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.