Fix Broken and Malfunctioning Headphones

Most headphones will stop working after a while. Whether the sound starts to cut out or the band breaks. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to try to repair your headphones yourself before spending money on a new set. This wikiHow article teaches you how to fix broken and malfunctioning headphones.

How to Repair a Headset

You can generally fix a broken band with superglue mixed with baking soda and tape.
You can splice broken wires back together or resolder wires detached from the plug.
Troubleshoot Bluetooth connection issues and pair your headphones with your device.

Section 1 of 6:

Finding the Problem

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1
Know which tools you'll need. Depending on the repair you end up needing to perform, you'll need to have (and know how to use) most of the following tools:
- Soldering iron and solder
- Knife or scissors
- Shrink tubing
- Wire strippers
- Multimeter
- Superglue
- Baking Soda
- Tape
2

Check if the band is broken. If the band is broken, it’s usually pretty obvious. You will see obvious signs of plastic wear and breakage. However, make sure the band is really broken, and not just loose. If your headphones have an adjustable band, sometimes one of the cups may get pulled out too far. You may be able to fix it by simply pushing it back in place. If the headphones feel loose, and one or both cups don’t fit snugly over your ears, the band may be broken.

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3
Make sure that the problem resides with the headphones. Plug in or pair a different set of working headphones with your preferred audio device (e.g., your smartphone or computer) and listen for feedback; if you notice that you're not receiving any sound via the other set of headphones, the problem is likely with your device, not your headphones.
- You can verify this by plugging in your headphones or pairing them with a different device.
- If you are using a computer, make sure you have your headphones selected as the audio output device in the sound settings menu.
Plug the headphones into an audio input, then bend the cable while you listen. If you can hear some audio through your headphones, you’ll need to fix the cable .
If you can only hear audio when you push or manipulate the plug end of the headphones, you’ll need to fix or replace the plug .
If your headphones have a detachable cable that can connect the earpieces (as with most Bluetooth headphones), try using your detachable cable with a different set of over-the-ear headphones. If you find that the other set works, your main set's earpieces are most likely to blame; you can try to fix them by using your headphones' documentation and recommended repair strategies.
7
Set up a multimeter. If you haven't found the problem yet, use a multimeter . You can find one at a hardware store or buy one online . Set up the multimeter as follows:
- Set the multimeter to test continuity, marked by ))) or a similar symbol.
- Plug the black lead into the hole marked COM.
- Plug the red lead into the hole marked with an Ω, mA, or ))) .
8
Test your wires with the multimeter. The multimeter will beep if there are no breaks in the wire. To test the wire, follow the instructions below:
- Make one slit next to the plug, and one slit next to the earpiece.
- The bare copper wire usually has a clear protective coat, so gently scrape the coat away with a knife.
- Touch the wire in one slit with the black multimeter lead, then touch the other slit with the red lead.
- Wait for a response from the multimeter; if it beeps, the problem is in the plug or earpiece. If it does not beep, make a slit halfway along the cable and test each half of the cable.
- Make another cut in the half that does not beep. Repeat until you've found two points a few inches (several centimeters) apart that do not cause the multimeter to beep.

Section 2 of 6:

Fixing a Broken Band

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1
Check if the manufacturer offers replacement parts. It’s not uncommon for over-the-ear headphones to break, especially in areas that stretch or bend. Check to see if you can order a replacement band for your model headphones on Amazon or from the manufacturer.
- If you can get a replacement band from the manufacturer, go ahead and order one and follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to replace it.
2
Place superglue in the break. Hold the band in its natural fixed position. Place superglue in all the seams around the break. Be sure to use liquid-based glue instead of gel glue. Ensure you get superglue into the front, back, and sides of the seams of the break.
- Depending on the design of your headphones, you may need to reinforce the band with a metal strip. You can glue the metal strip to the top or bottom of the band across the break using a strong, flexible adhesive.
- Make sure the wire that connects the cup is still intact. If it is broken, you may need to splice it back together .
- Alternatively, if you know what type of plastic your headphones are made out of, you can fix them with a plastic welding kit . Use the welder to melt a couple of strong metal wires into the plastic across the break. Then use the welder to melt a strip of plastic into the break to cover the cables and the break. Make sure you use the same type of plastic your headphones are made out of. Then use the welder to smooth over the repair. Use a file or sandpaper to smooth out any excess plastic.
3

Mix baking soda into the superglue. This will create a cement paste. Mix baking soda into the glue on all sides of the break.
4

Hold the headphones in the fixed position. Hold the headphones in the fixed position until the glue starts to set. After a few minutes, the glue should hold the headphones in place.
5

Wait for the glue to dry. Place the headphones in a neutral position where there is no weight or stress on the break. Allow them to sit for up to 24 hours for the glue to fully dry.
6

Use a file or sandpaper to remove excess glue. If there is any excess glue around the break, you can smooth it down with a file or sandpaper.
7

Wrap tape around the break. You can use black electrical tape or masking tape. Try to use tape that is the same color as your headphones. Make sure you wrap 3 or 4 tight and smooth wraps around the break.

Section 3 of 6:

Fixing Problem Cables

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1
Test the cable. To figure out where the break in the wires is, wear the headphones and turn on audio, then bend the cable to a right angle across the tip of your thumb. Slide your thumb along the length of the cable. When the sound crackles or cuts in and out, you have found the problem. If the problem is near the plug, you may need to fix the plug .
- Use a piece of tape or a Sharpie to mark the site of the break.
- If you already found the problem with a multimeter, skip this step.
2
Strip off the insulation. Use wire strippers , or carefully run a knife around the outside of the cable, to remove ½ inch (1.25 cm) of the outer shielding, then extend the cut in either direction until you see a broken wire. This is the area you'll need to repair.
- If your cable looks like two cables glued together, then each one will contain an insulated wire (the signal) and a bare wire (the ground).
- Apple headphones and other headphones with single cables have two insulated wires (the left and right signals) and a single bare ground wire.
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If you're using a wire stripper, make sure to use the correct measurement. For example, if you have a number 12 AWG wire, you have to put the wire into the number 12 slot to get a perfectly stranded or stripped wire.
3
Cut the cord. Cut the cord in the area where the damage is. If the wire inside is shredded, cut on either side of it to remove the problem. If you do this, remove the same amount from the left and right cords. Uneven lengths of cord can cause electrical damage to your headphones. ^{[1]
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- If only one of your wires is broken, you might want to skip to soldering the wire , without cutting or splicing. This will save time, but the repair will be less sturdy.
4
Slide on a shrink tube. This is a rubber tube that looks just like the rest of your headphone cable. Slide it onto the cable for later. After your repair, you'll slide this back over the open area to protect it.
- If you had to cut the wire several times to find the problem, slip a tube over each cut.
5
Splice the wires. This means you'll be joining the wires together . Make sure to connect wires with the same color insulation (or no insulation). You have two options: a pigtail splice and an in-line splice.
- For a pigtail splice, pick up the two exposed areas of wire that you want to connect. Place them parallel to each other and twist them together to join them. This is quick and easy, but the repair will be bulkier.
- For an in-line splice, overlap the wires end to end, then twist them in opposite directions. This is more difficult, but the repair is easier to hide.
6
Solder the connections. Use a soldering iron to melt a small dab of solder over the wires. Repeat for each splice, then let the solder cool.
- Bare wires without insulation usually have a thin enamel coat. Sand this off or burn it off with the soldering iron before you solder. Avoid breathing in the fumes. ^{[2]
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- Once cooled, keep the red and white ends separate from the ground wire by wrapping the two pairs of joins in electrical tape.
7
Slide your shrink tube over the repair. After the shrink tube is correctly fitted over the repair site, you can use a heat gun to constrict it.
- The tube will shrink down to about a quarter of its original size, which will allow it to fit snugly around your newly-repaired cable, keeping it strong and protected.

Section 4 of 6:

Fixing a Broken Plug

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You can purchase one online or at an electronics store. Select a metal plug with a stereo connection and a spring. Make sure it's the same size as your old plug, typically 3.5mm (1/8 inch). ^{[3]
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2
Cut the old plug off. Place your knife or scissors about an inch above the point where the cable connects to the plug, then slice through the cable. ^{[4]
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- While some cables will have a plug that can screw off, the bulk of plug issues you'll experience result from frayed wires inside the cable.
3
Remove the shielding from an inch of the cable. With a pair of wire strippers, strip about an inch of the cable's cover from the end. You should see a wire for both the right and left earpieces, as well as at least one ground wire.
- If there are two ground wires, you'll need to solder them together later.
Typically, you'll find a red wire for the right earpiece, a white (or green) wire for the left earpiece, and one or two black or bare copper wires for the "ground" wire(s).
5
Strip the ends of the wires. Remove the rubber coating from the bottom 1/3 of an inch from each wire if possible.
- If your wires are enamel-tipped, you may be able to skip this step.
6
Twist the like-colored wires together. If you have two ground wires, you'll need to twist together their ends before you can solder them.
- If all of the like-colored wires are distinct, just make sure that any frayed ends of the wires are twisted together.
7
Remove enamel from the ends of the wires. If your wires are tipped in an enamel cap, you'll need to burn it off by touching the soldering iron to the end of each wire in order to expose the copper ends of the wires. ^{[5]
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- Skip this step if you can see the copper ends of the wires already.
8
Slip the headphone jack's sleeve onto the wire. It should fit with the portion that will screw into the plug, facing the bottom of the wire.
- The plug base should have two pins sticking out of the end. If it only has one, then you have got a mono, not a stereo plug.
9
Add a drop of solder to each wire. This is called "tinning" the wires, and it will ensure that your wires can connect to the headphone jack itself.
- You should allow the solder to cool fully before proceeding.
10
Attach the soldered wires to the headphone jack. Use sandpaper to roughen the edges to make it easier to solder to metal, apply solder to a pin in the jack's housing, and heat the pin to melt the solder. You'll repeat this process for the other two wire connections.
- Solder the ground wire to the tip of the bottom of the terminal. There may be a hole you can thread the wire through.
- Solder the red wire to the tip terminal, or the terminal on the left.
- Solder the green wire to the ring terminal, or the terminal on the right.
11
Reassemble the headphone jack. Rotate the jack's sleeve to screw it into the jack plug, making sure to tighten the sleeve as much as possible. You can test your headphones at this point.
- If you still have problems, most likely the wires are touching. Unscrew the cap and tug the wires apart.

Section 5 of 6:

Fixing a Wireless Connection

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1
Make sure your headphones are fully charged. If you are having issues connecting your headphones wirelessly, they may be low on battery. Make sure your headphones are fully charged. Connect your headphones to a USB charger and wait a couple of hours for them to charge.
- If your headphones aren’t charging, check the USB cable for damage. Try using a different USB cable and a different charger or USB port. Check the USB port on your headphones for damage or debris. If there is debris, you can clean it out with condensed air. If the USB cable feels loose or doesn’t insert all the way, the USB port may be damaged.
2
Check the output device. On Windows and Mac, you can select which device you want to use as your audio output device. If you are not getting sound out of your headphones, check the output device on your computer and make sure your headphones are selected. Use one of the following steps to do so:
- Windows: Click the speaker icon in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, then click the icon that resembles slider bars next to the volume slider. Make sure your headphones are selected. If they are not, click More volume settings at the bottom of the menu and then click the radio option next to your headphones.
- Mac: Click the Apple menu and select System Settings (or System Preferences ) > Sound > Output . Select your headphones from the list of devices.
3
Move closer to your device or wireless dongle. Bluetooth and wireless dongles have a limited range. If the sound is cutting out, losing quality, or you hear a metallic clicking sound, you may be too far away from your device. Sit closer to your mobile device, computer, or wireless dongle.
- If you are using a wireless dongle on a game console, try connecting the wireless dongle to a USB extension cable. Place the dongle closer to you.
4

Forget and pair your headphones again. If your headphones are not connecting via Bluetooth, open the Bluetooth settings on your device. Tap the Gear or icon with three dots (⋮) next to your headphones. Select the option to forget your headphones. Then go through the process of pairing your headphones with your device again.
5
Update your audio and Bluetooth drivers. If your audio and Bluetooth drivers are outdated, you may experience connection issues or audio issues. You can update your drivers by updating your computer or mobile device. On Windows, you can use the following steps to update the audio and Bluetooth drivers individually:
- Right-click the Windows Start menu.
- Click Device Manager .
- Expand “Audio Processing Objects.”
- Right-click your audio driver.
- Click Update driver .
- Click Search automatically for drivers .
- Follow the prompts if an update is detected.
- Expand “Bluetooth.”
- Right-click your Bluetooth driver.
- Click Update driver .
- Click Search automatically for drivers .
- Follow the prompts if an update is detected.
6
Re-pair your headphones with the wireless dongle. If your wireless headphones are not connecting to the wireless dongle, try unplugging the dongle and plugging it back in. Turn your headphones off and then on again. If that doesn’t work, you may need to re-pair your headphones with the dongle.
- The way you pair your headphones with the dongle varies from one manufacturer to the next. Some dongles may have a pairing button on them. In some cases, you may need to download software to your computer and use the software to pair your headphones with the dongle.

Section 6 of 6:

Fixing a Malfunctioning Earpiece

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Unlike wire or jack issues in standard in-ear headphones, earpiece problems tend to be fairly complicated. It's almost always better to take your headphones into a repair service to have a professional diagnose and fix them, or just replace the earbuds.
2
Take apart the earpieces. This process is different for each model. Look online for specific directions, or try the following: ^{[6]
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- Look for screws on the earpiece. You may need a size 0 crosshead screwdriver.
- Tug the padding gently. If it comes off, look for screws underneath it.
- Insert a spudger or other flat tool into the crack at the base of the earpiece dome. Lever it apart. This may cause damage to some models, so finding directions first is recommended.
- Earbuds can be tugged apart, but you may need a new rubber seal afterwards. The problem is usually with the cable for the earbuds. ^{[7]
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3
Look for loose wires. If you're lucky, the problem will be obvious. Any wires loose inside the earpiece need to be reattached to the headphone driver. Look for small metal pins, hopefully with other wires attached to some of them, and then solder the wire back into position over the bare pin.
- If more than one wire is loose, you may need to find a manual to see which wire goes where.
- Make sure none of the wires touch each other.
4
Replace the driver. You can buy a new headphone driver online, but this may be quite expensive. If you decide replacement is worth the cost, take your headphones and a new driver to a repair shop. You can try it yourself, but there's a high risk of damage: ^{[8]
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- Cut the rubber seal around the central cone with a sharp knife.
- Remove the conical driver.
- Place the new driver back in the same slot. Be very careful not to touch the thin diaphragm.
- If it doesn't feel secure, add a small amount of glue around the edge.

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Question

What's the problem if only one earpiece plays the audio and other one doesn't work?

Community Answer

It could be the earpiece itself, but it's more likely that the single cable leading to it is damaged.

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I just got my earphones on Saturday and on the following week, it was starting to cut off on the left side. Is it my phone or my earphones?

Community Answer

Most likely it is your earphones. Your earphone is more prone to malfunction. Folding the earphones and shoving them in your pocket will decrease the life of your earphones. Try using a friend's headphones to check the link. In future, try buying more expensive earphones. The difference between $5 earphones and $30 earphones are significant but the difference becomes hard to detect at price ranges higher than that.

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What if my earphones are working from both the sides, but quieter than before? They aren't old though and I don't think there's a problem in the volume of the device.

Community Answer

It could be the speaker inside the earpiece wearing, and it depends on how loud you listen to music. If you listen loudly, or with a lot of strong bass, the speaker could be wearing and dimming the sound.

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Try not to hold the soldering iron on the contact too long. It may melt the surrounding plastic or ruin the contacts.

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Practice on cheap earphones first, if you have them available.

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If you only use your headphones on one device, you might want to check them on another device to make sure the problem lies with the headphones instead of a particular headphone jack. For example, if your headphones work without any problem when used with your computer but won't work when you use them with your iPhone, you may need to fix the iPhone headphone jack instead of the actual headphones.

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The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

If your headphones are expensive (like Beats), consider taking them to a professional. You may be disappointed if you end up breaking them further.
To keep your headphones in good repair, don’t blast your music at full volume. It makes them wear out faster.
Don't wrap the cable of your headphones too tightly, it could cause the wires inside to break.
If the cable has a microphone, test if that works, as well. It will have a different wire.

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Warnings

Do not breathe the fumes from the solder.

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Be careful not to burn yourself; a soldering iron gets very hot.

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Never attempt repairs of this caliber unless you know your way around the necessary tools. If you're hesitant, consider asking a friend or a professional repair service to fix your headphones instead.

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Fix Broken and Malfunctioning Headphones

How to Repair a Headset

Steps

Finding the Problem

Fixing a Broken Band

Fixing Problem Cables

Fixing a Broken Plug

Fixing a Wireless Connection

Fixing a Malfunctioning Earpiece

Community Q&A

Video

Tips

Tips from our Readers

Warnings

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