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iPad system sounds come through headphones but not music or app sounds

Kind of a weird problem: I'm using OneOdio wired headphones plugged into a power through USB C 3.5mm headphone jack dongle (maker is s'touch). This used to work just fine but sound just suddenly stopped coming through the headphones while I was playing with GarageBand. Weirdly, system sounds still come through just fine, but music, GarageBand and other app sounds do not. The little blue indicator does come on when I plug the dongle in, and I can hear a pop in the headphones when plugged and unplugged (it is distinctly the 'headphones engaged' sound, not the 'I bopped the wire' sound). Bluetooth headphones do work (for reasons of delay, using bluetooth headphones all the time is not an option).Things I've tried:

Quitting and restarting all apps

Restarting the iPad

Switching mute on and off

Switching airplane mode on and off

Flipping the dongle the other way up

Cleaning the dongle

Cleaning the iPad's USBC port

Cleaning the 3.5 mm headphone jack and plug

Plugging in a different set of 3.5mm headphones

None of this has had any effect.

The headphones do work when plugged into other things; they're fine, but I did check with two other sets of headphones (an older gaming headset and some Apple wired headphones). Since system sounds are still coming through I suspect the dongle is okay, but unfortunately my iPad is the only device in the house that uses USBC so I can't check it with another device. Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped here!

Thanks for your attention-- I appreciate it.

iPad Air

Posted on Apr 8, 2023 4:26 AM

Top-ranking reply

Strangechilde Author

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Apr 8, 2023 6:28 AM

I've found the solution for my issue so I'm posting it here in case anyone else runs into the same thing. If you open Control Centre while headphones are not plugged in, you have a volume slider that works for the internal speaker. If you access Control Centre while headphones are plugged in, you'll see a headphones icon on the volume-- it appears that you can set these volume levels independently, which is indeed a very smart and useful feature, but one I wasn't aware of. I somehow-- no idea how; I don't remember going into Control Centre at all, but I must have-- managed to turn the volume all the way down on this slider while the headphones were plugged in, so no amount of changing the volume anywhere else was having any effect. If you're having this trouble, try plugging your headphones in and then accessing control centre and see where that slider is.

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iPad system sounds come through headphones but not music or app sounds

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