iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

Liquid damage is irreversible. If you know or suspect that liquid has entered one of your device's ports, you should start planning on replacing the device as soon as possible (at least be sure you are backing up your device regularly so you do not lose anything when it eventually shuts down completely). Since corrosion caused by liquid damage is not repairable, you will likely be looking at the out of warranty replacement cost for your device (found here: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/repair/). With that being said, the replacement cost is normally only around half of the device's full retail value.

If you are experiencing this issue and know that no liquid has entered any of your device's ports, restore as new and check to see if the issue persists. If it does, this is something that would be covered by your warranty or AppleCare+. If you are already outside of warranty or service agreement coverage, you could try your hand at cleaning out the headset port. Lint does tend to accumulate in the headphone jack and Lightning port and this can absolutely cause issues. Powering the device off and (carefully, paying special attention to avoid scratching the connecting pins in the Lightning port) using a paperclip to remove any built-up debris will result in improved performance with headphones and charging/syncing cables.

I've never seen this particular issue with the iPhones I've owned over the last 4 years (4S, 5s, 6, and now 6s). I do have a friend who's experienced this and at least one of those times I know his iPhone (6s) had been temporarily submerged in water.

TThe only thing that worked for me was to plug the headphone while the iPhone was on and unblocked. Turn the iPhone off (with the headphones still plugged) then only remove the headphone when the iPhone was completely off. Turn it back on and it works.

IF your phone was recently wet make sure to comply dry it using a blow dryer dont make the phone get to hot. Direct the heat to the headset jack / speakers and plug a set of headphones in and out 3 or 4 times fast while clicking the volume buttons randomly simontaniously. That worked for me

So I tried everything and it didn't work. I sucked on the headphone part til i almost passed out lol. I'd suck and it would work for a second and as soon as I stopped sucking it wouldn't. So I got smarter and just used the vacuum and it finally worked!!! thank god!

well well....i had the same problem my iphone 6s was stuck into headphone mode...so what i did is i blew some air from my mouth directly into the headphone jack like 5 times and it really worked..now it is in normal speaker mode

I'm so gobsmacked at the help that worked through such a simple technique, I had to create an account in order to reply to say thank you! I tried everything from a "Techie" minded point of view, yet dismissed something so simple, and the sucking worked! I had Soundcloud playing and as I started to suck I could heard it crackle through, so I continued and it is now working fine 🙂 Many thanks!

Of everything I read and tried, your suggestion worked. I put my mouth over the headphone jack and sucked as hard as possible and on the third try I heard like a whistle sound and my sound worked. Even though it still says headphones instead of ringer, my sound works. Thank you

I've just had this problem - definitely a software problem in my view - my iPhone 5s is up to date...

Was running bbc iplayer yesterday on blue tooth hands free.. today the phone thinks it's plugged into headphones...

rebooting made no difference. Tried cleaning the jack plug and plugging in headphones....didn't work.

Started iplayer which now had no sound - plugged in headphones - could hear audio through the headphones

on removal of the headphones - hey presto the audio on the phone started working again...hope this helps.

If you've tried Swithing On/Off , Tried different Headphones, Cleaned the jack , reset iPhone and yet haven't find the way , TRY THIS One.

-Call Someone

- Try to change the Volume during call

- Tell the caller to drop/Cut the call and continue changing the volume

I hope it'll work

Thanx

I've just Done that(It's 8th Septmber 2017 8:55 PM )

Mine was also stuck in headphone mode, I think a tiny water drop must have gotten in the jack when I dropped my phone in the snow. I tried everything else suggested on this page, to no avail. I finally pushed a few rice grains in the hole and left them overnight, with the jack facing up so water could evaporate out. The next morning I removed the rice grains out with a toothpick and-- magic-- phone working again.

Now I tried all of these posted and none work it was when i tested me alarm that I got out of headphone mode. So what I did was make a 5 second timer and the sound played then a cancelled it from my volume up button then just like that my phone was back to normal.

I just wanted to pitch in because this worked for me and I know how frustrating this can all be. Well, I tried everything listed here, especially taking the headphones in and out over 30 times. When I put the Apple original headphones just as I happened to turn on the phone and then took them out it went to ringer for a few seconds before switching back to headphones. This made it feel like it was a hardware problem, not necessarily water-related, but rather more like debris being in there. I had already checked and cleaned it with a soft pipe-cleaner with no luck. It being switched to ringer momentarily gave me hope, so I plugged and unplugged... it would very sporadically switch and then go back to headphones. So I tried the lead powder, and that worked, but again, only for a few seconds. Then I sucked out the air and again it worked instantly, but wouldn't stay. Finally, I took a plastic q-tip, but just the plastic and wiggled it around in there before plugging the headphones in and out. This time it worked for good. It was perseverance, but the fact that it switched was a good indicator that it was physically stuck. And the lead powder and sucking out the air I think helped, with the plastic of the q-tip. The pipe cleaner was too soft. Anyway. I hope this helps someone. Right now it is still going...

Sucking worked for me just now. I did try it a few times earlier, but it didn't work until I did it continuously for 10 seconds.

I used a blow dryer on cold to blow air into the earphone jack on the phone and it worked like a charm!