AirPods Max keep disconnecting and having trouble reconnecting

Hi all. I spoke to Apple. They asked me to do a couple things:

1. hard reset AirPod max - press and hold crown and noise button for 15 seconds until amber lights flash underneath
2. hard reset phone (changes with model, but power down then up then long hold power button (don’t swipe power off)
3. repair AirPods with phone
4. hard reset Mac. Shutdown and press and hold power butting until logo shows and then release. Then press power buttton again

so far this has actually fixed my issues. I now connect instantly to my AirPods max and no random disconnections. Switching to my phone takes a second or so when a call comes in and then switching back is almost instant.

This was happening to me as well. Out of no where. I was fine connecting to my iPhone and other non Mac devices. My problem was connecting to my iMac. My AirPod Max would connect and disconnect every 20 seconds. My zoom session participants were unable to hear me. After a phone call to AppleCare, the problem continued to persist. Reading the possible fixes in this threaded discussion and apply the first possible solution recommended, it did the trick. I did the hard reset for the my AirPod Max and problem solved. Hard reset AirPod Max - press and hold crown and noise button for 15 seconds until amber lights flash underneath.

I recently had this issue as well. Following chat support, they directed me to the Genius Bar. GB took my AP Max for service, got them back in a couple of days & the problem has been fixed (and firmware updated, that was also another thing I could not achieve).

I think I may have fixed mine...at least temporarily. Here's what I did in case others want to try it.

1. I selected "forget device" for the headphones on both my phone and mac
2. I shut down my phone and mac
3. I did a reset on the headphones (hold dial and button down for 15 sec)
4. I booted my computer up and paired the headphones with my computer
5. I turned on Siri on my computer when it prompted me (I had it turned off)
6. I went to bluetooth options for the headphones and turned off "automatic on-head detection" and changed the setting for "connect to this mac" to "when last connected to this mac"

So far this seems to have worked....but it's only been a couple hours so far.

This definitely seems to be related to the automatic switching. I noticed that whenever they drop connection from iPhone, I was getting a notification on my Mac asking to connect them. I'm going to experiment with having automatic connection checked on iPhone, but set to when last connected to this Mac on the computer. Hoping this kind of makes the iPhone act as the primary connection.

I had the same issue - it seems there may some issue with handing off between mobile devices. I did a hard reset on the airpods max, rebooted both iphone and iPad but nothing worked. In the end I plugged them directly into my MacBook Pro, left them in the case for around 10 minutes then took them out, removed the charging cable and they were paired. They also connected to both my iPhone and iPad and could successfully hand off between all 3 devices. Not sure if this is a permanent fix or not?

I also had some issues with my APM a few weeks after I bought them. Out of the blue, they stopped pairing automatically, I got some random buzzing from the right ear cup (dangerously loud actually!) and some intermittent pops and clicks during songs/videos.

I did a factory reset and they've been flawless ever since.

Retracing my steps, I put the cause down to walking past a running Microwave oven whilst wearing them.

All Bluetooth headphones hate Microwaves as they operate on the same 2.4Ghz frequency, but it seems the APMs are more sensitive to that kind of interference than the other BT headphones I own. There is a lot more going on under the hood with APMs than rival brands in terms of chipsets and active DSP. They can and will get upset by interference.

The main issue here is Bluetooth. As a data transmission method, it's completely dated and useless and I cannot wait for something better to replace it. It operates in an already crowded 2.4Ghz space (Wifi, Microwave ovens, console controllers, Apple TV remotes, Televisions, AV Receivers, neighbour's WiFi and BT devices, the list goes on). It's a lame, weak signal that has always been intolerant of conflicts with other devices. And it cannot even support Apple's soon to be release Lossless audio!

I know it's frustrating but at least we have the ability to reset them. Not even my equally expensive B&O headphones have that ability. This is just the state of play with complex electronics. In an effort to rid us of tedious wires, Bluetooth has made things worse in some respects.

If your WiFi router supports both 2.4 and 5Ghz, switch everything you can over to 5Ghz as it will help with interference.

On a more positive note, the APMs sound quality and seamless integration into the Apple ecosystem more than makes up for any occasional Bluetooth nonsense. Apple always want the best experience for their customers, but their hands are tied by an utterly dated and useless transmission protocol.

Your iPhone can be hard reset too doing a similar thing. I have to admit I use mine mostly with Mac, and this has sorted it for me. Hard rest Mac,iPhone and AirPods max.

It may be different for iPhone but worth a shot.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph8903c3ee6/ios

Omg three weeks for me too!! Except I brought mine on 18th Feb. That can’t be a coincidence.... I managed a hard reset of AirPods Max at the same time I updated iPhone to IOS 14.4.1, headphones working sublime... might report back in three weeks ay :-)

I finally found the problem why it disconnects, hope this helps other people going nuts with a 600 euro/dollar headphone ;)

its because you have multiple devices on your apple account , your apple account tries to track al the devices.

i can see the airpods my sons or wife is using for example, and it seems if one of them gets close to me while also logged in to my apple account , while i am in call , it wants to switch over or something and disconnects from my phone and i have to reselect it.

the solution is easy , logoff your apple account in de settings on top.

make calls endlessly without it disconnecting.

short version , its a bug when multiple devices are logged in to the same apple id, which is kind of needed if you share applications ,music etc.

apple should have a look , its easy to reproduce

I found a fix which so far has lasted a few weeks - my issues were with MacOS - mic not working, disconnections etc.

The solution was to properly reset bluetooth module - e.g deleting plists etc https://macid.co/blog/2015/11/05/resetting-bluetooth-on-os-x/

After thinking I had sorted my issues , they have come back. Turning off hot swap between devices helps but might as well have got the Sony’s

FWIW: Apple may have quietly found a cure... I experienced this problem early on and Apple sent me a brand new replacement. Like the first pair, they worked for about a week and then started deteriorating with the same intermittent behaviors. Frustrated, I kept resetting and rebooting until finally they could no longer be reset and my iOS devices no longer even saw them, much less connected to them. The same was true of another generic BT transmitter. I returned them again, expecting a new pair. Instead, they returned the same serial # the same day they received them.

This speed seems to indicate that they knew exactly what was wrong with them, and knew precisely how to fix it. Otherwise, one would expect them to take at least a day or two to make sure that they had actually done so. So far, they are working fine! I wish I knew what they replaced inside, and whether I can now expect them to continue to work reliably. I notice that the version is still 3C16, so I would suspect hardware. Time will tell... and, if not, so will I. 😉 ◄Dave►

SMC reset your mac

I have not experienced that; but I have the automatic head detection disabled on my devices... 🤷‍♂️ ◄Dave►