The iPhone headphone socket has a little contact switch inside it that tells the iPhone to switch from external audio to headphones audio when plugged in. Sometimes this can get some dust or fluff underneath the contact and the iPhone or iPhone 3G can get jammed in headphones mode.
To cure this, one suggestion from Apple Technicians is to insert and retract the headphone jack a few times to dislodge the dust or fluff and clear the contacts in the iPhone.
Be gentle, you don’t want to break your iPhone or Headphones.
DISCLAIMER: We accept no responsibility if your big strong hands break your iPhone in the process. 
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October 30th, 2008 at 12:33 am
That worked great Thank you!
November 6th, 2008 at 3:03 am
i tried to plug and unplug several times, i restored my iphone from itunes, i reseted my iphone with home and lock button but it didn’t work
November 6th, 2008 at 3:03 am
any soloution???
November 10th, 2008 at 9:27 am
this solution works for us… if it still goes on, maybe take the iPhone back to your local Apple Store. Don’t forget to book in with a genius first!
March 11th, 2009 at 4:49 am
If plugging and unplugging dose not work for you like it did not for me, try doing the same thing except back out the headphone jack just a little and give it a slight wiggle toward the screen and the back of the iphone while removing the headphone from the socket. It seems like the contact switch is on the screen side of the socket, and the wiggle gives a little more pressure on the switch, which in turn helps remove the gunk from inside than just plugging and unplugging. Use caution when doing so because like everyone says, you don’t want your big strong hands to break anything.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
why doesn’t apple fix this problem?!!!! None of these things has fixed my phone, so now I have to go wait for 3 hours at the hipster bar for a ‘genius’. Just fix your product, for f’s sake.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:22 am
I am on my 3rd IPhone now, my headphone socket has gone now although it works fine there seems to be an issue with the microphone not switching on when the headphones have been removed. The wiggle trick works sometimes, there is no dust in it I can see.
1st IPhone stopped making phone calls.
2nd Switched ringer on and of at random intervals
I am seriously fed up as I have to travel 12 miles each time to get my phone replaced.
May 28th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
My iphone headphone jack isn’t working. Its as if the phone is thinking that opposite. When there are no headphones in I can’t hear anything and pressing the volume button shows (headphones)on the screen. However when the headphones are in it acts as if there are none in it and all the sound functions work fine.
I also know that it definitaly thinks that is in headphone mode when nothing is plugged in as while playing music and putting the headphones in but not all the way you can get music to play through the headphones..
I have just recently swapped the back case on my iphone and it came with headphone jack switches etc already in place. All I had to do was attach a cable..
Do you think that there is anyway to get a program to manually change it or a command line that will reverse it?
August 1st, 2009 at 6:08 pm
OK, so here’s my story…and possibly a solution. My iPhone would get stuck in Ringer (headphone) mode. No amount of inserting and removing the headphone jack would work. Blowing into the jack hole didn’t work. This morning I went to the Apple Genius Bar. They did some tests, blew crap out of the hole and the problem did not go away. Eventually they completely wiped my phone back to its virgin state. Still didn’t do the trick. They offered to exchange the phone (of course, it’s about a month out of warranty) with an exact copy (white, 3G, 16GB) for $199. I declined as I’m eligible for a lower cost 3GS upgrade in December. Came home depressed wondering why I didn’t take out an AppleCare Plan. Again tried all the tricks and the problem just seemed to get worse (i.e. it just stayed in headphone mode). So, here’s what worked for me. I normally use a pair of Etymotic earbuds instead of the supplied iPhone earbuds. The Etymotic jack (that thing that goes inside the iPhone) is different from the iPhone earbud jack. The Etymotics jack has two black bands (separating the jack into three separate metal pieces). The native iPhone earbuds jack has three white band that separates the jack into four separate metal pieces. Somehow, my Etymotic jack messed up the iPhone settings and caused it to get stuck in the headphone mode. The only way to get it back was to re-insert the Etymotic jack. That has reset the iPhone and everything is working fine again. So, if you are using any brand of earbud other than the native iPhone buds, that may be causing the problem. Hope that helps. Works like a charm for me.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
OK, so here’s my story…and possibly a solution. My iPhone would get stuck in Ringer (headphone) mode. No amount of inserting and removing the headphone jack would work. Blowing into the jack hole didn’t work. This morning I went to the Apple Genius Bar. They did some tests, blew crap out of the hole and the problem did not go away. Eventually they completely wiped my phone back to its virgin state. Still didn’t do the trick. They offered to exchange the phone (of course, it’s about a month out of warranty) with an exact copy (white, 3G, 16GB) for $199. I declined as I’m eligible for a lower cost 3GS upgrade in December. Came home depressed wondering why I didn’t take out an AppleCare Plan. Again tried all the tricks and the problem just seemed to get worse (i.e. it just stayed in headphone mode). So, here’s what worked for me. I normally use a pair of Etymotic earbuds instead of the supplied iPhone earbuds. The Etymotic jack (that thing that goes inside the iPhone) is different from the iPhone earbud jack. The Etymotics jack has two black bands (separating the jack into three separate metal pieces). The native iPhone earbuds jack has three white band that separates the jack into four separate metal pieces. Somehow, my Etymotic jack messed up the iPhone settings and caused it to get stuck in the headphone mode. The only way to get it back was to re-insert the Etymotic jack. That has reset the iPhone and everything is working fine again. So, if you are using any brand of earbud other than the native iPhone buds, that may be causing the problem. Hope that helps. Works like a charm for me.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I spoke too soon…the problem has returned and no amount of inserting and removing the headphone jack is helping. I am now back to my earlier theory that this has to do with an excessive build up of heat that seems to trigger an internal mechanism that confuses the iphone. The reason I say this is because the problem only occurs after I've used the iphone for a long time (say 15 minutes or more). If I turn off the iphone and restart it again and wait awhile and then plug in the jack, it seems to return to normal (I'm guessing after it cools down). I've now also noticed that my iphone is radomly turning itself on and off (about four times) before it returns to normal. This just gets stranger and stranger… Of course, the silence from Apple on this issue is deafening!!
August 25th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hi Sammyboy,
I've done basically the same as you, I've replaced the headphones jack that is attached to the backplate and now I have the same problem. Headphones inserted = the phone thinks opposite. Nothing inserted = the phone thinks headphones are inserted. Did you ever solve this problem?
August 25th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Hi Sammyboy,
I've done basically the same as you, I've replaced the headphones jack that is attached to the backplate and now I have the same problem. Headphones inserted = the phone thinks opposite. Nothing inserted = the phone thinks headphones are inserted. Did you ever solve this problem?
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