My iPhone sometimes stops outputting sound after I remove my earbuds/headphones? How can I fix this?

My iPhone sometimes stops outputting sound after I remove my earbuds/headphones? How can I fix this?

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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Comments

jackkky boy replied on

dude i had the same problem i tried everything but if you blow into the speaker straight in it you will hear noise thats what happened to mine but i only works for 5 seconds or so but i think its just a lot of dust accumulated inside because i have otter-box defender and i never dropped my iphone in my life and this happened out of no where it happened when i was on the phone

Sydney Mansy replied on

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

Anna replied on

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.

Anonymous replied on

I was getting pissed cause I have an Iphone 6 read all the comments literally tried everything. I ended up playing music and plugging in and twisting my head phones 8 times then damn the music should pause. Then you push play and it should work. This is stupid I hope it doesn't happen again!

avinash hurdyal replied on

Hi, my iphone actually keeps on playing from the speakers despite having connected the earphone. I have tried to plug and unpluged the jack several times but my problem has not resolved.

Adam replied on

I did a hard reboot (hold home and sleep buttons til phone just cuts off completely), and it fixed the issue for me. :-)

Anonymous replied on

Hard reboot worked for me as well...thanks Adam.

Anonymous replied on

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!

Help! replied on

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?

HELP ME PLS replied on

Please tell me what did you use to blow your iphone? I tried with a hair dryer (Slow and Fast). I blew right into the whole, and also the jack of the headphone, and didnt work for me.
I also blew as hard as i could, All i could get was a like my iphone coughed. I have tried what the other comments said that worked, but none has worked for me.. I'm about to throw my phone against the wall. Suggestions pls

Hair Diva replied on

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.

Anonymous replied on

Wouldn't it be great if apple actually fixed this problem.

Anonymous replied on

none of these things actually worked for me so in frustration i pulled out the battery, sim card and grafiks card and put the battery in again and turned the phone on and tadaa ! IT WORKS !! :D

eric replied on

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.

Anonymous replied on

Suddenly my Iphone 3gs audio comes only through headphone without headphone there is no audio..I have done above solution to blew out..Switch ON & OFF but til no use...speaker icon shows that it is in headphone mode all the time & headphone connect you'll get it vocie...PLS. help me out I just brought from one of my friend....I'll appreciate urgent response..

Anonymous replied on

WOW
worked right away!!!
thx so so much =D

Jaclyn replied on

Going to settings and testing the ring tone worked for me! And I tried the q-tips, blowing, reseting, taking the earphones in and out (again and again). I hope this doesn't happen often!

Tim replied on

Well, this has happened to my iPhone 3G 16GB. To try and remedy it I actually bought a new headphone jack for £4.99 off eBay....unfortunately, after 2 hours of installation (very fiddly silent mode switch!) the problem still persists. So, I can conclude that in some cases it's clearly a hardware problem, but in my case, where the part in question has been completely replaced, it's evidently a firmware problem....wish there was a fix....

Can anyone help?

Anonymous replied on

As a last resort for anyone thinking it could be a software issue, try setting the device up as a "NEW" device in iTunes. The reformat should fix it.

Anis replied on

I got new trick....just go to ur alarm and set new one alarm after a minute and when its ringing go to music player and play songs....its works for me! :)

Anonymous replied on

I just want to thank you because I was about to throw my phone out the window and this worked and it made me so happy! You're awesome!

Anonymous replied on

I just want to thank you because I was about to throw my phone out the window and this worked and it made me so happy! You're awesome!

Anonymous replied on

I've had this problem for the last month or so. It does it most often when I've been on the phone for like 20 minutes and my phone starts to get hot, well I found tonight that in the middle of my phone conversation when my phone went silent if I put it on speaker I can at least finish out my conversation.

Anonymous replied on

Oh wow - it seems so obvious but I didn't think of it. Rebooted my phone like 6 times and it didn't fix. The headphone jack trick worked like a charm. Thanks!

H4MAD replied on

Hi, phones been stuck in 'headphones' mode for half a day.............. I tried everything on the forum from hard reboots (holding home and power button till phone turns off and apple logo appears) to air canisters and continuously plugging and unplugging the headphones from the jack, even tried playing ringtones, speaker worked for the ringtone but went back to headphone mode when i tried making a call or playing music.........

THIS IS WHAT WORKED FOR ME......!

SETTINGS>AIRPLANE MODE............... TURN ON>AND THEN TURN OFF AGAIN...............!

JUST TURN AIRPLANE MODE ON AND OFF.................

WORKED FOR ME (",)

YESSSSS!! replied on

Yess!! This worked for me!! Thank you!!!!!

Docmike replied on

Eto ginawa ko nd this really fixed sound problem,,thanks indeed

Anonymous replied on

yay aeroplane on - off worked for me when none of the other solutions did:) ta!

Anonymous replied on

Thank you SO SO much! My phone was driving me crazy and this was the only thing that worked!

Anonymous replied on

I have the same problem bro.. When go to settings->ring tones then I am getting sound and the volume is in "Ringer mode". But not working once i come out of settings. It is back to "Ringer (headphones).. I tried turning my airplane mode on and of 3-4 times..but no result. Please tell me howmany times I should be doing it? It is urgent..

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