19 Untold Hacks – How To Stop Headphones From Breaking?

stop headphone breaking 19 hacks

We are all experiencing every now and then our headphones or earbuds getting broken, this is really annoying especially when it was hard to get a headphone that we love and got used to using on a daily basis.

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Then How Can I Stop Headphones From Breaking?

To stop a headphone from breaking semi-regularly, then you need to be careful in how you handle your headphones when it comes to how you carry them, storing, and carrying them …etc because headphones are mostly made of plastic or thin cables that are easy to break, even for high quality and pricey ones if you miss use them whether they are wired or wireless headphones.

Now, there are many hacks that prevent and stop your headphones from breaking as described below:

Hack 1 – Don’t Coil The Cable Tightly

Many of us are wrapping the headphone’s coil (cord) around our smartphones or mp3 player body after finishing using them, and most of those coils especially when built-in with earbuds are so light and thin thus easy to have internal physical cuts.

So be aware not to tighten your coil so much as chances are likely they will be breaking or cutting after a while. And when you stop doing that, you will be having earbuds with a longer lifespan, thus preventing your earbuds from crackling and working sporadically while using them.

Hack 2 – Do Not Pull The Cable, Only The Plug

This is a common misusing method that almost everyone does, which is pulling the cord cable to unplug the plug from an audio source instead of pulling the plug itself, the most reason why always you are experiencing a cut in the plug or the cable connection because of the extra stress you are putting on the cable.

You should always pull the plug by catching it and pulling it off not by catching the cable.

NOTE: If you experience a cut cord near the plug, you could simply fix this issue as the DIY easy process from my other tutorial How To Replace A Headphone Jack – The Correct Easy Way [SOLVED].

Hack 3 – Pull The Connector Firmly, Not Sharply

This is to protect your connector and prevent it from being damaged, as a complementary tip to the previous one whenever you wanna pull the connector then pull it firmly, with steady force cause If you yank it, you can damage the prong.

Hack 4 – Use The Right Cable (Cord) Length

Having a headphone or earbuds with a cable length that neither it’s long nor short could increase the durability and comfort, chances are high to get broken or an internal cut, because long cables are easily caught into an obstacle while wearing your headphone and short cables will be under pressure on the audio jack due to excessive tugging on the cable.

As a solution, you need to either:

  • Purchase Headphones With Removable Cables: Then you can easily swap and replace cables that you have or try different cable lengths before purchasing the one that suits your height.
  • Extending Your Current Cable As A DIY At Home: This is also a simple doable option for your at home, you could use any extra cable from any other headphones you have that you no need anymore or it’s broken, simply cut its cable and joint it to your current one as described below:

Step 1: Cut your cable 10 cm away from its plug.

Step 2: Extract the internal cables from both sides of the cut (plug side end and cable side end)

red, green and brown cable

Step 3: Use a lighter or special slicing tool to remove the plastic shield.

remove cable shield by lighter

Step 4: Cut a piece of additional cable that you have, following the same process above slice all cable ends.

Step 5: Twist your fingers and join the ends together.

Step 6: Use a heat shrink tube to fix the joined sections together.

heat shrink tube

Step 7: Enjoy your new cable length.

Hack 5 – Don’t Leave The Headphones On The Ground

Occasionally this is why some people have their own headphones damaged, leaving your headphones on the ground or the floor accidentally or because of laziness could ruin your smile on that day.

Please, always keep your headphones on a table or save them in their case for better protective practices.

Hack 6 – Wrap Up The Cord While Not Using

Do not stuff the earbuds in your pocket by scrambling the cable, be sure to wrap it in a proper way before saving it because having this mentality of stuffing the earbuds with scrambled cords could get the cables tangled or bunched up could cause a loose connection with a tiny cut inside of it.

So, how to fold your headphones cord?

To fold your headphone cords or cables easily follow the below simple steps:

  1. Put your fingers in the rock n’ roll position.rock n roll fingers position
  2. Grip below the buds on the headphones.
  3. Put the cord over your pinky finger.rock n roll wrap the cord
  4. Wrap the headphones around your pinky finger along with the index finger.
  5. Keep wrapping until it is finished.finished earbuds wrap

Also, this is the best way to put your headphones in your pocket without them getting bunched up in knots.

Hack 7 – Do Not Dangle Your Headphone

Always avoid letting your headphone or earbuds dangle or hang from your bag or table… etc, this could cause stress on the cord’s connection between the headphone and the plug.

Stop Doing That !!

Hack 8 – Do Not Leave Headphones Plugged In

While not using your headphones, do not leave them plugged into your media player, in case of an accidental movement can get caught in the cord leading to damaging it.

The majority of users are having a faulty jack issue in their headphones because of such cases ending up the poor headphone into the garbage, the whole idea is about stressing the cables unintentionally while leaving the earbuds always plugged into their audio source devices.

headphone plugged in
NOTE: If you experience a cut cord near the plug, you could simply fix this issue as the DIY easy process from my other tutorial How To Replace A Headphone Jack – The Correct Easy Way [SOLVED].

Hack 9 – Avoid Contact With Water

This is a common-sense tip, any electronic device has an enemy which is water. Water easily damages any electronic device for good, so it is important to take big attention to how to prevent that from happening.

For headphones and earbuds its the same exact case, except otherwise you are having waterproof pair of them, in case you experienced water to be mixed with your headphone try to immediately remove the headphone from the water and unplug it from your device, leave it exposed to air for a couple of hours, this could save it if there is a chance. Also, learn how to store your headphones while not using them in a proper way.

Hack 10 – Clean Your Earbuds Earwax

Many people out there are using their earbuds on daily basis, and since earbuds are used to be placed inside the canal of human ears, ear wax is commonly created because of using earbuds for a long time.

So having ear wax inside your ear canal (if this is applicable to your case) might not let you enjoy the real quality of your earbuds or over-ear headphone and not only that, it might cause issues to your earbuds themselves by having extra wax inserted into its holes. better to clean your ears and your earbuds. 😁

NOTE: Ear wax also can be build up inside your ear if you use to clean your ear using cotton buds, this is totally wrong to do based on what doctors are advising cause the wax might be pushed inside of your ear canal towards your eardrum and blocking it.

Hack 11 – Don’t Sleep With Your Headphones On

Rolling over while you sleep is not promising for your headphone’s unintentional accidents and damage, this could ruin your headphones or earbuds if you wear them while sleeping, wearing your headphones while sleeping could damage your hearing.

Simply, stop doing that …

NOTE: There are other disadvantages and advantages of sleeping with headphones overnight, to quickly learn more you can now visit my other article IS IT SAFE SLEEPING WITH HEADPHONES NIGHT LONG?

Hack 12 – Add Shrink Wrap for Reinforcement

Or sometimes they call it heat shrink wrap, it basically costs nothing and can assist your cords from being stress relieved while using your headphones.

Simply wrap small portions into the required place (normally on the jack body joint with the cable) and apply some heat, and that’s it.. enjoy your armor-protected earbuds.

Hack 13 – Get A Protective Case For Your Headphones

This is a very important tip to protect and prevent your headphones from breaking, we people do not take precautions and then we start blaming the products or our luck for what circumstances could arise.

Always use a protective case or bag for your headphone’s protection, you could buy one online or arrange a good one because in this way not only you will prevent the headphone from breaking, but also increase their lifespan.

Hack 14 – Avoid Sitting On Your Headphones (earbuds)

We normally put our smartphone in our left pocket, and the keys in the right one, but what about your earbuds? definitely, you would put them in your back pocket. As time passes and your mind is preoccupied with something else and you totally forget about the earbuds.

Now, with your weight and by sitting anywhere, your expensive earbuds are broken immediately, be aware of such a scenario, and do not sit on your headphones.

Hack 15 – Keep Your Audio Volume Low

To prevent your headphone from being broken, simply do not listen to very high volume music in them, if this doesn’t damage them in the short run, it will in the long run by causing permanent distortion and buzzing to your headphone’s speakers.

Listening to high-volume music could damage your hearing as well, you might not feel that at the first glance but you will suffer when time passes and the bad news is there is no medical solution for losing hearing caused by high volume audio.

Hack 16 – Turn Down The Bass Of Your Audio Device

Most common headphones do not have good or powerful bass drivers, thus heavy or loud bass can quickly damage its speakers with no return by putting a lot of load and stress on speakers that aren’t built for it.

NOTE: Bass is a low-frequency sound that adds the beauty and warmth to any music beats or speaking sound.

Hack 17 – Use Headphones That Handle The Output Power

Using normal headphones on a powerful power source can quickly burn them out, there is something called headphone impedance that I am talking about, every electronic device including headphones have an impedance that should have sort of match with the audio player or amplifier impedance.

NOTE: To understand more about headphone impedance along with other important sound quality information you can go to my other article Facts You Should Know About Sound Quality That Nobody Told.

So be careful when you try to use a headphone with different audio sources or with audio amplified.

Hack 18 – Turn Down The Audio Before Plugging In Headphones

This should be a normal procedure to take whenever you want to transfer the music heading from your smartphone into a headphone, always reduce the volume of your music from your media device before plugging in the headphone even if you are not currently playing a song.

Putting in mind that plugging headphones into a media player device, while high volume audio is playing, can damage their speakers and cause permanent distortion and buzzing. So better to pug in the headphone jack and then raise the volume until it’s comfortable.

NOTE: Inserting the headphone into your media player with high volume audio is playing could damage your ears as well. 

Hack 19 – Stop Buying Disposable Headphones

You get what you pay for, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get long-lasting headphones, but you do need to make sure it’s made quality is one of the things you look for when you buy headphones.

Earbuds Type Are Not Fitting Well In My Ears

Of course disposable quality is not the same as what I mean by cheap, there are headphones and earbuds low in price but offer decent quality, but in general, you should always be concerned about having good quality products cause this is also considered an investment for you on the long run.

Cheap headphones are made by cutting costs on their materials and make, as a result, the sound quality also will be a foregone conclusion.

Conclusion

Headphones are easily breakable electronic devices that we should use with care, no matter how priced or high priced headphones we might own, still, this is the case.

Taking the 19 hacks above into consideration would definitely reduce your headphones breaking issues and increase your awareness of how to use them for better precaution practices.

Share this article below if you believe people need to know about it … 🙂

Firas Sameer

This is me Firas Sameer the one behind “How To Fix Headphones” wearing my Beats headphone, I like listening to music a lot but since I had some issues with my headphone jack and I had to replace it my self, I decided to create this website and help you guys with headphone hacks all the way I am learning new ones and other stuff which helps you fix your own.

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