iPhone AUX jack problem

[ChaseA17]

So here is my problem: I have an auxillary jack in my Ford Explorer that is the double-ended headphone jack (or whatever it is called) and occasionally when I plug in my iPhone to play music through the speakers of the car, it will put the track into fast-forward and/or pause/play the music at random. I never have this problem wearing regular headphones or listening to music via the phone's regular speakers.

Anyone have experience with this or advice on how to fix this?

Thank you very much.

 

[NathanA]

Hmm. The headphone jack on an iPhone/iPod Touch can accept a three-ring plug where the extra contact point is used for input from the headphones to the phone, instead of the other way around. It's used for headphones that have a microphone and/or a remote control on them, and it is how it is able to listen to the signals from the mic and/or remote.

Does this random occurrence only happen at the moment that you plug the car input into the headphone jack, or can it happen at any point while you are listening to music from the phone? Sounds like for some reason the phone is interpreting something that it is "seeing" from the car as remote control inputs. If it only happens at the moment you plug in, it's probably nothing to worry about...the iPhone is probably seeing something short or discharge briefly in the jack (static build-up, maybe?) and thinks, based on the characteristics of whatever it sees, that you hit the pause or track-next or whatever button on the non-existent "remote" on your "headphones."

If it is happening randomly during the course of your ride, that is a bit more worrying, since it suggests that there could be some power coming from the stereo over the input wire to the phone, which there shouldn't be. Does the mini-plug on the end of the input cable have 2 black rings going around it, or 3?

-- Nathan

 

[ChaseA17]

Hmm. The headphone jack on an iPhone/iPod Touch can accept a three-ring plug where the extra contact point is used for input from the headphones to the phone, instead of the other way around. It's used for headphones that have a microphone and/or a remote control on them, and it is how it is able to listen to the signals from the mic and/or remote.

Does this random occurrence only happen at the moment that you plug the car input into the headphone jack, or can it happen at any point while you are listening to music from the phone? Sounds like for some reason the phone is interpreting something that it is "seeing" from the car as remote control inputs. If it only happens at the moment you plug in, it's probably nothing to worry about...the iPhone is probably seeing something short or discharge briefly in the jack (static build-up, maybe?) and thinks, based on the characteristics of whatever it sees, that you hit the pause or track-next or whatever button on the non-existent "remote" on your "headphones."

If it is happening randomly during the course of your ride, that is a bit more worrying, since it suggests that there could be some power coming from the stereo over the input wire to the phone, which there shouldn't be. Does the mini-plug on the end of the input cable have 2 black rings going around it, or 3?

-- Nathan

Thanks for the response!

It happens at random unfortunatey. I will check how many rings it has and get back to you.