Thank you very, veeery much for having encouraged going deeper, very deeper, much deeper on cleaning the headphones' Socket! (I'm feeling a fool right now)
I bought my X Compact in December 2019 as "new" (a bit outdated, but still really valid for my needs, and at an affordable price). It's my first Sony ever after some other brand's deceptions; it still fits in my pocket and it has nowadays plenty of features I don't really need, but still, I think Sony is at an upper level, it must be!. Furthermore, it has still the 3.5mm Jack for my 10€ headphones and a FM radio! (That's rock and roll!) I bought it just hoping it will last for More than 2 years doing its awesome job.
First "awkward" thing I noticed (after the accurate unboxing) was that MY headphones (common TRS, unfortunately the phone came without original headphones) used to "unclip" quite easily from the socket, but I thought "that's the newest technology...".
After 2 months (February 2020) I could't use my headphones anymore, weren't recognized anymore!
I thought "that's the UNWANTED automatic update to 6.1.1 which has messed up my phone". And I treated the phone pretty carefully! (You never know, this thing feels delicate).
So I started reading forums (this same thread as well!! but anyway, this issue seems to be huuugely common on Xperias). I watched youtube tutorials about jacks and Xperia phones, and I almost became a Guru of Xperia! I updated my Android to 7.1.2, and then downgraded it to 6.0.1 again, because it didn't fix the issue, else more it has shortened my battery's durability. Of course, I've tried to clean the headphone socket! and took out "some" lint from the jack, but that wasn't working either (meaning not enough lint).... I eventually used Soundabout for months, which actually works! I could finally use my headphones to listen to music and watching videos! But when trying to use the micro, no signal at all... I thought (untill today, July 17th 2020): "if the output signal is coming out now with Soundabout, the Tip, the Ring and the other Ring (ground) of the socket are actually working! this issue comes from the Sleeve (Microphone, which for sure has some issues...can't reproduce the microphone input either with Soundabout, and it cannot recognize the jack!!), I tried also to "move", "stimulate" the metal Sleeve's contact (which is the micro for sure) with a toothpick. I also used a cotton bud to dig into the "hole" and take out some black stuff... I used a torch to see what I was doing... but nothing had worked... Untill, after spending 9 hours (during my work shift) trying to move the Sleeve contact, I decided to go back to the simple, but decided haha. It's friday and I have more time to spend on this crap......I took one more toothpick and dug once again, gently (more or less) at the bottom of the jack's socket "hole", and surprisingly found out after 5 minutes of digging that there was a Kilo of remaining lint at the bottom of the hole (with the torch all seemed to be cleaned before, until I saw the very bottom of the socket. PLEASE BE SURE TO ACTUALLY SEE THE BOTTOM!! IT HAS A BLACK PLASTIC CIRCLE YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE, IF YOU CAN'T SEE THAT, THERE'S OTHER DIRTY STUFF TO TAKE OFF FROM THERE!). I Took out that, and after 5 months of bad thought towards Sony, my TRS 10€ headphones, are working again just perfectly as the rest of the phone! (Crossing fingers haha)
