Music spontaneously STARTS playing on my iPhone?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Music spontaneously STARTS playing on my iPhone?

Pretty frequently, like >2 times a day, my iPhone will randomly START playing music through the iPod app, requiring that I navigate to the iPod app and hit pause. As far as I can tell, it will be playing a random track, though it will always be listing the first or second track on my iPhone in alphabetical order (it's always showing "Absurd" or "Achilles' Last Stand", but playing something else).

It doesn't seem to be correlated to whether I have headphones plugged in, or nothing plugged in.

It's especially weird because I never actually use the iPod app - When I play music I play music through Pandora.

It's not a big deal, except that there's the potential for embarrassment if it starts randomly playing music through the built-in speakers really loud when I'm in a library or a meeting at work, or anywhere else I'm supposed to be being quiet.

Any ideas?

edit: oh, and related question: is there a way to quickly mute everything on the iPhone all at once? On my old phone, if I couldn't quickly figure out how to mute the alarm or ringer or something else, I always had the option of popping the battery out really quick, which would immediately kill it. Obviously, not an option on the iPhone.

Message was edited by: rlspltr

3G

Posted on Jul 21, 2008 8:05 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

GF Sarah

Level 1

105 points

Jul 21, 2008 8:19 AM in response to rlspltr

As for the random music problem, have you rebooted your phone since the problem began? If not, I'd do that first. With the iPhone on the home screen (NOT in sleep mode), press and hold the power button and the home button simultaniously - keep holding and ignore the "slide to power off" - keep holding until the screen goes black and you see the apple logo.

If that doesn't help, do a restore in iTunes.

As for the ability to quickly mute: yes you can. Look on the left side of the phone, just above the volume controls. There's a little switch. Yours will just look black, but toggle the little switch toward the back of the phone and you will see a little orange or red dot. That means your phone is on silent. Just toggle it back to get volume again.

Hope that helps.

Reply

Answer 2

rlspltr Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 21, 2008 8:31 AM in response to GF Sarah

I'll try rebooting - is that different from turning it off (holding power button for ~10 seconds and sliding to power off) and turning it back on again? I have done that multiple times.

The "silent mode" switch doesn't seem to affect iPod playback.

Reply

Answer 3

GF Sarah

Level 1

105 points

Jul 21, 2008 9:26 AM in response to rlspltr

Yes, it IS different. You can turn it off as you already know how to do, but to REBOOT it, you must ignore that prompt to "slide to power off." DO NOT slide it - just keep holding those two buttons until the screen goes black and you see the apple logo. When you see the apple logo, you may release.

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 21, 2008 1:46 PM in response to rlspltr

I am also having this problem.

Rebooting did not help.

Restoring to original did not work

It seems to start playing when it does a push search or if I touch my volume control.

This is obviously very frustrating and also it is draining my battery.

Thanks for any ideas.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 24, 2008 5:52 PM in response to rlspltr

I am experiencing this as well. Some observations I've made:

if I jiggle or twist or apply pressure JUST RIGHT to my headphones (Bang and Olufsen, not stock) I can not only make it play but also play a random song.

if the iPod is paused and the screen locks itself, it will immediately start playing after I unlock it and enter my passcode.

sometimes it just wakes the screen and starts playing randomly

I've tried rebooting, but it's still happening.

Reply

Answer 6

Jul 24, 2008 6:48 PM in response to Pookzilla

Something that DOES help:

Whenever you're done listening to music forcibly quit the iPod application. Do this by pressing and holding the Home button until the app goes away.

Reply

Answer 7

brccli

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2008 11:24 AM in response to rlspltr

I also have this problem. Here is what I have noticed. After using the included headset to make a call, the music will start after I unplug the headphones. This has happened 3 times with 2.0.0, 2.0.1, and 2.0.2 (once each). I haven't tried the reboot yet, but I do forcibly quit the ipod application. In fact, I haven't been using it any of the three times this has happened. Currently, I assume this is a bug related to the sensor that pauses music when the headphones are unplugged.

Reply

Answer 8

Aug 20, 2008 2:03 PM in response to rlspltr

rlspltr,

I agree that force quitting the iPod application is a good first step.

If that doesn't work out, have you tried restoring the iPhone and setting it up as a new phone? More information on this can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414 .

Hope this helps,

Raleigh

Reply

Answer 9

Nov 12, 2008 5:23 PM in response to Raleigh D.

My phone does the same damned thing, and I rarely if ever use the iPod on it. Drives me crazy and saps the battery. Glad to see I'm not alone. Phone support told me to do a restore which did nothing. The Genius at the local Apple store played with it and had no luck. He set the home button "double-click" to iPod and then reset it to my phone favorites, which he thought would fix it. Nope.

Maybe they'll pay attention to us.

Allan

Reply

Answer 10

ja-man

Level 1

0 points

Dec 2, 2008 7:00 AM in response to rlspltr

I have/had this problem. Came across the following info.

Check your Home Button setting in the General preferences section. When "iPod controls" are set to 'on', double tapping the home button will bring up the play/ff/rw controls on your iPhone when you're iPhone is locked.

I'm guessing that the home button is getting pressed inadvertently while being carried, which brings up that control. Once up, the play button could also be pressed.

Sounds like a lot of specific random clicking, but in any case, to see if that is the cause of the problem, try setting the "iPod Controls" to 'off'. This should, hopefully, keep the random playing from happening again.

Reply