Apple earbuds no longer work on my iPad after IOS 26

Using my earbuds is a BIG part of my daily use of my iPad Pro. I just did a an update to IOS 26 and now the wired earbuds do not work. I wondered if it was the earbuds and tried 3 different sets. Same thing. In the control panel, there’s no indication that the wired earbuds (or headphones) are even being recognized. The USB-C charging connector works fine so it’s not the connector.

I’ve found several other things and went online to Perplexity and Grok 4 To get their thoughts on it. Each of them stated that the issues are consistent with IOS 26, yet no patch is done to fix it. Doesn’t Apple techs test this stuff before releasing an update? I would expect this from Microsoft — but not Apple. (That’s why I moved to Apple Many years ago.)

I need the earbuds to work on my iPad Pro. This directly affects my business as I’m working on things and need to hear without it interfering with others.

How about fixing this!