Apple iPad Pro M1 USB-C to 3.5mm earbud (headphone) adaptor volume control shoots to full volume.

The iPad Pro M1 is a stunning leap forward, IMO, and I am sure issues will be ironed out - this problem is actually an ear-splitting one, and is simply that a proper, Apple set of earbuds, bought through Apple, but with a 3.5mm end to it (4-part), cannot increment the volume up or down.

The buttons on the edge of iPad Pro M1 work as expected, depress one click and the volume increments a tenth or 20th or something, up to max or down to min, if you want. You click a few increments, and the volume slider icon that appears on-screen at the top edge, nudges a little in the direction you send it.

Unfortunately, the earbuds that work fine on my iPhone SE (old one, 1st gen), and on my iPad Pro 2, incrementing the volume up or down using the switch on the earbud cable, do not work like this on the iPad Pro M1.

Instead - and this is a health issue - clicking one end or the other of the volume adjusting ‘rocker’ switch on the earbud cable, sends the volume soaring to the max, or racing to the minimum volume level…and it also makes whatever Apple music song was selected earlier, burst into life, once the extreme volume is arrived at, almost instantly emitting a deafening volume level, or no volume, depending.

So, that’s using Apple’s little adaptor/adapter, usb-c to 3.5mm. The user can halt the crazy race to full or zero volume invoked by using the earbud cable rocker switch, by very rapidly pressing the middle of the rocker switch right after trying to adjust the volume. This, halts the race to max or min volume, but it’s not a workable solution. I still ended up with some ear-splitting accidents!

Ok, so now I tried the Baseus corner-usb-c hub thingy, not cheap. The quality of the sound is excellent incidentally, from both the baseus 3.5mm jack socket, or plugging the old 3.5mm earbuds into the Apple usb-c to 3.5mm adaptor first THEN plugging the usb-c end of that combo into the usb-c of the Baseus hub.

Also the audio is excellent, from plugging the earbuds into the Apple usb-c to 3.5mm adaptor, then into the iPad Pro M1. There’s no arguing that it’s better than the old ipad Pro 2 out of the earbud 3.5mm socket that’s built-in. I thought that was good quality until I heard this new setup, but I need to do a proper A-B listening test, I still have the Pro 2 for the moment.

So that’s it - I tried slowly pushing the 3.5mm jackplug into the Apple usb-c/3.5mm adapter, something weird happened, iPad didn’t take to that (read it on the community here, solved another different issue).

I tried plugging the earbuds into the adapter THEN plugging the combo into the ipad Pro M1 direct, and into the Baseus hub, no change, volume still races instead of controllable incremental step-changes.

Tried plugging the adapter in FIRST to the ipad or the Baseus hub, nope, same racing volume problem as soon as you tap the rocker switch on the earbud cable, either to go up or down.

Ideas? Seems possibly software-ish? I am open to suggestions. I switched the ipad off and on again, a few times, having just set it up as a clone of the old Pro 2. I have been through a lot of the ‘settings’ and nothing jumps out there.

Anyway, it’s a great device for music creation, which is why I was prepared to invest so much in it, an act of faith really because a lot of ‘influencers’ bought a Mac Mini instead. This won’t make me do that, but it is literally, painfully inconvenient to have to use the ipad buttons all the time - that crippling claw-hand action to take a screenshot, is bad enough!

…and for an unwieldy thing, the camera shots are solid quality too, as this pic just taken of the bits and pieces involved, to show the bits are pukka, proves. Cannot think of any other relevant details. There’s loads of space on the SSD because at 2Tb patently just having cloned the new ipad Pro M1 from an older ipad Pro 2, with only 512Gb, it’s a non-issue.

This is not going to dent my enthusiasm much, but the earbuds are kind of important, I don’t have monitor speakers as such. Plus, late-night music creation has to be dB-aware, as it were. We can’t all have an isolated farmhouse and a special outbuilding studio like Peter Gabriel !

Take care, and thanks for any assist.

irm/rg