iPhone is stuck in headphone mode

ok after playing in the snow i came back inside and my phone was on headphones after i tried all of these steps with no success. this was the second time this has happpend to me. i have resolved this problem on my end, get a can of compressed air and put the needle on the end and stick it in the headphone jack and blow it out for about 10-20 secs and now i can hear spotify and other sounds and phone calls. hope this helps! 🙂

I Had this issue for the first time the other day...

I have an iPhone 5s and I don't think I've even used the headphone jack on this particular phone, because it's a replacement phone for a previous phone where the sleep wake button wouldn't work. The other day I could not hear any phone calls and less I put it on speakerphone or I put in a headphone set. I first did a hard reset on my phone, then I rebooted it and it went away it hasn't return sense but, people are now complaining that they cannot hear me when I'm talking not on speakerphone. Three people have now told me that it sounds like I'm going in and out of the tunnel, and it's intermittent. My call either sounds completely clear or it sounds like I'm in a tunnel. Got to tell you it's a little bit annoying, and it makes me not want to upgrade to the next iPhone even though I'm eligible. This is my third iPhone five because all the iPhones I've had so far in the five series had problems that required insurance claims. And of course when you have a cell phone provider and you do an insurance claim, they send you a refurbished phone

Great posts! I spent about an hour w/Apple today, did a complete restore, problem not resolved. I was about to head to the AT&T store to get a new phone. I then came across these posts. I simply connected to a bluetooth device, then disconnected, problem solved! Spent about 3 hrs total on this problem and the actual resolution took 2 minutes.

Hello patrickfromnewbridge,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

From your post, I understand that your iPhone 6 seems to think your headphones are connected to it when they are not. We know that this type of situation can be frustrating, but we’re here to help!

If your headphones aren't detected or your device gets stuck in headphone mode, please review the following article if you haven’t done so:

If your headphones don't work with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Cheers!

it's a hardware issue read more

iPhone stuck in "headphones" mode

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iphone stuck in headset mode

Mine was stuck in headphone mode after getting moist from cutting grass, and I tried everything.

Here is what worked for me.

• Put phone in airplane mode
• Power off your phone
• Get swimmer ear drying drops, which I think is most pure alcohol 94%
• Pull most of the cotton off one end of a q-tip
• Put a bunch of drops on the q-tip
• Stick it in the headphone jack and twist as you go completely in, it was very tight (I could hear it getting squeaky clean)
• Keep twisting as you pull it out

My phone actually powered on automatically while doing this and when I was entering my PIN, I started to hear the clicks. Hope this helps.

-Nick

After trying every option to get it out of headphone mode, I finally was successful with this approach:

1. Plug in your headphone with the phone still in sleep (Locked). iPhone will wake up when the jack is inserted.
2. Push the power button on the right side to lock the phone and put it back into sleep.
3. Press the power button again to wake it and unlock your iPhone 6 to its home screen.
4. Remove the headphone jack from the phone
5. Test the volume control. It should be out of headphone mode now.

I had this problem and tried a bunch of fixes that didn't work like:

1. un-plug and re-plug headphones repeatedly
2. re-start phone
3. clear out the jack of debris (there was none but I tried anyway)

90% of the time this is a hardware problem and not a software problem, as the main reason your phone thinks earbuds are in is because there is some sort of debris, rust, or other obstruction tricking your phone into thinking that earbuds are plugged in.

I read on other forums that it could be water damage in the headphone jack (but wait, I take amazing care of my expensive phone, how could this be?! Well if you are an athlete and train with your phone, it is likely that sweat trailed down your headphone cable and seeped into the jack over time. This is likely what happened in my case, and could be your problem too.

Not to fear. Go pick up a can of this stuff Quick Dry Electronic Clnr 11oz Can 12Pk - Walmart.com

CRC QD electronics contact cleaner is probably one of the most useful cleansers I've ever purchased. This $5 can has repaired hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of sensitive music, computer and tech equipment. It is non-conducting, quick drying and just all around awesome.

Put a half second spray of this stuff into your jack (phone can be on or off, doesn't matter because the solution is non-conductive as said before) and then put your earbuds in and out, and twist the plug in the jack. Do this for about 30 seconds.

This stuff should dissolve any rust on the contacts that could be shorting the circuit and tricking your phone into thinking that the earbuds are plugged in, and put a protective coating on the contacts as it dries to prevent more rust from forming.

This method should work immediately - as soon as the cleanser is dried, which should be seconds. If it doesn't work immediately, fear not. Go to bed. It should work in the morning, sometimes the cleanser just takes a little extra time (what happened in my case).

In the case that this does not work, you might need to replace your headphone jack as you can only repair rusted equipment so much, but I would only recommend doing this if your phone is no longer under warranty.

Hope this Helped.

Went on a scuba diving boat today and noticed when I got back my iphone6 stuck in headphones mode as I was filming people jumping off boat and splashing into water. Thought salt water must have gone in the jack hole and dried leaving salt crystals.

TRied all the techniques listed here, cotton bud tip that was soaked in methylated spirits in attempt to disolve/ dislodge any salt or grime.

Still would not work, then while playing around with volume buttons and sending some txts I got two text messages back from some friends and this fixed the problem.

The sound from the message being received somehow reset this iphone earphone stuck 'bug'

Very happy Chappy as I don't need to go to a service shop to pay for repairs.

In summary, after cleaning earphone jack with cotton bud dipped in ethanol or methylated spirits allowing to evaporate and dry, get someone to text you a few times making sure you have a sound enabled for incoming texts.

IPhone 6 back to normal

If nothing works, such as q-tip trick, un-plug in and plug in of the headphone, bluetooth speaker trick, the Setting/General/Accessibility/incoming calls (audio routing for newer software)/set speaker, then headset, turning on shazam, activiate siri...etc. TRY THIS, 1) have someone call you, 2) turn on to speaker mode, 3)turn off the speaker, 4) plug in your headphone, 5) un-plug headphone. This should work!

This worked for me! Cleaning out with a q-tip and then accessing Visual Voicemail and playing a message. There's a button that forces the message to be played though the Speaker, and this seemed to reset the Headphones Mode back to normal.

i have the same issue. but it resolved. To resolve the issue u need to plugged your headphone (which is with volume control.original one), adjust the volume with ur headphone volume adjuster, then unplugged the headphone. After that it goes out from the headphone mode.

I tried a bunch of these solutions and they didn't seem to work. So I improvised and placed a handkerchief over the headphone jack and plugged in my headphones as far as the plug would go in through the handkerchief and I just gently rotated the plug. I'm sure any clean piece of cloth would work so long as it's smooth and slender. Basically, the cloth that you use should be able to absorb water or clean out the inside of the jack. Hope this helps!

YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! After spending approx 1 1/2 hours drying phone and making sure everything was working after dropping my iphone 6 in water (no, I'd prefer not to explain why that happened :-) ) I couldn't get it off of "headphones" mode. Your suggestion was the only one that worked. As YetiThunder mentioned, it was fixed after I hung up and started turning up / down the volume buttons. Thanks again!!!

jbmarshal wrote:

Tried every method in every one of these forums. The only thing that worked for me was Airplane Mode. I put it in Airplane Mode for 15 minutes and it worked.

Thanks!!!! A lot!!! It happened in my iPhone 6 plus!! And i tried everything but the only thing that worked was the airplane mode i did it 20 minutes!!!

I just had same issue and solved it by closing the Webex application. I was using headphones in Webex Application. After the meeting ended (app still open in background) it was stuck in headphone mode. I closed the Webex application, and solved my problem.