Airpods Pro Max with USB-C: Finally there new firmware

7E99 becomes 7E101: Apple has now managed to publish the new firmware for the Airpods Max with USB-C connection, which has been expected for days, which has been launching Lossless support for days. Actually, she was supposed to have been released on Monday together with iOS 18.4 and Co., but nothing came of it for unknown technical reasons. In the night from Wednesday after Thursday there was a rollout – not with the first version 7E99, but with 7E101. What exactly the problem was – there are assumptions that there was a bug in iOS 18.4 itself – has not yet been communicated by Apple.

New features for the Airpods Max with USB-C

In September 2024, Apple had presented a new variant of over-ears at least 579 euros at the manufacturer after almost four years. It is the only innovation-in addition to new colors-with a USB-C-instead of a Lightning connection. This initially led to features fell away: this included said Lossless playback by cable and the possibility of using an adapter to be able to use analogous 3.5 mm jack connections. Both were surprisingly submitted-together with latency-free transmission via USB-C cable. But then the new firmware was initially long in coming.

Now users-including a member of the Mac & I editorial team-report that it finally works with the firmware. To see that it has made its own device is on a new iOS splash screen: This shows that Lossless-Audio with USB-C is now available. Alternatively, you can also check in the Bluetooth settings whether firmware 7E101 is on the device. Apple promises loss-free audio with 24 bits and 48 kHz with the new firmware version. This preserves the “integrity of the original recordings”, including Apple Music. In addition, the update with a cable connection “Audio with extremely low latency” on the AirPods max. This is important for people, for example, cut the videos on the Mac or iPad.

Airpods firmware installation is always voodoo

In this case, the usual problem of getting new firmware on AirPods – not only Max, but also Pro and Standard models – came to light: there is still no way to force updates. Instead, Apple only communicates that the respective device should be connected to an iPhone, Mac or iPad on which the latest operating system runs and the AirPods connect to electricity. After half an hour, the firmware should be installed, which is not always the case.

If there is a problem like with firmware 7E99, users are there without a solution. Mac & I will now take a closer look at the new Airpods Max features and will publish a practical article on Heise+ in the next few days.