Level 2

212 points

iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

Earlier I accidentally grabbed my iPod headphones instead of my iPhone headphones and I think I may have jammed them in there too far. Because now I can't hear any of the keyboard clicks or sounds and when I receive a text message there's no sound either. And when I receive a call it won't allow me to hear the person on the other line unless I put my headphones in or use the speaker function. And when I turn the ringer volume up/down it says "headphones" in parentheses as if it's been set to "headphones" mode or something! Is it possible that I jammed them in so far that my iPhone thinks my headphones are still plugged in? Did I just totally ruin my iPhone? What do I do? Anyone know how I can fix this? Thanks!

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jan 15, 2008 9:14 PM

Top-ranking reply

Sabz79

Level 1

14 points

Posted on Sep 20, 2016 6:01 AM

I cannot believe I had this issue today - literally 4 days before I get the iPhone7. I went into panic mode and spoke to Apple Support chat online - we spent almost an hour testing voice memos, restoring my phone from backup and as new - no luck. Then we got cut off 😕

But then someone else took over and 'kindly' warned me that I was out of warranty so I would be liable for any hardware costs. YAY! However they told me of the simple trick of getting a cotton bud and gently inserting it into the jack to clear it out. I had no cotton buds so I delicately used a cocktail stick. Five mins later of tiny bits of lint coming out, hey presto! A bigger ball comes out and my phone went back into ringer mode! I could have cried. Literally.

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928 replies

Sep 16, 2013 2:22 PM in response to KentwoodWarrior

Bring it back and get it swapped out; make sure you back it up. It's frustrating, but be thankful youre not on your 366th day; you'd be SOL for sure...and stuck with another Apple Bomb.

Jan 8, 2014 7:39 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Inhale into your headphone jack for like 5-10 seconds. And Viola!

This is the only thing that worked for me

Mar 29, 2014 3:22 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Same story - moisture from a bit of misty weather in the headphones jack.... Stuck in Headphones mode.

The "sucking the headphone jack" thing really works. Try it for a miniute or two.

shacky4

Level 1

0 points

Nov 21, 2014 6:04 AM in response to mayajp95

Did you try my suggestion of connecting to a speaker via bluetooth and then disconnecting?

Nate_meg

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2015 5:09 AM in response to bigdalla

This worked amazingly. But whenever I was sucking in hard on my headphone jack I kept hitting the volume buttons up down repeatedly and it worked too

Nov 16, 2015 6:56 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I Actually sucked on the port really hard...it took a couple try's but it worked!!

Jan 24, 2016 12:48 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Try turning on then off the "do not disturb' function on your phone.

Jan 24, 2016 12:49 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Try turning on then off the "do not disturb" function on your phone.

willgil8

Level 1

4 points

Jul 18, 2016 6:17 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Trying suck air through the head jack, charging port, and speaker. It sounds funny but it worked for me. you must suck in a lot of air but it worked. Also try blowing through the port.

Aug 4, 2018 3:50 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

The sucking method is 100% ridiculous, but 100% effective. However, if at first you don’t succeed, try it again. After 3 tries, to my astonishment, everything was back in order! Cheers!

Feb 10, 2017 9:58 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

Hi,

I happened to face the exact issue. The problem was not pertaining to the software but with the hardware. This I got it confirmed when the problem wasn't fixed even after the hard reset.

The only reason why hardware could have created this issue is because dust getting accumulated inside the headphone slot which is making the device feel that the headphone is connected.

Removing the dust from the slot was the toughest task.

I didn't want to use any hard materials which would probably permanently damage the headphone slot.

For which I used sticky notes and rolled in such a way that the sticky end enters the slot.

After some shaking and push pull, I could see dust sticking on to the sticky end of the paper roll.

Hope this helps many iPhone users like me.

Cheers

Aug 25, 2008 8:02 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I have had this problem, and the "earjack *******" notion really does work. If you hold the two up side by side, the plain headphones' jack is slightly longer. That's because the iPhone likes to take it deep.

kicko

Level 1

10 points

Aug 29, 2008 9:58 AM in response to JKG99

My understanding is there is a switch inside the jack they should move back turning the headphones off but it sometimes "sticks" in new devices. My laptop did the same thing, after a little "jacksex" it no longer was an issue.

Joe_66

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2008 5:17 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

iPhone: My problem is similar - it seems my phone will stay in headset mode (sometimes?) if I am listening to the iPod through the Aux port in my car and I receive a phone call. I will hear the phone ring through the car speakers, unplug the aux jack and attempt to answer the call. The caller can hear me, but I cannot hear the caller. The same thing happens if I am using regular headphones.

Rebooting the phone sometimes helps. Using the iphone headset seems to work to correct the problem. Now I must ensure that I carry my headset at all times. This is a software problem in my opinion.

Apple - you need to fix this.

awillimd

Level 1

31 points

Aug 14, 2009 4:24 PM in response to nickepekka

Glad this worked for you. Generally I've found that you don't need to put your iPhone on ice for so long. In my experience about 20-30 seconds in a freezer or in front of an air conditioner will do the trick.

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iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode