Pro Tip: Cure iPhone Earbud Entanglement
If you listen to music on the go, chances are you suffer from tangled and knotted wires on your buds. I’ve discovered an effortless solution for keeping my 3GS buds untangled. If you want to learn my secret, watch the video below.
A few months back, I purchased a pair of Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket earphones. Unfortunately, they’ve stopped working and, what’s worse, the folks at Skullcandy still haven’t replied to any of my emails.
Rather than dwell on the disappointment of my bad Skullcandy buds, I decided to dig out the free headphones I received from Apple with my iPhone 3GS.
My bright white 3GS buds work wonderfully, plus they even feature in-line volume controls and a good quality mic. However the cables, being awkwardly spindly, tend to tangle up at any opportunity.
All the usual anti-tangling techniques involve rolling your wire up tightly — less movement means less potential for tangling. A tight roll can also damage the actual wire in your headphones, though.
I’ve happened upon a three-step technique that solves my tangling issues. There’s nothing to learn, there are no special knots, and there’s absolutely no wrapping, rolling or tying of any sort. It’s the perfect technique for lazy listeners.
It’s worth noting that you could probably use this method with any headphones, but I’ve only tried it using Apple’s iPhone 3GS buds. It’s made possible because of the little clip that’s attached to one of the wires on the 3GS headphones.
Note that I’ve found that one of the buds can get a little tangled occasionally, though most of the time, this trick works almost perfectly and I rarely encounter knots or tangles.
After testing this at home, I searched high and low and haven’t managed to find anyone else sharing this tip online. Please let me know in the comments if it works for you, too.
Tweet This (53)
Dan on October 8th, 2009 at 7:23 am
ROFLMAO… “Parkour!”
Luke on October 8th, 2009 at 8:15 am
This is a terrible article. You cite 3 steps and do not describe a single one….
Staff Comment Josh Pigford, TheAppleBlog on October 8th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I’ll go ahead and assume you didn’t actually watch the video…which is where the actual “how to” is.
Luke on October 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I was on my iPhone, didn’t realize there was a video there. My apologies.
Galley on October 8th, 2009 at 8:21 am
NIce tip, but I prefer the cat method of untangling your earbuds.
Chris on October 8th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Nice, do you know if this method will work with my Border Collie as well?
Daz on October 8th, 2009 at 8:40 am
nice! but how to do with buds without clip?
Catmanrog on October 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Running tangle thru cat is a RIOT ! Seriously, I have a closed clip (just slides) on my old ear buds, and to prevent tangles…..just slide clip from Y down to where the buds are after use…. :-)
ordinarymeans on October 8th, 2009 at 8:59 am
You can do the same thing by moving the “slider” piece all the way down to where it is holding the two buds together.
Jesse on October 8th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I have a pair of budcozy ear phone holders. Mine never get tangled. It works well http://budycozy.com
Jen on October 8th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I’m glad I’m not the only one whose SkullCandy headphones stopped working. When mine stopped, I sent an email to the company and never received a response. Ironically, now I’m on their spam list and get frequent emails telling me I should buy more of their headphones.
I think not.
Rafa on October 8th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Dammit, I don´t have a cat, I´ll have to go through all the hassle shown in the article´s video… :=)
Laura on October 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
GREAT TIP! Now I have got 2 for you
#1 – you can purchase skull candy ear buds MUCH cheaper at TJMAXX.
#2. – those earbuds! are terrible for your ears. Any that go into the ear canal can cause a wax build up problem that is awful, leading to infections, water trapped in your head when you shower/swim, and temp. deafness. Happened to me in Italy wearing vmoda ear buds a lot for 2 weeks.(took me about 6 mos to recover) After all that i will never use in ear ones again, just buds like the ones that come with apple or bose noise canceling!
just fyi. you can google that for much more info.
thanks again for the tip!
Twist on October 8th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I think the figure eight method works better. Hold the ear buds against your palm with your thumb and then thread the cable around your index and pinkie in a figure eight. Once you get down to having a few inch left before the connector just wrap it around a few times and then do the same in the opposite direction with the earbuds and use that clip to secure. If you don’t have the clip then you can use the last few inches of the connector end to secure the bundle by looping it under itself. There is a video of the process out there somewhere. Technique also works with other types of headphones.
Nick Santilli on October 8th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I’m a figure 8 guy myself – even posted the tip here on TAB a couple years back. Seems the video’s been deleted since though. It’s been flawless for me.
But this looks interesting – if I’m caught with my 3GS buds, I’ll give it a go – thanks Olly!
jn on October 8th, 2009 at 10:29 am
The parkour bit was hilarious
Rodrigo Cavalheiro on October 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Thanks, Mr Bean! Very useful!
John Hart on October 8th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I have never used the Scull Candy brand so I am not familiar with how durable they are or how long they last, but here’s some interesting info about the set that came with my 3G: I ran them through the washer and dryer in the pocket of some of my shorts and they still work fine. Thank you Apple for yet another example of how you surpass normal expectations for quality.
BTW, if your earbuds get tangled, just untangle them. Problem solved.
Invalidx on October 18th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I’ve washed my Creative earbuds [$20 from TheSource] MANY times, and they work perfectly still. [by many I mean at least 10]
alex Peterson on October 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Works.
Josh on October 8th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Looks good. I normally wrap them over 3 fingers about 2/3s of the way, and then I wrap the remaining length around the cord wrapped around the fingers. After this, just tuck the end through the loop where it looks like the outer loop will slide off.
Andrew Bednarz on October 8th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Parkour! :D
Gazoobee on October 8th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I liked the video Oli but ….
this does not actually work.
Donavon on October 8th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Doesn’t actually work for me. Tried it several times. Walked around with them in my pocket for a bit and they still come out as horribly tangled as ever each time.
tekkiemom on October 8th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
seems to work :)
Daniel on October 9th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Were’s my cat…
Andrew j c on October 10th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Holy moley! It works!