iPhone spontaneously switches to headphone mode

My malfunctioning iPhone which when warm locks-on 'Headphones' enabled sound only was inspected at the Ft. Lauderdale Genius Bar.

My Genius used an otoscope-like device to inspect the headphone socket and found some debris. It was blown-out with compressed air and taken to their bench in back for a thorough cleaning.

http://www.waldosworld.org/gallery03/otoscope.jpg

After cleaning...I watched a video for longer than usual...15 minutes...BUT the same issue recurred...and again was resolved back to normal ringer sound within 3 minutes of being cooled in the freezer.

Finnished:

I do get sound back when changing ringtones, but when i lock the phone immediately afterwards or I get a call, the sound disappears right away, and doesn't get back till the phone cools down.

I found a *RINGTONE SWITCH* also temporarily solves the HEADPHONES mode problem.

However, if the phone is not cool it will quickly revert to HEADPHONES mode.

FREEZER cooling also solves the issue.

In fact, I was on an extended phone call tonight when I thought my call was dropped only to find the issue was the iPhone had switched to HEADPHONES mode with the caller still on. I then quickly switched to speakerphone to resume the conversation on speakerphone.

We still need a permanent solution to this HEADDPHONES mode issue *(which is induced by heat)* don't we, Apple...

I also have been experiencing this serious inconvenience for several months. Heavy use does appear to kick it into headphone mode spontaneously. However, I have some doubt about heat being the main issue.

Since I've had my phone, it has always gotten warm to the touch during long phone calls or web browsing. Yet, in the first year and a half or so of using the device, I never had this problem. Then, in recent months, it started and has persisted since.

I have babied my phone, keep it away from moisture, out of direct sunlight, and lint free. Everything on the phone functions as well as the day I got it - except this. If this is the cumulative effect of ordinary wear and tear on the internal chipset, then I am extremely disappointed in the workmanship. My G5 is still running strong after 5 years. My iPod is just as good as ever. Has my iPhone already exceeded its lifespan in just under 2 years? If so, shame on Apple. That would be extremely careless for a company trying to prove it is eco-friendly.

I think there's good reason to suspect that the software is at fault, even if it's only reacting to internal temperature. While operating temperatures are no hotter than they were the day I bought the phone, the problem has only recently arisen. I suspect it is related to a recent OS iteration. I have also seen that sampling my ring tones changes the phone back to Ringer mode. If it's that easy to switch it back, it really sounds software related. For the record, I have never put my phone in the freezer. I usually let it cool naturally, but haven't seen the phone switch back to Ringer mode on its own. Only the ringtone trick works to return it to normal.

I hope that there is a software fix coming. Apple is notorious for not admitting to issues affecting users. I hope they are working on it behind the curtain, if only in the form of a fix to make the phone "ignore" internal temperature. Maybe this is only wishful thinking.

Me and my wife have iphones (3G). While i do not experience this problem on my iphone, she sees this problem everyday with her iphone. She also switches to speakerphone to "workaround" the problem. She is at software version 3.0.1 and has 8 pages of apps (i don't know if any of this matters), i am updating her phone now to 3.1.2 software and see what happens. May also, wipe her phone and slowly reload the apps. I do hope this gets fixed very soon!

Having returned to Minnesota from Florida I found the iPhone ringer stuck in "headphones" mode nut this time it did not respond to cooling or even switching the ringer tones.

Hmmm.

I inserted a headphone jack in and out of the headphone port multiple times...

**Result: Fixed. No problems since.**

This is a strange iPhone performance issue which, when present, totally disables the iPhone since you have absolutley no ringer/sound unless you decide to have the headphones always in your ear.

As i have previously stated in different threads, i am convinced that the problem is ---HEAT RELATED---:
this problem occurs on a regular basis on my iphone since 1 year now. Iphone switches to headphones mode:

1 after long phone call
2 after using a heavy application for long time
3 after playing video or music loud for extended period

This happens ON A REGULAR BASIS, and after 10-15 minutes the iphone goes back to normal BY ITSELF.

I dont believe the "blow air inside will clear the dust and fix it ".
When you blow air in the hole you are ventilating the cpu and thus lowering heat, so blowing air will fix the problem BUT DUST AND DEBRIS ARE NOT THE CAUSE.

The problem is related to HEAT and it involves some hardware-software reaction.

To push my ideas further i think the latest firmware upgrades have introduced an automatic heat-block to prevent damages to iphone and/or users: this block works by activating headphones mode and thus preventing the generation of heat coming from audio speakers.

I have lost my hope apple will acknowledge this problem.



PS: people sharing this problem please make a forum account and post here

Message was edited by: corradob

I have the same problem.

It started recently, after I got my third replacement iPhone (my first two iPhones developed the famous hairline cracks, but Apple have been great about replacing them). I noticed the sound kept cutting out if I played a game for more than a few minutes, but didn't think anything of it as it happened so infrequently. I think it started after I upgraded to 3.1.3.

It's been getting slowly worse. Now it happens during telephone calls, rendering the phone unusable. After reading this forum, I'll try the speakerphone trick. I'm going to try to get the phone replaced, even though it's out of warranty (if you get a replacement phone the warranty isn't extended), as I've only had this replacement device since February. Highly annoying.

UPDATE:

My out-of-warranty 3G iPhone Processor Heat Causes Spontaneous Ringer Switch Off To Headphones Silent Mode

I have thoroughly cleaned all the ports/screens on my iPhone with compressed air.

The Ft. Lauderdale Apple Store Geniuses also cleaned out my headphones jack of minimal dust/debris.

The problem persists...when my iPhone is warm it switches to display a silent: Ringer(headphones)

Once it cools (freezer or not) it spontaneously switches back to: Ringer

There are no apps to measure the processor temperature...like for the Mac.

There must be a way the iPhone firmware/software can be modified to fix this problem. I can always temporarily enable sound by going to settings and just changing the ringer volume there...but it switches back to silent headphones if still warm.

I'd prefer giving up the headphones capability vs. having the ringer switch off to silence spontaneously.

Might there be a way to set the iPhone up so that the user must manually switch to headphones mode when needed?

Thanks.

Hey folks,

I've had the iPhone 3G since it was available in Canada in the summer of '08, so I've had it about a year and a half. For the last 5-6 months I've had the same problem. In the past 2-3 months it has become worse, to the point that it is almost always in headphone mode. It just switches when it likes, although it does seem to start after holding the phone in a conversation after a minute or two so perhaps heat from my hand is what sets it off.

I have tried everything: blowing in it, q tips, plugging and unplugging the headphones repeatedly and going to settings/sounds and changing the ringtone which fixes it only until the phone locks and you reopen it. I took it to a local Mac dealer where they replaced the headphone jack, costing me $100, but that didn't do it either. I emailed Steve Jobs and got no reply. At the local Apple store in Vancouver, they were strangely vague about it: They had sort of heard about it maybe but not really. They had no solution. I doubt that it's a physical issue as I've kept good care of it, and despite our frequent rain, I never use it in the rain.

It's extremely frustrating: In Canada we have exorbitant cell costs as we've had a monopoly of 3 big companies for a while. I pay over a $100 per month with a non extravagant cell and data plan, but I'm rather let down, despite being a huge Apple fan for years. My options basically are to shell out $800 with taxes for a new phone or to wait for the 2 year mark in my contract where I can be locked in another 3 years at these ripoff rates and buy a new one for about $200. I hate to say it, but I'm considering other smart phones (Android?) or switching back to a plain cell phone where I can at least talk on the phone without having to put it on speaker at the airport for the world to hear my conversation...

Any help would be appreciated.

<Edited by Host>

Guys, I've read in a post that the iphone switches to the headphone mode as protection from the heat that comes from the speakers to avoid damage in the bluetooth and wireless circuits during the phone intensively use. This protection came in the firmware 3.1.2, I don't know if it is true but makes a lot of sense, Some people mention freezing the phone it switches back, blowing air thru the hearphone jack you can also refrigerate the phone.

The phone works perfect except for the ability of answering fone call without the headphones. If it is motherboard issue why the others function works normally?

What do you guys think?

Any chance of having an app to switch the headphone mode manually? This is the only hope that I have.

ive had mine for almost exactly a year, and the problem started only last month. applestore in london also sounded not very sure about it, apart from blowing compressed air into the jack. but i once fixed it just by resetting it, without touching the jack, so that made me think it has to have been a software issue, at least on that occasion. they told me to do a restore. i did, it took forever and still didnt work. it still said 'ringer headphones'. then i blew in the jack and that worked. but it never worked before. now i really dont know whats going on!

I had this problem with my original iPhone 3G 16GB model. I had purchased this on the day it was released in 2008. Right around the 3.0 firmware, this problem started happening to me, just like it seems to have started happening for many other people here. I had confirmed that it was 100% heat related. Running an app, even Google Maps for a while would cause the phone to switch to headphones without ever plugging headphones into it. If I held it in front of my A/C vent in my car for a few minutes, it would switch back to normal. I could literally repeat this 100% of the time.

I had Applecare on my iPhone 3G and finally got around to bringing it in to my local Apple Store. The person who inspected it stated he had never heard of this problem (like every Apple employee that people have talked to about it so far... does Apple have a database of these problems???). He noted that there were some cracks in the plastic around the headphone jack and dock which I hadn't even noticed. He said they were replacing phones for this known defect and it was covered since it was under warranty. He suggested that although it was being replaced for this problem, whatever was causing the heat related headphone issue would be fixed by getting a new phone. Unfortunately they didn't have any in stock and would have to get one in. Luckily this was a Saturday and they had it in the following Monday so I didn't have to wait very long.

I went in and get the new phone. They swapped the SIM card and I had a brand new blank 16GB iPhone 3G. I got home and restored it from my last backup on my Macbook Pro, synced all of my apps, photos, music, etc. I was very happy as I ran some games that were pretty stressful on the phone for a very long time and the audio never switched to headphones. I thought everything was working well.

About a month or two later, I went to receive a phone call when I felt my iPhone vibrating in my pocket and it was silent. I thought it was just a bad connection, but then I hit the volume control and it said headphones again!!! Arghhhh...

I just got back from the Apple Store. I explained the whole story to the Apple Genius. He said it sounded a lot like something wrong with my backup that caused the problem to carry over to the new phone. I would buy this, except that it didn't have the problem for a month or two after I started using the replacement phone. Regardless, he suggested resetting it to factory defaults while I was there. I agreed because I had just backed it up. He said to try using it without restoring anything for a while and see if the problem still existed. I told him I could reproduce it in less than 5 minutes if it was still going to happen. He agreed to let my try after he restored it. So, after the restore, I had a fresh iPhone 3G with 3.1.3. I went into Google Maps while in the store with it still plugged into the store's Macbook Pro from the restore. I just browsed around the maps for a few minutes and bam, back to headphone mode... I showed him this and he agreed that it didn't appear to be anything with the software. He agreed to replace it for me since it was under Applecare. He said it was quite an odd problem that he hadn't seen before and the chances of it happening twice seemed crazy, but whatever...

So now I am on my second replacement. I am going to KEEP replacing it if it keeps happening. Hopefully the phone I have now will not have this heat/headphone issue, but if it does, it's going back again and Apple can figure this out after I have replaced 3 phones for the same issue.

I'd like very much to get the next iPhone that comes out, but my recent experiences with my iPhone 3G are making me reconsider. At least I will always be sure to get Applecare with the phone.

One interesting side note that I wasn't aware of: The Apple Genius also indicated that my Applecare warranty would be up in another 70 or so days which I was already aware of. He said that I could actually extend it for another year after that. I thought Applecare was a one time thing, but apparently it isn't, at least not for the iPhone. I told him I would probably be getting the next iPhone if it would be out in time and replace this one, but it's good to know it was an option.

I am going to try and cross post this to all the threads I can find related to this problem that are not archived to try and get the message out to Apple. This is clearly a problem but I'm unsure why it is affecting certain people only. My wife has an 8GB iPhone 3G that I bought on the same day as the original 16G, and that has no issues at all. I've asked her several times and she never has that problem.

I wanted to throw a few things out there that are specific to my use of the iPhone 3G that might help narrow down any possible trigger, if there is one. I sync this to both a Macbook Pro and a PC running Windows 7. On the PC I have a universal dock. I use a Belkin FM tuner in my car that specifically only supports the iPod touch and other iPod models, but works with the iPhone except for the warning that it isn't supported and the iPhone suggests switching on airplane mode to prevent interference. I have about 3 pages of apps, over a thousand photos, a few hundred songs, some TV shows, MobileMe email... I use alarms on the clock, I use the camera, I rarely use text messaging at all... I don't have many contacts in my phone...

I can't think of much else. Hopefully if there is some common thread, throwing these things out there will help other people speak up and possibly narrow down what causes this to happen to the hardware (if anything). It might just be defective hardware, who knows. I hope Apple figures it out and actively tries to fix this problem instead of ignoring it or discounting that it is happening to far too few people to be a real problem. How could it happen to me twice with two different phones? It's happened on 66% of my iPhones I have owned. That seems like a lot to me.

I'm having the same problem. This is my 3rd replacement phone in less than a year and I'm tired of my phone always breaking. The first replacement phone was because pixels were going out in my screen and the 2nd one was because I could hear a very fant static in the phone but the person on the other end said it sounded like wind blowing in the phone. Pretty sure that's not possible when sitting on the couch!! I pay way to much for these phones to just have them break, be replaced by another phone that has problems!!!! Apple needs to DO something about this! I have had every model phone that they have put out and have had problems with them all except the first model. I'm considering getting a different kind of phone if they don't fix this problem.

So now about my 3rd replacement that I have now. I got this one about a month ago and now this one keeps going silent when talking. Where I'mn my bluetooth or using the regular phone it switchs to headphone mode. I can use the speaker phone fine but talking on the regular phone doesn't work after a few minutes. Does anyone have a solution yet because I'm really tired of haveing to go to apple!!!