If your AirPods Max stopped working, try this extremely cool trick

"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."

"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."

"If you've tried turning on your first-generation 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. Some owners have found rather a novel -- albeit temporary -- fix."

First-generation AirPods Max units are experiencing a failure characterized by three amber lights that prevent normal operation. Some owners prefer repairing rather than replacing worn units that can be five years old. A temporary workaround involves placing the headphones in their storage case and chilling them in a freezer for about 30–60 minutes, which can restore functionality. The failure likely stems from thin internal wires that suffer metal fatigue from repeated bending and twisting inside the earcups. Cold causes metal to contract and can temporarily restore broken connections. The fix is temporary; long-term solutions require repair or replacement.

Read at ZDNET