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
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
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. Â 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.
Kim says
It’s really work thank you for sharing some steps how to fix errors on iPhone
Hyukee says
Omg! It’s work. Thank you very much! Step 5. ^^
A says
Thank u so much that helped the one where I had two restart it worked so good thank u
Nance says
Thank you for teaching publicly! May I teach you? The correct English is,”I must HAVE…” not ” I must OF…”
Diane says
Thank you, thank you. And you’re correct, so hard to find the correct answers on web. The first one worked & my IT department(our phone experts) did not mention any of these items!!
Tonya says
The hair dryer worked!!!! , tried some of the others but no luck.
wajid layaq says
is there any way using cydia to change the microphone of ur video? i mean that while recording video, the microphone of voice memos is used instead of the microphone of video
Greg says
I noticed when I tried to raise the volume manually it would only identify “headphone,” which clued me into the “stuck in headphone” mode step. A few in and outs with a jack fixed the problem! Many thanks!
Meghan says
Thank YOU!!!!
Licia says
I tried everything for my 4s. The only thing that worked was using rubbing alcohol on the toothbrush and then cleaning the charging port. Audio came on and then went in and out a few times but then finally stayed on. Thanks.
Marilyn says
Thanks …step 1 worked for me …moved to orange in error! Wont be doing that again!
Martin says
The blender work for me! Thanks! This step calms my head
Nelson Bonner says
I was just on a chat with Apple support, hoping to avoid the reset method in particular. After looking in the jack with a flashlight, pushing and pulling the jack in and out briskly, and running a qtip in and out with no success, he had me use the volume buttons and go all the way down to the off level and then all the way back up to 100% both with the earphones plugged in and then again with them unplugged. That fixed it. I am a very happy camper.
Bill Hoffard says
Believe it or not Step 4 worked. Thanks!
Sean says
Step 1 worked thanks!
Robert says
Cleaning, step 5 worked for me. I used the isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush, and a paper clip to carefully remove quite a bit of lint that was plugging it up.
At first it didn’t seem to work, but later in the day, after all the rubbing alcohol had evaporated, it was good as new!
Thanks for the suggestion!
Bebo ashraf says
Rebooting didn’t work
Resetting all the setting didn’t work but The squeezing worked for me
Thanks very much <3 🙂
nabil says
Fantastic it worked on option 4…thank you very much you saved my Iphone 5
kvetchus says
Hi! I found this because, guess what? I had the same problem just now. option 4 temporarily worked for me, but sound stopped after maybe 30 seconds. My iphone is a fairly new 5s. I was frustrated for a good 30 minutes… then, I remembered that I happen to have a bluetooth headset for work that I rarely use, but happened to have used earlier today and… had left powered on in my office upstairs. So, perhaps it would be a good idea to add another step – try turning off bluetooth, because that, as it turned out, was my problem. Silly me – but thought I’d share my humiliation with the world in case it helps anyone else. 🙂
Karla says
Mine was stuck in headphone mode (you can check this by increasong the volume on the left side on the phone…it should say “ringer” not “headphone”. If it says headphone, plug and unplug your headphones maby times and it should work.
Aidan says
Ref headphone sound not working I used a pump for blowing up footballs after a couple of blast it cleared up was stuck on headphones now on ringer
Taha sajjad says
Step 6 worked in my iPhone 4s I use aftershave on headphones jack and follow the step 6
It’s work perfectly
Thanks
Hayley says
Cheers that work pressing on the right hand side! Life saver thanks a lot!!
Sakib says
It worked with toothbrush thanx
Naz says
thank you so much for posting this, blow drye+plugging and unplugging the charger worked for me 😀
Sam W says
thanks, the hairdryer worked for me. only for 1 minute in the speaker and I had it in rice for like 15 hours.
Kate says
#4 worked for me. At first I tried it and was pressing in the black area like the photo suggested and that didn’t work so I lightly tapped that corner on a hard object them squeezed above that black area on the screen itself. I had a song playing on my phone. Once I pressed that area, PRESTO!, sound!!! Att said I couldn’t upgrade till October and I didn’t want to join the Next program. Next best bet was to pay $70 to fix volume. This option was FREE! And I have sound again. So mahaloz….
Regan says
Wow! #4 worked. I almost didn’t try it because it sounded ridiculous 🙂
Donovan says
Just as a friendly reminder. I’m a very adapt IT guy and this puzzled me for hours. I had a Bluetooth connected device that was on low volume. Just double check. Sigh
JBP says
Thank you – #1 worked. I didn’t realize/see that button, covered by my otterbox. Was orange.
Farouq says
Brothers just clean uo your Headphones plug hole on the Iphone and it will work just fine (Sorry for shit english)
Rivaldo says
It Didn´t Work
jessica Williams says
The first one worked great for me thanks!!!
Keith says
Fantastic! The hard reset worked 1st go. This was such a quick fix. I expected to be on some awful Apple forum for ages but found this link. The good old home key and on off switch at the same time _thank you
smorand01 says
I Have the IPhone 5 and I did what Nelson Bonner suggested, turned the volume all the way down then all the way back up and it worked. So happy 🙂
Marisa says
For me cleaning it with the toothbrush and then turning it on and off brought thes sound back!
Abhinav says
– iPhone will ring but speaker will not work for anything else. What to do ?
Abhinav says
Hi,
When I press the + and – buttons, the volume icon appears, but the slider is empty. When I receive a call, I hear it ring, and I can hear the ringtones in the sound menu. However, the message/mail notifications don’t make any noise, and I can’t hear the sound menu.
tj eden says
Here’s what I did
1. Use the toothbrush with alcohol to clean the charger port
2. Press the + and – buttons together at the same time.
tadaaaa, it worked!
kjscheiern says
Fabulous! Fixed it right away with one of your suggestions! Thank you!