How to Fix an iPhone stuck in Headphone Mode

Apple products are ingeniously engineered and can be extremely intuitive and helpful a majority of the time. In fact, most of the little things that the iPhone does people don’t even notice. Well, until something is broken, that is. Recently, my friend’s husband was listening to music, when he pulled the headphones out. But, unlike every other time, the iPhone didn’t register that the headphone jack was empty and it was stuck in headphone mode, which meant that the speakers didn’t work. At all. Or, more appropriately, the sound just wasn’t going to the right place. A logical person would assume that plugging the headphones back in would fix the problem, right? Not always. A quick Google search shows that this problem is actually really common and there doesn’t seem to be a one solution fits all approach. Here is what worked for my friend as well as some other common solutions I found for an iPhone stuck in headphone mode with no headphones present:

Plug it in again

I know, I know. I said this doesn’t always work, but sometimes, well, it does. Try plugging the headphones in and removing them 7 or 8 times. If that doesn’t work, try plugging them in, locking the phone, unlocking the phone and then pulling them out again. This is what ended up working for my friend’s hubby. Alternatively, try plugging them back in and restarting the phone then removing the headphones once it turns off.

Clean it out

There might be a piece of lint or something in your headphone jack that is making the phone think you have something plugged in. Try blowing in the jack to clean it out. I’ve also seen people suggest trying to clean it out with a chopped-off Q-tip, but personally I wouldn’t recommend it. Try that at your own risk.

Change settings

Some users reported that changing the settings of the device back to ‘default’ or ‘speaker’ solved the issue. I’m not sure what model of iPhone the users who reported success via this method had, but basically in the Settings app, they went to General > Accessibility > Incoming Calls and set it to “default.” Then go back to the homescreen. Then, launch the app again, and switch it to headset. I haven’t verified this method, but depending on what happened, this might fix it.

It’s also important to note that sometimes headphone jacks can get pretty messed up if your phone gets wet. If you suspect that the phone got wet, check the LDI (liquid damage indicator) to see if the port got wet at all. Should the little white dot be a different color, then you may need to take it to an Apple store for repair or replacement.]]>