Q&A for How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones

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

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.

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.

There are two different wires for the mic/remote and earphones. The wire for the left earphone is most likely broken and and the wire for the mic/remote could remain untouched.

Try liquid electrical tape. You'd still have to twist the wires, but it goes on with a brush that it comes with it. If stored properly, it can can last for a long time.

Possibly one of the connections of the wires to the plug is not broken completely but has come loose.

Contact the manufacturer of the earphones as most items have a 90-day warranty when purchased in the USA. Have them try and troubleshoot the earphones to give them a chance to fix the phones. Tell the customer service person that you just purchased these earphones and they are defective. If the manufacturer wants you to send back the earphones with a receipt then make a copy of the receipt and send both the earphones and the copy to the company. Have the company pay for the shipping since your intention was not to purchase non-working earphones. Tell the manufacturer that any shipping costs should be absorbed by the manufacturer of these defective earphones, not you.

You could buy a plug from a hardware store. Make sure of the quality before you buy it too, then proceed to same plug repairing steps above.

Designed obsolescence, especially in the $20 - 50 price range.These can last awhile, but are usually good for about 8 - 12 weeks. Look for quality and check reviews.

Bend the wire and when you've found the place where it is bent, strip the wire and remove a small part. After this, you can connect the wire in one of the ways shown above.

Replace the plug or the drivers, or (if it still doesn't work), both.

I have this exact same problem with my headphones. I have to rotate the plug in the socket to get the headphones to work, because the plug is slightly crooked. You will want to straighten the plug out.

You can't. The swivel needs to be replaced.

I'm not entirely sure that there is much you can do to make it work again, as it sounds as if there is a fault with the wiring. The wire over time may have frayed, thus not allowing it to send audio signals to the speakers in the earbud. I'd suggest investing in a new pair, unless you're cool with using one earbud to listen to music.

If you don't have the materials needed to repair them and can't borrow them from anyone, it would probably be cheaper to buy a new pair.

Your headset likely does not match the device. Purchase another type, or check with other devices to see if there's something wrong with the earphones themselves.

There is likely a short, which would require re-soldering that connection. If you don't know how to do this, take them to a professional, or just get new headphones.

Yes. Just open them up, unwire them, and wire the new earpiece onto the cable.

In most cases, when your earphones are not working at all, the easiest thing to do is to just buy a new pair. The wires inside are broken somewhere.

Only the plug and wire fixes. The part for the earpiece is strictly for earbuds.

If these tips did not help, consider getting new earphones. It might not be worth the hassle attempting to fix the earphones, and you might be better off just purchasing new ones.