Crackling and Intermittent Sound on XT30 With External Mic

[thebluepencil]

I'm getting crackly/staticky noise and on-and-off sound when recording videos. About 30% of recorded audio sounds fine, and then the rest of is either silent or crackly. Since there is sometimes no sound at all and a pronounced snappy/crackly sound, it seems like a connection issue, but I can't be sure what's actually happening. Usually, if I unplug and plug the microphone back in, the sound comes back okay for a little while, but then it starts crackling and eventually goes silent. I've used compressed air on the connections and tried multiple adapters/microphones as well. Currently, I'm using the Fujifilm XT30 with a Sennheiser MKE 400 external microphone and a 3.5-2.5mm TRS adapter, but I also encountered the same problem with the Rode VideoMicro and a different 3.5 to 2.5 TRS adapter. It seems to worsen over time (i.e. my audio started out good with the Sennheiser when I first got it a year ago, but most of my videos are now unusable), which also seems to point to a connection issue. Any ideas? 

Edited April 22, 2023 by thebluepencil
corrected a term used