Headphone not detected when plugged in, what is your go-to fix?

This is usually my troubleshooting process. This happens all the time in Windows no matter what device you're using.

1. unplug, plug back in. Often times a pop-up menu will appear when you plug it back in. If not, just test to see if sound is coming out of the head phones.

2. See if you can change audio device manually in the taskbar icons, where the volume icon is. Right click it, and click "sounds" and go to playback devices tab.

3. unplug, change audio devices, plug back in & test.

4. unplug, reboot, plug back in.

5. Update Audio drivers.

6. Uninstall and reinstall audio drivers.

Hello. If you have the Realtek audio driver installed, test the jack by switching to the Windows native audio driver.

1. Open the Device Manager (type devmgmt.msc in the Windows search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked.
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, then no need to restart.
[To get back to the Realtek driver,  do it again but reverse the names in steps 1 and 6.]

If the jack works correctly with the native driver then the fault is with the Realtek driver -- buggy. If the problem continues with the native driver then probably hardware failure. You can get a usb audio jack as a workaround.

Helpful video: