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HELP>phone thinks headphones are plugged in?

Receive a call and no one can hear me speak unless I put on speaker phone. Try turning up volume and it says ( headphones), like phone thinks I have headphones plugged in. Any Ideas?

I Phone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Aug 1, 2010 9:42 AM

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52 replies

Feb 1, 2017 7:46 PM in response to Joepag

I Just went through this **** for the past few hours. I must say, unlike everyone else my issue was a bit more intense. I dropped my phone in the toilet. It was in there for about 3 seconds (me moving faster than i have ever moved in my life) to retrieve it. I am sure my phone case (not waterproof but very protective) may have something to do with the overall outcome. But this is what I did, in order.


  • Imediately grabbed the hair dryer and dried the headphone jack for about 5 minutes. Nothing.
  • Emerged phone into a bowl of rice, then took a nap for 3.5 hrs. Nothing.
  • Took some of the cotton off a qtip and inserted it into the jack. Nothing.
  • Found this forum online...Tried the alarm trick, retried qtip insertion this time until some residue came out. Fixed!!1

Feb 7, 2017 10:22 PM in response to blacksheep5682

Hey! Just commenting in case anyone is dealing with the same issue in 2017. I was going through the same problem a few hours ago. I was unable to hear any music or videos. Ringtone was working fine. I couldn't hear Siri, I never thought I'd miss her voice. This is a new iPhone 6s so i was freaking out anyhow I tried the blowdryer for a few minutes. Unfortunately that didn't work. Eventusually I ended up trying the "tissue method" which I had my doubts about. I was too lazy to search for tissue so I just grabbed toilet paper and twirled it around. I had to stick the "tissue" in about two/three times. A bit of fuzz came out and right after I was able to listen to music again. Now I'm able to get a reply when I ask Siri "what does the fox say?" SOOOO I TOTALLY RECOMMEND THE TISSUE METHOD.

Jun 15, 2017 7:53 AM in response to blacksheep5682

you've probably already fixed this, but i'm just writing this for anyone who needs help in the future. i dropped my phone in the bath, & got it out extremely quickly, dried it off & attempted to suck out any water which was in any of the ports. the headphone jack thought there were headphones in it. so i put it in rice, and waited until the next day. no luck. so i tried to stick headphones in and out about 20 times. no luck. then i set a timer for a minute, this worked, but when i stopped the alarm it went back into headphone mode. then i tried twisting tissue in & out. no luck. finally, i decided to use a hair dryer. i put it on cold mode so my phone wouldn't get too hot, & i blew it directly in the hole for 3 minutes, then i checked, and the speakers finally worked!

Aug 6, 2010 8:16 AM in response to blacksheep5682

I was having the same issue and tried everything, some 'solutions' (like adjusting the ringtone volume) worked temporarily but then when a call would come or if I tried playing the iPod through the speaker, it would revert back to 'headphones' mode.
Then I fixed it with an unexpected solution: I always use my phone as an alarm, so I set the alarm to go off in the morning as usual (despite its being in headphones mode) and voila, it actually did. Since then it's been in headphones mode when they're plugged in and not in headphones mode when they're not. It's possible that the phone somehow fixed itself overnight when I was sleeping, but I doubt that.
So I'd try setting an alarm and seeing if that works (a minor detail that might've made a difference: I set the alarm to wake me up with a ringtone I made through iTunes, not an included one).

Sep 20, 2011 1:31 PM in response to blacksheep5682

I think I know what the problem is here. Moisture(rain whatever)may have got in the headphone socket, thus making a connection and the phone thinking the headphones are plugged in. I spilt a drink and some got in mine, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it thought the headphones were attached and I tried resetting and setting the alarm but it would not solve the problem. Then I put a bit of twisted tissue in the socket and when it came out it was a bit damp, did that a couple of times and voila it started working.


The people that said it just started working again overnight, the answer maybe that it dried out. And by inserting the headphones in and out may have removed some moisture.


I spilt a drink but I could see that if a little bit of rain got in there it would do the same.


If anyone is still having problems give this a go.

HELP>phone thinks headphones are plugged in?

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