iphone thinks headphones are plugged in even when not - how to fix

Same happened to me after my daughter threw my phone in literally a teaspoon of milk in her cereal bowl.

Sucked on the headphone jack (not a pleasant sight)

Stripped an ear bud (q-tip) this helped but didn't resolve the problem.

Activated my music so I would know when it worked, rolled up some kitchen roll and bingo! Thank you. This just saved me a trip to the apple store.

I tried Q-tip, paper clip, blowing, slight banging, etc. and nothing. The only thing that worked for me was sucking the headphone jack and it worked instantly!!! Great tips - and saved me a lot of time from visiting the Genius Bar.

The partially-denuded Q-tip did the trick for me after nothing else worked. I realized that a small amount of water must have gotten into the headphone jack when I was out in a driving rainstorm earlier that day. Even though I had an umbrella and my iPhone was in my purse, it was in an outer pocket that obviously was exposed to some moisture.

A similarly low-tech solution fixed my wireless mouse, which kept losing its connection after I changed batteries. Apparently slipping a piece of paper between the batteries as well as laying on on top before closing the lid keeps the batteries from moving; the commenter said that all batteries are not the same size and if you buy slightly smaller ones it causes this issue. I love these low-tech solutions to high-tech problems!

I tried everything

but last night i knew a drop ( yes a drop) of water had probably entered my earpiece.

i dint have a hairdryer so i held my phne oveer my lighter..

and it WORKED....

was about to reset my phone..

Guys... its moisture.. try the hairdyer or some warm air generating thing.. (like a lighter)

but dont hold it for too long..

i held my phone over fire for like 10 sec... phones earpice plcae got real hot..

hold it for 1-2 sec..increase yourvolume to see if its still in headphone mode..

Crazy, but only the combination of que tip cotton, wrapped around the end of a paperclip, followed by sucking on the headphone jack ended up working for me! When I tried each of the solutions seperately, I failed. Thank you good people.

Thanks for all the great suggestions, folks!

I had my phone in my pocket when I was outside during a wet snow, took a few pics then came in (which caused condensation from the temp change). Next thing I know no sound is coming out of my phone and it's telling me the headphones are plugged in. I figured it was a moisture issue.

I was about to try to bag of rice trick but read the suggestions here...I cut a q-tip in half and used the end to push some tissue in and out, twirled it a bunch of times and the sound came back 🙂

..EDIT...sound went back out again. *sigh* Gonna stick it in the back of rice for a while.

I dropped my phone on top of snow. It was hard enough for it not to get submerged, so I was hoping it didn't get wet. Once I got home and unplugged the headphones I knew some moisture must've collected inside the phone after all. Because of that I tried the q-tip and rolled up paper solutions first. I twisted regular toilet paper and put it in the jack and pushed it down slightly so it'd fill it up. Neither worked, so after that I tried the paper clip. I don't know if it was a combination, a coincidence or if the clip did it in the end... but it started working right then.

I took the fuzzy part off a QTip as suggested by others. Shoved it in the headphone port a few times and spun it around in there. Worked perfectly!!! I dropped my phone in the snow this morning so it may have been moisture.

I have tried every thing which is proposed her and with me it said either 'headphones' or 'dock connector' after trying everything, my phone crashed. It took 5 long minutes of stressed waiting before my phone finally turned on. I check to see where the volume was going to come from and it still said 'dock connector'. Out of misery and anger, i threw my phone on my bed covers and TADA, it started working. 😁 😀 so if you have the same issue, just try throw your phone on your bed covers and maybe it will work for you too, be sure to check the other tips because i dont think that it will work the first time. If all fails, try what i did.

Hope i helped 😝

For me, I had to connect a bluetooth headset then the phone showed 'ringer' on volume press. I then disconnected and it went back to normal. First time I've had sucj a problem with iPhone in 4 years with 2 different models!

I tried rebooting, q-tip, paperclip, sucking, etc and nothing worked. But fortunately the suggestion by themaestro2k did indeed work. I connected to a bluetooth speaker, played music via bluetooth, then i turned off my bluetooth. At that point it was working perfectly!

The paper clip solution worked for me.

I twisted two ends of the peter clip together and pushed down near the bottom of the headphone jack. I could feel something like a push button pop back in place, the Volume meter went back to saying "Ringer" when previously it was stuck in "Headphones" mode.

THANKYOU TO THE PERSON THAT SUGGESTED THE HAIRDRYER! I tried for an hour and a half using the Q-tip, a lighter over the headphone jack, needles of all different thicknesses, paper clip method, I googled how much a replacement jack was! EVERYTHING! I was at the end of my tether! Then out of curiosity I just tried the hairdryer method because I had a strong feeling it was to do with the fact that my phone slightly fell into a cup of coffee when driving earlier on in the day! AND IT WORKED!

I just signed up to the apple support community to say thankyou to everyone who suggested all of the methods! AND PARTICULARLY THE PERSON THAT SUGGESTED THE HAIR DRYER!

So appreciative of forums such as this!

Sincerely,

A previously stressed 17 year old, and now a very happy person! ☺️

So like a lot of people here, I got some water into my iPhone 5S. Left it overnight in a bag of rice and everything seems to be working fine apart from the fact that the phone says headphones are connected when they aren't! I made a call and it only worked on loudspeaker, alarms play out loud but nothing else - music keyboard sounds, calls not on speaker etc. will work. I've tried everything suggested here, hairdryer on cool for a few minutes, blowing into the jack, tissue but nothing is working! I've also tried to put headphones in but they won't insert all the way which I thought was unusual, there's nothing stuck in there and i've tried to clear it out. It's definitely related to a moisture issue but I can't work out why the headphones won't insert! Sorry this is a bit rambly but i'm in a bit of a panic 😟

I HAD TO MAKE AN ACCOUNT TO TELL YOU GUYS THIS. JUST PLUG IT INTO YOUR CHARGER AND IT WILL INSTANTLY GO BACK TO THE RINGER VOLUME INSTEAD OF THE HEADPHONE VOLUME!! HOPE THIS HELPS YOU LIKE IT HELPED ME!!