I'd been looking forward to listening to new albums by Sloan and Taylor Swift, but I needed to put something on ice first.
In fact, I needed to put my AirPods Max in the freezer. If that sounds strange, it is. And yet it allowed me to listen to The Life of a Showgirl. At least for a while.
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The three amber lights of death
I bought my AirPods Max in 2021 and have used them nearly every day since. After becoming increasingly frustrated with other Bluetooth headphones that required manual connection to different devices, I felt justified in spending $500 on headphones that, for the most part, work as intended. Plus, the over-ear design is more comfortable for me during long stretches than having AirPods Pro jammed into my ear canals.
Lately, however, my AirPods Max have had some issues, requiring a reboot to activate. That involves holding the noise-control button and the Digital Crown for several seconds until the indicator light blinks amber. (Dear heavens, Apple, why couldn't you include a simple on/off switch?)
To restart AirPods Max, hold the Digital Crown and the mode button for several seconds. Jeff Carlson/CNET
Then, one day, that button-press ritual no longer worked.
Time for the headphone nuclear option: factory reset. That involves the same button press combination, but for around 15 seconds, at which point the light should blink amber once and then white.
There was no white. Instead, the light blinked amber three times and went dark.
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