iPhone No Sound

Solutions / Steps / Tutorials

iPhone No Sound – How To Fix & Tutorials!

If you have no sound on your Apple iPhone 3 / 3GS / 4 / 4S / 5 / 5S / 5C/ 6/ 6Plus/ iPhone 6s/ 6s Plus/ iPhone 7, 8, 8Plus and the iPhone X, iPhone Xs volume bar, it is unbelievably frustrating as you most probably already know.

I have been looking for cures over the web as there are many out there. Below you will find a list of all these including the one that worked for me. Also, this list is in chronological order of what seems to be most successful. It is a process of elimination but it has to be done.

The symptoms of iPhone no sound Problem/ Issues include:

– iPhone will ring but speaker will not work for anything else.
– iPhone no sound at all for calls, apps, music, etc
– iPhone no sound as stuck in headphone mode

Follow these steps and hopefully, your iPhone will be back to its prior glory.

iPhone No Sound – How To Fix & Tutorials 2020

Step 1 – Check Silent Mode Switch

Loud/ Silent switch on the exterior of the iPhone is switched to the silent mode which is orange. If so, flick the other way to loud mode. This is a step that so many people miss, but it is the simplest! Also once you have flicked the silent mode off, ensure your volume is turned up by pressing the volume buttons on the side.

Step 2 – Restart Your iPhone

To restart the iPhone, hold the power switch and home button together for 10 seconds. This will restart your iPhone, you will not lose any media, contacts, data, etc. If there is a temporary glitch on the iPhone this will eliminate that glitch. Also if there is a glitch this may help terminate a temporary glitch.

If you have an iPhone X or newer, you can simply restart the device by pressing and holding both the side button and one of the volume buttons. Once done, you’ll then be promoted to restart the iPhone. When off, click the side button to turn on again.

Step 3 – Reset iPhone Settings

Reset iPhone. Go to Settings> General> Reset> Reset all settings. Make sure to backup your iPhone to the cloud / iTunes as this will wipe your media, music, and apps although photos will be left on the iPhone. This is a follow on to step 2 and another way you will be able to eliminate the glitch on the iPhone.

Step 4 – Press Corner Of iPhone

This one is a bit weird but it worked for me for a while and has worked successfully for other people. Squeeze the bottom right hand corner of the phone above where the speaker is.

The left Side is a mic, not a speaker, so don’t worry about that side. Hold that grip for about 20 seconds. This is done as the connector may be loose and had to be repositioned correctly. Yes, strange but most of these solutions are!

Step 5 – Clean Your iPhone

Use a tooth brush to clean the docking area where you charge your iPhone. With dirt, dust, grime, and so on it, may block the connectors working correctly and makes the phone think it is on a music dock. When you do this do it gently and get the bristles into there good.

Also if you use rubbing alcohol or acetone it will help get all the extra dirt out. As these products evaporate it will not do damage to the connectors. Do not use mineral terps when cleaning as it is oil based and will not dry!! This seems to be one of the most successful solutions. To avoid this happening in the future, its best to have a case that avoids dust and grime getting in.

Step 6 – Insert Headphones

Get your headphones and insert them into the headphone jack and then quickly pull them out. Continue this for a couple of minutes as sometimes it gets stuck in headphone mode so this normally undoes that. Also this may remove any dust or grime that may have been lodged in there.

You can also watch this video below which has a full list of fixes listed in this tutorial plus a few more that will restore sound to your iPhone!

Step 7 – Restore Your iPhone

Restore your iPhone on iTunes. Click on your iPhone icon when plugged into iTunes and go to restore. If you do this make sure your iPhone is backed up as YOU will loose all data, media, contacts, pics, and so on. This puts your iPhone back to factory settings.

This is similar to step 3 as it is a full reset of the device, this should help eliminate any glitch that have have come out in a recent update such as iOS7 or iOS8. Also when doing this step check for updates.

Step 8 – Jailbreak iPhone

Jailbreak your iPhone to find the file directories that are causing the fault. By doing this you are deleting the file that is making the iPhone think it is on a dock. You will still be able to use a music docking station etc. If you have a jail broken iPhone or willing to do it then this will be the best option for you. Very simple video and easy to follow, to jailbreak follow my simple tutorial.

 

Step 9 – Dry iPhone

This worked for me!! The squeezing step worked for me for a small amount of time. Not much else worked so thought I would try my own cure…. An old hair dryer!! Turn on low heat and hover over the speaker outlet for about 5 minutes.

I also did the headphone jack as well. There must of been some residual moisture build up which the hair dryer eliminated. The speaker was sputtering on and off during this time but finally came to life :). If you don’t have a hair dryer, you can also put your iPhone in dry rice while turned off. This can suck up all that unwanted moisture. Best to leave in rice for at lease 12 hours.

Step 10 – Hardware Problem

It may be a hardware problem and simply need to get a replacement through your provider who may offer insurance if chosen or apple support. This no sound and speaker is getting more known know by Apple there is a good chance you may get a replacement or a hardware fix.

Step 11 – Ultimate Destruction

If iPhone still has no sound there is always ultimate elimination… Not endorsed. See below….

 

**** UPDATE **** 18/03/20

Thank you everyone for such an overwhelming response! Also to those that have put up there own solutions that have worked for there iPhones. Initially when I created this website I did not envision the large response of people with the same issues. So here are some new solutions and steps that are popular on the comment feed.

iPhone No Sound Solution Step 12

iphone no sound solution

As dirt and grime like to build up in the charging connectors of the iPhone it is necessary to clean it out. Similar to the step with cleaning it with a toothbrush you will be using compressed air instead. The best and easiest way you can do this is to blow air out your mouth with a good force into where the iPhone would get charged.

Do this for 1 minute to insure that it removes any dust or dirt particles. After that, plug and unplug your charger into the slot about 5-10 times.

iPhone No Sound Solution Step 13

iphone no sound solution

This is similar to the step above but you will be cleaning out the headphone jack on the iPhone instead of the charging connectors. As above blow into the headphone jack for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, this should vanish any dust or dirt that is lodged in there.

Once that is done insert a ear bud/ q tip into the headphone jack and twist for about 30 seconds.  That should dislodge any other dirt or grime that the blowing process may have missed.

If your iPhone X is not turning on, then you should check out my full guide here.

iPhone No Sound Solution Step 14

 

There have been more than a dozen comments saying that bluetooth may be interfering with the sound on the iPhone. One good method is to insure that your iPhone is not connected to any bluetooth device as it may be playing sound thru that device. Also another successful step that has been recommended is to turn off bluetooth and then turn on again.

iPhone Has No Sound Step 15

As a continuation to step 5, there have also been several reports of people who have also cleaned their iPhone with a wooden toothpick.

While a toothbrush works quite well, there is typically quite a lot of dirt still stuck in the charing port which can only be gotten out with a pointy object. Just be careful not todo any damage to your iPhone charge port. This seems to work well with older iPhone 4 and also the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

These are just some of the steps I have found and come up with which have shown success for iPhones with no sound.

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Comments

  1. Sam cohen says

    Step 5.. Perfect 4 me….
    apple makes so costly products , still the problems are same like other devices..

  2. Jennifer says

    Sam Cohen
    This recently happened to me and i barely got it
    I think its the system
    Because I updated a game ( the Simpsons tapped out) and once it was done it all the sound wasn’t working unless you use earphones
    I tried cleaning it but it still doesn’t work I need help 🙁

  3. Jamie says

    I have tried a few of these. My sound it not completely gone. It is very low. I’ve tired the toothbrush, a toothpick, a shop vac, squeezing the bottom corner, and even replacing the speaker. The volume control is on and turned all the way up. I don’t have a clue what else I can try. Someone please help.

  7. Blake says

    I have tried all these had not made a difference,
    I have sound during phone calls and message tones but my sound won’t work when playing videos or music really irritating ! ?????

  8. Mirza says

    I tried al the steps above but none worked for my phone 4s so I tried something else it’s bit awkward but it surely works we need to suck air in 3 to 4 times holding the right bottom corner of the phone where the speakers are located it works in a second.left is the mike sou can leave it try it it surely works!!!!

  9. Darren cole says

    Get a hammer from the yard or a gun (USA only) and carefully shoot the phone so you make new holes.this worked for me baby .:)

  10. Nelle Ransom says

    Step number 4 worked. I wish I had read your website before I ordered a screwdriver kit for my iPhone 4S because I knew something was loose just didn’t know there was an easier way to fix it. Thanks a ton.

  14. crispi says

    I have a problem that is not showing up in forums so here we go…. my lifeproof case will not allow the jack on my new cardreader (paypal) to insert fully. lifeproof CS said “oh, I have no idea. we have never heard of that one”.

    gee, helpful…not.

    I like the feel and protection of the case so it will not be going away (or returned to store), so….

    other than peeling the case off every time I want to swipe a card (not happening) which led to my sound going off (step 1 loud/silent switch worked) or…

    grinding a portion of the case with a dremel tool so it fits like the case is not there (can be done but I wanted input first). the damn thing was $80!

    any ideas out there in interwebland? thx

  17. Immie says

    My iphone’s sound is not gone at all. It has sound when someone’s calling but when I payed musics or videos, it doesn’t have sounds. Help me.

  19. Todd says

    This was a recurring problem for me and usually the cleaning of the ports worked. This time cleaning didnt work. After toying for a while i closed all my apps and deleted some old video and pics. And then it worked.

  20. Gary Reed says

    Thanks,, . I used a small hobby paintbrush to clean my earphone jack and my audio returned.

  22. veekay says

    Thanks a lot. Very useful forum. The sound in my iphone 5 was working until this afternoon and I didn’t know what happened and it stopped working. I have been trying everything since the last two hours and it was so frustrating. Finally I stumbled across this discussion forum and realized that I had accidentally switched the external silent /loud switch to orange. Step 1 worked. It is surprising how easy is to miss such simple thing

  24. Jeff says

    Step #5 Worked.
    I was sure it was a software bug due to the latest update as speaker would only worked with charger plugged in or w/ headphones, but clearly a physical issue with grime and dirt causing the phone to “think” it was still docked.
    Thanks for the posting these suggestions.

  27. David says

    Thank you guys who keep things FREE !! I was able to get my sound back with the first suggestion !

  28. Andy Powell says

    man thanks a lot !!!
    it really helped me. and worked the last part with the reseting settings… i was lost and tried all the ways til i found this site… u ppl r great!!!

  29. Michael says

    Step 4 worked perfectly. I don’t understand how come Apple crew foesnt know any of your solution. I had to spend 2 hours at Apple store to fix this problem. Still nothing happened. They told I probably need to get new parts witch will cost me $75. She waisted my time and her time.

  35. Liz says

    I tried cleaning it with alcohol it didn’t work. Then I tried turning the phone off then on again after a couple minutes and nothing changed still no sound. Finally I decided to try out option #4 and WOW!! It actually worked 🙂 thanks so much for the tip!!!

  37. Geoff says

    Tried Mirza’s sucking of the speaker corner an it worked immediately – amazing, brilliant and thank you!

  38. Jacob says

    Same thing…. iPhone 5 acting like the the headphones were plugged in when they weren’t. I could tell because when I adjusted the volume the notification said “Headphones”. I tried several things I found on this site and others. What eventually fixed it was cleaning out the charging port (lightning bolt) on the iPhone 5.

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