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Sound stopped working on iPhone!!

I think I know what caused it

From what I can remember, I think the cause came down to a race condition (a common bug in software engineering where to tasks are competing for each other, where in fact, the order of execution of two functions *matter*, but the other function sporadically wins.

I distinctly remember switching my sound mode to *silent* and then toggling the main power switch (the slim switch on top of the phone). I heard a glitch (the main locking sound), and when I turned it back on, no matter which setting (sound mode - or silent mode), the sound would not play... and of course, I'm experiencing the same thing that everyone else is discussing in this thread.

As how to officially fix this? I don't know. I haven't read all the thread posts yet, maybe someone's already posted a solution. If I find one, I'll share it with everyone.
 
Ok. I think I've found a workaround fix for this particular bug (without going to one of those Geniuses).

1) Plug your headphones into your iPhone.
2) Initiate your iPod.
3) Go ahead and find your favorite track.
4) Play it.
5) Confirm that there is sound coming out (you don't need to actually wear the headphones).
6) Switch your sound mode to *on*
7) This next step involves two simultaneous events
- switch your sound mode back to *silent*
- press the main power switch on the top of your phone

Do your best to do step number 7 *at the same time*
8) Unplug your headphones.
9) Is your phone playing music from the speakers now?
- if "no": Plug your headphones back in, then repeat steps 7 and 8 starting with your sound mode switched to *on*
- if "yes": congratulations, you fixed phone (until the next time it crashes 😉 )


Cheers 🙂
 
cant fix the sound

just unlocked my iphone....
sound works fine on the ipod or on speakers.....but when i ring someone it is really quiet...even when i turn the volume to full....any one have any ideas on how to fix it?

thanks
 
polvero said:
Ok. I think I've found a workaround fix for this particular bug (without going to one of those Geniuses).

1) Plug your headphones into your iPhone.
2) Initiate your iPod.
3) Go ahead and find your favorite track.
4) Play it.
5) Confirm that there is sound coming out (you don't need to actually wear the headphones).
6) Switch your sound mode to *on*
7) This next step involves two simultaneous events
- switch your sound mode back to *silent*
- press the main power switch on the top of your phone

Do your best to do step number 7 *at the same time*
8) Unplug your headphones.
9) Is your phone playing music from the speakers now?
- if "no": Plug your headphones back in, then repeat steps 7 and 8 starting with your sound mode switched to *on*
- if "yes": congratulations, you fixed phone (until the next time it crashes 😉 )


Cheers 🙂
Click to expand...

Sorry, but it doesn't work for me 🙁
Please, Apple help us

Nico
 
I had this happen on two phones. The Apple Store replaced each phone. I still don't know what caused the glitch. Does anyone have any idea?
 
SOLVED!!!

This has happened to me two times. The first time I by chance fixed it by putting the headphones in & taking them out unitl it happened to fix it.

HOWEVER the second time I did a little research and found this little diamond in the rough!!!!

http://www.luckow.com/iphone/

It turns out that the problem comes from dust/dirt randomly settling inside the headphone jack. Eventually something will get in there. When you plug your eadphones in after this happens, you are shoving the dust/dirt in there tight and sometimes it will end up in the right spot and short some connection inside there. The genius repair solution is in the above link.

This has fixed the problem for 95% of people who have had the problem & tried this fix. And both times when it happened to me was right after using some headphones with it. So I'm pretty confident this is no longer a mystery!

Unfortunately, I don't see this as being a simple thing for Apple to solve this.

PS - [about the fix] I think it might not be good to leave any of the fuzz at all when u clip it because it may get lost in there too, but I've only done this once. Let me know what you think is the better way, guys so I know for next time because it's obviously going to happen again.

I will accept paypal as a thank you 🙂
Just PM me and I'll send you an invoice
 
It Works!

Hi Guys,

I can confirm that the last post tip from 'vibe69' worked for me!

I had no system sounds or clicks, but I did have sound from the speaker for the ipod function with songs and video.

I had recently performed a full virginise - restore - unlock and software rebuild and since then I had the no system sounds issue, so I thought that I would need to do another restore etc...

But this prodecure worked for me , with a couple of small differences:-

I used a wooden cocktail stick with cotton wool because I had no cotton buds ( Q-Tips )
I used Surgical Spirit instead of the window cleaner shown in the video.

All is fine in the world of iPhone sysytem sounds now, but I will keep my cleaning kit at hand because it will probably happen again.
I think that Apple should provide an optional plastic or rubberised grommet for when you are not using the headphones to stop dust and crap getting into the headphone recess.

Thanks to 'vibe69' for the tip!!

Cheers!
 
just had this happen to me. Seems that the iPhone doesn't like to have ear phones pulled out during play back. Went into iPod plugged in ear phones and pressed play. Removed earphones and tune automatically stopped. Replaced ear phones and pressed play. Paused music and removed earphones. Pressed play. Sound is now back to normal.
 
Problem with Outgoing calls

hey, i have recently purchased the iPhone, unlocked it and put in my sim.I live in Mexico city and everything was working just fine until my iPhone wouldn't call. The problem was that it would just say "call Failed" and i have tried literally everything: reset, turning it on and off again, syncing it.. please somebody help me. It lets me receive calls and send SMS messages but i just cant call. i hear three beeps and then it says call failed.
 
got it!

rojeda said:
hey, i have recently purchased the iPhone, unlocked it and put in my sim.I live in Mexico city and everything was working just fine until my iPhone wouldn't call. The problem was that it would just say "call Failed" and i have tried literally everything: reset, turning it on and off again, syncing it.. please somebody help me. It lets me receive calls and send SMS messages but i just cant call. i hear three beeps and then it says call failed.
Click to expand...

simply putting caller id ON
 
Iphone headphones fix and suggested cause

I have looked everywhere for a solution and cause for the lack of sound through the iphone main speaker when answering calls and only being able to use the headset. Firstly you can take calls using the speakerphone if you are currently stuck. There is little out there that i found worked.

The one thing did work for me was:
1. clean the iphone headphone socket ( see http://www.luckow.com/iphone/ )
Still didn't work for me 😡 until :

2. Clean headphone jack with same cleaning solution (windex / alcohol etc.)

Worked just great. 🙂

Explanation: 😎
obervations - taking the headphone plug in and out of the socket caused ipod player to skip to next song or start playback etc. This made me think that the jack was causing the tight socket to trigger as it was being removed making the iphone think that the headphone was reinserted as you remove it. This explains why the iphone remains in headphone mode even when the jack is out.

Cleaning the hole was not enough - clearly the problem was with the dirty jack. Cleaning it was all that i needed to do.

Other people have noted repeatedly inserting and removing the jack works eventually - possibly by eventually dislodging the faulty contact area. It also explains why restarting the iphone does not work - its a hardware problem with a dodgy contact NOT a software issue.

Hope this helps

Amit :apple:
 
THE SIMPLE FIX TO YOUR PROBLEM!!! Read

this is how u fix it... I had this problem... Took it to the apple store and he got a can of air and sprayed it inside where u plug the earphones in... Just spray some air in there and you should be good!
See... There is a sensor in the earphone plugs in so when there are earphones in there... It automatically turns the sound off on the phone... Therefore... If u have dust in there then it thinks that there is actually earphones in there and the sound won't work!!!
UR WELCOME!!!!!!
 
Sadly, none of the above works for me. I have a 1.1.2 OTB unlocked phone and using it outside of the USA, therefore no Apple service.

I tried virtually everything and the worst thing is that the sound during a call doesn't even work through the headphones - I can only use speakerphone, but for obvious reasons I cannot make every call that way.

I still think this can be solved by software. Hopefully a solution will be found.
 
restore!

Today I had the situation where no sound was coming from the built-in speakers, handset, or headphones. I tried the previously posted methods and none of them worked. An additionally strange function was that in the ipod music player once I paused a song, I could not get it to "play". Clicking on the play button would highlight, but not change and the song would not progress.

While it might not be the best solution, the only way I was able to get it working again was to do a full restore in iTunes. This worked perfectly and now my iPhone is back to where it used to be (after a few hours to restore, sync and put back in all my settings). While I am using a US (OTB 1.1.2) phone in the UK with Orange, I of course had to restore and then use another program to jailbrake/sim release/etc. But overall was quite painless. I just hope this doesn't become a weekly occurrence.
 
My iPhone developed this problem last Monday, I answered a call but could not hear anything, as I went to turn up the volume, it had headphones in brackets on the volume icon, but there were none plugged in.

I tried resetting and restoring but nothing would solve it. It went on for a few days but only went away randomly on Thursday..

Very frustrating
 
Someone mention using a liquid cleaner in the headphone port. Isn't this one of the locations apple has the color changing moisture paper or whatever substance it is to determine if the phone has gotten wet or moisture in it for warranty services?
 
trogdor! said:
Someone mention using a liquid cleaner in the headphone port. Isn't this one of the locations apple has the color changing moisture paper or whatever substance it is to determine if the phone has gotten wet or moisture in it for warranty services?
Click to expand...

True, it does have the color-shifting paper that might void your warranty, should it get moist enough. Therefore, pay attention when using Windex/Alcohol or any other liquid.

I'm sadly still stuck with a mute iPhone, despite upgrading to 1.1.3 and then coming back to 1.1.2. Tried alcohol, compressed air, plugged and unplugged headphones about 3.4 million times, but still no sound through the internal speaker.
 
sound woes

sorry to hear you still cant get your phone to work.

have you tried cleaning the jack with some alcohol/windex as well. I couldnt get mine to work either despite all the steps until i cleaned the headphone jack as well. Worked first time.

🙂
 
Maybe...

pbogdanovic said:
True, it does have the color-shifting paper that might void your warranty, should it get moist enough. Therefore, pay attention when using Windex/Alcohol or any other liquid.

I'm sadly still stuck with a mute iPhone, despite upgrading to 1.1.3 and then coming back to 1.1.2. Tried alcohol, compressed air, plugged and unplugged headphones about 3.4 million times, but still no sound through the internal speaker.
Click to expand...

Lo every1.I had this kind of problem TWICE and both times solved it with a simple solution. Go to Settings>General>Reset>Reset all settings.🙄
 
Well i was having a similar problem. Except i was not able to get any sound from my headphones or my speaker not matter what i did. I found that one of the software packages i installed was glitching the sound system and not allowing anything to play. I am currently running a 1.1.3 OTB jailbroken/unlocked iphone. I thought it was weird that i had this problem and didn't have any sound packs or sound related applications installed. I just un-installed the few apps that i put on, restarted, and worked fine with me.
 
SuPaNiNjA said:
Lo every1.I had this kind of problem TWICE and both times solved it with a simple solution. Go to Settings>General>Reset>Reset all settings.🙄
Click to expand...


thankyou so much! you just saved me doing a restore and unlocking it again!

for the record - i had no sound what so ever... nothing through my speakers, no sleep or unlock sound, no keypad sounds, no ringtone. and nothing through my headphones - i couldn't hear calls coming through them, i couldn't hear the person on the other end (headphones and earpiece) and i was suitably ******** bricks because i'm in australia and have no store to return it to.

the only thing that made me think it was a software error and not hardware was that my ipod was freezing up - i'd select a song and it would say its playing but it the song timer never moved from 0:00 and there was no sound at all. i also had a similar problem as "ryanoff" where, once i press pause, it changed to the pause symbol (and look like it was paused), but when i'd try to un-pause it, it would never go back into 'play mode'

anyways its all good now thanks to a ridiculously simple solution... just thought i'd share my problem for anyone experiencing something similar
 
Hi all!

Well here i am with my first iphone, purchased last year in november and left in the box until today.

So here are the facts :

Firmware 1.1.3
Music plays fine through built in speakers and headphones
Keypad makes noise through speaker without headphones
I can make calls with headphones and with speaker phone

The big problem is that i cannot hear anyone speak, as if the call speaker is broken. I've tried everything in this thread.

Sounds like its not the normal "iphone thinks headset is still plugged in" because i can hear the keypad tones.

Any ideas? I just unlocked it too (thisproblem was happening before the unlock)
 
Help Please!!!

Hey All,

So I am having a similar problem, I can't figure out what the problem is though.
My iphone's text sound, unlock clicker sound, and email alert sound doesn't come up. Whenever I get a text I don't know it until I look at the phone and see I have new messages. This use to work before but now it doesn't. I tried doing a soft reset, made sure the silent button above the volume is not showing the orange dot, and tried putting my headphone's in and out a few times. None of these worked. My ringer sounds when someone calls, i could also talk to them without any problem. The only issue is my notification sound. Plus all the sound settings in General are all on.

Any help is appreciated please?
 
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