The COVID-19 pandemic opened the door for many people to start working from home. As a result, products and services that were previously deemed a luxury have somehow become a necessity.
Take noise-canceling headphones, for instance. Gone are the days when they were considered a tool for professionals. Today, just about everyone working from home needs one of these.
As you would expect, Apple is among the companies involved in making premium noise-cancelling headphones. Be it the on-ear Beats models or the in-ear AirPods Pro, Cupertino has your back covered.
But if you are in the market for the best of them all in terms of sound, build quality, and even the feature set, well, you can’t be too far from that with Apple’s AirPods Max.
These are the most premium set of headphones Apple wants you to buy instead of getting a pair from Bose or Sony. But even at $550, the AirPods Max are still far from perfect.
Over the past few weeks, social media has been awash with reports of disconnection issues from AirPods Max users.
Apparently, the headphones keep dropping connection after every few seconds, something that completely distorts the otherwise excellent audio experience.
Going by the reports we’ve encountered from Reddit and the official Apple support forums, it looks like the AirPods Max disconnection issue is quite widespread, affecting iPhone, iPad and Mac users.
Some say the issue started after a software update to macOS Big Sur 11.1 and iOS 14.3 while others tie the issue to newer versions of both operating systems. Multiple firmware versions of the AirPods Max are also affected.
While Apple has yet to make an official statement on this issue, there are several indicators suggesting that Cupertino is willing to listen to affected users.
For starters, several users have confirmed that they did go for replacement units. But unfortunately, it looks like even these units still carry the disconnection defect.
In the event that there is no replacement stock, Apple has been reported to offer refunds, urging affected users to re-order the AirPods Max once back in stock.
For those whose replacement units are still experiencing disconnection issues, you might want to try the following workarounds.
Workarounds for AirPods Max disconnection issues
Hard reset AirPods Max, iPhone, iPad and Mac: Some users can confirm that hard-resetting the AirPods Max did the trick for them. However, you may also need to do the same for your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac.
Disable automatic head detection: Several other users have also revealed that disabling the automatic head detection feature works magic.
To disable it, grab your iPhone device and head to Settings > Bluetooth > Tap the “i” adjacent to listed AirPods Max > Automatic Head Detection and toggle the switch to off.
Since the issue seems to be present even in the latest iterations of iOS and macOS updates, we will be looking for any possible fixes when the stable iOS 14.5 and macOS Big Sur 11.3 updates arrive.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on our iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur 11 bugs and issues trackers for related coverage and possible solutions.
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