iPadOS 14.5 Audio Skipping and Glitching

Yes - I have the identical issue - tried multiple USB-C to audio adapters, multiple pairs of headphones. Had Jump+ reinstall the iOS and then even gave me a replacement iPad Air 4 as a phase 2 troubleshooting effort. I did not restore from any previous iPad backup...just kept it "plain" as possible. Issue continues. Upgraded to iOS 14.6 but that did not help either - in fact it seems more pervasive an issue now, under 14.6. I opened a second support chat with Apple last night and provided all previous efforts and info. Remote diagnostics does not show any hardware issues. I asked/hoped they can pass on this info to their Tier 2 apple support. As others have said, it's quite clearly an audio driver issue that was introduced from 14.5 onwards. Hopefully 14.7 or some 14.6.x release solves this issue. It's highly annoying!

Hey, ive had the exact same issue and yea I can confirm its only for iPad and since I have a iPad Air 2 and a Pro and they both have this issue and on a mac and phone it is not there, to avoid it just close and delete the window and close the iPad. If that does not work reset the iPad.

I’m glad i see others with this issue and its not just me.

Are we all on the 4th-gen iPad? Seems to be our common ground here. I saw someone on another forum say they had this problem on their iPad Pro.

I also used to have this problem on my iPhone XS running iOS 14.5, but 14.6 fixed it for my iPhone.

Same issue. Wired headphones with the apple usb c dongle. I notice when i start opening multiple windows or going to other windows my spotify and youtube starts glitching. Every 2 seconds the audio blips out and skips for a millisecond. Its the new 3rd gen 11” ipad pro. Update 14.6 didn’t fix it either....

I have the M1 iPad Pro 2021 12.9” and I’m having this issue. I have the USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. It only happens when I pause YouTube then resume. I get the dodgy audio like it’s skipping.

If I detach the adapter and reattach it, it will then be fine again. Very annoying and definitely needs fixing!

Must be OS related given that it’s happening on different devices.

Just wanted to contribute to the case as I am having the same problem. I have iPad Air 4 and I had audio and keyboard problems with bluetooth connection so as a solution I bought the USB-C Headphone Jack adapter. I had hoped that this will solve the connection issues I had with bluetooth. However now I am having the same problem as you guys are having, the audio works fine for a while and then it starts skipping every other second like its a scratched CD. I used different headphones with the same issue. This becomes very frustrating now as it seems its impossible to use my iPad as I was expecting. Apple needs to address these issues first before they work on spatial or lossless audio.

Hi! I have the same issue as everyone in the thread is describing. I have an 11" Ipad Pro (2021 - M1) and I get a glichting sound at a constant intervall when connected with headphones using a usb-c to 3.5 mm dongle. It also sometimes looks as if the video and sound is out of sync. Taking out the dongle and inserting it again usually solves the issue, but it is annoying having to do that all the time. I have mostly used headphones so far and I do not yet know if this also happens using the internal speakers.

I first thought it was wrong with my Ipad, but it seems to be a common issue, hopefully software related which Apple can fix with an update. Has Apple yet confirmed that this is an issue??

I started having the same issue on my air 4 after upgrading to 14.5, 14.6 does not solve the problem.

When using the official apple headphone to usb c adapter, after a random amount of time, usually 5 minutes or so, the audio from every app stutters and glitches every 3 seconds or so, like it’s momentarily repeating whats in the buffer for about half a second.

I make music, this not only makes creating music impossible, but also enjoying Spotify, YouTube, any audio in Safari etc…

This can be fixed temporarily by unplugging the USB adapter (annoying everyone in the room at the time) and plugging it back in….. until it happens again, 5 minutes later.

I have a collection of at least 7 forums where this is actively being discussed/complained about, apple, please at the least acknowledge this issue.

Hello,

Just jumping in to say that I have encountered similar problems.

As most people in this thread I am convinced that it must be an iPadOS problem since it for most people started after version 14.5. Now I am on iPadOS 14.6.

The way I detected it was that all the different guitar amp simulators that I use for recording on my iPad Mini (5th gen) started to behave strange with weak and delayed sound, crackling and unwanted distortion. First I thought it might be app-related as I focused on the ones I use most frequently but I soon discovered that all have the same problem

The amp sims that I use are Bias AMP 2, Bias FX 2, AmpliTube, Overloud THU, GE Labs, Mobile POD and the one integrated in GarageBand for iOS and I have tried them all

First I thought it was a sound card or a lightning port problem. I tried the two different sound cards that I have (an Apogee Jam and a PreSonus AudioBox iOne) and with basically the same result. Even if it is possible I do not hold it likely that both will break down at the same time.

I did a quick test and recorded a Voice memo with my old Apple earphones. That seems to work. The built-in microphones on the iPad Mini is also working as expected.

Best regards

Anders

This problem is being actively discussed across many forums, I’ve avoided posting links to these as I expect this will probably violate terms or conditions or something.

There are numerous threads about this on Reddit, Mac rumours, Twitter (a good set of links on piunikaweb)

Over at Audiobus forums, there’s a load of us moaning about this issue including a comment from the developer of some really popular music making apps saying it’s causing a ton of headaches with support requests and having to issue refunds to customers who think it’s their apps.

This problem is not just affecting our enjoyment of using iPad, it’s also problem for developers who make a living writing apps.

I also notice the view count for this fairly small thread is now well over 1000 now, clearly people are dropping in from a google search or whatever to find an answer to this ongoing problem.

Adding my voice of discontent. Same issue, new (couple months old) iPad Air 4th gen, latest OS. Same problems, scratchy cd skipping type issue going on. Doesn’t matter if it’s wired or wireless headphones. Happening with all audio, YouTube, music etc. It wasn’t there before I did the last software update, I’m watching YouTube for hours every night due to a sleep problem so I really would have noticed.

i will also raise this with support in the morning. It’s an awful bug, I cannot believe they don’t know about it or can’t reproduce it.

Yep, same issue here. I have an iPad Pro 2018, and get glitchy audio since the iPadOS upgrade 14.5. I noticed it immediately after the upgrade. Subsequent upgrades have not resolved the issue. Please help!

Wow, thanks for sharing. If that doesn't catch the attention of Apple I don't know what will. Having OS issues disrupt businesses and their customer's app experiences and purchases should be a huge red flag and incentive for Apple to resolve this asap.

I am in touch with an old friend who is a speech language pathologist and she said a few of her clients have switched to Microsoft surface devices as the audio Accessibility features have been completely compromised on their iPads for people who rely on the text to speech feature.

This iPad audio issue is unacceptable.

iPad Air 2020 producing an audio spike/glitch over USB digital out approx every 30 seconds. I am connecting the iPad Air to my Mac Pro via the USB-C connector. In the Ecamm video podcast application the iPad is a "source". The iPad audio plays fine (as Ecamm input source) but now glitches at semi random intervals of 30-45 seconds. A loud buzz or digital noise is heard every 30 seconds. This was not happening prior to the latest IOS update. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP!!!!

Hello!

The same problem happens with my new M1 11 inch ipad pro. I have tried two apple adapters and both fail with different headphones. They work at first, but after a while there is interference and sound cuts. The sound in the videos also sounds out of step at times.

Fearing that it may be a hardware failure, I was thinking of returning the device because support does not confirm to me that it is a software issue.

I would like the manufacturer talk about these problems and say if they are looking for a solution.

Thank you all for sharing.