iPhone 4 - No Sound, Bad Hardware?

Interesting, thanks for all the tips finally made my phone work by pressing on the lower right corner. Brand new and did not work, went Apple store and they refused to change the phone even though it was out of box failure (here in South Africa) wanted to keep it for seven days, shook my head at the lunacy of all that. This is obviously a latent defect and Apple should replace these phones in my opinion. But hey they think they own the world right now and can be arrogant with the customer. Pride comes before a fall guys.

Have a beautiful day pressing the lower right corner of your phones. Are you an IPhone four user ....yes I have a enlarged thumb :-)

I've had my iPhone 4 since January and it has worked brilliantly, but 7 months on, suddenly the sound stopped working on the iPod and most other things on my phone. I thought simply turning it on and off would work, but when I turned it off, the screen displayed the spiral working icon and did nothing.

I looked online and the first thing I did was do a hard turn off, this did work with making my phone responsive again. Unfortunately, all the same problems existed. In some answers on this forum, I plugged the headphones in and found I could hear sound through them. I then also saw on this forum that if you pull the headphones in and out, that could jump start it to work again. I did this and switched the mute button on the side quite hard (despite doing this repeatedly in the first place) and this has seemed to give it a sorting out.

However, by looking at all these answers on the forum, it seems a common problem that isn't fixable. This makes me really worried as I paid so much for this phone and it's not on really. So I'm going to take it into my local Apple store.

Hi, ArkhamAsylum,

I tried this method, pressed my iphone4, also tried the phone cable trick and it's now working fine. Even when I press it right of the home button, it just plays perfect. Can u tell what happens with your phone? Does it still works fine? I think this trick with pressing and moving the plugged cable could be permanent solution!!!

Even now I can't make it mute. Told my network operator about this problem, they said my phone will be replaced as soon as I return from vacation! ... But it works perfect now... I only can be waiting...

does anyone can show on picture i need to see which place you press on the screen because i tried everywhere on phone right and left corner but still no sound... pls i need to solve this problem

I had an issue with my iPhone 4 and it's only two weeks old. After searching on Google, I discovered I kept accidentally turning the mute button off, which is located right above the volume controls on the left. Problem solved! I felt so stupid at first but I feel better knowing that I wasn't the only one! 😉

From the owners manual:

Ring/Silent Switch

Flip the Ring/Silent switch to put iPhone in ring mode or silent mode.

In ring mode, iPhone plays all sounds. In silent mode, iPhone doesn’t ring or play alerts and other sound effects.

Important: Clock alarms, audio apps such as iPod, and many games still play sounds through the built-in speaker when iPhone is in silent mode.

By default, when you get a call, iPhone vibrates whether it’s in ring mode or silent mode. If iPhone is in ring mode, you can silence a call by pressing the On/Off Sleep/Wake button or one of the volume buttons. Press a second time to send the call to voicemail.

For information about changing sound and vibrate settings, see “Sounds and the Ring/Silent Switch” on page 191.

Did you try the rectangular switch above the circular up/down volume switches? If it is in the position where orange or red color is visible, then you need to change it's position. Let us know

I just experienced the same problem. It's clear there's a problem when you increase or decrease the volume and it says (headphones) on the screen when headphones aren't connected.

I tried pressing on the corners of my iPhone as others have suggested here to no avail. But to be fair, those who have said it worked for them were never entirely clear about where to press. Some said the bottom right corner near the home button...does that mean the bottom right corner of the iPhone screen display or the bottom right corner of the glass, I wonder? And press for how long?

Anyway, here's what worked for me: I blew some compressed air into the headphone jack (using a can from Staples), and that did the trick. So here's another suggestion for people experiencing this problem.

Hi Bokivizam,

Yes the sound is still ok after the press/connector trick. 3 months now 🙂

I had the same problem, shot some of that Dust-Off spray into headphone jack and speakers and VOILA!

I have been looking for months for answers to my particular ip4 sound problem, but i dont even see it described!

Usually after using the side switch to select silent mode (cinema, flights etc) a number of times (may not be relevant), i lose ALL sound, from speaker, earpiece, ringer, microphone etc. Happened three times now (second time was overseas, in China, imagine how convenient!), identical symptoms each time; no sound as described above plus ipod app, when you select a tune, it goes to play mode, immediately to pause, then fast forwards to next track, then exits play screen, all very fast! Also on call, other party cannot hear me either. Voice memo reports no mic present! Note I have checked the silent mode switch, also tried operating it several times. Volume is max on external controls, also max on ipod vol control. Have tried inserting & removing earpiece, no result. Turned off & on. Have tried full reset, no result. tried plugging in to PC/itunes, no result. Latest system. Tried full backup & restore (1st time)- success! Until it happened again. Just yesterday back from China tried operating the switch on the earpiece, solved the problem completely, made calls, listened to music etc. Hours later, no sound again. Dont want to restore if not necessary. Certainly seems like an OS problem rather than hardware. Tried squeezing bottom right etc, no result. Looks like a trip back to the shop! Starting to have interesting dreams about androids!

have any of you guys noticed that there is a little red light at the top of the phone near the ear piece that comes on when you take the headphone out of the jack when you can't hear anything?

This is quite an obscure fix but worked for me, I tried compressed air, turning the phone off with earphones in, shaking the **** out of the phone in a rage but none of them worked.

I ended up rolling a strand of sellotape into a little stick, sticky side out and inserting it into the jack, you should have seen the gunk coming out! I repeated this until it was clean and hey presto my sounds came back, but disapeared after a few minutes. I repeated the sellotape trick and without trying the sounds I did a hard reset and so far so good it has came back.

Try it, It may just work: Sellotape into a stick, Insert into the jack, turn off/hard reset the phone without trying the sounds, turn on and enjoy your Phil Collins out the speaker!

Such an annoying problem but I'm glad I found this thread. Hope you get yours fixed soon.

I had the same problem with my iPhone 4 today. There is no sound coming out of video or iPod unless I use headset. No clicking sound when you type or swipe awake the phone. When I make phone calls.. I can only hear or be heard if I use the external speaker or use headset. When I adjust the volume on the phone it says headphone volume although there's no headphone plugged into it. I tried every trick suggested from turning on/off, resetting to plug/unplug headphone numerous times. Nothing worked for me.

There is one more trick that I have read from a Verizon expert online and I tried it before bringing in my iPhone for repair or replacement. SIMPLY TURN OFF THE WIFI AND BLUETOOTH and it DID IT! My iPhone sounds suddenly works perfectly again. I turn the wifi and bluetooth back on and the sound is still there. In fact, I'm listening to my iPod thru external speaker while I am typing this message. I hope this helps!!!!! (",)

I'm one of the lucky few with no sound other than with headphones and speaker. Since day 1, it has not worked. Very disappointing.