Last week, Apple announced that lossless audio and ultra low latency would be coming to the AirPods Max with USB-C. It was a pleasant surprise for owners of Apple’s over-ear headphones, which have fallen behind the AirPods Pro in recent years when it comes to offering new features. Unfortunately, the company seems to have hit a snag in releasing the firmware update necessary for the AirPods Max to unlock these newfound capabilities.
Firmware version 7E99 was supposed to arrive early this week alongside iOS 18.4 and macOS Sequoia 15.4. But late in the day yesterday, Apple added a “coming soon” asterisk next to the AirPods Max on a support site that lists each device’s latest firmware. Both MacRumors and 9to5Mac reported on the delay.
There’s no official word on what’s behind the hold-up, but one theory is that an error in the update file means iOS and macOS are both looking for the new AirPods Max firmware at the wrong URLs — and will need another software update of their own to resolve the problem. Yikes. Hopefully the situation gets cleared up soon.
Apple also introduced a new USB-C to 3.5mm cable for the AirPods Max last week, and it’s worth noting you can use that without any new firmware; it works right out of the box for connecting the headphones to devices with a traditional headphone jack — and it’s a pretty good cable as these things go. (You’d hope so for $39.)
Regardless, Apple needs to make the process of updating AirPods more straightforward. For years, it has just sort of happened in the background at a random moment when your iPhone and AirPods are near each other with the headphones charging. There’s no way of manually triggering an update, which runs counter to the way every other earbud maker does it. Can we get a simple “update now” button right in AirPods settings in iOS 19, please?
