Airpods Max are outstanding in terms of usability & sound. They suck in terms of headband aging & reliability IMO. Mine have finally entered the "refuses to connect but flashing white & can't be reset" state, apparently for good. Apple estimate on repair will probably be close to cost of a new unit.

@ethanschoonover Ugh. Mine are hanging in there, but occasionally won't 'wake' from sleep without manually rebooting/resetting them.

Otherwise, they're fantastic.

@macfixer yeah this is exactly the state they are in now... pulled them out of case and they wouldn't connect and a full factory reset no longer completes. sad-ears-emoji (a reset used to work in this scenario for me as well)

@ethanschoonover Ugh, I had an iPad Pro brick itself in the last year, so frustrating.

Apple replied with a $200 fee to fix my $400 headphones? I chose “return them broken” if than means NEVER USING A LIGHTNING PORT AGAIN… So they did return them unfixed. AND FOR MY HUBRIS THEY POWERED ON AND WORKED. Stuck with vestigial lightning cables for a while more but at least I have music.

@ethanschoonover I'm imagining the repair person thinking “this is a five-minute fix, not actually worth $200; I'll fix it anyway”.

@andrewabernathy I am hoping that was the case. If so, solidarity, fellow tech.