How to update the Airpods Max + why they haven't updated yet for some of us

[feedthejim]

So I went down some rabbit hole after trying to get my AirPods Max to update and noticing that they weren't updating after following all voodoo steps that I saw online.

I saw this tweet which says that you could debug the process with the Console app on Mac. After playing around with it, here's are the step that I determined are triggering the update process:

• connect them to your phone (mine are plugged in the laptop to monitor the process in the Console, not sure if needed or not)
• play some music to trigger the connection
• remove them, put them in the case
• the update process should start. If you got the Console app open, you can look for the process by filtering for EAUpdateService
• the whole thing should take less than a few minutes
• the logs should say whether or not it succeeded

If you're lucky then it'll work, if not you're in the same basket as me. These steps haven't succeeded and failed two different ways:

• you may notice that it stops at 25%: if it does, reset the AirPods Max by holding the two buttons until the LED blinks orange, then retry the steps
• it may then arrive at the end and then the device will glitch and disconnects and you'll find, like me, that the AirPods Max are disconnected and won't connect. Reset them and you can go on your way, but you won't be able to update them. Will update if I find a workaround.

I tweeted about this

https://twitter.com/x/status/1369968486877966336

, hope some Apple engineer can see it and fix it.

 

[haruhiko]

Tried a lot of ways and it still didn’t update. I gave up. If it wants to update it updates. If it doesn’t want to just let it be. 😂

 

[Premal212]

I said in another post that I was staring at my bluetooth settings on my iphone hoping the new firmware number would just pop up... it didn't.

I just connected it to my mac to charge overnight, mac was running all night rendering something in the background. I took my iPhone upstairs and I woke up and checked the firmware from my bed... success. The iPhone and APM were a good 15m away from each other, so proximity isn't an issue.

APM weren't even in the case, so that makes no difference, I assumed it was down to the system knowing you weren't going to use your APM anytime soon, compared to my original stance which was just watching it, burning a hole through my screen with my eyes, hoping it would change !

 

[haruhiko]

I said in another post that I was staring at my bluetooth settings on my iphone hoping the new firmware number would just pop up... it didn't.

I just connected it to my mac to charge overnight, mac was running all night rendering something in the background. I took my iPhone upstairs and I woke up and checked the firmware from my bed... success. The iPhone and APM were a good 15m away from each other, so proximity isn't an issue.

APM weren't even in the case, so that makes no difference, I assumed it was down to the system knowing you weren't going to use your APM anytime soon, compared to my original stance which was just watching it, burning a hole through my screen with my eyes, hoping it would change !

Probably I need to isolate the APM away from all my iOS devices to let it think that I’m totally not using it.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Guys try doing a factory reset of the headphones and then charging them with your phone connected

 

[haruhiko]

Mine is finally updated. I plugged in the AirPods Max without putting it into the bra case, and used my iPhone normally near it. Damn, why do we need to perform such dance just to update the firmware of my headphones?

 

[Deliro]

The AirPod Max should have a dedicated app, like the watch, that allows a force update. In this app you can easily assign button functions (a long hold for power off?!), and wait for it...... A EQ! Like the majority of good headphones you can find. I know, I'm crazy.

 

[ZeChild]

Just received mine today don't know if that factored into it but all I done was to make sure my iPhone was above 50% charge same with the APM's, plugged them in without the case and turned Wifi off on my phone, made sure they were connected and sat the phone in the headband, 20mins later and I've got 3C39 (i'm using an iPhone 12PM) don't know if this helps but worked for me. 🤗