Though the fix for this particular issue has remained unchanged for some time now - which can be surprising because it is so un-elegant - this issue continues to come to us from iPhoneFAQ readers. It also continues to pop up on Apple's iPhone discussion forums and on other iPhone related websites. So, we figured we'd publish the all-too-uninteresting solution.
For those unfamiliar with the issue, on occasion, the iPhone will stop outputting sound out of its external speaker after headphones are removed from the headphone jack . Essentially, the iPhone thinks the headphones are still connected and will continue to ouput sound only through the headphone port until you're able to "convince" it that the nothing is plugged in. Often, even powering down and back up one's iPhone won't solve the problem.
Why? Because that attempted solution is just too fancy. Believe it or not, the only known fix to this issue is to repeatedly insert and remove a device from the headphone jack. Remember to play a song or otherwise output sound when plugging and unplugging your earbuds, headphones, etc.
We've forwarded this solution to everyone who has written in with this same issue, and we've yet to hear back from anyone reporting that it did not solve the problem.
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I have had this problem twice. I sent my iphone back to apple and in three days got a brand new phone. And i mind you, this happened twice. Two new phones, same issue. So i recomened given Apple a call if your battery is not so good and you have this problem
I just ran into this issue today and used compressed air and sprayed it right into the headphone jack and the damn thing worked fine without even rebooting.
Thanks a lot ...
Its magic ... is this an iPhone feature ... :)
lol ..
I've had this happen to my Samsung A940, my Iphone, and my new Asus Eeepc. I think it is either something in the air or happens to lots of gadgets. The only fix for all is put the plug back into the jack and then pull it back out again. Works for them all.
had the same problem. the real cure is to slice a milimeter circumference off the rubber tubing on the headphone jack so that more of the metal jack is slightly exposed. i know this sounds silly but trust me it works.
well i never had sound on my iphone without earplugs or usbcable connected with the computer.. and even with the ' trick ' from in-out it didn't work
Thank you .... this really worked!!!
I have had my iPhone for a few months now and this is the first problem I have had with it so far. I went to an Apple store and they fixed the problem immediatly by spraying compressed air into the earbud jack. They used an extension that looked like a earbud jack, but it had small holes placed throughout the extension and then hooked up the compressed air hose to the end of the jack and let er rip. He then reset the phone and everything began running normally.
I've had this happen a lot and actually i've found just blowing really hard directly into the socket works now. (rebooting afterwards). Its a pain in the ass though. If your phone is hacked then using the fast reboot in boss prefs saves some of the pain.
I tried to plug and unplug the headphone a lot of times after I read your advise and it didn't work for me, but I just turned the iphone off (red slide button) and turned it back on and it worked. I don't know if this is a battery issue, but if it happens again, I will go to apple store and check my battery out. I don't think that it would be a smart move to turn it on and off all the time (if this happen quite often).
Good luck!
I had this problem too but I decided to take a look inside the headphone jack and there was a small piece of aluminum stuck inside possibly from my allergy pills that was tricking the phone into thinking the headphones where still connected. Not saying this is your problem but try and look inside and see if anything is in there causing interference.
Just confirming this problem exists on my brand new iPhone 3G w/ 2.1 firmware.
Plus, I have never used the headphones jack. The problem seemed to start when I was playing a game that had sound (EA's Spore) and an incoming phone call occurred. Ever since then, I get no "normal" sound notifications, but can play sounds manually through Settings, etc.
This fix did do the trick, though. Thanks!
I had this problem after having my iphone in my pocket. I tried resetting it on the phone settings, doing updates through itunes and unplugging and replugging the headphone jack and nothing worked. I was about to give up when all I did was squeeze the middle of the phone and the sound suddenly came back on the speakers. I'm not sure why but maybe the pressure from being in my pocket affected it and when I did the same type of pressure it worked. So if all else fails then just try lightly squeezing the phone, not hard pressure but a light squeeze. It made mine work so... Good luck:)
This same problem happened with my iphone mid call. It just went silent. Further studies showed no sound would come through the speakers and adjusting the volume revealed it thought the headphones were attached. I used the fix it shown here to no avail. Reflashed software prior to this and blew in the jack hole as a last resort. Turning it on and off did nothing. I let it rest, went out and had a beer, came back and turned on a song; *Hey Presto* it worked fine... Seems okay now. I'm glad cos this is my third iphone in 5 weeks: I've had 2 replacements so far for other reasons and have told apple there won't be a third. Pitty, cos I do love the phone.
I found that high temperature makes this..
(when You had Your phone in the pocket - temp was higher, when You let him "rest" the temp was lower. I have this issue very often - solutions from net are not working form me.
When I start the call I have to hold my iphone with 2 fingers and not to close to my head ( when I hold the phone close to my ear he is warming fast and the issue comming up.....
Anybody can see the correlation between temperature of the phone and the issue?
This worked for me. Nothing else did.
I recently had just dropped it in a snowy driveway.
I squeezed the middle and it made a small click noise. Then it worked.
Worked for me too... Weird!
This worked. Nothing else did. Gave it a squeeze and POOF, just like magic, it started playing through the speakers again. Thank you!
EA has a sound option called Global Setting. If you set that to off, it messes with all other audio applications.
It may be a problem of conductivity. There is a circuit that determines whether or not the headphones are inserted by the metal. But other particles can get in the headphone jack that are conductive. I tried the headphone insert/removal and this did not work on its own. I finally had to blow air (I would suggest compressed canned air for computer cleaning purposes) into the headphone jack. Miraculously, the sound started working only after doing this.
Fixed mine, holding the unit upside down and repeatedly shoving a headphone jack into it. did make me chuckle when i found this solution. :-)
Fixed mine too. Upside down repeatedly shoving headphone jack. Sweet.
I found the best way to snap my iphone out of thinking my headphones were plugged in was to go to 'sounds' in the setting icon and play a ringtone. Hope this helps.
Ok, I'm not stupid nor am I an idiot so through those two out. I've tried this and it worked the first time. Same thing happened again. I have a cramp in my hand from plugging and unplugging. The magic just won't work twice.
I had the same problem,
only sound through earphone..
if i try to change volume without earphones the earphones volume shows up...
my phone was jailbreaked...
my solution was:
plug in earphones, play music and kill the 'mobile music layer' proces with memTool..
worked for me...
playing the ringtone worked for me! Thanks, Ash!
My phone won't alert me to new happenings (phone calls/texts) nor will it play any game sounds. When I go into settings it WILL play ringtones through the speakers, as it will also play music.
Yes, it's jailbroken. Tried everything. Any other ideas?
BLOW! honestly, I tried everything above and i finally got so frustrated with nothing working that i simply blew into the headphone hole as hard as i can and it WORKED =)
Hello all ... I have the excact same problem when using the earplugs and the missing sound afterwords ... I have tried everything from blowing hard into the headphone-hole and plugged in and out many times, but the odd thing is if I go to settings and sounds it will play the ringtones but not the SMS-alerts or other sounds. When this happens I just turn off the phone and wait a while before turning it on again. Normaly this works.
If that's the case, then it will have no effect to try to blow out "something" from the headphone-hole and will be the same if the music is playing when you removes the headphone. If you have the problem you can check this: Plug in the earphone-contact and play some music ... After that pull out the plug while the music is playing. Whatching the display it will show, when the plug is pulled out. I gather, that the phone then "knows" weather the earphones is connected or not ??
LKG
I followed the described solution and also tried what another commented; blew in to the earphone jack as hard as I could which surprisingly worked. Thanks
i almost tried everything from reseting, to blowing to jacking headsets, squeezing almost all from the comment i tries but still no sounds in coming out.. anything else? please help...
This earlier method from Ash just worked perfectly for me :
I found the best way to snap my iphone out of thinking my headphones were plugged in was to go to 'sounds' in the setting icon and play a ringtone. Hope this helps.
Thanks it worked!
My earphones weren't reading when I plugged them into my iPhone and I thought my iPhone jack was broken or something!
After plugging it in and out several times, it started to work.
Thanks alot. -Sydney
I had this same problem and after trying everything on this forum realised the phone was still connected to the handsfree bluetooth device in my car whilst I was inside the house - whoops!. As soon as I disconnected the device everything worked again.
I did a hard reboot (hold home and sleep buttons til phone just cuts off completely), and it fixed the issue for me. :-)
Hard reboot worked for me as well...thanks Adam.
This solution did not work for me. After reading other comments I saw that someone sprayed compressed air into the jack, so I tried it. It worked!
Hi- I have tried blowing in the earpiece phone and it still says headphones!
I tried pluuging and unpluuging it in and nothing
I also restarted it and re-set all the settings and nothing.
What should I do?
Yes this is going on with my phone. I have had two new phones now on my third one. Like WTF I go in the apple store and they look at me like I'm crazy and they don't know what's going on. I guess they think I just want a new phone. I had to tell them it's not an issue for me to buy a new phone but why do that when this one should work. But anyways I'm not feeling this and I'm ready to get another phone but not with apple.
Wouldn't it be great if apple actually fixed this problem.
The solution above worked. I to had already powered down and this did not work (which was surprising since this fixes everything). I use my iphone to play pandora through my stereo through an rc jack. When disconnecting, everything is usually fine but this has happened twice now. The first time it eventually started working on its own, but this time I simply started playing ipod mode and put the earbuds in and out. It only took 2-3 times before fixing this problem. One thing to be careful of is that the music is paused when earbuds removed so you have to hit play again to see if your speaker is working. After this I checked a voice mail through the the speaker at the top of the phone because the problem was that I had to use speaker to talk to anyone before.
thanks for the post.