I haven’t used headphones on my iPad for a really long time now and last night I had to. To my surprise, what I was hoping to be a night of me chilling with my favorite show on Netflix turned into a night of me becoming a tech guy looking to fix a strange problem: my headphones only played sound through one earbud – the right one, if it makes any difference. I knew that the headphones themselves were not the problem as they were working flawlessly on other devices, so I had to investigate the cause and find the fix. I did and I am here to share with you my solution in case you have the same problem.
So in this article we’re going to find out how to fix your iPhone or iPad headphones when they’re only playing through one headphone. And there might be more possible fixes, but I will start with the cause in case – which is most likely what you’re dealing with too:
Go to your device’s Settings – General and scroll down to the section “Hearing”. Make sure that you don’t have “Mono Audio” turned on and most importantly, that your volume balance is right at the middle. In my case, it was all the way to the right and that was the cause why my headphones were only producing sound on that side.
However, even though it’s most likely this what’s causing your problem, there are other potential issues that make your headphones only play through one earbud:
– The jack might not be inserted all the way in. Make sure it is and if you’re in doubt (if you’re using a cover that might prevent it from going all in, for example), remove all covers and push it until it’s completely in.
– Make sure that the jack is not dirty. Clean it with a clean piece of cloth and blow on it to remove any potential dust particles.
– Restart your device. Sometimes, this works wonders.
– Insert and remove the headphones’ jack a few times and try again. Not the most tech savvy option, but it’s worth trying
– If none of these things work, test your headphones on a different device: it might be a hardware problem, with your headphones’ jack potentially malfunctioning.
– The cable of your headphones might be malfunctioning as well. With the jack inserted, try twisting the cable a bit and see if at any point you’ll hear sound in both headphones. If you do, then the headphones will most likely have to be replaced.
– Finally, if none of these work, try resetting your device to factory settings, but have in mind that this is a pretty radical solution and it might still not fix your problem.
But most likely all the other potential fixes, especially the hearing aid setting, will fix your problem and your headphones will work as they should. Let us know if you still have the problem or if you manage to find a solution that’s not listed here.