APM not waking after stored in Waterfield case

[Cashmonee]

It happens so infrequently for me, the case is still worth it for me and will recommend it for those willing to spend the price of it.

And again considering it occurred for me when my Max's were just in the Apple supplied case for 3 days and not in the waterfield case, I do not think it is a case-specific issue.

A lot of mountain building out of a mole hill going on, IMHO when saying not going to recommend the waterfield case.

Perhaps. But it is a $90-$100 case that is not really all that much more special than many other cases out there that cost a third of the price. It also costs money to return it if you end up not liking it or have issues ($10 shipping charge). In the 5 work days last week, my AirPods failed to wake after using it twice. Once the AirPods drained a good 20% battery overnight (I believe they slipped off the magnets). It is not a hardshell case, so it still does not offer a ton of protection. If you do not fully retract the band, the zippers will contact the cups if you are not careful. I can live with those things for under $40 (maybe $50). At this premium price, I simply cannot recommend it with its many faults. It just isn't worth triple the price of the alternatives.

 

[quagmire]

Perhaps. But it is a $90-$100 case that is not really all that much more special than many other cases out there that cost a third of the price. It also costs money to return it if you end up not liking it or have issues ($10 shipping charge). In the 5 work days last week, my AirPods failed to wake after using it twice. Once the AirPods drained a good 20% battery overnight (I believe they slipped off the magnets). It is not a hardshell case, so it still does not offer a ton of protection. If you do not fully retract the band, the zippers will contact the cups if you are not careful. I can live with those things for under $40 (maybe $50). At this premium price, I simply cannot recommend it with its many faults. It just isn't worth triple the price of the alternatives.

That is another discussion entirely whether to go for a cheaper case vs premium case. That is valid.

I was thinking more along the lines of not recommending them due to this unable to wake issue which doesn't seem to be exclusive to the Waterfield case. Others in this thread have reported having it with their non-waterfield case and I experienced it with the Apple Bra.

 

[Htsi]

Perhaps. But it is a $90-$100 case that is not really all that much more special than many other cases out there that cost a third of the price. It also costs money to return it if you end up not liking it or have issues ($10 shipping charge). In the 5 work days last week, my AirPods failed to wake after using it twice. Once the AirPods drained a good 20% battery overnight (I believe they slipped off the magnets). It is not a hardshell case, so it still does not offer a ton of protection. If you do not fully retract the band, the zippers will contact the cups if you are not careful. I can live with those things for under $40 (maybe $50). At this premium price, I simply cannot recommend it with its many faults. It just isn't worth triple the price of the alternatives.

Overpriced junk if it reduces functionality. The full point of not having a power button is to make it seamless, this is the opposite.

 

[mpetrides]

I continue to work with Gary of Waterfield Designs to try to sort this out. He sent me a new case and, over the last week, I've had the "won't connect until I plug them in to power briefly" problem occur twice. I tend to use my APMs with both my iPhone and my iPad and I'm beginning to suspect that the problem is with the APMs getting confused about which device they want to connect with. So far whenever I diligently disconnect from the iPad and then connect with the iPhone before placing the APMs in the Waterfield case with the butterfly up, I have no problems. But on the two occasions when I did have a problem, I am not 100% that I went through the disconnect first then connect with iPhone dance before putting then on the butterfly.

I'm going to continue testing spending more effort to be certain I disconnect the iPad before connecting to the iPhone and then storing on the Waterfield case for another week or so. If this seems to alleviate the problem, I will go back to the original Waterfield case and see what happens.

Yes, this is a lot of work but I personally am fascinated by the diagnostic dilemma and, thus, am willing to put in the effort. Plus, I REALLY like this case.

 

[wileycoyote]

I have both an AirPods Max and Waterfield case and was having the same issue as others with (on occasion) my headphones not waking from sleep when being removed from the case. They require plugging in to recover.

I have been testing putting the headphones away with the flaps in different orientations and I think I may be onto something. I have been testing over the past week with keeping only one of the two butterfly magnets/tabs being in the up orientation and the other remaining flat. I have done this for a week straight and have yet to have issues waking the headphones when I take them back out.

Would love to hear if anyone else has seen similar results.

 

[mpetrides]

I have both an AirPods Max and Waterfield case and was having the same issue as others with (on occasion) my headphones not waking from sleep when being removed from the case. They require plugging in to recover.

I have been testing putting the headphones away with the flaps in different orientations and I think I may be onto something. I have been testing over the past week with keeping only one of the two butterfly magnets/tabs being in the up orientation and the other remaining flat. I have done this for a week straight and have yet to have issues waking the headphones when I take them back out.

Would love to hear if anyone else has seen similar results.

I’ll have to check my notes, but I think I tried this to no avail.

However, I am becoming increasingly convinced that the problem isn’t with the case but with the APMs getting confused about which device they need to connect to. I tend to use my APMs with an iPad and with my iPhone 12 Pro. So far, it seems that if I diligently make sure I disconnect the APMs and then connect them to the iPhone before storing them on the case with both sides of the butterfly up, I don’t have the problem. Other clues that this might be the problem are occasional dialogs upon waking that ask if I want to share my connection—when only one connection (the one with the iPhone) should be live.

 

[wileycoyote]

I have only ever used mine with a single device (an iPhone 12 max).

 

[Cashmonee]

I’ll have to check my notes, but I think I tried this to no avail.

However, I am becoming increasingly convinced that the problem isn’t with the case but with the APMs getting confused about which device they need to connect to. I tend to use my APMs with an iPad and with my iPhone 12 Pro. So far, it seems that if I diligently make sure I disconnect the APMs and then connect them to the iPhone before storing them on the case with both sides of the butterfly up, I don’t have the problem. Other clues that this might be the problem are occasional dialogs upon waking that ask if I want to share my connection—when only one connection (the one with the iPhone) should be live.

I personally never experienced the issue with the regular Apple case, including the 2 weeks of exact same use after returning the Waterfield case. The Waterfield case exhibited the issue a few times in the couple weeks I had it. Not saying you are wrong. I know others have reported it happening with other cases, including Apple's. However, the Waterfield case seems to be the most common, so maybe it is particularly prone?

 

[mpetrides]

I’ll have to check my notes, but I think I tried this to no avail.

However, I am becoming increasingly convinced that the problem isn’t with the case but with the APMs getting confused about which device they need to connect to. I tend to use my APMs with an iPad and with my iPhone 12 Pro. So far, it seems that if I diligently make sure I disconnect the APMs and then connect them to the iPhone before storing them on the case with both sides of the butterfly up, I don’t have the problem. Other clues that this might be the problem are occasional dialogs upon waking that ask if I want to share my connection—when only one connection (the one with the iPhone) should be live.

Well, that’s not the solution. ? Last night I diligently disconnected my APMs from any device they had been connected with, connecting to the iPhone before going to the next device. After all devices were verified as disconnected, I connected to the iPhone and stored the APMs on the Waterfield case with the butterfly up, plugged in—as I have been doing every night for the last two weeks. Today the APMs would not connect to the iPhone until they were plugged into power momentarily. Not sure where I go from here….

 

[Cienna Tower]

Having the same issue, although, it just seemed to start happening within the last two weeks. I'll use my headphones for 5 to 6 hours a day, put them in the waterfield case (butterflies up) and charge over night. They sporadically won't wake up, or my devices claim they're connected to a device once I take them out of the case, but they're clearly not. I'll press buttons, but to no avail. Sometimes plugging the charging cable directly into the bottom of the max's will wake them up. I have to say that this issue is quite annoying. Often times, I have to hard reset them, then repair them to all my devices, which includes 2 pc's an iphone and an Ipad pro. When I'm in a rush to get on my exercise bike in the morning, 10 minutes of wasted time is not a happy thing.

 

[mpetrides]

After weeks and weeks of diligent testing, I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem with my AirPods Max intermittently not connecting to my iPhone after storage is due to a problem with the APMs and unrelated to the Waterfield Designs case.

For the person who asked earlier, yes, I did test with one wing of the butterfly up and one down and the problem still happened.

1. After a week or two during which I became increasingly convinced that the issue was confusion over which device the APMs were supposed to connect to, on the evening of 5/16 I went through the entire disconnect from everything else then connect with iPhone before storing on butterfly, plugged in dance. And despite all these precautions, the APMs would not connect the next morning until I plugged them in briefly.
2. Following this I went several days where I stored the APMs in the case with the butterfly up but without paying any attention to what devices were connected to the APMs before storage. And I had no problems.
3. What I conclude from the above is that the notion that one must connect to only one device before storing on butterfly is a total red herring. And, given the recurrence of symptoms, I don’t think the problem is the original case since I’m having the same problems with the replacement case.
4. Next, I tested the APMs stored overnight on the case with both wings down and encountered no problems for several days. Then the problem recurred, even with both wings down.
5. So, it appears to me that that the issue is with the AirPods Max and not with the case.

One further test I will do before contacting Apple is to store the APMs on the TOP of the case, nowhere near the magnets and see what happens. I’ll be using the soft lid of the case simply to cushion the APMs. I suspect that the problem will recur within a few days to weeks, confirming that the case is not the culprit.

Will post more data once I've collected it.

 

[bigshot]

Push both buttons, force restart?

 

[Cienna Tower]

Yup. I've drawn the same conclusion. It's not the case, but in fact the headphones themselves. The problem is annoyingly inconsistent. That said, I'm slightly less enraged knowing that simply plugging the charging cable in and out a few times will effectively wake them up. The inconvenience of restoring them to factory settings and re-paring all my devices to them everyday was nothing short of infuriating. It's been sometime since we've had an update, perhaps their engineers can come up with a fix and send it out. Soon!

 

[bigshot]

So this happens without the third party case too?

 

[quagmire]

So this happens without the third party case too?

I have had it occur to me with the Apple Bra.

 

[aVex]

I’m a brand new APM owner and also case owner. Unfortunately also another one affected, I love this case so much I’m going to try get Apple to swap my APM with another.

Another observation from another perspective. The APM does not wake up in the morning is because after being placed in the case, it still attempts to connect and disconnect in cycles (observe your Bluetooth settings). After a number of cycles the APM locks up. Another indicator is the Battery widget will appear to report on the APM battery but it's actually not a live reading because your APM is already locked up.

This is almost like the case magnet is there but almost hitting the low power mode switch but only partially causing the APM firmware to trip. My speculation of course.

Also another note, I believe my case is Batch #24 and the magnetic butterfly looks very different from all the photos posted online. The butterfuly also sits a lot lower - have no idea if this is going to be any different.

Update:
Have reached out to Apple, they are replacing my APM with another unit, we shall see with my replacement if this is still the case.

 

[Pug72]

I don't have the case but have a magnet stuck to my Benks stand. My APM aren't waking up after a prolonged time on the stand. Now I don't know if it's the strength of the magnet or it's my APM. I may remove the magnet but then I get battery drain. Just wish you could sleep/wake with a long press of one of the buttons.

Just thought I'd add my story in case it helps.

 

[Ilikechainrestaurants]

I'm having similar issues to everyone else. APMs aren't going into low power mode nor waking up normally. It's obnoxious because I have no idea when I take them out whether they'll be powered or not. Moreover, they'll occasionally connect when I'm on the phone and I have to switch over to the iPhone when I have no intention of using the APMs. Increasingly the APMs are not worth the hassle for me, I have other comparably nice BT headphones and I got the APMs for ease of use. I hope Apple can fix this stupidity through firmware. All of this is being necessitated by the inexplicable decision to forego the ability to turn off a product.

 

[bigshot]

I've had no problems at all with the AirPods Max not going to sleep. They hold a charge well, and I rarely have to charge them. I do have issues with the automatic pairing. They will be paired to my iMac, but I have an app running called Sound Booster that prevents them from automatically switching the sound output. I've also had problems getting paired when I have both my iPhone and iMac going at the same time. But that is to be expected.

 

[mpetrides]

Hopefully, this is my final report on the problem with my AirPods Max intermittently not connecting to my iPhone after storage in the Waterfield case. After about 2 weeks of nightly storing the APMs on the TOP of the Waterfield case (case open with plush side facing up, APS on the side of the case with plush only, no magnets), I have had NO issues with the APMs failing to connect to my iPhone. I tried for about a week using the replacement case and about a week with the original case. No problems. So maybe it is proximity to the magnets after all but the only consistency is the inconsistency.

In the end, I really like the case and intend to keep it, storing the APMs as far away from the magnets as possible. Since I always plug my headphones into power every night, this shouldn't be an issue for nighttime storage. When traveling, I'll just use a cleaning cloth between the cups to prevent their clanging against each other and travel with the wings down. If, using this regimen, I occasionally have to plug the APMs in to power in order to get them to connect, it will be no big deal. I'll be carrying them in a very stylish, convenient, well-padded case that I'm glad I purchased.

 

[aVex]

Here's my own final summary. After many back and forth with Gary from Waterfield, he was adamant the case was fine. I then wanted to make sure it's not my APM, went to Apple and said there is an issue with my APM and Apple agreed to replace my APM. The replacement unit had the same exact problem in my Waterfield case.

Reported this back to Gary, and I felt he just wanted to end this and immediately offered a refund. I used the refund and re-ordered another Waterfield case which finally arrived today. This new case works perfectly - the difference is that the butterfly magnet in the new case is 0.5cm higher. The APM is very sensitive in my opinion with the magnet placement.

I have reported this back to Gary, I just hope he takes note of this that as much as he produces high quality products, sometimes 1 or 2 will have a small defect.

Thanks all for this thread and all the information within! Hope this helps anyone else in the future.

 

[ryanbowlin]

I'm using the same case and I'm having the same issue. I made a thread but no one responded to it really. Haha.

AirPods Max won't turn on...

Hey guys! So I got these on day one and I love them overall. The only issues I've ever really encountered seem to stem from Apple's reluctance to give these a dedicated power button. Like many of you I had problems with sever battery drain while in the case, etc. I'd often just keep them plugged...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[aVex]

I'm using the same case and I'm having the same issue. I made a thread but no one responded to it really. Haha.

AirPods Max won't turn on...

Hey guys! So I got these on day one and I love them overall. The only issues I've ever really encountered seem to stem from Apple's reluctance to give these a dedicated power button. Like many of you I had problems with sever battery drain while in the case, etc. I'd often just keep them plugged...

forums.macrumors.com

is your APM attempting to connect and disconnect in cycles (observe your Bluetooth settings). After a number of cycles the APM locks up. Another indicator is the Battery widget will appear to report on the APM battery but it's actually not a live reading because your APM is already locked up.

take a look at the photos attached, old case where the magnets are lower and new case where it sits right where the two ends of the AirPods Max bump into each other. I measure it 0.5cm difference in where the butterfly was stiched onto the case.

 

[ryanbowlin]

I'll have to see the next time I run into the issue. I've watched the light turn green like they're turning on but then I can't do anything with them unless I connect them to a power source first. Super infuriating.

Based on your pictures I have the newer version of the case. The positioning seems to match up with that photo you sent.

 

[mpetrides]

Has anyone with problems with the WaterField case tried the case since the latest firmware update? I got the update a couple of days ago and thus far have had no problems with my APMs in the original case, stored with the butterfly up. But, of course, it’s early days…