Help My android won't recognise my earphones when I plug them in

[RiverOfJoy]

A while ago this happened with one of my sets of earphones but back then i thought they didnt work anymore so I started using my spare pair and it worked for a couple weeks but now when I plug in my earphones it works for like 2 seconds and then it stops and the sound then comes through my speakers. I don't have a clue what's happening to them but if you know anything please tell me it would be very helpful

 

[hiredgun]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like your earphone jack is shot. If it was a PC I'd say it could be a problem with your drivers, because I actually had that happen to a laptop of mine. I'd plug in the headphones and the sound would still keep coming out of the speakers. I downloaded the drivers again and it worked. Don't know if a factory reset would help you if it was a software issue, maybe some of the veterans can clear that up for you. On the upside, lol, if it is the jack that is shot I can't imagine that it would be a very expensive repair.

 

[Clementine_3]

Before doing anything drastic try cleaning the jack out. It can get really gross in there and can interfere with the connection.
I hold the phone so the jack is facing down and carefully use a toothpick to loosen stuff up. Then either blow or vacuum that crap out. A quick light wipe (tip of a paper towel or something) of rubbing alcohol in there for good measure may just fix it right up. Worth a try anyway.

 

[hiredgun]

Good answer Clem, wish I had thought of it, lol!! Always learning something on this site for sure!

Before doing anything drastic try cleaning the jack out. It can get really gross in there and can interfere with the connection.
I hold the phone so the jack is facing down and carefully use a toothpick to loosen stuff up. Then either blow or vacuum that crap out. A quick light wipe (tip of a paper towel or something) of rubbing alcohol in there for good measure may just fix it right up. Worth a try anyway.

 

[Blue Thunder]

This has just happened to me after upgrading my phone. I read that if cleaning doesn't work, then you need to do a factory reset. Went through all the hassle of a factory reset and restoring my phone to how it was, then found out that the music still played out of the speakers - total waste of time.

Someone suggested an app called Sound About. In Sound About you can configure where you want your media sound to play, i.e. speakers, headphones, etc. It seems that in my case, the fault was the phone wasn't recognising the fact that the headphones were plugged in and so it didn't switch the sound to the headphones. So now I use the Sound About widget to toggle the sound to go through the headphones, I know it is manual, but at least I can use the headphones again.

I wish I had known this before I did the factory reset. It is worth trying the app (48 hours free trial) before you do anything too drastic.

 

[mikedt]

Sounds like a bug in the updated firmware, if it was working before but not working after the update. And if a reset didn't fix it, could be worth checking with the manufacturer about it.