I got excited there for a second — free fix for the most annoying problem with my headphones! But no, my AirPods Max have the latest firmware and still have this issue. Any time I leave them for more than a day, the battery is drained.

That doesn't sound right. I have them on my desk. Don't even know where the bra case is. I use and charge them only once in a blue moon, perhaps every 2 months, and the battery does not die. I don't lay them flat or anything either.

Like others here, I don’t have this problem. I often leave them in my backpack for weeks between airplane flights, etc.

Have you reset your AirPods Max by holding down the non circular button until it starts blinking white and then reconnecting?

There have been times where the AirPods Max have sort of crashed, and I cannot get them to connect properly. I find that forgetting the AirPods in the phone/computer and then resetting them by holding down the button allows them to start fresh with a new state. Maybe that can help resolve the issue for you. But Im constantly switching them between three nearby devices so maybe thats why I have this problem. Just throwing it out there in case you haven't tried a reset.

Try hard reset (long press (~15s) both buttons).

I know I have had this issue and did not have it after reset. Though I do have another annoying, and seemingly unique issue: sometimes, when adjusting the position of the headphone, they do a “click” (and a loud one), and just shut down. After a few seconds, they boot up again.

The farthest from the last reset, the more often it happens. I have no idea why.

I noticed that behavior as well, but whenever I speak loudly with the headphones on. One remark to myself that's too loud, and suddenly pop and the noise cancellation is gone for like 10 seconds. Super annoying.

I don't have Max, but something similar happens with the AirPods Pro. See if you have "conversation awareness" and "hearing protection" turned on (both are on by default.) They're in the AirPods settings screen accessed via the bluetooth menu.

I'd suggest experimenting by disabling both and trying to repro. Then re-enabling the features one at a time.

I've never triggered it on the Pro by merely speaking loudly, but they're earbuds and farther from my mouth. What does trigger it for me reliably, is sneezing.

What does “down” and “stationary” mean? I put my Sony to random paces, mainly just throwing it into my backpack. Would that be considered as down and stationary? Would it be turned off if I’m on the move? In a car? On a bus?

I mean, I regularly leave them on a shelf in my apartment and they apparently do not consider that "down" or "stationary" enough to not just drain the battery completely. Truly a bafflingly bad design from the company that is (was) known for great hardware design.

This isn't bad design, it's a bug the vast majority of us don't seem to experience. Try the suggestions people have offered to reset them, it should fix the issue.

It's still extremely odd that they don't just... turn off.. ever? Even the case marketing copy notes this:

> When stored in the soft, slim Smart Case, AirPods Max enter an ultra‑low‑power state.

They do, they turn off almost entirely once you leave them stationary for five minutes.

This is the same as any over-ear headphones.

They don't, because almost entirely is not the same as entirely.

Except that they don't. Or at least many, many people report that they don't, including myself and I have tried all the remedies that supposedly help. If you don't provide an off button and you can't build a product this expensive to power itself off reliably for everyone, then you've failed at product design.

I didn't see a reply to the responses to you saying to reset them.

One question I have - do you have them connected to an Android device via bluetooth? Most Android devices will keep them awake by pinging them incessantly.

Perhaps for Find My/UWB support?

Find my works fine on a coin cell battery on AirTag, hard to imagine they need to power up the headphones to do the same.

Funny enough, the original and the new AirPods Max don't have UWB. That won't help me find my headphones in my house.

If for Find My, why stay in "low power" mode for days before moving to "ultralow power" mode? Is silly.

Wow, I had no idea they didn't have no UWB. Honestly that would remove half the value for me. That's crazy for Apple in 2026.

They must have been utterly unusable on release then.

I have latest firmware and if I forget to place my Max's in their case they are at half power or less within a few days.

As such they get used a lot less than I would otherwise. One of my more wasteful purchases in the past few years.

That and the super annoying behavior where two floors away they decide to randomly pair with my Mac Studio when someone Slack Huddles me or whatever, then I need to fiddle with settings to get my airpods pro to connect instead.

This is coming from someone who thinks the Airpods Pro are downright magical in how well they work.

Could be because I also pair them with regular old Bluetooth from a PC in addition to the Apple ecosystem. The earbuds likely don't have the same issue because they inside a case and are fully turned off when not in use.

Sound quality honestly isn't that great either, but I suppose that's more inherent in headphones in general vs. speakers than anything to do with them specifically.