Volume down button doesn't work on iPhone 5

This was the only thing that worked for me! I'd brought up the 'assistive touch' app, and had done the 'toggle back and forth' trick, but it didn't work until this post gave me the idea to toggle WHILE 'assistive touch' was in operation, and BOOM! It works fine now. Thank you so much for the inspiration!

Sounds like a hardware problem especially if you can increase the volume at Settings > Sounds.

The iPhone includes a one year warranty. Call AppleCare or make an appointment at an Apple store if there is one nearby.

I also had this problem, nothing seemed to resolve the issue.

Then I have no idea what made me try this, but I pressed the volume up, then down alternating. After about four presses each, the down started working!! Odd, but it worked

This actually worked for me too, seems like there might be a connection loose between the rocker inside. It still stops working once and awhile but this is a quick fix, thanks

By pressing volume up and down, for several times, made it work fine again, thanks.

dude996tt:

I just experienced the same issue of my down volume button not working but the up volume button does. I messed around with the phone for a bit. I just found out that if I hold the iPhone in my right hand with my thumb on the upper right corner of the phone and apply slight pressure on the upper right corner, the down volume button worked. After doing this a couple times it started working normally again. Must be a design issue. Hope this helps!

I can confirm Daniel.early79 technique got my volume down button to work again. It took a couple times but it did in fact begin working again. Its still got some stickiness to it, in that I sometimes have to click down volume more than once to get it to start turning down volume but overall it seems to work better than it was before. Still going to schedule some time w Genius Bar (an hour away )

Perfect Solution 🙂 the only one who worked for me.

Thank you

daniel.early79 - thanks for your suggestion. the down button worked when i put pressure on the upper right side of the phone. when i put my bumper style case back on the phone, it appears to be fully working. great post!

Twisting/pushing pressure on the upper right side worked for me as well! Thanks for the suggestion. The fix has been a little inconsistant so I may end up having to go see a Genius. I will give it a few days to see if the fix will stay.

I'm having the same issue, however no amount of twisting or applied pressure seems to help.

It might be worth noting that phones or similar electronic devices, even apple devices, lack the ability to repair themselves. So if you have an intermittant hardware problem the best one can hope for is that it doesn't get any worse over time because it will never get better unless it's repaired or replaced.

Even if it does not fully work, you can still operate the volume easily by going into

Settings

General

Accesability

Then turn on asistive touch

This gives you control of all the buttons, without touching them

Wow - good shout (re. holding thumb on the corner).

I think my issue was due to the case I have, it's a cheap silicone one off Ebay - don't get me wrong, it works perfectly. The problem is I fidgit, and tend to sit popping the corners of the case off and on the phone. Obviously I don't do the corner with the lock button - so I'm subconciously twisting the phone in the opposite way to your fix.

It would seem likely I've introduced a very slight twist into my phone.

I'll leave it under a pile of heavy books for a day, perhaps even risk trying to apply a little pressure back the opposite way (a couple of slices of paper to raise a line across the phone from top left to bottom right while some books weigh it down) - see if I can correct the mistake.

Great suggestion; worked for me too even though I need to repeat "pressure procedure" once in a while but at least I've got a solution until I bring the phone in in a service center

Thanks for all tips and trick! Sure helped me... I had to twist the phone, then the ➖ button would work.

However, due to the great info above, I chose to try a couple of things myself, since it is a HW problem:

I tapped the corner of the phone a couple of times on my desk, tapping the upper left corner made the button work again 🙂

I often carry the phone in my left, back pocket, and "accidently" it stays theer when I get into my car....

The initial twist described above, countered that effect....

(Never had such problems with my SonyEricsson W880i, even though it's thinner....)