Why does my Samsung Galaxy A50 keep disconnecting from my headphones?

[ComputerWhiz]

I'm essentially trying to use my phone has a secondary screen so that I can watch YouTube videos while I game or do other things on my desktop computer. Since my PC doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity, I'm attempting to use a standard 3.5mm audio cable that plugs into my phone's headphone jack and my PC's microphone jack. Then I plug my headphones into my PC's headphone jack and use the Windows "Listen to this device" option to hear the audio through my computer.

It works perfectly... unless I pause the video. If I pause the video, the audio will go through my phone's speakers instead of the headphone jack. The only way to get it to go back is to unplug either end of the audio cable and plug it back in. Then, the audio is changed back to the way I want it.

I've tried this setup before with my older Samsung Galaxy S4 and it worked perfectly without this type of issue. My issue then was that the audio cable ran past something causing a lot of interference, so the audio had a lot of static noise and my audio cables then weren't great.

Figured I'd try this setup on my new Samsung Galaxy A50 running Android 9, but obviously it's not working 100%.

I'm just curious if maybe there's a setting that I'm missing somewhere or maybe there's something else that I'm doing wrong? Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[VidJunky]

Wow. To be honest I had a hard time following all of that and after reading it several times to connect the dots, or devices as the case may be, I wonder if the issue isn't the 3.5 audio cable. Is this the same cable that you used with the S7? I'm not overly familiar with the A50 but my thought is that the 3.5 cable you are using is an audio cable... 3 section audio cable vs a 4 section audio cable.

Ok, I guess the easiest thing to do is break it all down and see where and when the issue occurs.

Do your headphones have a mic? If they do the 3.5 plug should have 4 sections. Plug that into your phone start a video, pause and unpause it and see if you get the same result. Honestly it shouldn't matter to the phone since it's just pushing audio where it's pushing it to. The only difference at this point would be the connector.

If you can pause and unpause the video with headphones that have a 4 section plug and audio returns to the headphones, that's good it means we've found a difference. Next we just have to verify that this is the difference that matters.

Find a set of headphones that do not have a mic, they should have 3 a section plug, similar to your audio cable. Repeat the test.

If the audio did not return, you have your answer. If the audio did return try flipping your current audio cable. I know it sounds silly, and seemingly yes both ends should be the same, but there's a chance that this could make a difference.

Post back with your results.

 

[ComputerWhiz]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry if my post is hard to follow

Both ends of the audio cable are TRS. The audio cable is new. It's the Amazon Basics model, which actually shipped with another product I ordered for some reason. My headphones are also TRS and don't have a microphone.

I did a bit of experimenting with the cable and there are a few things I noticed. Firstly, it doesn't matter what way I put the cable in, it has issues either way. To get the audio to route back through my PC after pausing the video on my phone, I need to unplug and plug in the end connected to the PC's microphone jack. If I unplug and plug in the end in the phone's audio jack, it doesn't make the audio come back.

Also, I've noticed that when you pause the video, there is a small pop noise. If I start the video within a couple of seconds, the sound will continue routing through my PC. If I pause the video for longer than 3 seconds, there's a second pop noise. Then when I resume the video, it's routing through the phone's speakers.

Since the two pops are so consistently timed, it sounds like one of the devices (either my PC or phone) is timing out the audio cable after a few seconds.

 

[VidJunky]

I was joking but serious about keeping up. It was just keeping track of what audio was from what source and which output. Lol. Anyway since you mentioned that the cable was for another product, I'm still inclined to believe that it's the cable. New or not, not all cables are created equally.

I wish I could remember the product but I was having similar problems with an audio cable. Like you I had ordered or bought something that included a short cable but I needed one that was a little longer so I never used it. Down the road I had a situation where a short cable would work and I remembered the one I had. I couldn't get it to work until I tried flipping it. Then it mostly worked. What I found was the partitions of the plug were not a standard size. Standard size plugs worked in whatever I originally got and maybe this short cable would have too but in these other devices the difference was enough that one way it wouldn't work and the other way wasn't really right either.

Telling all that story reminded me what the device was. It was an FM broadcast device. And the reason it wasn't working right is because mic plugs are different than speaker plugs. Similar but not the same. I'll Google it here in a minute and post back as soon as I can...

 

[VidJunky]

https://youtu.be/rWTOXD9lVr4

Here's an article too... https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/04/headphone-jacks-plugs-explained/