How to connect AirPods Max to your iPhone, iPad

Apple’s AirPods Max are VERY pricey, but they sound fantastic. If you’re setting up your AirPods Max for the first time, make sure that your iPhone or iPod touch is running iOS 14.3 and/or your iPad Pro is running iPadOS 14.3 or later, then: 

Go to the Home screen.

1. Take your AirPods Max out of the Smart Case, and within 60 seconds, hold them next to the device that you want to pair with your AirPods Max until you see a setup animation on the device that you want to pair. If you don’t see the animation, make sure that your iOS or iPadOS device is up to date, or pair your AirPods Max with your iOS or iPadOS device manually by going to Settings > Bluetooth. If you don’t see the status light flashing white on AirPods Max, press and hold the noise control button until the light flashes white.
2. Tap Connect to pair your AirPods Max with your device, or to set up features such as Hey Siri if you haven’t yet set it up.
3. If you want to experience spatial audio, tap See & Hear How It Works to start the setup.
4. Tap Done. If you’re signed in to iCloud, your AirPods Max are set up automatically with any of your supported devices that are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.

(This how-to is based on my experiences and info on Apple’s support pages — where the images sometimes come from.)