iphone 3GS - no sound without headphones

Hi Ciireenee,

I've been scouring the net and I can find plenty of people affected by this issue, but no fixes I'm afraid.

As I said previously the fault appears to be purely software based, as I've actually tested a different headphone jack cable.

Since it's software the only options would be to (1) downgrade your phone to iOS 4, (2) return it Apple to exchange it for a replacement phone, or (3) wait for Apple to address the problem and fix it in a future update.

Since Apple do not let users downgrade to previous versions of iOS option 1 is only possible if you have previously taken measures to backup your SHSH blobs, which I'm guessing you haven't done. Option 3 is a possibility, however at this stage I haven't found anything to indicate that Apple have even acknowledged this issue, let alone made any efforts to address it. As such as fix for the issue in a future update is unlikely. This of course leaves you with option 2.

Given that many people are affectd by this issue I wouldn't go down without a fight. Even though your warranty has expired I would pressure Apple to replace your phone on the grounds that it was rendered faulty by their software update, not through any mistreatment of the phone.

To support your argument, I would scour the various iPhone forums out there and print out all the threads you can find of people describing the same or similar sounds faults following the iOS 5 update. Once armed with this evidence I'd book a genius appointment and take your phone back.

If Apple wont budge and refuse to replace your phone, as a previous iPhone owner you are entitled to exchange your faulty iPhone (even though Apple actually broke it!) for a replacement phone at a substantially reduced cost (compared to buying a new one). The other option of course is that you retain your faulty iPhone, hold onto your money and then send Apple a message through buying an Android phone. Hopefully it wont come that though, in my experience Apple are extremely generous when it comes to keeping their customers happy.

ok, i may have worked out what is going on here...

i have a iphone 3gs that had started to show the same symptoms: no volume from the speaker, unable to change volume via the screen on side toggle switch.

the behaviour is identical to the device being in a dock, so i checked out the iphone dock connector at the bottom. it was very dirty from the varous amounts of debris from my pocket over the years...

i folded a piece of paper into a square so that the corner of the paper was approx 1mm thick (i.e. several layers of paper) and gently slid the corner into the dock port - wiped it along a couple of times either side of the connector to clean the debris off.

looks like the debris was causing a short on the connector, causing the device to think it was docked.

instant result - the phone behaves normally - no reboot required. :-)

I have had the condition (3 times) where all sound comes through the headphone jack only. The iPhone "thinks" your headphone is plugged in and will not release sound to the external speakers. I cleared the problem each time by repeatedly plugging and unplugging my headphone - sometimes maybe 20 - 40 times. Eventually it always worked, the iPhone realized there was no headphone connected and put sound back to the speakers.

I just want to let IPHONE 4 users how I fixed a problem that even geniuses couldnt fix.

My iphone sudenly lost sound in the speaker, the ringer didnt work, notifications didnt work and I could not hear sound when I played a video on youtube, also no sound when I played music unless I plugged in earphones or a set of small speakers.

I tried all settings and nothing, I tried solutions on the trouble shooting advice from this section and still nothing and I saw posts of users with similar problems, tried hard reset, the 5 step suggestion and nothing worked.

Then after a complete reset of the iphone and sync of all apps etc nothing worked, then tonight my 12 year old girl asks to play on my iphone and

I say no audio ig you still want to play and then an epiphony, I asked hey remember when I tell you to mute the sound and she says yes sure and I asked if she just turned it off with the side slide button and she said most of the time but also that some of her games gave her a mute option so I asked her to go to her favorite game and see if she had left the sound off, well in the sync I had not chosen that game so she couldnt find it, we downloaded the game again and she turned the mut off and incredible SOUND started working, speaker was working, we called my iphone and it rang and key sounds were working and notifications as well, so it was the mute in the game that messed it all up.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Hi all, I run in to something similar, mine happen to be that the small button just above the volume control is kind of switch button for the volume. It was turn off, and the sound got back once I turn it on by just pushing the button up. This may help someone out there😁

On my 3GS the problem was dust / debris in the docking connector or headphone jack. I think the debris caused the phone to think it was docked (and thus sound should not go through the internal speaker).

I used a can of compressed air to blow dust out of the connectors and sound starting working again.

I can't believe that the sound switch was moved to the silent position...simply amazing since my phone cover covers the switch... can something in the upgrade process cause this???

Using a can of compressed air, I blew some dust out of the docking connnector and the headphone connector. Problem solved. Sound comes out of the external speaker again.

This thread is dead or at least it should be. After joining this thread I took the 3GS to a local repair shop here in San Diego. You know the ones you can find on Craigslist? I took mine to Hassan Ade <somalitech.manager@gmail.com> and he fixes it for $20 and here is what he said in his email response when I thanked him and asked what he did to repair it

"what we changed was the charger port and the speaker is on the charger port also yes we're about to start repair by mail soon thanks again". Well worth the $20 versus upgrading from 3GS to iphone 5

I have iPhone 4 and I did have the same problem. I tried what Zapnoid suggested, pluged in and out headphone a several times, and it worked, amzaingly. It is obvious that the headphone jack of any iPhones has a problem and Apple needs to do something about it.

I bought my daughter a second hand 3gs, updated to ios6 and restored. All seemed to work fine then she realised there was no sound when she stopped using her headphones. This was only on the music player and games/apps. the phone rang and the key clicks etc worked fine. I read through this thread and found andy lever's advice to clean the charging port. So armed with a pipe cleaner and some nail varnish remover I removed lots of black muck from the charging port and VOILA!!!!!!! it now works perfectly!!! 🙂

Thanks andy for your advice, I'm wondering how many other people may have taken your advice and found success??

This one is a bit weird but it worked for me for a while and has worked successfully for other people. Squeeze the bottom right hand corner of the phone above where the speaker is. The left Side is a mic not a speaker so don’t worry about that side. Hold that grip for about 20 seconds. This is done as the connector may be loose and had to be repositioned correctly. Yes strange but most of these solutions are.

I had the same problem, turns out I think a rain drop hit the ear jack hole. I plugged the earphones in and out a couple of times and it started working again. Solved my problem

check if you can see a white tag down at your headphone jack. It can be broken with a fall or somethimes contact with liquides. if you can't see it (or if you see a red glow down there), your phone thinks you have your headphones pluged in.

I had the same problem with my 3GS 5.0.1.

I tried all the suggestions in this thread and more. nothing worked. I did manage to get my phone working again simply by going to into settings and moving the volume slider all the way down and then up again. The sound Worked straight away.

Definately a software issue in my case. It will be interesting to see if this works for other people :)