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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

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 21, 2017 8:59 AM

i tried everything i could think of i sucked on the headphone jack look to see for debris or anything suck and nothing i turned it on and off several times and still nothing so i was desperate i grabbed my blow dryer i set it on high and bam it worked i could hear everything hope this helps you an saves you money User uploaded file

928 replies

Apr 4, 2014 4:45 PM in response to Explore4Life

I've had this issue several times. First time I was able to fix the problem by cleaning jack with qtip. Next time i inserted apple earbuds and circled the jack in and out, then same thing with other brand earbuds for a couple minutes. The third time neither one of those solutions worked so I plugged in my iPhone to my laptop and boom! Solved the issue. I never thought to try plugging in my phone to my laptop thr first two times the problem occured.


This problem tends to happen to my phone when I switch cases or earbuds.

Apr 10, 2014 4:59 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I tried everything: Hairdryer, q-tip, toothpick, rolled up paper, rolled up tissue, headphone jack repeatedly, alarm set, timer set, clicks and other sounds off and on, reboots, blowing in the headphone jack, and nothing...EXCEPT, when I draw in air from the headphone socket with gusto (OK yes I'm trying to avoid saying 'suck') it fixed the problem. The first itme it only fxed it for 5 seconds, then it went back to 'headphone' mode, the second time it was 10 secs, then 20, then 30, then a minute. Then the sixth or seventh time, it was fixed for good. Well, a couple of days so far...

Apr 10, 2014 5:00 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

This exact same problem just happened to me today. I tried doing all the things suggested, from plug in plug out, headphones in and out, switching phone on and off, blow drying, etc. but nothing worked. My husband suggested to clean the headphones input with a toothpick. I blow dried it first with cool air, high speed, for a couple of minutes, then inserted the toothpick as trying to clean the jack with a circling movement. Went to check the volume level and it worked! It was finally out of headphones mode and back to ringer.

Apr 23, 2014 7:33 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

I just spent two hours trawling through the internet and Apple forum for suggestions. I tried reinserting the headphones several times, sucking on the headphone jack, turning on the alarm in lock mode etc. The only thing that worked for me was inserting a cocktail stick into the jack and moving it around very gently to try to dislodge anything that may have been in there. It paid off, as two small pieces of silver debris came out (I did have to suck out the second piece, but this came out easily as it was no longer 'stuck' at the bottom. I then switched on the phone and it's now back in ringer mode! I'm not sure what these pieces of debris are, but they were obviously causing the phone to lock into headphone mode.

May 21, 2014 8:13 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I've had this same problem( stuck in headphone mode) with my iphone 5. If I am using headphones at night, then remove headphones, my alarm isn't audible the next morning. When someone calls me, headphone problems suddenly gone. Another fix for me is to go to one of MY own videos, click on that, and suddenly..headphone probs resolved. I have also done the "jack-sex" thing and has worked a few times. Now, I have an iPad air and guess what? You guessed it - same thing, different device. C'mon Apple- quit getting your kicks out of watching how us nimrods invent things like "jack-sex", q-tip twists, ball point pen probing, and all of the other little tricks we do to help ourselves fix this problem in your product. This problem has been going on for a few years now. If your not going to fix this, then you should include some contemporary mini ****** with your products.

iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

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