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AirPods Max Severe Battery Drain

Seems to be an issue of them not disconnecting from all devices properly.

I got mine yesterday, used them with my phone, got annoyed that my Mac kept saying that the AirPods were nearby and disabled auto switching on my Mac, when I put them away for the night my Max's were still showing in the battery widget on my Mac, thinking it was a glitch I went to work, I've come back and my Max's have drained to 27% since yesterday evening.
 
Im consistently getting the 10% per 24 hours drain. is that the standard drain then? its getting annoying in the long term. they'll be at 100. i use them for a few hours. drain to 92%. next day they're at 80%. so 1 session of 2-3 hours of use loses me 20% in 2 days. its so annoying
 
So I took a screenshot of the power of my APM when I put it in the bra case yesterday and another screenshot when I took it out of my bra case today. 0 battery With 0 use in Should have been the low power mode.
 

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The most of I’ve seen is 10-12% per day in my case. I’ve never had these drastic examples as some other people. I only use it with my iPhone, so the significant drain could be related to pairing the APM with multiple devices.
 
Finally macrumors made and article regarding this issue. But the article of iMore is more accurate.

www.macrumors.com

Some AirPods Max Owners Seeing Excessive Battery Drain

Apple in December introduced the AirPods Max, its over-ear Apple-branded headphones that join the AirPods and AirPods Pro. Since launch, a growing number of MacRumors readers who purchased the AirPods Max have been complaining of battery drain that seems excessive. Subscribe to the MacRumors...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
For those thinking the lack of an on/off button is the problem by design:

I don't think Apple wants a on/off button, nor people would need one if the AirPods max works as they were expected to do.
As apple has stated several times for their products: they want simplicity, they want to work magically!

From their perspective , a on/off button is only adding one more steep to the funnel of the using experience, complicating it. You, depending off a button to save battery.....what if YOU forgot to turn the button off and you loose all the battery. HUMANS forget things, tech doesn't.
Apple wanted to address this issue by eliminating the button and make the headphones smart enough to turn on/off by themselves, making the user experience as simple as just putting on and off the headphone from your head, just as the other AirPods. Magical.

Sadly this product is buggy, but im sure the intention of apple is achieve the best user experience, as simple as possible.
 
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francoc02o said:
For those thinking the lack of an on/off button is the problem by design:

I don't think Apple wants a on/off button, nor people would need one if the AirPods max works as they were expected to do.
As apple has stated several times for their products: they want simplicity, they want to work magically!

From their perspective , a on/off button is only adding one more steep to the funnel of the using experience, complicating it. You, depending off a button to save battery.....what if YOU forgot to turn the button off and you loose all the battery. HUMANS forget things, tech doesn't.
Apple wanted to address this issue by eliminating the button and make the headphones smart enough to turn on/off by themselves, making the user experience as simple as just putting on and off the headphone from your head, just as the other AirPods. Magical.

Sadly this product is buggy, but im sure the intention of apple is achieve the best user experience, as simple as possible.
Click to expand...
The whole drain issue is related to the fact that they remain visible for Find My, so they’re never fully off. Apple just needs adjust that ultra-low power mode from kicking at 18 hours to maybe 3-4 instead.
 
kirk.vino said:
The whole drain issue is related to the fact that they remain visible for Find My, so they’re never fully off. Apple just needs adjust that ultra-low power mode from kicking at 18 hours to maybe 3-4 instead.
Click to expand...
I agree with you. It should be 3-4 hours, or at least make it adjustable in the settings.
However I think there’s yet a bug to be fixed for us who experienced a battery drain of 50% or more just over night.
 
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For what it is worth, I've had exactly the same problem on my AirPod Pros - not Max.

The issue in my case can largely be pinned down to BigSur and device/audio handover with the AirPods having been paired with my MacPro and my iPhone.

If I don't consciously disconnect the AirPods from my iPhone then there appears to be some sort of hidden battle between the devices -- which are all in very close physical proximity to one another.

Earlier this morning I started with 100% battery on the AirPod Pros, which were last in use by my MacPro.

A few hours later, with the AirPods back in their case and (in theory) charging, I picked up my iPhone and saw an alert that the AirPod Pros were down to 17% battery in one ear, and drained entirely in the other ear.

I've been dealing with this for as long as Big Sur betas were around (and reported it).

Only way I've found to get things working right is to connect the AirPod Pros to my iPhone, then use Bluetooth preferences it disconnect them, connect them to my MacPro, and then use the lightning charger on the case. Sadly, even that doesn't always work. Right now my right AirPod is 0%, and left is 100%.

Maybe my theory is wrong, but, as I am regularly picking up my phone, right next to my MacPro, and also regularly have audio from my MacPro to the AirPods, I can't help but imagine that the algorithm to try to intelligently follow audio around is a bit off. I have tried disabling that feature, though.
 
francoc02o said:
I agree with you. It should be 3-4 hours, or at least make it adjustable in the settings.
However I think there’s yet a bug to be fixed for us who experienced a battery drain of 50% or more just over night.
Click to expand...
I have a feeling it might be related to pairing them with a Mac.
I’ve only seen 10% per day on mine and they’re only paired with my iPhone.
 
kirk.vino said:
I have a feeling it might be related to pairing them with a Mac.
I’ve only seen 10% per day on mine and they’re only paired with my iPhone.
Click to expand...
Mac or multi-device related seems to be, I reset mine yesterday after charging them again, made sure not to have them anywhere near my Mac, put them in their case at 100%, overnight they have drained 3% which is more like what I was expecting.
 
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Broken Hope said:
Seems to be an issue of them not disconnecting from all devices properly.

I got mine yesterday, used them with my phone, got annoyed that my Mac kept saying that the AirPods were nearby and disabled auto switching on my Mac, when I put them away for the night my Max's were still showing in the battery widget on my Mac, thinking it was a glitch I went to work, I've come back and my Max's have drained to 27% since yesterday evening.
Click to expand...

I have disabled automatic switching on the Mac while keeping it on for the iPad and iPhone. The battery no longer drains. So it must be somewhat related to a macOS bug.
 
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mcaswell said:
Hmmm... I've noticed the past few nights that mine have been losing significantly more charge overnight. I think my overnight loss originally was around 6%, but after noticing yesterday morning that it seemed to have dropped a lot more than that from the night before, I noted my charge level last night (34%), and woke up this morning to find it was at 7% (so a 27% drop).

I've also noticed that the headphones seem "sluggish" in responding the past few days... takes them longer to recognize that I've put them on, etc. So I think I'll try the reset procedure.
Click to expand...
A reset resolved these issues.
 
Had the problem once, 74% -> 0 overnight. Haven’t happened since but thought I was mistaken. Glad I’m not the only one.
 
2nd time it has happened to me just this morning.
So the theory is paired to multiple devices or Find My?
The easy solution is when no music is being pumped in, turn on low power mode but I hear every chime from my iPad when I'm listening on my iPhone.
I don't think my AirPod Pros do that.
 
Where do you turn off auto switching on the Mac - I’m not finding that option on Big Sur. But, I’m dumb too, so probably just overlooking it. I just use my APMs with my iPad and phone.

EDIT: Nevermind - found it!
 
Last edited:
I’ve had mine since a week after release day and not had any battery issues at all, until today. So far, the battery has been brilliant on them

Charge the APM’s overnight to 100% and they were at that this morning. Left them at home today, came to listen to them tonight and they are at 27%. This is the first time I have had this problem

Now, I only use them with my iPad, never paired them with my MBP or Apple TV. When I leave the house, I take my iPhone, iPad and MBP with me.

As such, my issue is nothing to do with multi-devices, nothing to do with a Mac and also nothing to do with disconnection problems as there was no device in the house that they could connect to. Going to charge them again tonight and see what happens the next time

Jason
 
JasonHB said:
I’ve had mine since a week after release day and not had any battery issues at all, until today. So far, the battery has been brilliant on them

Charge the APM’s overnight to 100% and they were at that this morning. Left them at home today, came to listen to them tonight and they are at 27%. This is the first time I have had this problem

Now, I only use them with my iPad, never paired them with my MBP or Apple TV. When I leave the house, I take my iPhone, iPad and MBP with me.

As such, my issue is nothing to do with multi-devices, nothing to do with a Mac and also nothing to do with disconnection problems as there was no device in the house that they could connect to. Going to charge them again tonight and see what happens the next time

Jason
Click to expand...

yet, if you have the same Apple ID in your other devices, the connection could be automatic if the bug makes the headphones think that you are using them.
Anyways , let’s us know how is goes please.
 
francoc02o said:
yet, if you have the same Apple ID in your other devices, the connection could be automatic if the bug makes the headphones think that you are using them.
Anyways , let’s us know how is goes please.
Click to expand...
Will do.

With reference to your statement, I understand what you are saying, but unless I am mistaken, you have to manually pair with an Apple TV and there was no other device in the house that the headphones could connect to.

I will report back tomorrow evening with the results on this next charge cycle.

Jason
 
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Basically with the 10% drain, after 2 uses being each 2-3 hours long, I'm down to 67%. So 4-6 hours of listening in 2 days got me to 67%. Shoulda been at 87% if it wasn't for the 10% drain per night.
 
rdy0329 said:
Had the problem once, 74% -> 0 overnight. Haven’t happened since but thought I was mistaken. Glad I’m not the only one.
Click to expand...
Exactly the same here. High seventies to zero overnight. The AirPods weren't in the case, but Bluetooth was off (as in 'off' in Settings) on all my Apple devices. I'm really concerned and my return window is over.
 
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