RIP iTunes

Since we seem to have some knowledgeable folks here ....

Why do all my Apple devices suck for headphone jacks? I have an iPad and a classic iPod and both have become nearly impossible to listen to as the headphone jack just won't connect anymore. Is there anything I can do?

 

What iOS are you running?

 

Honestly don't know and I'm not at home now. Will check after work.

 

IOS 10.3.3

 

Have you tried the headphones on other devices (like a laptop) where they work perfectly?

Apple is notorious for planned obsolescence with their peripherals, so it could be that your headphone cords have reached their sell by date.

 

And how old are your devices? Can you describe the headphone jack problem a little more thoroughly? Are you hearing static? Does only one earbud work at a time? Have you tried multiple pairs of headphones?

 

I'm guessing it's probably an age problem although headphones were always problematic on the iPad (bought in 2014). If you put the headphones all the way in you get very little sound or none at all, occasionally you can hear one channel. It only connects properly when it's pulled about halfway out and then any movement will disconnect it. The headphones work just fine in other devices.

The iPod Classic was working fine until recently. I listen to it in my car connected to the Aux jack for my stereo (it's an older car, no Bluetooth).

 

Dirt or other crud in the headphone jack, possibly.

 

I suggest taking the device to get it repaired. There might something wrong with how the jack is reading headphone input. It could be, as 2muchcoffeeman said, crap stuck in there you need to clean, but it sounds like it could be more.

 

I am still a quite-active user of iTunes and have gotten back into ripping songs off YouTube because I'm cheap as hell.

So what's the story? Will Apple let us convert our libraries back into mp3's or are we fucked?

 

If you're familiar with the command line, there's youtube-dl.

 

1) iTunes is simply being broken up into separate apps. There will now be a specific music app instead of iTunes.
2) iTunes is just the software you've been using to listen to your music files. Those files aren't changing or going anywhere. You can do whatever you want with them.