Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

dbboy

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 31, 2006
31
2
Sacramento, Ca.
My AirPod max no longer will connect. I’ve tried resetting/restoring factory defaults, leaving it charging in the case for days and still nothing. I contacted Apple and I was told they would repair them for $300 since they are now a few months out of warranty. I also tried connecting them to my other devices and none of them see it. I see quite a few people on other forums with the exact same issue. Anyone here dealt with this? $300 on a year old device that costs $500 just makes no sense to me at this point. Thanks!
 
That's really frustrating about your AirPod Max stopping to connect! $300 for a repair seems steep considering they're only a year old. Have you looked into possibly selling them as-is on eBay? Maybe someone who's handy with electronics could fix them for less. Or you might find a third party repair shop that would do it cheaper than Apple. Otherwise, maybe see if Apple would give any discount since it's a known issue others are having too. Hopefully you're able to get them working again without paying full price for the repair. Their quality should be better for a premium product.
 
I had the same issues with my 2 year old APMs, took them into the Apple store and they said the same thing with 1 key difference they said to me they would generally service them for free if they were within 2 years of purchase, mine were 2yrs & 4 mths old so no luck, but as your's are 1 yr old I'd take them into an Apple store and see what they say about that.

There is one other option I only found about a few weeks ago, Apple offer a battery replacement service that costs $80 that would solve the problem, I'm not certain but I think they just replace the full unit through that so way better than $300
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I checked and it’s not an option. I guess they go to the trash. It’s pretty bad to have them fail after a year and 4 months. I am amazed at how many people on the forums have had the exact same problem. One person paid to have his fixed and it did the same thing again a few months later. It seems like a design flaw to me. I’ll probably get a pair of Bose since they have proven to be reliable. Plus I have heard Apple will be introducing a new version of the APMs soon.
 
Thanks, I checked and it’s not an option. I guess they go to the trash. It’s pretty bad to have them fail after a year and 4 months. I am amazed at how many people on the forums have had the exact same problem. One person paid to have his fixed and it did the same thing again a few months later. It seems like a design flaw to me. I’ll probably get a pair of Bose since they have proven to be reliable. Plus I have heard Apple will be introducing a new version of the APMs soon.
I wonder if it might be worth purchasing the lightning to 3.5 mm audio cable Apple sells that allows and see if, upon getting connected that way, it somehow "resets" and allows your Max to connect wirelessly once again. (The cable can be returned to Apple for a refund if you do so within 14 days of purchase.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: MBAir2010
I had the same problem occur yesterday, and the Genius Bar rep told me the same $300 exchange/"repair" cost, and recommended of course that I don't do it. I am not going to buy another Max, as my youngest son had the same issue with his. 2 years old and it is not a shiny paperweight.
 
Wow
i was contemplating purchasing a set this week
not anymore…..

i feel bad for those who suffered, they are expensive !
 
This is why I keep pushing the purchase out.
It's the butterfly keyboard all over again.
No it's not. There aren't dozens of threads discussing this issue, like there were with the butterfly keyboard. It's an issue that affects some AirPods Max units, but definitely not every single one.
 
No it's not. There aren't dozens of threads discussing this issue, like there were with the butterfly keyboard. It's an issue that affects some AirPods Max units, but definitely not every single one.

That may well be true - but the fact that Apple can't repair them doesn't make me feel better about it, unfortunately.

Also, the APMs are a much more niche article than the notebooks. Apple likely sold orders of magnitude more of those.
 
I have pair of pair Air Pod Max, with the lightning connector (not usb c), that won't connect any more. Not a scratch on them, they always worked great, never a problem, then one day they won't connect.

I tried everything, reset, cleaned contacts, put them in the freezer. None of this worked.

I notice that when I reset, hold the two buttons down for 15 secs, the light flashes orange three times and stops, it never flashes white: Apple says: "Press and hold the noise control button and the Digital Crown for 15 seconds, until the LED flashes amber, then white."

Reading the a little more closely. They suggest there is a Soft reset, and a Factory reset but it seems like these are both activated the same way.

  • Soft Reset: Press and hold the Digital Crown and noise control button together until the LED flashes amber. This can help with minor glitches.
  • Factory Reset (Hard Reset): If a soft reset doesn't work, perform a factory reset. This will erase all settings and unpair them from your devices. Press and hold the noise control button and the Digital Crown for about 15 seconds, until the LED flashes amber, then white. After resetting, you'll need to re-pair them.
What is the difference? From what I'm am experiencing, it seems like I'm only seeing a soft reset, since only the light only flashes amber. But the process for initiating Soft or Factory reset seems to be the same, press and hold the two buttons.

I wish Apple supplied more documentation for debugging these. You can't mount them with the cable on the computer to check firmware version, or anything else.

I took them to Apple store, and the person helping me just tried to reset them. I had some pretty good help there before but they didn't seem to know anything about Air Pod max.

So disappointing, I've had these for about 15 months, I'm just out of the warranty. At $450, that's about $30 a month! The offer at the Apple store was that I could send them in send them in for $299! That's two thirds of the purchase price, and no real guarantee that they could be fixed. I'm so disappointed.

I keep thinking there is something going on with the software, updates, but there is no way to test this.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: EedyBeedyBeeps
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.