Belkin RockStar Lightning Audio Cable and Charger for iPhone 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 - White

Doesn't do what it is was advertised to do. Maybe I have a defective one? I can't seem to find any reviews with my exact symptoms.The unit plays out the headphone jack wonderfully! Sound quality is very good.The unit will allow my phone to charge just fine. Charge function works each and every time I plug it in.The issue? It won't do both at the same time. When I plug in the charge cable while playing audio, the audio continues to play for maybe 1 second, then goes away completely. I have looked on my phone for a setting to switch the audio playback device, and can't find anything relevant to switch to to get the audio back.It doesn't matter what order I plug the cables in: headphone first, charge cable first, etc. Whenever the adapter's charge port is hooked up, I get silence from the headphone jack.I bought this to listen to music in my older car that although has a USB jack, will not stream audio from it, only phone audio. Car does have an Aux input, which is how I am attempting to use this device. But I can stream music, and let my phone battery run down on the drive to work, or charge my phone on the way to work in silence.-EDIT- I found the issue & solution: In order to use both at the same time, you must use a 'charge only' usb port.My car has a USB port for playing media from a thumb drive. My car also has bluetooth for phone calls, but it won't stream audio, so I am stuck with using the Aux-input.The issue is when I plug the Belkin into the car USB port, it is a data port, so it most likely kills the headphone audio. I have tested this with my home PC as well. Plug into a PC USB port, audio from the headphone jack gets turned off.However, if you plug the usb cord into a charge cube it works fine, since there is no 'data' path with just a charger. For the car I bought one of those cigarette lighter to USB adapters, and since it provides charge only and no data services, the Belkin works perfectly now. 3.5mm "headphone" audio + simultaneous charging.

So, I have been eyeing this item for a long time, but couldn't bring myself to buy it when $10 alternatives littered the Amazon marketplace. Well, this item dropped to less than $30, so it was time to give it a go. I was also fed up with those $10 units working like garbage (that is, not working), save for one or two that actually worked as intended (I suppose it is worth mentioning I have bought many of those $10 units, only to have returned 80% of them).Well folks, this unit is the real deal. I have never encountered one of these units that actually lets me sync my iPhone with my PC until I bought this one. The cheaper units I keep mentioning do allow charging and listening, but I found it very hit or miss to have the microphone/play/pause/volume controls work with those units (almost always being a "miss"). Worse yet, many of those cheaper units claim to support syncing, which has thus far proven to be completely false. On the other hand, this unit worked...with a couple of small hiccups (go two paragraphs down to see my report on this).Regarding audio quality, control, and reliability, this thing is an ace. My 3.5mm stereo headphone/earphones with and without the microphone/play/pause/volume controls all worked. In other words, it seems any of the listening devices with 3 or 4 conductor plugs (a.k.a. TRS and TRRS, respectively) I threw at it worked. The audio quality was perfect (no high-pitched noises, clicks, static, etc.). The controls were flawless. When I pressed a button, the phone reacted as expected.As far as syncing, however, there were some issues. I plugged the unit into one of my PC's USB 2.0 ports. Then I connected the headphones and finally I connected the cable to the phone. It showed up almost instantly, so I was quite ecstatic. But to my dismay, seconds later it disconnected...only to reconnect seconds after that. This happened over and over. So long as it was in any of my USB 2.0 ports, this phenomenon occurred, regardless if I wiggled the cable, reset the phone, or any of the dozen other things I tried. Finally, I move it to a USB 3.0 on my PC and the problem went away. It established an instant connection that never failed! I was able to transfer photos, videos, music, etc. from the phone to my PC via iTunes and via my OS's explorer interface (Win 7, in my case).The plug end of the unit is larger than normal, so it did not fit my Otterbox Commuter case without me scraping a bit of plastic from the bottom. I was a little annoyed by that, but with very minimal effort I rectified that.So, if you are willing to spend a bit of cash for such an item, I would recommend it, especially over the cheaper ones. Be prepared for the sync glitch (as I mentioned above) - if it happens to you, try a different USB port. Heck, you may not even face the problem. I also recommend not handling it like an animal. I have no doubt that these units all come from cheap-labor factories around the world, so don't expect it to handle abuse. Since I use these units for work, they tend to rest comfortably on my desk or workbench, so I never stress them. If you do the same, you will probably be just as happy as I am.Update: 2 more units purchased and they were plug and play. All went as smooth as silk. I'm still in disbelief that they work so well, but for $30, one would hope so. Thus far, they still are the only units I have encountered that do everything as advertised (including flawless synchronization with my PCs/laptops).Other thoughts/notes: I don't know why this item has gotten poor reviews of being "crappy," because my impression of its build and material selection seems to be top notch. It feels sturdy, professional, and can actually take a few hits (I dropped my first one a few times, and guess what - it's perfect). I hate that the first review you see (the top review) was of a poor experience, because if you are like me (wired headphone with controls/mic integration with PC synchronization), then this is the unit you have been searching for. You should also be warned that the lightning port on this unit is NOT for headphones. It is only for powering the unit, charging your connected device, and PC connectivity, all via USB. Finally, many of the negative reviews that are detailed (i.e. not the ones that simply say garbage and end it there) all state that the unit failed them after some time (usually some amount of weeks were mentioned). I will update this review if I fall into that group as well.

I have tried a few other of these with pitiful luck. We use it on road trips so the kids can watch movies together and not drain the battery, this is the only one that consistently works without having to mess around with it. It's more expensive but it actually works. We also have the Belkin RockStar 5 splitter, works like a charm!

after a couple weeks i've experienced a couple episodes of it only playing the music and not the voice; fits snug into the phone and dangler

It performed its tasks well. Unfortunately I have upgraded to an incompatible device, but in the years I used this product, it holds up well. Doing one’s best not to flex it frequently so that it lasts even longer, it had lasted us a long time & still does, albeit now in a drawer. It can allow you to use an external audio device, charge, & data transfer all at the same time. Should this be a product you need despite the slightly high price, we can confidently recommend it to you.

Didn't want to spend the price for this but it has been working so much better than the last one I bought that wasn't the Belkin brand that I guess the money was worth it.

had and been using for about 5 1/2 months, worked exactly as expected, no issues