Silent switch randomly turns on - iPhone 12 Pro Max

My switch was being toggled by the Apple silicone case. If you have an Apple case, you can easily duplicate this by gently pushing the top left corner of the case (the one nearest the silent mode switch) toward the back of the phone. Without much effort, it will trip the switch. So, in my case, when my phone was in my pocket, it would often flip the silent mode switch. Since I returned the Apple case and replaced it with an Otterbox Symmetry MagSafe case, it no longer accidentally flips the switch. However, the my MagSafe wallet does not stay on as well as it did on the Apple case. I do not know if it's due to the strength of the magnets or the fact that the silicone case was "grippier" or something else. I saw where another poster replaced his Apple case with a Nomad case and the problem went away. Good Luck!

It’s not a problem with the phone as much as it is the new softer rubber cases. It doesn’t grip the front of the phone like previous Apple cases, this causes it to move when taking it out of your pocket; tripping the silent switch. The flaw is with the Apple cases, I switched to the Otterbox case and it fixed the problem.

I agree that the magnet might cause a problem, but we KNOW that the silcone cover does push the switch to silent (the small bridge of silcone catches on the switch when the case flexes in your pocket for example).

I removed that bridge of silicone material from the case, and my iPhone 12 pro instantly stopped going into silent mode without warning. If you haven't already done the same, perhaps that's the next step.

Problem solved.

Changed case without MagSafe.

As mentioned in my previous reply, I had an assumption that

It has some thing to do with MagSafe cases with the built-in magnet mechanism that affects the button position.

Since I changed the case to a “regular” one without the MagSafe magnet mechanism, the silent switch is still. It’s a pity though - I really like MagSafe case and wallet and they costed a lot of money.

I have had a similar problem with my 12 pro. The issue seems to be the apple leather case. It will partially slip off of the edge of the phone corner near the switch and push it to the vibrate setting. Then the case slips back on the phone as I continue to move around. I was able to easily recreate this by pushing gently on the case and causing it to slip. This appears to be a problem with the silicon cases too. Might want to look at nomad just got mine today an no slip at all.

It has happened to me many times. I found that the default setting for back triple tap is mute. That gives me the trouble. When the triple back tap is checked as mute, then the silent on/off function will be turned on/off when you triple tap the back. For some reason the phone is too sensitive to the back taps. If you change triple tap to some other function, the silent on /off will not turn on unexpectedly.

Davina7216 wrote:

It has happened to me many times. I found that the default setting for back triple tap is mute. That gives me the trouble. When the triple back tap is checked as mute, then the silent on/off function will be turned on/off when you triple tap the back. For some reason the phone is too sensitive to the back taps. If you change triple tap to some other function, the silent on /off will not turn on unexpectedly.

This!! ^^ Thank you so much, I've missed so many phone calls over the last couple months and couldn't figure out why.

Yes. After some more manipulation of the Apple silicone case I now see how easily it slips off of the front top left corner of my iPhone 12 Pro.

Agreed that that is the cause of the switch toggling to ringer off. A surprising design goof with an unfortunate result.

I will shed the case for one that fits correctly.

I agree. I don’t think the switch is turning itself off. I think it’s the silicone case moving when taking the phone in and out of my pocket. I took the case off and used an X-Acto knife to smooth out the inside edge of the cut out for the switch. Now if the case slides over the switch it won’t turn it off.

I replaced my Apple silicone case with an Otterbox Symmetry Plus and so far, no more problems with the switch. The MagSafe seems slightly weaker than on my Apple case so my MagSafe wallet doesn't stay on quite as firmly but it isn't a big problem. It might even be that the silicone is slightly tacky and the Otterbox back side is slightly slippery compared to silicone, but not enough to easily slip out of the hand. I saw another poster switched to a Nomad case and is happy. The Otterbox case wraps over the glass very slightly so it doesn't slip off the corner and flip the switch like the Apple case. It does not interfere with viewing the screen.

I had the same problem with the Apple silicone case. It was happening every day, all the time. My solution was very simple - take the case off then cut away the small bridge of silicone material that was causing the problem. Two months later, I have not had a single problem - and the case still works fine.

In my case, the problem is caused by the Apple MagSafe leather case that is slightly moving out on the left side of the phone when it's squeezed in my pockets. The case slip out and activate the switch...

When the phone is taken out of the pocket, everything go back in place except that the switch is activates... So, this case is nice but can be a real problem...

Using the "Accessibility" option from the menu followed by "Touch" to activate "AssistiveTouch" will allow to mute and activate the ringer from the "Phone icon" when using "AssistiveTouch icon"...

When using this trick, the switch must remain on the mute position to keep full control from the screen. Flipping the switch back and forth will mute the phone!

Gently move the top left corner (the one closest to the silent mode switch) slightly up and away from the corner with your thumbs. It will slide off enough to flip the switch. It does not take a lot of effort to get it to move. The Apple cases do not wrap around over the glass at all so they can easily slide off the corner enough to toggle the switch.