Android music player playing when I don't want it to.

[GeorgieGeorgie]

Hello,
When I have my headphones plugged in, I am unable to watch YouTube videos without the Android music player starting up automatically and overriding the YouTube sound.
I don't even have any of my own music on my phone, so it just plays ringtones, which is incredibly annoying.
I was wondering if anyone could help me to stop this from happening.
I don't have any reason to use the music player, so if getting rid of it were possible, that would be great. However, I don't think it is, but if a way to get the music player to stop opening on its own has been discovered, I'd love some help.
Thanks.

Also, I have Android 2.3.3 on an Xperia x10, if that makes a difference.

 

[atomicbottom]

There is an application called Block Headset which will prevent the music player from starting when the head set is plugged in. I use this on the Droid 1 running Android 2.2.3 so you'll have to confirm this works with your Xperia.

In other threads I have seen people talk about being able to adjust application settings to prevent auto start on head set, but I have been unable to find application settings for the stock music player in Android 2.2.3.

Good luck,

 

[GeorgieGeorgie]

Yay!
It seems to be working perfectly!
Thanks heaps, I really appreciate your help

 

[jamesairving]

FYI, the app referred to above is called exactly "Headset Blocker" on Google Play. I've been looking for a long time for a solution for this problem...I've just installed Headset Blocker and I'm hopeful.

It astonishes me that I see reports of this issue going back to 2010, and even official acknowledgments from Google that the problem exists, but even today it requires installing some silly app to (hopefully) fix the problem. I suppose it could be a hardware issue that can't be effectively addressed by a software update.

Also I can confirm that usually when this happens, it's when I have a plain stereo cable plugged in to my Droid X, for my kitchen speakers or my car stereo. Music playback starts and stops repeatedly unless I force-quit the Music app, and even after that it might start up again. I have sometimes been able to stop it by wiggling the plug vigorously (in sheer frustration), so there seems to be a physical aspect.

 

[Demache]

Its definitely a physical issue. My guess is that the plug (or the jack on the phone) isn't formed exactly right. This allows a bit of wiggle room inside. There is a pin in the jack that is used for the headset controls and works using pulses. And if the plug wiggles just right it will cause a "pulse" which the phone will interpret as a key press on a headset. Which is why playing with the headphone jack can start and stop it.

And the fact that they haven't resolved this issue after two years makes it seem to be more of a hardware than a software problem. But whether or not the blame lies with the phone itself, or the headphones jack is another matter. This happened to me before with my old phone, and getting a different pair of headphones eliminated the issue.