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Why do the volumebuttons only work when my headphones are plugged in?

Dear Apple Community,


(I am from Denmark so I am sorry in case, I am a little unclear. Hope that you can/will help me out anyway) 🙂


I just got a problem with my iPhone 4 that I cannot solve my self.


It all started on Saturday (18.08.12), where my 'sleep'-button didn't work. I tried to solve it out by my self by switching my iPhone on and off and recover the phone from a copy. When none of it didn't seem to work i reset the phone totally. That made the 'sleep'-button work!



On Sunday (19.08.12) a new and bigger problem showed it's face. I have tried anything now, I guess, so I hope that you can help me.


(The phone is about one year old and have the softwareversion: 5.1.1)


It is about the two volumebuttons on the side of the phone. They don't work unless the headphones are plugged in. It means that I can't controll the sound (turn up/down) when the headphones are not plugged in.


When I plug in the headphones, the phone shows this completely normal screen, when I press the volumebuttons (the text is danish and means ringer and headphones):


User uploaded file


This picture below is without the headphones plugged in. If I press the volumebuttons now, the phone totally ignores it and shows this screen:


User uploaded file

As you can see, the screen doesn't show these (volume-)dots like it did on my first screenshot.


In addiction I can see (In "Settings > Sounds") that the blue volumebar doesn't change position when I press the buttons, like it used to do. This function is totally normal when my headset is in too (changes position when i press the two volumebuttons).



My phone plays sounds (without headphones) when you call it or play ringtones - and sometimes when I receive textmessages?? But when I try to play other sounds (text tones, mail tones, reminders, keyboard clicks, lock sounds, music, youtube-videos etc.) the phone is totally quiet?? 😕



I've tried to google the problem and read on Apple's hp (*look below for links), where they recommend to try to plug the headset in and out if there should be some dirt or a foreign particle in the connector. Besides I have carefully cleaned the hole with a small piece of tissue but no dirt was on it. Nothing was to see *** well when I put some light in the hole to see if there was anything.



Of course I have tried to recover/reset the phone totally a several times with no result. And the phone is of course not on "quiet"-mode. I have tried to switch the sound-button on/off just to check if it could be an issue, but it wasn't.



In my head it is weird that the phone consequently (and selectively!!) play sounds (ex when you call it), sometimes when receiving a message (sometimes not), and not at all at other times (when I try to play music, youtube, sounds etc).




1) http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1205

2) http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1630



Thank you for your time and help!




Yours sincerely

Louise (Butter-fly)

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Aug 20, 2012 4:50 PM

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Why do the volumebuttons only work when my headphones are plugged in?

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