturday night, they were dead again, and I barely used them, which I found weird.
I noticed that over nigh (Saturday night and Sunday night) they were draining around 40-50% (depending how many hours I sleep haha) of battery. And they were inside its smart case the whole time.

Yesterday (Monday) started doing my test: at 8am I unplugged them, they were at 100% battery. I kept them in their smart case. At 10am they were 92% of battery. At 11:37am they were 87%. All without using them, and inside the smart case.


SOLUTION

I factory reseted by pressing the crown and the noise control button at the same time for 15 sec, till the flash light blinked amber and then turned white. Then connected to my iPhone again.

Today I did my test again: I unplugged them at 8am, they were 100% battery. and I kept them in the case. 4 hours later at 12pm, they were still 100%. 4 hours later at 4pm, they were still at 100% battery. Now, at the moment im writing this, 2:30 later, at 6:30pm, they are at 100% of battery.
So I conclude that this solver the problem, because after more than 10 hours in its case, the battery remained intact.

CAUSE

So far I think the issue is that its processor got stuck and never stopped working, even though they were inside the case, because the rate batterydrain/hour was almost the same as when playing music (average 4%).

But we got to find out what is causing tis processor to get stock. Maybe we find a patter in our behavior using the headphone.

So far, I did play music from all my devices (iPhone 12 Pro, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, Apple TV HD, Apple TV 4K) when I was trying my headphones. I was especially trying the switching among devices feature, so I was constantly trying the automatic switching.
I read in this threat that a lot of you were also playing among several devices. So my theory is that the switching feature or the streaming from certain device is causing its processor to get stuck.

I also read that they just release an update for the AirPods max firmware yesterday ( 3C16 ), so it my have coincided with the solution as well.

Please let me know your comments.

Great description, thanks mate. I have same scenario as you. I will test the factory reset and see if it solves it as well. Cheers!.

 

[error]

I don’t think they’re supposed to be completely off, as they need to work with Find My.

It would be interesting if you would turn off 'Find My' for your headphones… this always on behaviour would change.

I can't test it because I returned them, but I personally would have no problems turning Find My off. I would have used the AidPods Max only in my own home. A draining battery only for some rare occasion you can't find them? Would be silly.

 

[francoc02o]

I really love the built quality of this headphones, they look so beautiful and premium to me. Also I love the sound quality (I don’t like the sound of my AirPods Pro anymore ?) , and the active noise cancelation is amazing, especially this days that some of us need to work from home.

BUT this headphones are soooo buggy.

- the battery severe drain (around 40-50%) over night that happens sometimes (and we asume because of the the use with other apple devices)

- the transparency mode in just one side and the other in the noise cancelation.

- the sometimes bad connection (not connecting) to the devices that makes me try several times until they get connected.

All of this makes me keep factory resetting at least once a day.

I love them but I don’t know if I should keep them. Maybe is that mine are defective, but there are no replacement till March ?. This gives me more anxiety than pleasure.

 

[F23]

Battery went from 99% to 1% overnight. Did a factory reset. Went from 100% to 90% overnight in the case. Used for 2 hours, went to 79%. this battery is so trash. you can't travel with these, they'll die. these are just made to sit at your desk by a charger. why is the standby time so trash, should we just leave it on a charger overnight?

 

[kirk.vino]

I really love the built quality of this headphones, they look so beautiful and premium to me. Also I love the sound quality (I don’t like the sound of my AirPods Pro anymore ?) , and the active noise cancelation is amazing, especially this days that some of us need to work from home.

BUT this headphones are soooo buggy.

- the battery severe drain (around 40-50%) over night that happens sometimes (and we asume because of the the use with other apple devices)

- the transparency mode in just one side and the other in the noise cancelation.

- the sometimes bad connection (not connecting) to the devices that makes me try several times until they get connected.

All of this makes me keep factory resetting at least once a day.

I love them but I don’t know if I should keep them. Maybe is that mine are defective, but there are no replacement till March ?. This gives me more anxiety than pleasure.

I only use them with one device, my iPhone, and I don’t have any of those issues. My battery drain is standard, which is 10% per day. Maybe whatever you’ve mentioned is indeed a result of using them with multiple devices.

 

[yegon]

Battery went from 99% to 1% overnight. Did a factory reset. Went from 100% to 90% overnight in the case. Used for 2 hours, went to 79%. this battery is so trash. you can't travel with these, they'll die. these are just made to sit at your desk by a charger. why is the standby time so trash, should we just leave it on a charger overnight?

I sympathise with your experience, I experienced all of this for a period of about 3 or 4 days. It has to be a bug though, mine have been fine for over a week now, minimal drain when not in use, great battery life when in use. I leave for work and they’ll be at 70%, leave them out of the case, and 10 hours later they’re 68%.

I don’t trust any measurements when they’re at or near 100%, the readings then are at their most inaccurate it seems.

Use them a lot with iPhone, iPad and AppleTV 4K. Haven’t had any drop out or connection issues. The auto switching has been rock solid, unlike my AirPods Pro which have always been flakey.

 

[kirk.vino]

Battery went from 99% to 1% overnight. Did a factory reset. Went from 100% to 90% overnight in the case. Used for 2 hours, went to 79%. this battery is so trash. you can't travel with these, they'll die. these are just made to sit at your desk by a charger. why is the standby time so trash, should we just leave it on a charger overnight?

I’ve already traveled with them twice and only charged them once per week. I don’t find the 10% drain per day to be that dramatically bad. Losing 10% after 2 hours of use is also within the norm.
I only charge them twice a week if I use them daily for 3-4 hours a day.

 

[DekuBleep]

Welp I did the factory reset and then after three days the problem came back.

 

[ginofresh]

I thought I was the only one with this issue, should we just return them or did apple say they are going to fix them or give us an off button!

 

[kirk.vino]

Ok, I went to bed last night and the battery was at 51%, just checked and it’s showing 53% now. So that case has a hidden charging feature LOL
Jokes aside, it all shows that it’s probably not even a drain issue but an inaccurate battery reading.
I mentioned earlier that once they were at 1% and they were still playing after 40 mins.

 

[francoc02o]

I factory reseted before sleeping and was at 77%. After exactly 6 hours inside the case it is 73% (4% drain) . This the correct low battery mode I guess, because you lose 4-5%/hour when listening music. In other words:

With 4% of battery you get:
- listening time: 1 hour
- idle time in low power mode: 6 hours

I’ll keep checking