iOS 7/iPhone 4S built in speaker issue

[awadeee]

Hey guys, been a while since I've been on here but I purchased an iPhone 4S today from Craigslist. I tested out the usual things before buying and everything seemed to check out...

Except I loaded it full of music and a few minutes ago I noticed that it won't play music through the built in speaker. The volume toggle gets grayed out, and nothing comes out of the speaker. I originally thought that this would be a hardware issue, but I'm able to preview ringtones and they play through that same speaker just fine.

Does ANYONE have an idea of what this could be?

Anthony

 

[deeddawg]

Does the front speaker work? I.e can you make calls fine? Does speakerphone work?

Couple ideas:
Make sure it's not trying to play to an AirPlay or Bluetooth device.
Also look in the headphone jack for any debris and try plugging in headphones if clear. I've heard of instances where the headphone jack has "thought" it had headphones plugged in and disabled the speaker. That'd likely mess with phone calls though, but worth checking.

Also just to be sure try a hard reset and if nothing else works consider a restore-as-new to rule out any software glitch. It might be a hardware problem like a bad speaker.

 

[awadeee]

Does the front speaker work? I.e can you make calls fine? Does speakerphone work?

Couple ideas:
Make sure it's not trying to play to an AirPlay or Bluetooth device.
Also look in the headphone jack for any debris and try plugging in headphones if clear. I've heard of instances where the headphone jack has "thought" it had headphones plugged in and disabled the speaker. That'd likely mess with phone calls though, but worth checking.

Also just to be sure try a hard reset and if nothing else works consider a restore-as-new to rule out any software glitch. It might be a hardware problem like a bad speaker.

Calls work fine, and the built in speaker works for alarms and previewing ringtones and whatnot, thank god haha. No bluetooth or airplay here, I think you may be correct about the headphone thing, or it may think its plugged into a dock or something. Which is strange because it works fine in my car dock. I'm hesitant to try the restore because I just got it all configured with my settings and gigs upon gigs of music, but I may take it into the local Apple seller tomorrow (we aren't privileged enough to have legit Apple stores here) and see if they can maybe use some compressed air or cleaner to blow any debris out. If that fails then I'll probably try the restore.

Thanks so much for your answer man, I really appreciate the input!

Anthony Wade

 

[deeddawg]

I'm hesitant to try the restore because I just got it all configured with my settings and gigs upon gigs of music

Although it'll take time, you can backup the phone to iTunes, then rename the phone to avoid a backup overwrite, then restore as new. After testing, do another restore but this time from your backup.

Just to be double safe, make a copy of your backup folder (google how to find it) to somewhere else before the restore as new. That way if something wonky happens and your backup is overwritten you have a safety copy to copy back to the proper folder.

 

[awadeee]

Although it'll take time, you can backup the phone to iTunes, then rename the phone to avoid a backup overwrite, then restore as new. After testing, do another restore but this time from your backup.

Just to be double safe, make a copy of your backup folder (google how to find it) to somewhere else before the restore as new. That way if something wonky happens and your backup is overwritten you have a safety copy to copy back to the proper folder.

You're the best!