iPhone headphones stopped working?

It’s almost two years since our post on the apple headphones, it was about the discovery that the remote on the headphone cord does all the wonderful things that I’m sure you already know about.

So what to do when they stop working?

Well you’re not going to believe this but after helping my son with this very problem this week, I’ve found that there is an epidemic of “broken” Apple earbuds out there. Like any techo these days as soon a a problem like this comes up, the solution is always to be found via google and some good old apple discussion boards.

I couldn’t believe how many people were having the same problem. The sound works when playing music from your iPod/iPhone but the remote does not work; you can’t pause songs or change the volume.

It’s all to do with lint!

If you look at the plug on your earbuds you’ll see that there are 4 individual sections, one is earth and two carry the signal for left and right. The fourth one, the one away form the tip is for the remote. What happens is that you get lint in the jack on your iPhone from having it in your pocket or bag etc.. and when you plugin the cable it doesn’t go all the way in. Looks like does, but it’s not all the way.

So, get a needle and carefully poke around in there and you’ll find lint coming out, perhaps you’ll be suprised by how much – I was. Clean it up and then plug in your earbuds again – fixed?

Tagged as: earbuds