iPad says headphones are plugged in - but they aren't

Ive figured it out, this work for me:

1. Shut off iPad

2. When off, plug in the headphones you were using

3. Turn on and play music

4. Unplug headphones, music will pause. Then play and should work.

Best of luck

I also have an iPad 2 with the same issue. No sound through external speaker, plugged in headphones work fine. I have done everything from verify side switch settings, wiped and restored as a new iPad. Used canned air to blow out any possible debri inside the headphone jack. Problem began with intermittent sound cut-offs, and now it's completely gone. When I adjust the volume, it will also display (headphones) when none are plugged in. I have visited two different Genius Bars and they basically say that it could be a logic error within the main pcb board. And to make things worse, I've passed my warranty by about 38 days. So I'll have to pay $240 for repairs, (which I'm still considering). I should have gone at the first sign of trouble, but unfortunetly, I was always under the impression that it was a software/app/ glitch.... Oh woes is me....... :-(

I tried the hair dryer, cleaning the headphone plug in with a cotton tip, plugging headphones in and out many times, turning my iPad off and on, holding the lock and home button in for 10 seconds and none of those worked until....

I got a wooden skewer, you could also try a tooth pick, and I'll put it in the head phone plug in and cleaned out the dust at the bottom and wiggled it around a little bit and it worked!!!

I have tried that numerous times as well as at least 4-5 hard resets to no avail.

Two solutions in the past were -

1. Plugging in headphones, playing music, pausing play, unplugging the headphones and resuming play successfully!

2. Plugging in the power and the headphones, unplugging the headphones, using the volume control on the side to adjust the volume, and then unplugging the power!

I had a similar problem to everyone. My iPad Air kept saying it had headphones plugged in and there was no sound... unless you actually plugged headphones in. I tried all the things listed... Nothing worked for me, however on the premise of some of the other ideas I tried this: I have a iluv mobile speaker- Bluetooth. I plugged my iPad in with my apple cord to charge. I plugged in the my earbuds and put the volume as loud as it would go. Then I took my iluv mobile speaker and turned it on to connect to my iPad. Once connected I put my earbuds on the speaker and hit play on a video in Netflix. the mobile speaker picked up the sound in a few seconds. I unplugged the headphones and let the show play for a few minutes and then I turned off the mobile speaker..... And hooray the sound started coming from my iPad again. I did try this a couple times before I figured out that the sound had to be right on top of the speaker so it would pick it up. Hope that this helps others out there! Good Luck to you!

Brilliant. Your first solution just worked for me when I though all was lost. Thank you

Its working again for some reason... I just reset the iPad again, plug it in to charge it and setted my alarm for the next morning. Alarm had ringed and after that I could listen to music WITHOUT "headphones". maybe the alarm has switched the headphone thing.

Use a bluetooth player, play some music, pause the music. Tap the box that has the arrow pointing up, choose iPad. Good luck.

Try to delete the latest apps you downloaded. it worked for me just now

I Had the same exact problem, and it was very easy for me to solve mine. All i did was get some tissue roll it up into. A cylinder that can fit into the headphone jack, push it iN there and give it a good clean. Just keep on twisting it in there for about two minutes. Hopefully that works.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did attempt those workarounds, and still no luck. Looks like this iPad has a hardware problem indeed....

Connect to Bluetooth, play some music, pause the music, push the square with the arrow pointing up then choose iPad.