Q: Sound problems since IOS 6 update

  I had the same issue with the iOS 6 upgrade and my iPhone 4S.  My speaker wasn't emitting sounds.

Could my speaker have broken in the hour it took to upgrade from iOS 5 to iOS 6?   Very very unlikely.

Some apps give you a choice as to where to send th sound.   When running these apps it was clear that the phone did not think it had a speaker as that was not a choice given me. 

Thus I realized that it wasn't the phone sending sound information to a speaker which didn't function, it was that the phone refused to send any sound to the speaker to play since it thought the speaker didn't exist.

Clearly this is a software bug.   There are various configuration files on the phone and one of them got messed up

and it eliminated the speaker as a possible device.   The problem happened when I upgraded from iOS 5  to iOS6.

Apple tests installing software on fresh phones so they haven't seen this problem in testing.  However they can't test what happens when existing phones in various states are upgraded.  Some of them did not upgrade correctly (like my phone).

  I found the fix for my phone on these forums and reported it quite some time ago (it involved plugging the phone into the computer and running iTunes).

  So now everything works correctly.

  To address the recently discusion this thread.   This is not a hardware issue, there is nothing wrong with your speaker.  Nothing.   It is outrageous for Apple to have ignored this problem so long and even more outrageous to ask you to pay even one cent to get a replacement phone just to get around their upgrade bug.

And here is what I wrote about how I fixed the problem on my phone.  Yes it seems like a crazy solution but it fixed the sound problem for me so I'm not complaning

------------------------------

I've been trying things all day to get the sound back on my iPhone 4S until I tried this solution I saw somewhere ... and it worked:

1. do not have your phone connected to your computer

2. start iTunes

3. go to Edit/Preferences/Devices and turn on the checkbox "Prevent iPhones, iPods and iPads from syncing automatically" and click OK

4. now plug your phone into the computer.

5. iTunes will recognize the device but it will not sync the device.

now sound works!  You can remove the device from the computer.

it didn`t work for me, i m thinking that is a connector problem, beacause I m having some problems when i connect mi iphone to my computer, recognizes, dont recognizes, etc. etc.

I have the same issue with my ipod touch4, iphone4, and ipad2.  After downloading new ios everything quit playing thru attached speakers.NO PROBLEMS BEFORE.  Very frustrating as I listen to it at work on my desktop speakers.  They will play thru the headphones and thru my car.  As many people who are having this problem, you would think Apple would come up with a solution.  I love my products but not this problem.  Have tried everything I know of.  Any new ideas?

jkftiger wrote:

 

  This is not a hardware issue, there is nothing wrong with your speaker.  Nothing.   It is outrageous for Apple to have ignored this problem so long and even more outrageous to ask you to pay even one cent to get a replacement phone just to get around their upgrade bug.

In my case, replacing the hardware worked. I would lose sound intermittently and tried every work around on the forums to no avail. The replacement device had iOS 6. I've upgraded to 6.1, 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 since then without sound issues.

Do I believe this is somehow software related? I do. Too many folks have lost sound after the update to iOS 6. Having said that, maybe the bug afflicts specific hardware versions? Who really knows what's going on?

In regards to GoingAndroid. He went to Apple and they diagnosed his issue as non-working speakers. This was after running diags and reloading iOS at the store. At that point, what's the Apple rep suppose to do? He was out of warranty and he followed the in store steps. Instead of charging him the standard $199 out of warranty replacement fee, the rep offered him $60 to replace the device. The rep did not have to do that. In my opinion, that was a generous offer by Apple for being out of warranty.

Maybe he should try your fix or the myriad of other fixes on the forums? If those don't work he should go back and accept the generous out of warranty offer. I think that's reasonable.

  Apple's upgrade to iOS 6 clearly did not work in many cases (including mine).   Furthermore we know that once the problem shows itself a complete re-install of iOS 6 will not fix the problem either.   Clearly there is memory on the phone containing configuration information that is not updated when you do a complete re-install.

In my case I instructed iTunes to NOT auto sync and then plugged in my phone and even when commanded to not sync my phone iTunes sent some command to my phone that fixed my configuration memory.   I would not believe that possible if it hadn't worked for me.

  So there's a lot of stuff going on in this phone that defies normal logic.

  However it's 100% clear that it's Apple's fault that sound is lost in a number of phones after the iOS 6 upgrade.

  So the only fair thing was for Apple to give this person a free replacement phone and probably a gift card and apology as well.

   I believe that Apple fully understands the problem at this point.   I believe that Apple can fix the problem by downloading and running a program on the phone, however they are reluctant to give out this program since it could be disassembled and give people an understanding (and a key) which would allow them to alter low level configutation info on the phone.

  So I conjecture that Apple is telling reps: when you see this problem and a re-install won't fix it, give the customer a refurbished phone and send the customer's phone to Apple HQ. We'll fix it and refurbish it and give that to the next customer who complains.

Somehow there were some Apple reps who didn't get this memo.

did not work for me

I've fixed it in my phone, deleting a single file from /system in the phone, but instead of fixin it Apple delete my post in this thread. Hey Apple guy who is gonna to delete this too, tell it to your boss and fix it once for all for all users. The problem is in the dock system.

Yeah, you can't post jailbreaking links... they hate that

None of the fixes worked for me ... I installed the new OS and the speakers died mid speaker phone call with my brother. Initially made some clicking noises and cut out the audio and now it's on board speaker audio is completely gone. Went from working fine to nada. Apple ... come on!

I have tried all the options found on web and tech forums.

Nothing worked for me.

I have restored to factory settings,but of no use.

Apple support executives says its a hardware issue .

Hardware issue caused by software upgrade.

Enough of apple ****!!

Time to move on.

Just to add my discussion with apple support::

iPhone 4S Chat Transcript

Monday, March 11, 2013 12:51 AM
Duration: 0 seconds

Ciara:
Hello, My name is Ciara! Welcome to AppleCare Support! Please give me a few moments to look over your information. Please note: In the event that our chat is disconnected due to a system/connection issue, I'll email you your case number, so you can chat or call us back, and we can pick up where we left off!

Ciara:
Hi Gaurav, how are you doing today?

gaurav:
hello Ciara

gaurav:
pretty ****** off with iphone

Ciara:
Oh no, I am sorry to hear that, Gaurav! I understand you are experiencing with the speaker not working after updating, is that correct?

gaurav:
on friday I upgraded my ios to 6.1.2 and lost all sounds

gaurav:
yes

gaurav:
i just now did a restore

gaurav:
and backup again

gaurav:
but of no avail

Ciara:
Still no sounds after restoring, is that correct?

gaurav:
yes

gaurav:
no sound

Ciara:
Were you able to restore to factory settings to test the sounds, or did you restore from your backup right away, Gaurav?

gaurav:
i just dont want to use this a paper weight

gaurav:
when I restored it to factory settings,it gave me 3 options,

gaurav:
to backup from cloud,from itunes or as new iphone

gaurav:
i selected itunes and restored fro the backup

Ciara:
I definitely understand your frustration there, Gaurav. Experiencing an issue like this after an update is definitely not expected behavior. Can we try restoring and setting up as new to see if we can get the sound to work when your phone is returned to factory settings?

gaurav:
you want me to again restore to factory settings

gaurav:
that ll take another 2 hours

gaurav:
just because apple developers and tester cant do their job well,the users need to spend their time getting the workarounds

gaurav:
shame on u guys

Ciara:
I apologize for your frustration, Gaurav. I don't want you to go away feeling dissatisfied with this experience. How about we go ahead and get another perspective on this and give you the opportunity to speak with one of our senior advisors. Does that sound good to you?

gaurav:
I can see its a common problem experienced by many of the iphone users after upgrade,but still we have not heard from apple accepting this as a bug and a promise to fix this

gaurav:
Can the senior advisor sort this out

gaurav:
?

Ciara:
I have my senior advisor, Richard here, Gaurav, who has access to more information and will be able to assist you further.

Ciara:
I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Richard:
Hello, my name is Richard. Welcome to AppleCare chat support. Please give me a moment to look over your information.

gaurav:
ok

gaurav:
Hello Richard

Richard:
Hi Gaurav, I hope all is well! If I am understanding the situation here your speaker is no longer working after updating to iOS 6.1.2, is that correct?

gaurav:
yes

Richard:
Well I do apologize for the inconvenience here Gaurav, I know its never a fun situation when you have to reach out to tech support. It looks like we are on the right path to figure this out though. Are you in the process of restoring the phone now?

gaurav:
i have restored and did a backup as well

gaurav:
but nothing works

gaurav:
have tried all the options found on web and apple forum as well

Richard:
Great steps so far. Just two more question for you, when you restored the phone did you use iTunes? After the restore completed did you set it up as new or restore from your back up?

gaurav:
yes i used itunes

gaurav:
nd restored from backup

Richard:
Okay, thank you for that information Gaurav. There is one more thing we can try. This will tell us if it is a software issue or a hardware failure. I'd like you to restore the phone one more time, but this time just set it up as new and see if the speaker still isn't working.

Richard:
The reason for this is because the back up can contain software that would cause the issue.

Richard:
Once we know how the speaker responds when it is set up as new then we can put the back up back on there.

gaurav:
But richard this a common problem reported by so many peoples

gaurav:
h
ttps://discussions.apple.com/message/21322462#21322462

gaurav:
the problem lies in ios6.1.2

gaurav:
is there a way to go back to IOS6

Richard:
There is no supported way to revert to an older version of software. If that is what you wanted to do there may be a third party solution online.

gaurav:
and what if speaker works after restoring as new, i still need my data back

Richard:
If it works after restoring then you can just put the data back on. If putting the data back on stops the speaker from working, then it would require that we save your data in another way and restore again then manually sync the data over.

Richard:
Which is something that any of the advisors at Apple can help you with.

gaurav:
and if it doesnt work after restore as new?

gaurav:
then you mean to say its a hardware issue

Richard:
Correct. If the restore as new does not fix it, then the next step would be to set you up for service.

gaurav:
but even if this is a hardware problem,It was caused due to upgrade only

gaurav:
and If I have to pay for the speaker replacement or something.,

gaurav:
that means bye bye apple,and better go for samsung

Richard:
When it comes to service options I wouldn't be the best person to talk to as I generally only handle U.S. and Canada support. I see that you are in India, so I would want you to talk to the AppleCare support there if repair is necessary

gaurav:
anyways

gaurav:
i am restoring it now as new setup

Richard:
Alright. This we tell us if service is necessary or not. How far along are you on this process?

Richard:
Alright. This will tell us if service is necessary or not. How far along are you on this process?

gaurav:
it does not work

Richard:
Alright. In this case it would be best to have you call the AppleCare support there and see what repair options are available in your region.

Richard:
I have the phone number if you need it.

gaurav:
please share the number

Richard:
The number for AppleCare is (91) 1800 4250 744

gaurav:
But sorry to say ,i have lost the charm i had for apple

gaurav:
no more apple products from now on

Richard:
Well I do apologize you feel that way Gaurav, we do our best to produce the best quality product available. If you feel we fell short on that then please submit feedback

gaurav:
anyways thx

Richard:
Thank you for working with me today Gaurav! Unless there is something else I can help you with feel free to end the chat when you are ready. Thanks again for contacting Apple and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

How useless @Apple

Hi All,

This is purely a software issue.... it partialy worked for me...

i did the following scenarios...

1. i have installed and opend the temple run 2 game.

2. Then i have wait for more than a minute.

3. Then i press the home button and moved the slide button. am able to hear the sound and all sounds working..

4.This is a short happiness. but when i closed the temple run 2 . again the same sound issue occurs.

So apple need to check synchronizing between the apps and speaker happens correctly or not...

this is almost 6 month issue. still the issue is not fixed. there will be loss in reputation.....

I finally visited the Apple store this past week and they immediately told me corporate was calling this one a hardware issue. Corporate says the connector (hardware) believes that it is connected to a dock of some sort, when in fact it is not.

I tend to believe it is a software issue as well. They offered a replacement 4S phone (same phone I own) for $199 w/o a contract, in which I quickly denied.

What dock are you all using or were using prior to this issue?

I was using the iLuv dock.