iPadOS 14.5 Audio Skipping and Glitching

So, here's something interesting: I replied earlier to say that I've been having the same problems when using the USB-C to 3.5mm adapter and my wired ear buds. But today, I've been using a USB-C to USB 2 adapter with an external digital audio converter (an Apogee Duet), and I haven't had the glitching. ...I do have two of the USB-C to 3.5mm adapters, though, so either they all are bad, or there's some other issue.

Well - I am using a simple USB-C to USB-2.0 into a USB Hub and my audio application, Ecamm Live, which used to recognize my iPad Air-4 and play both sound and video perfectly, now has glitches - this ONLY has happened after iOS 14.6. So it is more than the "dongle" DAC interface... Why it works w some DAC's? Do not know - but I am NOT using ANY dongle - just a cable... and the glitches show up in other apps trying to connect to my iPad Air-4.

[Edited by Moderator]

Just chiming in to say this is happening to me too, with a 2nd gen iPad Pro 12.9". This iPad has the older Lightning connector, and I use Apple's official camera kit dongle to connect to a USB ASIO audio device. As another person mentioned, this bug existed a year or two ago too, and then an update fixed it, but now it's back with a vengeance. This is the worst it's ever been for me with iPadOS 14.6, and it's made it impossible for me to record anything via my external audio devices now because they get filled with crackles. Unplugging and re-plugging temporarily makes it go away, but it quickly comes back and gets worse, like something is out of sync at the driver level.

I solved this problem by simply taking out the usb part that plugs into my iPad Pro directly. Just unplug your headphones and put them back in and the problem should be solved. If not, I recommend getting it checked out.

Also having this issue and am 100% confident it is OS related. Never happened before iPadOS14.5

Curiously it is not a system-wide glitch. I get the glitch in Youtube & Safari but when I am audio editing in Ferrite Pro there is absolutely no issue.

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.

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.

I have what may be a related problem. I have a book synced from my iPhone to my watch and use airpods.

For some reason it's gone totally bonkers after the update.

If the phone and watch are out of B.T./WIFI range everything is fine. But otherwise it cuts out all the time. Worse sometimes is that If I stop audible playing on my watch it immediately starts on the phone and vice versa. Sometimes it just refuses to stop playing - Killing the app mysteriously doesn't work and I have to power down my phone.

Just to add salt to the wound, sometimes it'll start playing in another room where I can't here it and "finish the book" on my behalf.

It's hard to pin down the problem as there's 2 audible apps, 3 operating systems (including the airpods) and 3 B.T. stacks all shouting at each other and everything with it's own settings.

When I go for a run and want to listen to a book now the routine is:

1. Power down iPhone
2. Start audible on my watch
3. Leave the house

So the same happens to my iPad Pro 2020. For today I have an appointment at the genius bar in Centro Oberhausen Germany. I have had a contact with the support, but they did not find any issue in software and hardware logs. They send me to the technician apple experts to prove if there is any hardware issue at the USB-C port or headphone adapter.

I believe that is an OS issue, that starts with IOS 14.5 and won't be saved with 14.6.

The funny thing is that i have this issue only on my iPad Pro 11 (2020). On my iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) with IOS 14.6 it seems to be OK.

So I am curious to hear what they will tell me today and I am angry about the situation, that they don't tell us that they are working on this issue. It costs my time and my assets to get support from apple.

My expectation is ...they are not able to solve the problem today ... but may they surprise me.

One way to get Apple to take notice is to inform App makers about the problem. Leave reviews for Spotify, YouTube etc. on the App Store explaining that their app is seriously compromised by Apple products at the moment. Or contact app makers directly, if that’s possible.

This happens with my M1 iPad Pro 11 inch too, I found a fix where you can initiate siri using power button and wait for siri to say something and the problem disappears i go back to app that I was playing media on, rarely if it doesn't I do that siri thing another time then it works

Same here as well. We're developing an audio app and as you can imagine this issue is causing nightmares. As techtonic specifies it's occurring more evidently with an external interface via usb, temp fix is to unplug/replug it, and then after a few minutes it's back. This is a huge risk for a professional audio application and renders it non usable. we've tried changing sample rates and buffer sizes and still no luck. I've testing on an ipad using ios 14.0.1 and no issue. Only on the one using ios 14.6. The sound itself starts with a small amount of clicking, then goes into a super trashy sound, but it sounds like the original sound is still there, only making a duplicate of the original with the trash sound that is slightly delayed. You can hear the latency when you pause the audio and the trashy sound is slightly behind. We really hope this is looked into as other audio apps seem to be suffering from the same.

I am on version 15.0 and the audio is still glitching bad. I am using an external DAC connected to USB-C and whole sections of audio are being skipped. There is no issues with either the DAC or the headphones since they work perfectly when plugged to an Android Device or the PC. None of those early patches have fixed this issue.

Hey Guys,

I’ve used this link to report the issue to Apple iPad team:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Not sure this works.

Good to try.