When Apple debuted the AirPods Max, they quickly became the favorite noise-canceling headphones for many people, myself included. The headphones feel incredibly premium (they better, for that price point) and comfortable, and they have an incredible sound stage with high-fidelity audio quality. Plus, it's really hard to beat the ANC that it offers, and it works best if you're already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem of devices.
But despite all of the good things, sometimes you're going to have some troubles with them, like any tech product. Though a restart should work most of the time, sometimes it won't, and that's when you'll need to go a step further and reset AirPods Max back to factory settings. But how do you do that? Don't worry, it's easy — we show you how to reset your AirPods Max right here.
How to reset AirPods Max to factory settings
As I originally stated in my AirPods Max review, I began to experience some connection issues and bad battery drain when they weren't in use. In fact, I had to reset my AirPods Max to eliminate the problems, but everything has been gravy since. If you need to reset your AirPods Max back to factory settings too, it's super easy to do so.
- First, make sure that you charge the AirPods Max for a few minutes so that there is power.
- Press and hold the Digital Crown and Noise Control buttons together.
- Hold the buttons down for 15 seconds, until the status light next to the charging port flashes amber, then white.
- Release the buttons.
Once you have reset the AirPods Max, you will then need to pair them up with your iCloud account again. This is easy though, as it should connect with the best iPhone when it's nearby. A reset of AirPods Max to factory settings should alleviate any problems you were having. If they arise again, you can simply try resetting them again, or try the other method of restarting them.
How to restart AirPods Max
Of course, another method that can also get rid of any issues is simply to restart them. You know what they say, "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" The only problem is that the AirPods Max don't have a power button, but you can totally restart them too.
- Press and hold the Digital Crown and Noise Control buttons at the same time.
- Hold the buttons down together for 12 seconds.
- Once the status light flashes amber, immediately release the buttons.
If you continue to hold the buttons down, it will reset it as we outlined above, and you'll have to re-pair it with your devices again. Restarting it is different, but it's quicker and should also resolve problems. But if they persist, then go on with the reset.
Block out the world with AirPods Max
As you can see, resetting AirPods Max to factory settings is quite easy. Even if the occasional issue pops up, the AirPods Max are still some of our favorite noise-canceling headphones. Plus, no product is perfect — everything will have an issue every now and then. Thankfully, troubleshooting the AirPods Max isn't too bad and is a pretty straightforward process overall.
