Headphones keeps being recognised as an input device

Hi Shannon Osei

This is a Realtek jack retasking issue, not a driver failure. Your screenshots show the audio jack is being treated as an input device, so Windows reports the headphones as “Not plugged in.”

1. Open Realtek Audio Console (install it from Microsoft Store if missing).
2. Go to Device Advanced Settings / Connector Settings.
3. Set the analog jack to Headphones or Headset (with microphone) (not “Mic In”).
4. Enable “Show popup when device is plugged in”, then unplug and replug the headphones and select Headphones when prompted.
5. In Control Panel > Sound > Playback, right‑click and enable Show Disabled Devices, then enable Headphones if shown.

Uninstalling/reinstalling the Realtek driver alone does not reset jack retasking. This is a configuration issue and usually resolves immediately after correcting the connector settings.

Feel free to update here if anything comes up!

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Hi,

What is the headphone model and are you using a dual or single jack input?

Do you have the Realtek Console application installed?

Is it a laptop or desktop? If it's a laptop, what is the model or configuration of the desktop?

Thanks

Follow these steps to get the headphones detected correctly as an output device again.

1. Verify the correct output device is selected
   1. Select the Speakers icon on the taskbar.
   2. Select the arrow to open the list of audio devices.
   3. Choose the device that corresponds to the headphones (for a 3.5mm jack this is usually the same Realtek output used by the speakers). Make sure audio is not being sent to another device.
2. Check physical connection and basic volume settings
   1. Confirm the headphone plug is fully inserted into the correct jack on the PC (usually the green/headphone icon jack).
   2. Make sure the PC and any in‑line volume controls on the headphones are not muted and volumes are turned up.
   3. If using a USB adapter, try a different USB port.
3. Reinstall or update the audio driver Hardware mis‑detection can be caused by a corrupted or outdated driver.
   1. Open Device Manager from the taskbar search.
   2. Expand Sound, video and game controllers.
   3. Right‑click the Realtek audio device and select Update driver → Search automatically for drivers and complete the wizard.
   4. If that does not help, right‑click the Realtek device again, choose Uninstall device, check Attempt to remove the driver for this device, and select Uninstall.
   5. Restart the PC so Windows reinstalls the audio driver automatically.
4. Try the generic Windows audio driver If Realtek’s driver continues to mis‑classify the jack, switch to the generic driver.
   1. In Device Manager, right‑click the Realtek audio device → Update driver.
   2. Select Browse my computer for drivers → Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
   3. Choose the generic High Definition Audio device from the list and apply it.
5. If no output device works If after reinstalling or switching drivers the headphones still show as not plugged in while other devices work, the issue is likely hardware (jack or headphones). Test the headphones on another device; if they work there, contact the PC manufacturer for audio‑jack hardware diagnostics.

References:

• Fix sound or audio problems in Windows
• How to fix this. no audio device is installed - Microsoft Q&A
• My audio inputs and outputs suddenly disappeared, how do i fix this? - Microsoft Q&A