iPod Special Report: Audio dropouts, pauses

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 11:49 a.m. PT

4 min read

Certain units of various iPod models pause during play -- a problem that seems to be connected with the headphone jack. Specifically, the iPod will pause when headphones are disconnected, and it appears a lack of proper insulation causes the unit to improperly think that the headphones have been unplugged.

Some typical reports:

Jim Fisher writes: "I have a fourth generation iPod and a Honda Element which has a built in auxiliary jack. I have connected the ipod to it and have experienced this exact thing. It is intermittent and frustrating but sometime twirling the jack cable causes the ipod to go into auto pause (and sometimes not). It does no good to have the lock button turned on. "

Possible Causes

RAM buffer full The iPod and iPod mini both sport a 32MB RAM buffer. When a track commences, the iPod caches the audio (up to 25 minutes) in the buffer, allowing for uninterrupted play if the hard drive is disrupted, as well as increasing battery life by accessing the hard disk less frequently.

If files exceed this 32MB buffer, the iPod has to re-access its hard drive, in some cases causing the audio dropout.

Grant Jacobson writes "I originally purchased an Ipod because of a little-known capability it has. It can playback AIFF and WAV files. These are direct digital copies of the original and are not compressed in any way. This made for the best sound quality I had heard from a portable device. I was a happy camper! However, as I started following the upgrade trail, I began uncovering a nasty bug that I dutifully reported to Apple. I upgraded from 1.2.1 to 1.2.6 and that was a good upgrade - added features and better battery life. I then upgraded to 1.3.0 and the problem surfaced. After approximately 2:20 minutes of playback the sound would cut out for about a second. It was absolutely repeatable. Second level support was very courteous and professional and committed to taking the information to engineering. The memory buffer was not being refilled in time to prevent the dropout. "

One MacFixIt writes "To get over this I always ensure that any MP3 or AIFF over 20 MB is segmented into smaller files so that they always fit into the buffer. "

Headphones pull in and out When headphones are removed from the iPod, the music will pause. As such, the cause for audio dropouts in some cases may be an issue with the headphone-to-iPod connection.

Mark Jones writes: "That same iPod 4G 20GB has random pauses that seem to be caused by the earphones--I am using the Etymotic 6i earphones and get a pause about four times a week (I use the iPod 6 or 7 hours a day. This pause is very frustrating."

MacFixIt reader Bob Nichols notes a crafty workaround for this issue that requires the use of adhesive tape to provide extra insulation for the headphone jack:

"There is a fix (which has worked perfectly for me) which consists of placing a small piece of paper or tape (I used Scotch Magic Tape) over the headphone port and pushing the phone plug through it. This apparently provides sufficient insulation to prevent the plug from contacting the iPod's metal case and causing the autopause. Before I applied the fix, rotating the plug of my Bose QuietComfort2 phones invariably resulted in a pause. Now it never does.