iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

Thank you!!! I was so scared my phone was ruined! Worked like a charm

iPhone 4 stuck in headphone mode after getting wet, solved with Freeze Spray that's used to troubleshoot heat intermittent electronic components. Gave inside of headphone jack very quick shot of Freeze, which is like canned air plus super cold, and it fixed immediately. I'm guessing residual water was shorting the headphone plug sensor inside the jack, and the freeze spray either dried the water instantly, blew it out, or both.

Does that work for iPhone 4's as well?

OMG ty I to tried to put in and pull out the head phones like 50 times nothing worked till I did your trick AWESOME!

None of these have worked on my phone. It was working perfectly earlier and then I noticed I was missing calls and texts, no sound from videos online, etc. I have tried everything on here and nothing works for me. I am taking it to the apple store tomorro if I can't get it to work!

Hahahah, thats Gold, worked first time!!! Great tip!

bigdalla deserves big dollars from Apple. This sucking technique works, no joke. In fact it began teetering between working and not working so I sucked really hard again on the headphone jack hole and it solidified the sound. Genius. Smarter than McGyver.

I took mine 5 to the Apple they just gave me a new one. They have a 1 yr warranty they said, but you have to take it to an Apple store. I haven't had any problems since except for crappy wifi connection and people complaining that they can't hear me well.

I just wanted to post a quick message about my iPhone 4s water issue and resolution. I dropped my phone into a pot of water in the sink and didn't realize it was in the water for about 20-30 seconds. Once I realized the phone was submerged, I pulled it out and shook the excess water off. The phone remained powered on but started freaking out. The screen was interpreting the water as "touches" on the screen. So, the phone was typing on it's own, etc. I powered the phone down and used compressed air in the earphone jack as well as the speaker and microphone ports. The screen calmed down after about 1/2 day. For another 1/2 day, the home button would not function. After a long wait and a few restarts, the home button functionality returned. After that, the only issue I was left with was this "stuck in headphone" mode. While stuck in this mode, I could not play music (with or without headphones actually plugged in). Additionally, I could not hear anyone talking during calls without headphones plugged in. Here is what I did and it eventually started working...

I stored the phone in a bag of rice overnight two nights. During the day I placed the phone in the direct path of a small clip-on fan to just move air over and through the phone (as much as possible). I used a small rolled up piece of paper towel in the earphone jack, but no moisture came out. I tried sucking on the earphone port, but didn't notice any moisture. On the 3rd day someone called me and I answered the call while headphones were plugged in. While still on the call, I disconnected the headphones and the phone FINALLY came out of headphone mode. Everything returned to normal.

I could not get my phone out of headphone mode until I sucked on the headphone jack. I felt a little silly at first, but I am glad it worked.

To restore the sound to the earpiece after using headphones.. You need to use a set of headphones with 3 bands on the jack. The headphone port has a switch in it. Which some headphones with only 2 bands on the jack will not activate the switch that turns on the earpiece.. Hope this is helpfull

Well, it looks like people have been trying to find a solid answer to this post for 5 years. Blow in it, spray it, suck it, clean it, brush it, stick a three band plug in it, get it wet, dry it out, update it, return it, put some butter on it and run it under tap water... all to no avail.

The elusively irreparable iPhone headphone jack. Sheesh.

thx~it really works~

ok this is bloody hilarious. i'm pretty sure you're right about the rain getting into the headphone hole. i didn't want to suck the air out of it because pocket lint would suffocate me later in the day so i blew cold air from my hair dryer into it for about 2 minutes and VIOLA! problem solved, works like a charm.

This is a cross-post/re-post, but after reading this thread, I think my experience may help someone else for whom none of the "sure-fixes" worked. . . like me.

I thought that I'd add my experience with my 2-month-old iPhone 5. Inexplicably, the iPhone 5's speakers ceased to work and I got the "notification" that I was using headphones. . . which I wasn't. The phone worked just fine with my Jambox; and, when I tested the ring-tones (switching them around), the speakers on the phone worked. But, that's the only time the speakers worked.

I tried every trick recommended -- vacuumed the headset hole; blew in the headset hole; re-booted the phone; cleaned the headset hole; turned bluetooth on and off; turned silent switch on and off; pulled the headset jack in and out several times; and, generally tried any old thing that occurred to me. [I didn't try the 2-minute refrigeration -- was a bit leery of that b/c it sounded a lot drying a unexpectedly-bathed-phone in a microwave. Remember people with that story?]

I awoke at 3:30 am and started worrying about the hour-long drive to the nearest Apple store during the holiday rush; then, an Ah-Ha moment came. I needed to do the equivalent of zapping the P-RAM (younger users may need to google that). So, at 3:45 am I did a hard re-boot: I pressed the Home and the Sleep-Wake button until the phone shut down and re-started. That did it.

Reflecting now: probably a restore from a backup would accomplish the same thing.