iPhone 4S no sound except ringtones works

I've tried everything in this thread as well as several other threads and nothing is working. My ringer, etc., works, but I have no sound for videos or music unless my headphones are plugged in. I can "trick" the sound into working by plugging the phone into the charger, then unplugging it and selecting an mp3 to listen to, but once the phone goes to 'sleep' mode, it fails once again. Note that it is NOT in headphones mode - it is in standard mode. I'm very frustrated and disappointed with Apple over this. I've always been a big supporter of the iPhone, but now I'm seeing this issue has been happening as far back as 2010 to many, many people...and they STILL have done nothing to address it? Makes me very hesistant to get another iPhone when my contract expires next month. The only thing I haven't tried is Moneyzoom's jailbreak trick, but it bothers me to have to resort to that when I know the sound works (when it feels like it).

I had this problem 2 times and the first time I soft reset and it worked. Just now I had the loss of audio on everything but incoming calls and I fixed it in 5 minutes. PULL YOUR BATTERY!!!! Unscrew the two screws on the bottom of the phone and slide the back glass up towards the lock button. Then just lift your battery and then put in back down. Do this with the phone on and check as your doing it by double clicking the home button to see if you gained control of the volume again. Then put back together and waaallaa! Hope this helps with the frustration.

Cleaning out the dock port with a plastic toothpick worked for me. Thanks everyone!

This might be troublesome but it works for me, I swear to it!

1) plug your headphones in, and play music. it should work normally.

2) download shazam.

3) open and start 'shazaming'.

4) lock your phone.

5) unlock your phone .

6) double click the home button until the task manager shows up.

7) scroll to your left where the volume adjuster is.

8) click on the "TV" symbol next to the volume adjuster is.

9) select "iPhone".

10) problem fixed!

Hope this helped! :)

Fixed it! There is trash or oxidation on your docking port. Take a small brush(I used a small one out of a grooming kit, I bet an unused toothbrush would work too) and dip it into some rubbing alcohol and lightly scrub the bottom port for 10 seconds or so and dry with compressed air. Check phone, if no results, try again. Took me three times until it was working again. I was stoked, hope this helps

i am out of waranty can apple replace my iphone also.? 😟

thanks jMauldin77 it worked for me also

Thank you very much. Read your coment and since I didn't have a can of compressed air I just plain blew into it and then proceded to conect it to my mac. Worked like a charm inmediatly. 🙂😁

THANK YOU SO MUCH! This worked for me.

This trick was just amazing.. It worked for me. Thanks a ton.

Let me give you my 2 cents.. This is my 2nd 4s iPhone with same problem. I had to buy new phone for $200 since I was out of warranty. Now I am 18 mo into 2nd iPhone with same problem ie no text tone just ring tones.. Some other occasional issues they say was unrelated but I think they r related specifically won't power off. Anyway I noticed some chargers ie car charger temporarily fixed problem.. I went to Genius Bar and had a confident, slightly arrogant, know it all, who wouldn't really listen to me ( Orthopaedic surgeon) who is pretty good at diagnosing problems.. I deducted that this was not a mechanical issue w speaker or software but somehow related to charger, or charging port etc. she insisted it was a 'firmware' issue. Whatever that is? Anyway she reset my phone to factory reset - and of course didn't fix issue but made it a pia to restore all aps, blue tooth, lost photos etc! Anyway after reading posts connected to this thread - I agreed it was a charging port issue. Before buying and installing one as suggested I tried the cleaning approach and it worked immediately. My technique was to use a cleaning brush from my Whal hair trimmer, designed to remove hair from tiny slots. I soaked the small brush in isopropyl alcohol ( normal home rubbing alcohol) with both small and longer ends of brush, and cleaned the charging port.. Then dried it with a compressed air blast from standard Office Depot dust cleaner. Presto- problem solved!! All tone work.. So I appreciate the info provided by smart observers above, and feel like going back to the 'genius' today who suggested my only recourse was to for over another $200 for a new phone since it was a short in the volume buttons!!!! Which I knew was incorrect! I don't have time to reeducate her - but this communication tread was much more helpful and economical.. Thanks again.. TDM Allentown PA

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I had the same problem.(NO volume side). Ringtones worked. Everything music and etc. only in headphones Messages only vibration .Several times restore,i clean dock and I tried everything Nothing didnt help. I replaced just DOCK for new and everything works. The problem was in the dock. Sorry ma English , but I want to help people like me , who were looking for answer Thanks Iphone 4s (7.0.4)

I think you are or rather 'were' having the horrible iphone dock symdrom! Mine has started doing it too. Basically your iPhone thinks its docked when it not so the volume bar goes, no sounds etc but will still ring. This is due to damage or dirt in the tiny pins in the iphone connector port.

Its the first 4 pins causing the issue as they are the ones relating to sound output. If I clean them with a dry stiff paintbrush, it works again but only for a few days. If you clean it and it works then great! If not (and you have tried cleaning it), you have to get the connector replaced, no point buying a new phone unless you can afford it. So annoying though!

That solution does not work. Just sayin.

O-M-G, FINALLY!! Thank you soooo much Blueloony!! I have tried almost every single thing to fix the messed up sound on my iphone 4s and yours was the only one (that I've been able to find so far), that actually gives a step by step on how to check in somewhere else in settings to see whats going on!! No matter which help forum you go to gives the same answer, but its really a question! People reply to pleas for help 99% of the time with, "Are you sure your phone isn't on mute? Check to see if it is and unmute it." BUT WHERE DO I DO THAT...HOW DO I DO THAT IN MY SETTINGS??? That's what I dont know how to do!! I'm not an iphone whiz at all, so I kept going to "sounds" in my settings, but no luck. I mean, I didnt even know you could mute your phone other than when you're on the phone! haha I'm fairly new to Apple products and Im learning thanks to this place, but people seem to forget that not everyone knows exactly where to go or how to get there! So when I found your advice about going to settings>general>assistive touch>click it on then touch the little white ball and so on, I was surprised that whole deal even existed! hahahaha Like why does everyone reply to help posts automatically assuming we all know everything about the product? Ugh I swear I'm not an idiot, I just did-not-know is all! 😟 To be honest, I still don't know what it is I just did under that assistive touch thingy, but it worked like a champ! haha I will say I couldnt tell if it was muted or unmuted, so it took me a couple of tries and then reopening my game app to see if I'd unmuted it, so I might be a little bit of a dingbat about that, but I got it in the end. Oh, and I also did a hard boot on my iphone after I finished?? Is that what its called? And now I'm good to go, YAY! It's just the weirdest thing though because I have NO IDEA how that happened or how I did it, whatever but it was only my game apps and videos I was recording that had no sound....I had had perfect sound with my youtube and music etc apps so....I dunno??

But thank you very much for advice and HOW & WHERE TO, step by step go and check in another area of settings besides "sounds!" Newcomers like me appreciate very much when we find help like your post offered! I'm just so excited and relieved to have found a solution!!! 🙂