Volume buttons stopped working, no ringer, already tried the obvious. Any ideas?

Did you check the volume in the multitask?

Yeah checked in there but thanks for response!!

Press volume up with music playing... what icon do you see?

I'm having the exact same problem--the volume control just disappeared and I have no sound in apps. If I push the volume buttons I see nothing on screen and if I try to play music the volume slider is gone. My ringtone still works (someone just called me) and if I plug in my headphones the volume controls come back and everything plays fine. If I unplug the headphones it all goes away again...Blah. I will not be doing lots of restarts and restores because I'm in the middle of a business trip and don't have time to deal with it.

I had a similar problem today with a 3GS. I had all the symptoms described by others, and reboot/using a headphone would not fix the problem - although the volume button would work while the headphone was plugged in.

It turned out to be some dust or something in the DOCK/CHARGE connector. I blew low pressure air into the charge connector, and while I was blowing - a popup would appear and disappear on the phone screen saying 'this accessory is not supported'. Well - there was no accessory, just air - so I knew I was on the right track. So I kept blowing into the charge connector until that messaging stopped appearing, and now all is well - the volume buttons are working as expected. I assume the original reason the volume buttons were not 'working', is because the phone thought it was docked into some type of accessory.

So the lesson here is, clean all your connectors out well using some air. It seems the phone's orifices are prone to collect lint & debris from pockets, purses etc 🙂

My sound just cuts out and then returns then out again. I try using the volume keys and just shows the bell no volume movement. I did restore as well and restored from backup. still having the issue. right now it is just laying here and when I get texts sometimes it vibrates and other times it sounds. The weird thing is I have the vibrate set to when silent mode is on.

I've had the same problem for months. I tried everything as well, retset, restart, restore, cleaning with air, and nothing worked. I took it to the apple store in Michigan and they couldnt fix it either. The only solution they had was for me to pay $140 for a new phone.

I went to the apple store as well and they did a curtisy replacement my phone is only 3 months old

So, I posted earlier about having this same problem with the volume control. I made an appointment with the "geniuses" at my local Apple store and the solution was to replace my phone (no charge). I saw that someone on this discussion was charged for a replacement phone and I think I would protest vehemently. New phone has not had volume issues to date....

go to settings, general, accessibility, assistive touch (turn on). A small box will apppear on your home screen where you can control the volume using the touch screen.