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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Posted on Aug 29, 2008 9:43 AM

I've had this problem perviously and the unplug-replug 7-8 times worked for me the last 2 times it glitched but not this time. I cut the end off a Q tip and went rooting around in the headphone jack and dug out a little lint which didn't solve it but atleast there's no lint in there now... I did a software restore, tried all the other tricks I could find but here's how I finally got it working again.

Headphones out, ipod stoped
Called my phone from another phone
the ringer rang out the speaker but when I tried to talk and listen I got nothing (obviously trying to use the headphones which weren't there)
turned on speaker phone, could now talk and listen.
turned off speaker phone and it went back to working properly
hang up, enjoy working speaker again.

My suspicion is that it's a combination of hardware and software issues that cause the hangup. The most likely cause is a sticky switch in the jack causing the iphone not to properly recognize when headphones are removed. However once you unstick the jack (dig out lint, jiggle it with a bunch of insert-removes etc.) the software may still glitch and apparently asking it to go to speakerphone then back to regular mode (which should CHECK for headphones in theory, and not just trust the jack switch) may just do the trick...

If it rings out the main speaker it has to know on some level that the headphones arn't there...
928 replies

Feb 27, 2017 1:33 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Alright, I know it is clearly about 9 years after this post was made, but for anyone still suffering this problem, I recently discovered something. It might not work for everyone, but here goes:

I use normal apple headphones that came with my iPhone, it's an older model (it's a 5) so it causes me a lot of issues. I unplugged my headphones and it was stuck in the headphone mode, I tried to turn the ringer off and on but it wasn't just vibrating and muting the invisible headphones. I live in a small town and there's no apple stores anywhere near me. I don't know if any of you have tried this yet, but what worked for me was restarting my iPhone. It's safe so don't worry! All you have to do is hold down the power and home button at the same time. Hopefully somebody finds this useful and it helps somebody out!

Mar 1, 2017 9:43 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

I have spent the better part of my evening trying to fix my phone which is displaying the same problem, after dropping it down the toilet this morning. Everything else was working fine, and the phone/speakers were working fine up until a few hours ago, so perhaps the drop down the toilet isn't the cause, who knows.


All I know is I tried all the suggestions on here and none worked, and actually made things worse, as after a few restarts the phone was unable to pick up my voice on phone calls etc. But the sound and microphones worked fine on speaker phone setting.


Eventually I decided to try connecting the phone to my Bluetooth speaker to play music (which would not play through my phone speaker as it believed the headphones were in) this worked a treat!!!! The music played through the speaker and when I changed the music to play through my "phone" rather than the speaker, it worked!! The phone now displayed "ringer" when adjusting the volume, rather than "headphones". I then had someone phone me and on regular phone mode they were able to hear me and I could hear them. All is now back to normal. Hope this helps somebody.

Mar 1, 2017 5:55 PM in response to Camomama

Oh my God, as crazy as this sounds, it too worked for me. Sucked on the empty port and then when I pressed the volume up button it changed from Headphone to Volume making it work on the earpiece once again. If it doesn't stay but only for a short moment, keep sucking on it and it'll eventually stay. I think I got a rain drop in mine as well making it think Headphones were plugged in bypassing the earpiece speaker. Who'd ever thought?

Mar 7, 2017 10:53 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

My iPhone was in the "headphone mode" for a while I tried blowing into the headphone circle, sucking on it, rebooting my phone, and plugging the headphones in and out for 7-8 times. Until I finally sticked the headphones in there all the way and just twisted them while they were in there, and I kept repeating it for 2-3 times. Hopefully this works let me know how it goes. thanks !

Mar 8, 2017 9:22 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

I have this problem just now. My iphone 5 battery got drained for more than an hour then when it opened after charging, I played some music but it does'nt have a sound no matter how much I click the ring/ silent switch. It got stock in headphone mode even if my headphone is not plugged in. I'm starting to wonder that something's wrong with my iphone so I got instantly worried.


What I did was search some help in google which I usually do everytime I have some trouble. This website instantly pop and reading helpful answers and it

Mar 8, 2017 9:57 AM in response to tolgie-22

continuation:

This website instantly pop and I immediately did what the replies said.


I

called my iphone using other phone, I tap the speaker mode reversely and play some music and it have a sound but it won't go back to ringer mode. Next I sucked the headphone jack while clicking the ring/ silent switch simultaneously playing some music but the sound won't still go back. Music still playing, I wiped the headphone jack with tissue thinking it moisted and the sound go back.


Thanks to you guys, I got to save money and learned some tips.

Mar 12, 2017 12:28 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

after LITERALLY spending the whole entire day trying to figure out how to exit my phone out of the 'head phone' mode, I finally found a method that works for me !


So first of all, the other methods I tried were the tooth pick, paper clip, hair dryer, reset, Bluetooth method etc. However, I spilled paint in my headphone jack so these solutions wouldn't help me. After much failure, I finally figured it out that the problem was that my jack was dealing from moisture. To solve this, I used a lighter and held it underneath for ten seconds. I thought this method failed me yet again, until I turned off my phone and heard the lock screen click !


So in conclusion,

Mar 12, 2017 9:01 AM in response to russellsimpson79

"at is point you should have use of your normal speakers but the volume will keep going to zeroon its own. go to settings, sound and de-activate change with buttons. manually put sounder slider to max and hey presto hopefully you should be back in business. its all about time. "


My phone was still stuck on 'headphones' until I got to this part and it fixed it! I tried everything from taking headphone jack in and out, blowing, sucking, hair-blower, paper-towel, and it didn't fix it until I got to this part of your instructions. I thought I had water damage because I did spill water last night but didn't think it had gotten inside.

Thanks for the instructions!

Mar 17, 2017 11:00 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

Was dealing with my phone for 24 hours straight with this issue.

Attempted cleaning it with a Q-Tip, cleaned it with a toothpick to get all the little bits out.

Plugged the headphones in and out multiple times. Restarted the phone multiple times.

Still not solved..

Mind you this was just hours past my bedtime and I was extremely tired plus I had to get up early. Set my alarm and I do know even with headphones plugged your alarm on your iphone speakers will ring..

Woke up with my phone that fell on the ground ringing for probably minutes long.

It was back to normal in the morning!

> Could've just let the phone dry for a couple hours? Play the alarm for long? Drop it on the ground? (Disclaimer- dropping the phone may cause damage. In case you didn't know already...)

Mar 21, 2017 9:31 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

My iPhone 5 headphone jack is screwed up as well. I plugged in my headphones this morning and my music sounds all poppy. I tried the same headphones on another device and they work perfectly. I tried apple headphones that work on my iPhone and the music still sounded poppy. I rebooted my phone and it doesn't look like there is any lint in the jack. PLEASE HELP!!!

Apr 5, 2017 1:43 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

Tried everything that I saw here. And then a friend suggested I just use a toothpick and try to remove something that might be stuck in there. The thing is the toothpick is made out of wood and has tiny spikes and imperfections and it caught on to the tiniest barely visible white thread, I could barely see it with the naked eye.


Solved the problem for me!

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iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

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