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:

1. Connect the Apple earbud headphones to the Xbox One controller as usual
2. 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
3. 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)
4. 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.