It’s the industry standard size. My BlackBerry Tour, along with every other recent BlackbBerry model, has a 3.5-inch headphone jack. It’s the same as the ones you’ll find on basically all gadgets that have a headphone input. Yet something is odd with my Tour’s. Actually, it’s two things that are odd. I checked some support threads, but found little of use. These two problems just keep recurring. Thankfully it’s something that I can avoid in most cases. But that doesn’t get RIM off the hook for releasing devices that have these issues. 
The first issue involves plug size. For some reason, some plugs listed at 3.5″ just don’t fit into the jack. I can’t even begin to express how frustrating this can be. This happened twice when it made me really upset. First was when I wanted to hook up my Pandora to a stereo that had a 3.5″ input. The other was when I bought a tape adapter for my girlfriend’s car. In both cases the plug was simply too big for the jack, despite both of them being listed at the same size. In both instances I inserted the plug into my iPod without issue. The other problem seems to occur only with certain headphones. I first noticed it with my Nexus One headphones. I’m not sure what physically or electrically happens, but the result is the headphones going in and out, with the sound pumping through the device speaker instead. This can be quite embarrassing if you’re on, say, a bus and you don’t notice that the sound is coming out of the speaker. The first time it happened everyone around me got intermittent bursts of Joe Strummer. I’ve been told to use a pencil eraser to try and clean the connectors, or to push them down with a paperclip. Neither has yielded results. I basically can’t use those headphones with my Tour. I have to use my Sonys. My question is of whether this issue exists on other devices. Do you have issues with your headphone jack? I’d love to hear the stories you have of when you realized it.
24 comments… read them below or add one
Perphaps you need to replace the headphone jack of your phone, we see alot of this problems in our store
I get the cutting in and out problem on my Curve 8330 with the standard BlackBerry head phones. I haven’t tried another set, so don’t know if the problem stems from the phones or the device.
I can tell you that the cause is when your Berry is jolted, such as when you go over a bump on the road. I don’t get it if I’m just out walking.
I had hoped the problem was only with the Curve 83xx series. Based on your post, I guess it happens to all Berries.
No issues with the jack, but the supplied headphones (Bold 9700) seem to have a limited lifetime. I ma on my third, typically the rubber strengthening by the jack gives up and the wires break.
I have the same issue with my Torch. I have one set of ear buds that fit. I also bought the tape cassette car adapter thing and had the exact same problem. I have not tried my wireless house speakers yet, but i’m sure the result will be the same.
I have the opposite problem on my Storm2 sometimes, while wanting to listen through the speaker it will change to the headphones, even though nothing is plugged in. I’m thinking it’s time to go get it replaced.
I haven’t experienced the issue with different plugs not fitting into my 9700 jack, but the one time I tried I couldn’t get the sound to go to the speakers I was trying to plug into, even though it was the proper size- like it did not know anything was plugged in.
The other issue is after I take out my BB headphones and say I get or try to make a call, the phone will quickly cut between the speaker and headphones, and I have to hang up and try again. It is probably the most annoying bug on my phone
I have the same storm2 issue, isometime when I want to use the speaker with videos it changes to headphones. It only happens with videos (media, sd card, youtube…) , with music or ringtones it never happens :S
I’ve had this same issue when using my iPhone headphones with my 9700.
I’m thinking of buying a Blackberry Tour for emailing. Luckily I see your post and seems like it has the problem obviously. I will look for another model then. Thanks for sharing.
I got a 9700 and the only problem i have had is using my fm transmitter. When i go around corners the right side speekers stop. this only happens when i am using my blackberry for music.
I’ve had issues w/ my 9000 – using headphones (non-BB) and connecting via a line-in 3.5″ cable to my stereo – where I have to “jiggle the cable” in order for it to output properly (through the jack, that is, and not from the external speaker).
Frustrating: yes.
On my old Tour what I noticed was that the mechanism that provides pressure to the jack when inserted can sometimes clamp on release which requires the user to “force” the jack in to unclamp it. This happened to me a handful of times and was easily “fixed” by just applying a light but firm pressure to insert the jack.
I have also noticed that the impedance for the jack seems to be slightly different than for most media devices. This can sometimes cause issues with tape adapters and other similar devices. Given that the headphone amp quality on the Tour and even my ooold Pearl is very high (I feel it’s better than any of Apple’s offerings) I don’t mind this.
I do wish that there was a way to disable the headphone amp though to be able to use it as a line-out. That would be a nice feature, until at least RIM starts offering micro-HDMI…
My Blackberry curve has a similar problem, I plugged the earphones in now the speaker jumps from earphones to speaker all the time, I cannot hear it properly without having to keep the earphones in. Does anyone know how to fix this?
@Charl Try plugging and unplugging the earphones forcefully – this is the standard fix for your issue.
I have the exact same issue with my Blackberry 9000. It happened on the train this morning, and I thought I’d look around to see if others were having the same issue. I had an iPhone before this and never had this kind of problem with the iPhone. It’s hard to believe that an otherwise solid and reliable phone like the Blackberry has such an annoying issue.
I just bought a new torch 9800 and have the same problem with my Sony headphones. My headphones always worked on any other device, but won’t fit the 3.5mm jack on this phone. The plug will only go in far enough for the right side audio to come in. Personall I think this is unacceptable and BB should have corrected this a few models ago!
JUST PUSH AND TURN IT!
IT WORKED FOR ME :D
My blackberry storm 2 used to work perfectly with my Sony headphones until I took it to a verizon store to “fix it” from some other problems and a new problem resulted: cant hear anything out of my headphones instead the speaker turns on!!
What can i do?
Ihave tried to replace the blackberry curve headphones, but no jacks seem to fit as the ones provided are 3 tier and the others are 2 tier. I find that the ear pieces drop out of my ears as they are not a good fit. Has anyone any good replacement ideas.
On my windows phone I had this problem but just put the plug in the slot has hard as possible and it should work
Guys I jst bought a blackberry torch,m havin a problm wit da headphones,when I use my blckberry headset on my torch only 1 ear phone works bt I use da same headphones on a dfrnt phone both them wrk,I dnt no werda its da prblm wit da software,pls help reli frustrated.
I have a blackberry curve 9360 I used the headphones it came with it worked in the beginning and then after only one side was working and now whenever I plug it in it does not work at all. I have noticed that anything I put into the jack fro sound does not work.. What am I to do? Help?
My blackberry bold 9700 has bn giving problems with headphone jack, every time I plug in the head phones it detects and later stops detecting continuously. What might be the problem and should I do?
I’m having the exact same problem with my curve, tried twisting it and everything but its still not working. Can someone please tell me how to fix it and give better ways to do it! Ha! Thanks