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My iPhone is only working on Speaker???

MattyMac

MattyMac

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 6, 2005
1,692
17
NJ/NYC
My iPhone just started acting up. I can only hear when it is on speaker or when the headphones are plugged in. Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe I have a setting messed up or something. If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know.

Thanks.
 
MattyMac said:
My iPhone just started acting up. I can only hear when it is on speaker or when the headphones are plugged in. Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe I have a setting messed up or something. If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

do you mean you cannot hear phone conversations when you hold the phone up to your ear?
 
Sobe said:
I'd just take the sucker back...why mess with it?
Click to expand...

I've had it since Day 1 (June 29th) and I'm attached.

...plus I don't want to be out a phone for any extent of time that it takes to repair or replace so hopefully this restore will fix it. If not I'll be giving apple a call.
 
I don't know, but is it possible that Apple could give you a new phone and just have AT&T move your plan over to another device? It sounds like it should be possible but you would lose everything that was on your phone. But, if I read correctly, you could restore it as you have backed everything up. I'm just not sure how many stores have the 8gb phones now...
 
Good News...I fixed it!

Everyday I listen to my iPod on the train and use the headphones as my conversation device too. For some reason, when my headphones were plugged in, it would play music, but when I took them out it wouldn't play through the iPhone. Therefore with this and the fact that the iPhone only worked on speaker (speaker works when headphones are plugged in normally) I determined that it had to have something to do with the iPod/earbuds/headphone jack.

To fix it, I opened the iPod application and plugged the buds in, started playing music, then paused it. I then removed the buds and pressed play and it played through the phone and also allowed me to hear a conversation the standard way (up to the ear). On the train today, I must have unplugged it while it was still playing and messed something up...not sure why that would mess things up, but it must be a small bug. I tried the same thing again that I did on the train and it is still working so I feel pretty safe..just a minor hiccup. I'm glad I got it working so quickly and didn't waste too much time!
:apple:*huge sigh of relief*:apple:​
 
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Have the same problem!!!!

MattyMac said:
Good News...I fixed it!

Everyday I listen to my iPod on the train and use the headphones as my conversation device too. For some reason, when my headphones were plugged in, it would play music, but when I took them out it wouldn't play through the iPhone. Therefore with this and the fact that the iPhone only worked on speaker (speaker works when headphones are plugged in normally) I determined that it had to have something to do with the iPod/earbuds/headphone jack.

To fix it, I opened the iPod application and plugged the buds in, started playing music, then paused it. I then removed the buds and pressed play and it played through the phone and also allowed me to hear a conversation the standard way (up to the ear). On the today, I must have unplugged it while it was still playing and messed something up...not sure why that would mess things up, but it must be a small bug. I tried the same thing again that I did on the train and it is still working so I feel pretty safe..just a minor hiccup. I'm glad I got it working so quickly and didn't waste too much time!
:apple:*huge sigh of relief*:apple:​
Click to expand...

hey i have the same problem what i do to fix
 
Apple said this problem is quite common. They reccomend using something like an air spray (that you use for computers and such) just to clean it out, or putting in a headphone plug and wiggling it around then taking it out.
 
Crazy timing on this thread. I was just restoring my iPhone to see if it would fix this exact same problem. It just started yesterday, I'll try your tips and see if it works.
 
raybwoi said:
hey i have the same problem what i do to fix
Click to expand...

Basically pull the headphones in and out and attempt the play music on speaker. If it plays music on speaker its fixed. If not, keep playing with it.

I personally play the iPod, pause the iPod, pull the buds out and play the iPod. As soon as the iPod plays through speaker its fixed. This happens way too often.
 
...

MattyMac said:
Basically pull the headphones in and out and attempt the play music on speaker. If it plays music on speaker its fixed. If not, keep playing with it.

I personally play the iPod, pause the iPod, pull the buds out and play the iPod. As soon as the iPod plays through speaker its fixed. This happens way too often.
Click to expand...

since i lost my original iphone headset can i use normal ipod headphones to fix it?
 
I experienced the same problem and found the thread via google. Simply unplugging the headphones did not work in my case when I had the iphone application open. I had to go to the home screen and double tap the home button to bring up the ipod controls. I then played music, paused, and unplugged the headphones. Then I was able to adjust the volume bar with the headphones unplugged which was the headset ear speaker volume apparently. Thanks for the thread, just wanted to share the way I fixed mine in case anyone else had trouble.:D
 
Well thats creepy. This was happening to my friends iPhone, so I googled it and got an old thread on here, closed the window in safari and just come to the main forum page and see this.

Glad to know you're iPhone is ok. I'll tell my friend how to fix this problem as well.
 
apple genius bar told me it's a common problem if you put your iphone in your pocket cause lint collects in the headphone jack and thinks the headphones are plugged in...just air spray it out...
 
i experienced the exact same problem a month ago. and i thought:

''ok, its buggered, serves me right for jailbreaking it, if the device had warrant y would replace it and now i have to fork out another 300 dollars''....

i just fiddled with it.. plugging the headphones and playing ipod then removing headphone jack.

was frustrating, such a minor problem thought the iphone was gone for.
 
You don't even need to bother with the whole ipod play/pause thing. Simply plugging in and unplugging the headphones a couple of times should do the trick. Seems that the switch in the headphone jack is of obvious bad quality and tends to stick a lot.
 
MattyMac said:
My iPhone just started acting up. I can only hear when it is on speaker or when the headphones are plugged in. Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe I have a setting messed up or something. If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Take it to the genius bar to swap it out for a new refurbished model. I had the same thing happen to me last week. Tried to restore software. Try everything, even "gently" knocking" it around and also the Q-Tip trip.

It's obviously still under warranty, get it exchanged.
 
This happened to me,,, it turns out I had dust build up in the earphone splug piece... just clean it out and everything should work fine. It thinks you have your head phones in.
 
I'm so glad I researched this before going to Apple

I'm on my second iPhone and I'm sick of restoring to fix problems - especially now with Apps, so I've been living with this one for a while. I'll clean it out and do the other suggested fixes and let you know. Ironically it started when I bought an adapter for a set of Nike headphones, must have pushed something down there, because of the longer jack needed. I'll post my results. Thanks.:eek:
 
I just got my reconditioned iphone 3g from O2 and was very impressed, truly amazing piece of kit. It looked brand new and worked like a charm.................. until.............

I made my first call and noticed I couldn't hear a ringing tone or the person answering, but it worked fine on speakerphone or headphones. The speaker worked fine playing music or videos though! :confused:

Tried everything recommended on here (and other sites), ie the q-tip, reset, restore, pulling the headphones in and out, etc etc but no joy. :( Was disappointed to say the least.
I have to say O2 could not have been more helpful. I spoke to a very helpful gentleman who said they'd send out a replacement and I was just to exchange them when it arrived. I can live with just speaker phone for a couple of days.
 
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