When headphones mysteriously change the volume by themselves

Posted by TechDude1701@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 28 comments

Another story from a few years ago. A coworker had some funny behavior of her headphones. They would randomly change the volume between normal, low or completely quiet. It happened every time she put then on of off her head.

I was looking at them, trying them on, thinking maybe it was something with the mic boom changing angle and a hidden switch inside or something like that.

At one moment I was sitting right beside her, watching when she was putting them on. And the I saw it!

You know how you usually put those over-the-ear headphones on? You grab them with both hands - one hand on each side, thumb on the backside and other fingers on the front. Well... right where you put the right thumb was the volume control. Who made that design decision?

I was remembered recently, because it happened again to her that she could not hear anything. We then both remembered that story.

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spin81@reddit

You know what, I believe every word of that story. You know why? Because I've got the same issue on the headphones I'm wearing right now, except on the left.

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dunno0019@reddit

Mine is my cheap ass earbuds.

Like, there is no way to touch them at all without activating the touch controls. One touch being pause.

So I'm forever taking them out of my ears, only to notice music or voices or whatever coming out of them 10mins later. Because they unpaused as I handled them.

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blockCoder2021@reddit

I have some somewhat like that. Try grabbing them by the side, or if they have a stem, grab the stem if you can. When putting the earbud in firmly, it might be possible to push it in by the button and simultaneously press it into your ear and unpause it.

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darkage_raven@reddit

I know of something similar. We had an issue with a person every time she went to type her screen would turn off. On some laptops there is a magnet catch on the screen, when it is catching the one on the body it completes a circuit and turns off the screen. She had a fitbit with a magnet catch on her wrist. When she went to type it would complete the circuit and turn the screen off.

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GayNerd28@reddit

I know someone who had this problem intermittently, and it turned out whenever they wore their apple watch that was enough to complete the circuit.

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photonsnphonons@reddit

That's one for the books. Neat deduction.

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Geminii27@reddit

It's surprising how often that one turns up on this sub.

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IJustAteABaguette@reddit

Same here!

It's a really convenient place to put a volume wheel thing since it's really accessible, but you have to be careful when putting them on.

More than once have I accidentally fully turned up the audio when putting them on, and they can be really loud. (Like, they could be mistaken for medium-quiet speakers)

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TechDude1701@reddit (OP)

Oh, you had me thinking for a moment, and if was also the left side in our case. Corrected the story.

syntaxerror53@reddit

Remember a similar one.

Connected a Wireless (dongle not BT) Keyboard and Mouse to desktop.

Just couldn't get the mouse to connect, keyboard fine. Changed Batteries as well. No difference. Batteries tested in another Mouse, working fine.

Got another set and and on unpacking noticed very small On/Off switch on bottom of mouse. Very obscure and easily missed.

Checked the first one and sure enough, switch.

Switched on and all fine.

Remembered that one for future reference.

JRE_Electronics@reddit

My mother-in-law does that with her hearing aids. The volume controls are pushbottons on the back of the behind ear hearing aids. Everytime she puts them on, she randomly changes the volume. The hearing aids make a beep to let you know how loud they are, but she can't hear it because she puts the aids behind her ears first then puts the in-ear part in. She also doesn't really understand up/down buttons for volume control. She's stuck in about 1970 with volume control knobs, and just doesn't get buttons.

Everytime I visit, I reset the volume to the mid-range (there's a special beep for that level.) She's so happy she can hear again without feedback squeals - then the next time she puts them in it is all gone.

Rathmun@reddit

Get some moldable epoxy and put a protective ridge around the buttons so you need a pen-tip or similar to press them.

DuneChild@reddit

I nearly got jump-scared off a ladder a couple of times when my Apple Watch cranked the volume as I reached into a ceiling to run some wires.

BushcraftHatchet@reddit

Got a pair that has the volume control in the wire running to computer. Sometimes when I move my chair it turns the wheel and turns down my volume.

TheTT@reddit

My headset sometimes just stops the music from playing, as if I had pushed a pause button. Still no idea what causes it, or how to disable it.

frenat@reddit

My headset at work pauses whatever is playing when I lift it off my head. sometimes even if only one ear.

My earphone story was for my 80yo aunt. She'd asked me to come set up Skype so she could talk to her sons around the world.

Best part was: she'd already installed it just fine. She was already to go.

She just didn't have her sons' usernames to connect to.

Anyways, we get the closest/same time zone son on the phone. We get connected to him thru Skype.

Except he can't here us. We are hearing him fairly well, thru Skype. But he can only hear us because we are still on the phone.

So we both poke and prod at all our sound settings. And I was poking and prodding at all my aunts wires and checking connections.

Until like 20mins in and he waves his daughter's headset at us. Unplugs it and huzzah! We could hear each other perfectly.

Then he gives us a sheepish: "I was the one who told her to use these last night when she got too loud on her game."

krennvonsalzburg@reddit

My current set threw me off for a different knob-related reason.

The left has the main volume knob. The right swings the balance between the two devices that the headset acts as; one is for voice, the other is for general sounds, so you can turn down the game while leaving discord audible or vice versa.

Didn't know it did that at first and bumped it one day to be fully "game sound", spent a good five minutes messing around in Discord before I realized it.

It's a great feature when you know it's there, though.

McMammoth@reddit

for a different knob-related reason

teehee

TheTrulyEpic@reddit

Hey, those wouldn’t happen to be the Steelseries ones, would it? I had a set of those when I worked helpdesk, and that feature had me stumped for days lol. I left them in a drawer for a while because I thought they were broken.

Yep, they are indeed, Steelseries Arctis 7's. Decent enough but for the battery, both in terms of how long it lasts on a charge and how long before you need to replace the battery, which is a solder job rather than a simple swap.

Strazdas1@reddit

Volume control on my headphones are in same place but its never been an issue. you need to apply significant pressure for the button to register a press. more than you usually use to put them on.

syneofeternity@reddit

Tbh that happens to me too

Yep. I've had headphones exactly like that, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on. The volume dial was small, discreet, and the exact same color plastic as the rest of the headphones, with no label of any kind - great for looking fancy, not so great for figuring out why 'maximum volume' settings were playing at the level of a mouse squeak, if that.