How do you fix a mp3 player if it only plays in one ear and it's not the headphones?

Answer 1

If the problem is not in the headphones, it is almost certainly in the headphone jack. Unfortunately, the resolution requires a willingness to crack the case and solder the circuit boards inside. Remove the battery; pop the case -- usually it will be held together by little plastic tabs, though in some very rare cases, more expensive units in particular, which will have tiny little screws, usually 00 Philips. Inside will be one or two circuit boards, and the headphone jack will be attached to one of them. There will be three or four solder tabs sticking out of the plastic body of the headphone jack, and soldered to the circuit board; often these tabs are all that holds the jack in place, it will be otherwise floating in a notch in the circuit board. With a solder iron, carefully heat and reflow each of the tabs. Re-assemble.

Answer 2

To play through both earphones music has to be either 'Mono' with one track, or 'Stereo' with two tracks. It is possible to save a mono track as a stereo track with only one track. This will make the music only play out of one earphone.

You must edit the tracks to turn the music into stereo. Audacity - a free program - can do it. Get Audacity, IMPORT the music and look at the tracks. You can see what it is. Either turn it into a mono track or if there are two tracks, set the volume of both tracks up to where it can be heard. There are volume controls for each track on the left side of each track.

Then EXPORT the music as a file you can use. IF you want mp3, you also have to follow the instructions that Audacity will tell you, which is getting some free plug-ins that allow Audacity to convert imported files into mp3.