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how to prevent iphone auto play songs when earphone plugged in.

hi
why does iphone autoplays songs when an earphone is plugged in?
it doesnt happen all the time but sometimes it just start playing all the music (it just starts from the beginning, song 1 of xx) and that song 1 is always whatever song title that starts with "A"
i dont want this to happen.
or maybe if i can set it to automatically play a specific playlist its better.

does anyone have this issue?
iphone 3g with os 2.2

thanks.

MacBookPro 2007, 2.6Ghz, 4GB Ram, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 2, 2009 6:50 AM

Reply
16 replies

Feb 3, 2009 3:01 PM in response to xtedx

Same problem, which is extremely inconvenient because I like to use my earphones to listen to Pandora while I work. Not every time, but most of the time I plug in my earphones, the iPod software starts playing the last song that was played. Stopping the music via iPod or pressing the Home button for 10 seconds to force quit iPod doesn't stop the music as it will just automatically start playing again. Sometimes if I'm lucky, plugging the earphones in very quickly avoids this problem -- but like I said, it's a cross my fingers and hope I get lucky kind of thing.

I'm using the newer 3G model, which I've had for only about a month. I did not have this problem with my old 2G iPhone.

Someone in another thread said it's a hardware fault and suggested exchanging the phone for a new one. Can anyone confirm this?

Feb 11, 2009 6:49 PM in response to xtedx

What I did to work around on it is to put the Ipod in a shorter playlist, maybe one song, then put repeat off, so if it plays it only plays one song, so my batter won't die. But after a while, it stopped auto-playing.

I was actually worried that somebody was manipulating my iphone!!! paranoid

Another problem I had with this iphone is it just turned off and cannot be powered on from the top, I had to google about pressing the power and the menu home key at the same time to power it on.

If this auto play is a HW problem, I should exchange my phone soon! Please confirm, anyone???

Feb 12, 2009 12:21 PM in response to xtedx

I'm having this exact problem - when I plug in my earphones, the iPhone starts playing the very first song, alphabetically speaking, in my playlist (as it happens, Richard Thompson's recording of "A-11," which is a great song, but I don't want to hear it every time I plug in my freaking headphones!)

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to stop this "now playing" phenomenon... but am glad to know I'm not alone.

Has anyone figured out an acceptable workaround?

Feb 13, 2009 7:53 AM in response to xtedx

Im here just to post that this happens to me on a daily basis. The only audio files i have stored on my iPod are podcasts. Usually I dont have time to listen to a podcast all the way through so i'll pause it and listen to it later.

With the iPhone (3G) 2.2.1 it will start playing by itself and lose my position on where I stopped on the podcast. =\

I hope someone is working on a fix for this.

My headphones that I have plugged in are JVC headphones. I don't use my iPhone earbuds unless I'm talking to someone on the phone, so I cant say that the issue exists or not with the pack-in earbuds.

Feb 13, 2009 11:48 AM in response to xtedx

I also have this problem with my iPhone 3G after updating to 2.2.1. It usually occurs when my earphones are plugged in. It would just automatically play one song even when I'm doing something like watching youtube videos or watching podcasts. It would also randomly pause, or skip a song which is quite annoying.

Is this caused by a hardware problem or is just from the updated firmaware?
I just hope theres a fix for this soon.

Feb 20, 2009 1:34 AM in response to BloodLine808

+1 with all above. Can't find the logic when it starts playing and when not. If it's been a few minutes since I listened last time it normally starts up with song 1 again. A "Start Playing - Where Left Off" option for Audio under the iPod settings would be nice. I normally start playing music with a double click of the home button when the screen is locked, feels almost like an unsupported method if you ask me considering how bad it works...

Feb 24, 2009 10:45 AM in response to kolsyra

The iPod application remains active and in memory even after you seemingly quit it by pressing the home button.

To completely remove the iPod app from memory you need to reboot your iPhone. Just turn it off, then on to remove it from memory.

Yes, it's a pain...but it works and is the only solution I am aware of. Hopefully Apple will get around to fixing this bug soon.

Lew

Feb 25, 2009 10:42 AM in response to xtedx

One thing that might help out.

When the ipod is playing it has the function to pause when the headphones are disconnected, then resume when you plug the headphones back in.

Also, if you connect the headphones and roll the cable around the iphone to put in your pocket.
The mic button might inadvertently be pressed to resume playing.

Hope this helps.

Apr 2, 2009 8:21 PM in response to miketrin

unfortunately there is just no solution to this problem. what i do is only to insert the plug as fast as possible to prevent it from auto playing. i tried to create a 1 song on the go list but it didnt work, still playing from all songs instead of the playlist.
i dont know what would happen if the iphone have no songs to play at all though
i hope this is fixed in iphone 3.0 later

Apr 3, 2009 6:42 AM in response to xtedx

I have also had this problem, and from what I understand, here's the reason:

There are 4 sections to the headset cable plug, left audio, right audio, microphone and ground. The problem is when the microphone and ground contacts are momentarily touched, the iPhone detects this as if the user clicked the microphone button. The "Play song" command is run if you don't have a song playing, a "Resume playing song" command is run if you have a song paused, or a "Pause song" command is run if you are listening to a song.

I have had this happen with the Apple headphones and others that have a microphone. So far, this has not happened with regular headphones (ie no microphone).

The only solution I can think of that keeps using an already 'in use' design is to have 2 places to plug in headphones, 1 for the earbuds and 1 for the microphone. Sadly, this isn't really practical. However, I guess it would be possible to make a plug that is longer and use that area for the microphone, but it would require a lot of work that probably won't happen.

Or, better yet, make is so that to start/pause a song, you have to hold the mic button for 1 second or something. I think that would be awesome because it keeps the functionality without adding too much more work for the end user...

how to prevent iphone auto play songs when earphone plugged in.

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