iPhone 5 or earlier iPhone 5 Stuck in Headphone Mode

[rtsao723]

What worked for me.

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!

 

[Emilyjayde]

THIS WORKED FOR ME
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE DID
turn off phone, plug headphones into it afterwards, turn BACK on, play music, pause music and take earphones out!

 

[cambookpro]

This happened to my iPhone 5 after it was in my jeans pocket and I got caught by some unexpected heavy rain. It wasn't soaked, but the inside of my pocket was definitely damp.

I just fired lots of compressed air (from a compressor, not a can) down the headphone jack and it worked fine after.

 

[username12345]

Q-Tip Trick

I took a Q-tip with a paper stem, cut it in half and used the blunt end to clean out the headphone jack. I got a bunch of dirt on it. I did it again with a clean end and it fixed the problem.

This was after trying the "insert headphones 99 times" trick, which did not work for me. My guess is that the dirt in the headphone jack made the sensor think the headphones were still attached.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Lmosh]

I used the q tip thing. Just took off some of the fuzz and wiggled it around a bit. Getting rid of dirt and dust. I tried the restart but that didn't work for me, nor did the settings/ speaker thing. I suggest using a Qtip. Fast, Easy, and simple.

 

[tessabee]

I had this same problem about a year ago. I searched the Internet for help. Almost everything I read suggested this had something to do with the headphone jack being dirty, wet or something lodged in it. I found it hard to believe that jamming the headphones in and out several times would fix this. I had the same feelings that blowing, freezing or vacuuming the headphone jack would fix my iPhone. I wanted to post this because, my phone did the same thing this evening. I got so frustrated because I couldn't remember what I did to correct it the last time. So, after about an hour of pulling my hair and going through every setting on my phone 20 times or so, I finally figured it out. I hope this helps anyone else going through the same issue. Go to your settings/ general/ accessibility/incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to default or speaker. Go back to your home screen press the volume and you most likely will see volume (headphones). Go back to your settings/ general/ accessibility/ incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to headset and this will fix your phone.

 

[tessabee]

THANK YOU!!! This owkred for me!! I just accidentally dropped my phone in water and had it out within seconds. I twas working fine other then being stuck on earphone mode, and toggling itself off of it, I tried this and it worked for me. Thank you!!!!!

 

[absf]

Have you tried plugging the headphones in, actually listening to music, pausing it, and then removing the headphones? That's how I've always been able to solve the problem on my iPhones past and present.

Thank you! This was driving me nuts but your solution sorted it.

 

[Annette I]

Just to let everyone who's having this problem know--the changing the settings in 'call audio routing' did not work for me but cleaning out the headphone jack with a gobetween (a little bristle brush made for cleaning between your teeth) in combination with a few blows (all done with the headphone jack pointing down) worked quickly. Good luck getting yours to work!

 

[Manuelmmx]

I see you fixed it but I had this happen to me the other day after using a Square (credit card reader which might I add I can't get to work in iOS 7 properly).

A reset (power + home buttons) fixed it. Very strange and kind of scary at the same time. You don't realize how important a phone can be until there is the potential of it not working properly.

I have tried everything that's is mentioned on this post but ultimately what worked was the reset. Thanks!

 

[seimer22]

Thanks so much for this solution. Worked for me! The button sequence I needed to use was named slightly differently. Took me a while to figure out so thought I'd share to save others a bit of time...I recently updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.1, so perhaps that's when things changed. Here's what I did:
settings/general/accessibility/call audio routing (you need to scroll way down to the bottom to find this!) and then switch between speaker and headset as described above.

Incidentally, i took my phone to an Apple store last week. Waited an hour for a Genius Bar appointment and was told it couldn't be fixed, but I could have a new handset for GBP200 (about USD250). Glad I had one more look on here before I went back to the store!!

What sequence did you use?

 

[srikatam]

What I found helpful was blowing out any extra particles that got stuck inside the jack and that worked perfectly for me. Another thing that I did was turning off the mute button. If none of those help, you can see this post here. Good luck man.

 

[DeliverFresh]

Have you tried plugging the headphones in, actually listening to music, pausing it, and then removing the headphones? That's how I've always been able to solve the problem on my iPhones past and present.

I LOVE YOU

 

[Nwhetz1]

I had this same problem about a year ago. I searched the Internet for help. Almost everything I read suggested this had something to do with the headphone jack being dirty, wet or something lodged in it. I found it hard to believe that jamming the headphones in and out several times would fix this. I had the same feelings that blowing, freezing or vacuuming the headphone jack would fix my iPhone. I wanted to post this because, my phone did the same thing this evening. I got so frustrated because I couldn't remember what I did to correct it the last time. So, after about an hour of pulling my hair and going through every setting on my phone 20 times or so, I finally figured it out. I hope this helps anyone else going through the same issue. Go to your settings/ general/ accessibility/incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to default or speaker. Go back to your home screen press the volume and you most likely will see volume (headphones). Go back to your settings/ general/ accessibility/ incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to headset and this will fix your phone.

Thanks so much, this worked for me! Just an FYI, I have the newest version of iOS 9.3.2, and there is no "incoming calls" option, however, there is a "call audio routing" option which gives you the option to switch to "auto", "Bluetooth" or "speaker". I switched to speaker, hit the volume button and it fixed the problem. Thanks again!

 

[jimonqa]

There are a couple super tiny ball bearings on the side of the headphone jack port. One or more can get stuck. I used a paper clip to gently circle along the inner wall of the port and that freed up the ball bearing. Everything worked fine after that. (after reading about the Q-tip stem, that might be a better tool as it's softer but it needs to circle the inner wall to have a chance to free up the ball bearing).

 

[mceide]

I had this same problem about a year ago. I searched the Internet for help. Almost everything I read suggested this had something to do with the headphone jack being dirty, wet or something lodged in it. I found it hard to believe that jamming the headphones in and out several times would fix this. I had the same feelings that blowing, freezing or vacuuming the headphone jack would fix my iPhone. I wanted to post this because, my phone did the same thing this evening. I got so frustrated because I couldn't remember what I did to correct it the last time. So, after about an hour of pulling my hair and going through every setting on my phone 20 times or so, I finally figured it out. I hope this helps anyone else going through the same issue. Go to your settings/ general/ accessibility/incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to default or speaker. Go back to your home screen press the volume and you most likely will see volume (headphones). Go back to your settings/ general/ accessibility/ incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to headset and this will fix your phone.

Thank you...After trying almost 20 different solutions, yours worked and super easy. Thank you for sharing.
[doublepost=1473641202][/doublepost]

Thanks so much, this worked for me! Just an FYI, I have the newest version of iOS 9.3.2, and there is no "incoming calls" option, however, there is a "call audio routing" option which gives you the option to switch to "auto", "Bluetooth" or "speaker". I switched to speaker, hit the volume button and it fixed the problem. Thanks again!

Yes! Thank you.

 

[pdxmatts]

Deleted. Already answered

 

[SaraYones]

I had this same problem about a year ago. I searched the Internet for help. Almost everything I read suggested this had something to do with the headphone jack being dirty, wet or something lodged in it. I found it hard to believe that jamming the headphones in and out several times would fix this. I had the same feelings that blowing, freezing or vacuuming the headphone jack would fix my iPhone. I wanted to post this because, my phone did the same thing this evening. I got so frustrated because I couldn't remember what I did to correct it the last time. So, after about an hour of pulling my hair and going through every setting on my phone 20 times or so, I finally figured it out. I hope this helps anyone else going through the same issue. Go to your settings/ general/ accessibility/incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to default or speaker. Go back to your home screen press the volume and you most likely will see volume (headphones). Go back to your settings/ general/ accessibility/ incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to headset and this will fix your phone.

Thank you this is the only solution that worked for me I tried everything online nothing work except your solutions . Thanks a million

 

[senait1]

The simplest thing worked for me. Toggling the Bluetooth icon!!

 

[Halimadous]

I had this same problem about a year ago. I searched the Internet for help. Almost everything I read suggested this had something to do with the headphone jack being dirty, wet or something lodged in it. I found it hard to believe that jamming the headphones in and out several times would fix this. I had the same feelings that blowing, freezing or vacuuming the headphone jack would fix my iPhone. I wanted to post this because, my phone did the same thing this evening. I got so frustrated because I couldn't remember what I did to correct it the last time. So, after about an hour of pulling my hair and going through every setting on my phone 20 times or so, I finally figured it out. I hope this helps anyone else going through the same issue. Go to your settings/ general/ accessibility/incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to default or speaker. Go back to your home screen press the volume and you most likely will see volume (headphones). Go back to your settings/ general/ accessibility/ incoming calls. Change your incoming calls to headset and this will fix your phone.

[doublepost=1506839114][/doublepost]
I was fiddling with my phone for a full day since I damaged my phone dropping it in a glass of vodka and your trick fixed my phone Thankyou

 

[volodia]

As the title says my iphone 5 is stuck in headphone mode, there are no headphones in it but the phone thinks that there is. Any ideas? I've tried plugging in headphones and taking them out and it did nothing as well as turning the phone on and off. It just randomly happened today, I haven't had headphones in for over a week and it wasn't like this earlier.

In my case some water got inside and I fixed it by blowing into the headphones hall with a head dryer for about 30 secs. Be careful and blow form some distance and do not overheat your iphone. For me the display got a big mark at the bottom but it recovered when it cooled down.