Use Apple Earbud Headphones with Xbox One Controller Without the Buzzing Feedback Sound
The Apple Earbud headphones are pretty great for a free set of earphones, and the Xbox One is a great gaming console with a controller that allows Xbox players to plug a headphone set directly in to the wireless controller, so naturally it’s not surprising that some Xbox One players would like to use a set of Apple Earbuds with the Xbox One controller, right? If you have tried this yourself, you’ve likely noticed that it works, but you get a feedback buzzing hiss sound from Earbuds that makes it basically unusable.
Not to worry, there’s a solution to that buzzing sound problem! Enterprising YouTuber @NickRobinson has discovered a simple fix that allows the Apple earbud headphone set to be used with an Xbox One controller, minus the awful feedback hissing sound.
Fix the Buzzing Feedback Sound in Apple Earphones with Xbox Controller
The solution offered is as follows:
- Connect the Apple earbud headphones to the Xbox One controller as usual
- Double-press the Xbox button in the center of the Xbox One controller and go to gear icon to access “Settings” for the headphone set
- Toggle “Headset Mic” option to be OFF, then go down to “Mic Monitoring” and turn that setting all the way down (slider all the way to the left)
- Exit out of Xbox One settings and enjoy your game play with audio in the Apple headphones, minus the dreadful feedback hissing sound
The YouTube video is provided below for easy viewing:
According to Polygon, this is necessary to fix the buzzing feedback sound because Apple designed their 3.5mm plugs a bit differently:
“while most 3.5mm headsets use the tip, first ring, second ring and sleeve of the jack for the left ear, right ear, microphone and electrical grounding, respectively, Apple’s headsets actually swap the grounding and microphone, resulting in that awful static sound you hear when mic monitoring is enabled.”
By the way, if anyone has figured out how to make this work when the Xbox One controller is connected to a Mac, then do share it with us in the comments.
Curiously, if you have a PS4 controller setup with Mac OS X, you can just plug the headphones right in to that controller and they seem to work fine without any feedback issues.
Anyway, thanks to @icrizzo for the heads up about this headphone trick.
It worked great thank you so much
Does this work with the adapter, because I can’t get the settings to come up
I’ve found if you plug a headphone splitter into the controller the EarPods don’t buzz.
Works great! Thanks!
I’m wondering wouldn’t it be really easy to just make an adapter for this yourself.
Basically all you need to do is switch the 2 poles up. So you take a female 4 pole 3.5mm jack and a male 4 pole 3.mm jack.
You connect the bottom pole from the female connector to the second pole from the bottom of the male connector.
You connect the second pole from the bottom of the female connector to the bottom pole of the male connector.
Plug your iphone buds into the female connector the male connector into your xbox controller and it should technically work.
I haven’t tested this out yet but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work really
Same here with Antonio it won’t appear for me, can someone help me on that?
I would like to know how to talk Ina party with my friends instead of hearing the game any suggestions?
Yes, I plugged in the Apple Earpods in before I scrolled down to the gear icon, but the settings doesn’t show up. How do I fix that?
This is awfully misleading. People come here wanting to use the iPhone headphones as a MIC and a headset, this only makes it so you can hear, not talk.
This works exactly as described to use the Earbud headphones the white earphones from iPhone to plug in to an Xbox controller, works perfect.
Still doesn’t help, it doesn’t take much to find that out on your own. My question is there a way to fix it, to be able to be use a microphone.
That what I want to know too. I will sell my JBL J55i because I can`t use mic in Xbox One Control.
nice one, but do u have a hint how to set it up with an ps4 controller ?
thx
Yes you can connect a PS4 controller to Mac easily:
https://osxdaily.com/2015/03/18/connect-playstation-4-controller-mac/
You can plug the earbuds or headphones directly into the 3.5mm port on the PS4 controller too, sound comes through it fine.
Mixing MS kit with Apple kit? Isn’t this sacrilegious or something?
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmzuRXLzqKk
This works even without the setting switch just turn mic monitoring down all the way is enough to stop feedback hiss
If you don’t turn the mic off everyone else will hear a buzzing sound except for you.