Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- First-gen AirPods Max headphones are failing.
- Failing units are showing “three amber lights of death.”
- Putting them in the icebox for 30 minutes may offer a temporary fix.
If you’ve tried turning on your first-generation AirPods Max<!–> and find that all you get are three amber lights, you’re not alone.
While you could simply toss them in the recycling and buy new ones (the first-gen models can be five years old now), some people want to eke out as much life as possible from their headphones. I mean, they were $500 headphones after all.
Also: I’ve tried dozens of headphones and hand-picked the best ones
Some owners have found rather a novel – albeit temporary – fix.
Freeze their headphones.
This is what CNET’s Jeff Carlson did. He took his AirPod Max headphones, which had been struck down by the dreaded “three amber lights of death,” put them in their storage case, and placed them in the icebox.
Carlson left them to chill for about an hour, retrieved them, popped them over his ears – and they worked.
The issue appears to be related to small wires in the headphone that run through the earcups and are subjected to bending and twisting as the headphones are used and packed away. Over time, this causes metal fatigue in the wires, and one day, that fatigue results in the amber lights coming on and the headphones bricking themselves.
Also: The AirPods 4 just hit an all-time low price ahead of Black Friday
Looking at the iFixit teardown, the wire theory appears plausible. There are a lot of thin, vulnerable wires going into those earcups.
Why does the freezing trick work?
So why does freezing them work? Because the cold causes metal to contract, temporarily “fixing” the break. Putting dying or broken electronics in the icebox is something I’ve been doing for years. I’ve frozen hard drives, graphics cards, and a wide range of gadgets and gizmos. The freezing is almost always a temporary fix – sometimes it contracts a dodgy solder join, sometimes a wire, sometimes the cooling allows a capacitor to work one more time – but I know from experience that it can work.
Carlson also details another possible fix that worked for some failed AirPod Max headphones. This involves cleaning the contacts in the earcup. Might be worth a try!
Also: Have an old Starlink dish lying around? Update it this week – or it’ll never work again
If you’re going to try the freezing trick on your AirPod Max headphones (or any device), here are some tips:
- Put the item in a ziplock bag to prevent it from getting frost on it.
- If the item contains a rechargeable battery, limit exposure to freezing temperatures to approximately 30 minutes to prevent damage to the battery.
- If the item has a battery, do not freeze the item if the battery is discharged, as I’ve seen this cause the battery to fail.
It’s worth a try, because if the item is broken, what have you got to lose? It’s not like you’re going to break it anymore.
–>
