Sound out of one speaker only

I think it's probably a damaged audio jack. If you're still in warranty, get it off to Apple. If not, you've got 3 choices;

1. Attempt to fix it yourself. I managed to get stereo again by opening the ipod up and inserting a staple in the bottom of the jack, to fit between the headphone and the ipod's audio input. This took some fiddling around, using tweezers, and will probably not last long if I take it out somewhere. I might attempt removing the audio jack and seeing if I can bend the metal connects for the right audio channel so they touch the headphone cable again. An alternative to this method would be to put some cardboard in the audio jack socket and adjusting it so that it brings the hardphones back into contact. Someone did this and posted the results on their blog, but I forgot the URL...

2. Buy a new audio jack and replace it yourself. There's an ipod repair wiki out there, and several of the replacement jack suppliers have detailed instructions. It's about 40 UK pounds for the replacement though....

3. Get someone to repair it. Expensive, about 60 quid, but perhaps worth it if you're scared of further damaging your precious beast.


Note though that there have also been issues with software updates and audio output, search the apple discussion boards for more details...

Short of actually repairing it, you can pick up a mono to stereo adapter for a couple a bucks at Radio Shack...

In diagnosing, I noticed that the damaged speaker side would give sound if the headphones were held a certain way. So,I jammed in a couple of short stands of speaker wire to make up for the slack. It worked immediately. My father taught me this trick in another context. Thanks dad.

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One workaround (not cheap) is to buy the iPod Radio Remote, which plugs into the dock connector and provides another headphone jack. (However, this makes your headphone cord really long, and while this solution worked for me for a few months, now the Radio Remote itself seems to be broken in the same way.)

Read take some cotton off a Q-tip....dip in alcohol wring off most alcohol then clean inside....blow in the holeto dry the rest....it helped mine....didnt fix all the way though

The cotton solution above is a waste of time I´m affraid. The reason you headphones are cutting out is due to mechanical wear of the jack.

ipod audio repair
http://www.ipodrefresh.com

Sounds like a bad port (as mentioned here)

ipod headphone repair
http://www.ipodrefresh.com

Happened to me too. I only get sound out of one earphone, unless I hold the part that goes into the jack in a certain way. Lame indeed. I guess I'll be dealing with Apple now.

I actually tried the cotton solution (dipping a mostly stripped QTip into alcohol and swabbing the jack, then allowing to dry). So far it has worked. Why not give it a shot? The question becomes, what are you willing to try before dropping some serious cash on sending your iPod to a repair person?

I am having the same problem, sound from left speaker only, but right bass working, problem occuring in several devices that I connect to. Figured I might as well try I different output cable from my iPod, and problem solved. My initial cable (non working) had one black ring on the pin .. my cable that works has two black rings (apologize, I am not a techy so do not know the lingo).