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

May 23, 2018 1:50 PM in response to campchamp

Insert earphone plug back into phone and remove it several times but wiggle

it to the sides while u are removing it

On May 19, 2018 11:02 PM, "Apple Support Communities" <

Feb 20, 2008 7:20 AM in response to JKG99

I suspect it's a hardware issue independent of the state of the software on the phone. If you compare the earbud plug for the iPhone with the iPod, you'll see an extra ring around the iPhone plug. That's for the microphone on the whatcha-ma-dongle. When the iphone headphones are inserted, it allows the headphones-mounted speaker to engage on the iPhone headphones. When you use the iPod phones, it doesn't allow for that. Thus the 'switch' gets stuck 'on'.

Such mechanical mechanism can be confirmed to be in play as using regular headphones does not disengage the microphone on the iPhone handset. However, using a set of the iPhone headphones (with the microphone) does.

Adamzzz

Level 1

9 points

Mar 21, 2008 9:13 AM in response to Nathan C

I had to plug/unplug/replug/etc several times (with some JBL speakers I have around), then once it recognized that there's a connection there, go to the iPod mode and hit pause.

It still wasn't fixed, but about 10 seconds later (no changes), it was fixed.

What a PITA.

bigdalla

Level 1

9 points

Apr 25, 2009 10:58 PM in response to shorty_jr

i tried putting headphones in 50+ times and it did not work,i think i may have had a drop of rain go into the earphone jack.
After getting annoyed and trying heaps of different thing i eventually put my mouth over the headphone jack and sucked as hard as i could and that fixed it......

Sep 6, 2009 8:49 PM in response to awillimd

I'd just like to comment that i'm having this same problem.

as ridiculous as it is, sucking air out of the headphone output jack did the trick.

my phone is only about 2 weeks old. is this grounds for a trip to the genius bar? would this warrant a free replacement?

Walter77

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2009 7:39 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

This is what worked for me. Roll up a strip of paper so it just fits in the jack and stick it in there. Then twist the paper so it tries to unroll inside the jack and pushes on the inside walls of the jack.

Message was edited by: Walter77

Kaylaaaa

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2010 3:54 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I had the same problem and yes, the first time it happened the inserting and taking out of the earphones did work but it keeps happening. It seems to be happening to me when it is raining???? The last time it happened, last night, I left my phone in my car my window the tiniest bit down. It rained last night also. I think it has something to do with moisture..
This morning I rolled the corner of a tissue up and put it in the headphone hole and twisted it around a bit.
Seemed to work, possibly got any lint or anything out..
Hopefully it stays like that, fingers crossed.

TonyBill

Level 1

0 points

Apr 28, 2010 5:23 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I just spent an hour fiddling with mine. I finally got it to work. I remebered that i must have been using my headphones while playing a game and unplugged them during that game. I just went back into the game with headphones plugged in and then unplugged them and it worked.

ena9999

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2010 8:48 AM in response to Tracy (Austin)

thankyou to everyone on thier advise my iphone was in headphone mode and it would not come off it as i have never used the headphones i could not understand this the one that worked for me was turning the headphones while the were in the phone once again many thanks to everyone

Mar 6, 2011 9:29 AM in response to locotoro

This is crazy! I've been stuck in headphone mode for the best part of two weeks, and just by sucking air through the headphones jack, I've managed to get my iPhone to ring and play music again User uploaded file

I'm a sucker (yes, the pun was kinda intended...) for those hi-tech remedies to the silly problems that pollute our every-day lives!

jadmp

Level 1

0 points

Apr 3, 2011 6:43 PM in response to Willo

Okay, after spending a few hours researching, reading, playing at "jacksex," restoring, turning the phone off and on countless times...I blew into the jack socket and it worked.

This was the most frustrating thing, but hopefully it is a permanent fix.

Sep 5, 2011 6:50 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

I just had this problem with my iPhone 4 and tried most of the solutions listed above - plugging and unplugging headphones, cleaning out the jack, restarting, etc. kirincastle's solution a few pages back just worked for me - by activating Voice Control by holding down on home button, and saying "sth" - the iPhone then went to my music collection, started playing music through the speaker, and now all is well. Very strange, but I just wanted to draw attention to this solution since it worked for me.

Oct 17, 2011 4:02 AM in response to SoCalSkippy

Ok ive Tried all your solution here and nothing worked for me here is My solution that worked for me!!! Plug in the headphone speakers make à call while on call turn on loud speaker plug out the headphone and turn off loudspesker this worked for

Oct 17, 2011 7:41 AM in response to iphonefan123

I had the same problem tried everything here nothing helped!!!

So what i did to fix my problem was to plugin the headphones there after making a call...

during the call i turned on loud speakers removed the headphones and last part turned off loudspeaker the sound came back!!!! 🙂

Jan 1, 2012 7:41 PM in response to SoCalSkippy

So after I almost had a heart attack for an hour trying to figure out how to get my iPhone 4 out of headphones mode, the battery was getting ready to die. I plugged it in to charge and hoila! it fixed the problem. People, I tried just about everything in these blogs to fix it including plugging and unplugging the headphones 40 times to cleaning the port. My last resort was to restore the phone. I hope this helps, my phone is only 3 weeks old and this little glitch almost had me in tears.

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iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode