How to Repair a Male-to-Male Aux Cable in 10 easy steps

- 9th Feb 2025

The whole wire assembly is insulated in electrical tape, the project is complete.

Picture this: You’ve got an exciting escape room booked for tonight, with a group of 8 eager participants. You’re all set up, everything’s looking good, and then, disaster strikes—the aux cable snaps inside your speaker. What now? Well, don’t worry too much! Aux cables are surprisingly easy to repair, and if you’ve got a spare one lying around, you’re in luck. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the simple steps to fix your male-to-male aux cable in under 30 minutes, with just a few basic tools that you probably already have at home.

Disclaimer: This guide is provided without warranty. Follow the steps at your own risk. I, nor RoomescapeVR, will be held responsible for any damage to property or injury caused by following this guide.

Things You Will Need

Before you dive into the repair, let’s make sure you’ve got all the right tools on hand. Here’s what you’ll need:

Soldering Iron & Solder
Wire Strippers / Scissors (I used cuticle snippers and a knife)
Broken Aux Cable
Donor Aux Cable
Electrical Tape

An assortment of tools laid out on a table, a soldering iron, cuticle snippers and a knife.

Optional:

Crocodile Clip Wire Holder (Not essential but very handy to hold down wires while soldering. You can also tape the wire to your desk if you don’t have one.)

A soldering tool, with crocodile clips for holding wires and a magnifying glass.

Once you have everything together, you’re ready to start!

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1: Cut the Damaged End of Your Aux Cable

A hand is holding a broken male aux cable end. The metal nib has broken off.

Start by using your wire cutters to cut off the damaged end of your aux cable. Discard the broken part and get ready to work with the remaining cable.

Step 2: Cut Your Donor Aux Cable

Next, use the wire cutters to cut the donor aux cable to a suitable length. This will act as the replacement part for your broken cable.

Step 3: Strip the Donor Cable

A wire is stripped, exposing a blue, white and red cable with kevlar padding inside.

Using your wire cutters or scissors, strip the end of the donor aux cable to expose the three inner wires. These should be colored red, blue, and white (or transparent, depending on the cable). Be careful not to damage the wires when stripping them.

Step 4: Strip the Wires on the Damaged Cable

A wire is stripped, exposing a blue, white and blue.

Now, take the damaged aux cable and strip the ends of each of its three wires (red, blue, and white). You should be left with clean, exposed wire on both the damaged and donor cables.

Step 5: Solder the Wires

A connection is soldered between two cables, a red white and blue wire is soldered.

Time to solder! Take your soldering iron and carefully solder the matching wires from the donor cable to the corresponding wires on the damaged cable. Red to red, blue to blue, and white to white.

Pro Tip: Bend the copper wires into a “U” shape and interlink them before soldering. This will make the process smoother and ensure a stronger connection.

If your aux cable has some extra padding (like a fancy XLR cable), don’t worry! The principles stay the same, just work around the insulation.

Step 6: Test the Connection

Windows 11 desktop screenshots of how to test sound settings.

Before sealing everything up, it’s crucial to test the connection. Plug the repaired aux cable into your speaker, and open up a constant tone on YouTube. Make sure the audio output is set to your speaker, and you should hear sound from at least one side. You can check this by right clicking the sound icon on your taskbar, then selecting more sound settings, and right clicking the audio device your aux cable is plugged into and clicking “test” to play a test tone. If you only hear audio from one side, ensure your speaker is set to stereo (not mono), and double-check your soldering connections.

Step 7: Wrap the Wires with Electrical Tape

A small red wire is wrapped in electrical tape.

Once you’ve confirmed that the repair works, it’s time to wrap up the wires. Take electrical tape and carefully wrap each individual wire to keep them insulated from one another. This will prevent any accidental short circuits.

Step 8: Wrap the Entire Cable

A red, blue and white wire is insulated with electrical tape.

Now, wrap the whole aux cable in electrical tape to secure everything in place and further insulate the wires. This step will help protect the internal connections and ensure the cable lasts longer.

Finished!

Congratulations! You’ve successfully repaired your male-to-male aux cable. With just a little bit of effort, you’ve avoided the cost of buying a new one, and you can get back to enjoying your sound system. It’s amazing how such a simple fix can save the day when you’re in a pinch. It helped me with my escape room for sure, if you’re interested in trying one of my escape rooms from the comfort of your home, check out our online escape rooms

Remember, while this repair can be a lifesaver, it’s always a good idea to replace the cable entirely if it continues to fail. But for now, your aux cable is good as new!