I’ve been using the Fairphone 4 since the end of last year and have had consistent problems with using headphones connected to the USB-C port.
Since the official Fairphone dongle wasn’t available in Switzerland for a while, I first tried with a Samsung dongle. That worked for a while, but quickly the problem arose that at the slightest touch, music playback would pause or the phone would stop registering the headphones and start playing over loudspeakers.
I then moved on to fully USB-C Samsung headphones. This worked for a while too, but then the same loose connection problem appeared, where at the slightest touch playback stopped.
At this point the Fairphone dongle was available. Again, worked for a while, but then it just broke completely after a few weeks.
Should be said that the Samsung dongle and the USB-C Samsung headphones worked and still work without any problems whatsoever on a 6 year old LG V20.
Now I am wondering, is this just an issue with my particular USB-C port and should I try and replace it, or is this a more known issue with Fairphone 4 in general? Has anybody else had this problem?
Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about your problem. But I have a few questions myself:
Why and how did the Fairphone adapter break? It looks very stable and durable in the photos. I actually wanted to buy it soon now.
Was the sound quality good with the Fairphone adapter? Do the buttons on the headphone cable for louder, quieter, stop, pause work with it?
Thank you Amoun. I did have a look at the USB Port and tried the old take it out and put it back in trick. However, that seems to have changed little. I think I’ll follow your advice and get in touch with Fairphone support directly.
@LibrePhoner The adapter is actually pretty sturdy, if a bit heavy and unwieldy, and the sound quality was good. Used the same headphones I had used with my old phone through a 3.5mm jack and heard no difference.
I had little complaints for the first few weeks but then suddenly developed a loose contact issue where, on touching the dongle, the audio would start to fizzle out or stop completely. I had been using it as I would normal headphones, just with the phone in my pockets walking around. Have to say, I am not a fan at all of this new solution of not having a 3.5mm jack anymore.
Seemingly it is a topic getting phones connected via USB-C cable. I thought I had a grip on Fairphone’s philosophy as I did not order the FP USB-adapter but continued to use my Huawei adapter to connect cablebound headphones. But this didn’t work - whatever I did, music played from the phone’s loudspeakers but not over the headphone.
This sure is not a solution for everyone, but I bought Bluetooth headphones (Teufel Real Blue NC), and this works fine.
Yeah, in the end this might just be the solution. Which is a shame because I do like to have the option of using old and cheap headphones you can just find anywhere and are easy to transport in your pockets.
Some Huawei have an internal DAC and therefore the bundled adapter is just a mechanical one. That doesn’t work on others phones, as they purely don’t have the necessary hardware on board.
Thank you, I learned something new! That would yield a reasonable explanation for the fact that the adapter is that small.
@LukasBecker: Look out! “Old and cheap headphones” are possibly suited to ruin your ears! And if so, there aren’t spare parts to exchange the damaged ones, as is the case with FP4 …
Hi there,
just chiming in to say that I have the exact same problem. I got a USB-C to audio jack adapter made by Google and it worked flawlessly for a couple of months. Now it constantly disconnects when the phone moves in my pocket. I have to unplug it and put it back in to resume playback. I have no useful way to tell whether its the phone or the adapter that causes the problem
My bet is the phone as the port gets mutiple uses, though it could be down to both getting distorted, especially if you have the phone in your pocket and it’s being moved about.
In such a case a 3.5mm jack would be better I imagine, so bluetooth maybe the way to go when you are mobile.
You can of course replace the USB port at nominal cost which will help understand if it’s the phone or adapter.
In the end I ordered a replacement USB-C port and that - at least for now - has solved all the problems. Seems the phone had been shipped with a defective USB-C port.
Thank you everybody for your help and suggestions!
