iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

Tried all the physical fixes, but nothing worked. I suspect there are multiple reasons for the phone to get stuck in headphones mode, so different solutions for different causes. I'm convinced mine is a software problem, but I haven't pinpointed the trigger yet. However, I have (temporarily) solved the problem the same way each of the three times it happened. It's six steps: 1: start a song 2: plug in headphones 3: call your phone from another line 4: answer the call 5: unplug the headphones 6: end the call. Voila! Lots of trial and error that I hope someone else can take advantage of. And if I pinpoint the trigger before I get a new phone, I'll post back. Good luck!

I tried everything. From using a q-tip to try and dislodge lint and dust, sucking on the headphone port, hard rebooting it, drying it with a hair dryer, putting the headphone jack in and out repeatedly, putting it in airplane mode, trying to trick it by setting an alarm and getting my wife to call me. When my wife would call me it would connect for about 3 seconds and then disconnect.

What did work was I got my wife to call me while my headphones were in and in mid call I removed the headphones and presto, I am back to a fully functioning phone.

Compressed air can did the trick for me. As always, make sure that it will blow air and not the liquid that sometimes comes out of those things. So I tested on my arm, verified it was just blowing air, then a few blasts into the headphone hole. Then it worked fine, I saw "ringer" instead of "headphones" when I pressed the volume buttons on my Iphone 5.

hi,

my 2 weeks old iphone 5S got stuck in headphone mode. here is how i fixed it (not my original workaround!). i tried a lot of other suggestions.......

use headphones and phone someone from your faulty phone. whilst speaking to the person lock your phone (without terminating the call). then pull out the headphone plug from the phone. it should be fixed now. if not, do a restart.

regards

francois

I tried all you said, but bothing works for me...

I decide to take a look inside de audio jack, and i see a little bit of garbage stuck in the bottom. I removed it with a needle and voila! Problem solved!

Hope it help anybody :-D

Turn on your alarm. Let it go off in locked mode.

Cancel and unlock. Voila!

This solution worked immediately!

I guess it works for the software/firmware version of this problem.

(It obviously will not work for lint-in-the-hole)

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...

I stopped reading after I read this post because it worked best for me (I used a variation of my own). I don't even have earbuds or any kind of jack at all with me.

I found this simple, 1-step solution worked best:

- go to Voice Mail, listen to any message and turn on "Speaker"

Exit voice mail and you're done.

I searched through pages and pages of this discussion trying every single idea I saw to get my iPhone 5 out of Headphone Mode (except the rubbing alcohol suggestion, I wasn't that desperate yet). I tried plugging and unplugging head phones and computer speakers repeatedly, I tried blowing in it, using the hair dryer on cool, q-tips, tooth picks, calling it and putting it on speaker phone, calling it while it was plugged into head phones and removing them on the phone, listening to videos, and voicemails on speaker phone... none of it works...

Then glancing through the discussion I saw someone say set the alarm, but it hadn't worked for them, IT WORKED FOR ME!

I set my timer for one mine, locked the phone and waited for the beautiful SOUND of my alarm chiming at me. Thank good ness this discussion is here, but its a shame that Apple has been having this problem since 2008 when the original poster asked for ideas.

Good luck everyone in the future!

I had this problem... I tried EVERYTHING I found on the internet. Then I saw this tip, lost somewhere in an unknown forum: Clean the jack port and your dock with a q-tip imbued with alcohol. suprisingly, it worked after about 5 seconds of cleaning. Hope it helps someone ^^

IMPORTANT.

hey guys i know the actual solution.

1. Grab some toilet paper
2. Make a roll, that emulate the headphone plug
3. Introduce it into the iphone input
4. Turn it several times
5. Remove the paper roll
6. (If it comes out really black and dirty repeat the process)
7. Then plug the headphones
8. And unplug it

It should work now, hope that this help you guys. 🙂

Tried this and stuck q-tips and tooth picis in didn't work. Then waited a few hours and kept sticking my beats headphones in and out of the port 15-20 times and it worked. Thanks!! Saved me a lot of time and money

In case anyone is sucking on their iPhone to no avail, none of that worked for me when my daughter brought me her iPhone with the same problem. I tried plugging and unplugging, sucking and blowing on the port, but nothing changed. At a loss, I tried what should normally be the first step in troubleshooting, I rebooted the phone, and it returned to normal audio function! So before you turn blue (or beet red) in the face trying to clear a physical obstruction in the headphone port, try rebooting the sucker!

I Also had this proble and pluging in and out did not work. So what you have to do if that wont work is go to settings\sound then change the sound changing bar a couple of times. make sure to do it without your headphones pluged in. This should start to produce sound from your speakers then go to music or any other kind of media with sound and your speakers should be working just fine. This may not work if you have something like lint stuck in jack. if this does not work try unpluging and repluging your headhones a number of times as stated before In other threads.

The tip off the jack off my headphones had broken and gotten stuck down in the audio jack hole. Wow - hard to get out but I plugged the old jack back in the levered the jack sideways. It got enough grip to pull the tip out. But this was extremely difficult to diagnose. The clue was to look at the jack - looked a little strange with the tip missing but his'd be easy to miss.

The headphones that broke was Ausdom. Don't buy those I guess. Going to buy a new jack and rewire.

@Apple - come on, there is an easy software override - just put a line of code that allows users to go to speakers even if the headphones are plugged in. (PLEASE). You would save 1000's of peoples frustrations - look how big this thread is.