AirPods Max keep disconnecting and having trouble reconnecting

This is happening to me too - constantly disconnects.

Also massively frustrating, on a conference call, pick up phone to check message, swaps from Mac to phone loosing connection on conference call.

There should be a confirmation "Do you want to switch audio to this device?" rather than it auto happening.

The disconnection's of the Airpods Max are happening more frequently for me now. Its very frustrating.

No one at Apple cares when your sanity is on the line and their device fails. Great work, Apple. Nice.

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.

I'm also having this issue, so is my spouse with theirs. I was nowhere near my other Apple devices tonight besides my iPhone 12 Pro they were connected to and for no reasons my AirPods Max just disconnected from the call. My spouse uses them for work calls all day... and they do it just about every day at some point, it's become a really big issue.

I have no idea apple made these mistakes, it is even $597 with tax... like when ever I adjust earcub or knock my head, or just move earcub it disconnects, soo frustrating, I did reset airpods max for 20 times still wont change but if it is working and connected on the device, the sound separation and quality, transparency, ANC IS SUPER GREAT BUT PLEASE APPLE FIX THIS ISSUES... it is $600 range price.... thank you!

That sounds like a hardware issue - i've had a similar thing happen but randomly. If you can get this repeating, they will just replace them.

My problems include:

• Random disconnections
• Sounding like im in a tunnel to those on the phone to me (mic problems)
• Putting the headphones on and sounding like my ears are in seashells?! (taking on/off sorts)
• Notification coming up on macos saying 'Airpods Max are near by' with a button to 'connect' but when clicking connect nothing happens and i have to go into sound preferences to select the Airpods Max manually.
• If they've sat on my head for a while without any output/music/phone call they will disconnect
• Being connected to my mac on a call, getting a phone call on my mobile, me picking up my mobile to reject and my AirPods moving over, meaning on the conference call im suddenly not heard/can hear (i've since turned off handoff)
• Not being able to connect to headphone despite selecting in bluetooth preferences - AirPods show but selecting them nothing happens (restart Mac sorts)
• Rarely: Adjusting headset on head and disconnecting

Probably other issues I can't remember, but that sums it up. Essentially: either a faulty product, or terribly tested in real world scenario at apple.

Its a shame because i love them - sound is amazing, comfortable etc. Just dont work 100% of the time, which for $1000 is a joke.

While i am in a call using the headphones , if another phone or ipad comes close to me while also logged in to the same apple id, it disconnects.

that is not a feature , its a bug.

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.

My issues isn't so much with connecting to iPhone and switching to MacBook ... its with the headphones themselves. If I adjust the RIGHT ear cup in any way, just sliding it forward/backward ever so slightly, it disconnects from whatever device I'm listening to. This does NOT happen when I move the left ear cup - just the right.

This is totally unacceptable and pretty much renders the headphone useless to me since I can't adjust the right one in any way without losing connection.

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

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?

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►